Kickstart: A new Baby in the Toy Hall of Fame family

Baby Nancy has joined the National Toy Hall of Fame, but other plastic toys — Lite Brite, My Little Pony and Breyer Horses — will have to wait for another year.

The Hall of Fame, housed in the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, N.Y., announced three new inductees on Nov. 5: Nancy, sidewalk chalk and the wooden block game Jenga.

Nancy was first produced in 1968 when Operation Bootstrap launched Shindana Toys, a community-owned company dedicated to making toys that "reflect Black pride, Black talent and most of all, Black enterprise," the Hall of Fame said in announcing the 2020 inductees.

Baby Nancy was a baby doll with dark complexion and textured hair. Its popularity proved there was a strong demand for ethnically correct Black dolls that the mainstream market had not addressed.

Shindana stopped production in 1983, but Michelle Parnett-Dwyer, a curator at the Strong Museum, said it still stands out as a "landmark doll that made commercial and cultural breakthroughs."

A generic baby doll first entered the Hall of Fame in 2008.

To continue on the toy theme, toymaker Lego A/S has unveiled its Christmas advertising campaign, one that celebrates kids' imaginations, even when they're stuck at home. And while it doesn't directly address the pandemic, or other current events, "it may provide a welcome escape from reality for stressed-out viewers," as our sister paper Advertising Age writes.

You can see the ad here. For what it's worth, Lego joined the Toy Hall of Fame in 1998.

Kickstart is now a year old. Happy birthday to Kickstart!

Thanks to everyone for reading, and to those who have reached out with comments or suggestions. I appreciate it.

And thanks to Don Loepp and Steve Toloken, who fill in when I'm off, and Jordan Vitick, who keeps me from letting too many mistakes slip into your email boxes.

Also the advertisers who signed on to sponsor this when we we could only tell them, "It's a daily news blog, but it's not just news."

As for me, I will be celebrating this day by trying to figure what will go into the next Kickstart, just the same as every other day for the past year.