Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Ep 710 | Artists, Barbarians & Icons | Guest: Chris Bensch, Toy Hall of Fame

Episode Date: September 16, 2021

Mississippi leads the way… Grind sets a record… McKayla Maroney senate testimony… Christians who aren’t really Christians… Inspiration4 takes off… SpaceX gets pennies… Tesla goes to tribal lands… NASA has no plans for aliens… Subscribe to the YouTube Channel… Email to [e-mail] Subscribe www.blazetv.com/jeffy Promo code jeffy… VMA’s rating down… Britney wipes Instagram acct… Time 100 / 2021… Christopher Bensch VP of Collections / Toy Hall Fame / 2021 Nominations museumofplay.org Twitter: @museumofplay Facebook: @thestrongmuseum The Strong is home to the International Center for the History of Electronic Games, National Toy Hall of Fame, World Video Game Hall of Fame, Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play, Woodbury School, and the American Journal of Play.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is it the matcha or am I this energized from scoring three Sephora holiday gift sets? Definitely the sets. Full size and minis bundled together? What a steal. And that packaging? So cute. It practically wraps itself. And I know I should be giving them away, but I'm keeping the Summer Fridays and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. I don't blame you. The best holiday beauty sets are only at Sephora. Gift sets from Summer Fridays, Rare Beauty, Way and more are going fast.

Get full-size favorites and must-have minis bundled for more value. Shop before they're gone. In store online at Sephora.com. Blaze Radio Network And now, chewing the fat with Jeff Fisher Hello. Hi, it's so good to see you. I haven't seen you in a while. You look so good.

You look great. You look like you've really been taking care of yourself. It's so good to see you. I mean that. Hey, did you hear about Mississippi? Yeah, the great state of Mississippi. Am I, Cricket Letter, Cricket Letter, I? Cricket letter, crooked letter I, humpback, humpback I state.

Yeah, a lot of people don't think about the great state of Mississippi, Austin, often, but it is a beautiful state. And I want to congratulate them because they led the nation in liquor sales since the onset of the pandemic. Congratulations. They've reportedly purchased more than 400,000 more. cases of alcohol during the pandemic, keeping the liquor stores pretty busy trying to meet demand, even leading to delays in shipments to liquor stores from ABC's warehouse. The Mississippi Department of Revenue that oversees alcohol beverage control, which

distributes alcohol throughout the state, said that in the fiscal year 2019, ABC delivered more than 3.3 million cases of liquor and wine. And in 2020, it rose to over 3.7 million cases of liquor and wine. So congratulations. And in the fiscal year of 2021, more than 4.1 million cases were distributed. So it's continuing to rise year after year after year. Congratulations. to Mississippi. You, you are number one. Welcome. Welcome to chewing the fat.

So I see the headline, 1400 dolphins slaughtered, horrifying animal rights activist. And my first thought in my head, and this was, you know, again, me, Jeff Fisher, chewing the fat. I'm thinking, good, let's put them in tuna and be done with it.

it and that's you know the joke in my head and then I realized wow they're just going to this place wherever it is is going to get killed for killing and you know I'm sure the animal rights activists actually do wish these people would get killed for killing 1400 dolphins then I read about what it's all about okay so off the coast of Denmark is the furrow islands all right and they have a thing called the grind every year all right and in this it's they they refer to it as the grinds It's called Grindrap or Grindadrap, G-R-I-N-D-A-D-R-A-D-R-A-P. And the boats from the island, these boaters, drive dolphins into the shallow water by the shore, and then they hop out and kill them with knives.

And they do that every year. Now, you know, obviously the footage shows the water turning red and the dolphins are thrashing and it's a, you know, for animal rights activist, it's got to be a horrific scene. And, you know, it is. But they do this every year because they cut them up and give them to the locals to eat. It's food for the locals.

And it's part of their cultural identity. Oh. So it should be kind of a good thing. And the Faroe government said that roughly 600 pilot whales are hunted every year with the numbers of white-sided dolphins being far lower, reporting only 35 in 2020. So I thought, you know, with climate change, that everything was getting less and less. But no, I mean, they haven't killed over 1,000 dolphins since 1940 when they killed 1,200. now so this year they killed 1400 wow so i mean they're all oh this is horrible it's the deadliest hunt on record well seems to me once again the climate change activists are wrong species are thriving so okay

say what you want but they actually provide food for the people on the island so it's not like they're just killing them for the fun of it and, you know, dancing on them in the water. They're using it for good and to support our species, which is, you know, the best thing to do is to support the human species. But of course, in today's world, they've got to use excuses and find excuses. The chairman of the Whalers Association there on the island said it was a big mistake. When the pod was found, they estimated it to be only 200 dolphins.

And I didn't participate in the grind. No, but we didn't realize the actual size of the pod until the killing began. Somebody should have known better. Why? Why should someone have known better? It would have been a great hunt. They should be dancing around the fire, being happy that they have food for the rest of the year, thanks to this. But not in today's world.

not in today's world. Okay, I want to talk a little bit about the Nassar testimony in front of the Senate committee yesterday. I talked about it a little bit yesterday, and it was frustrating for me because I wasn't listening to what they were saying. These girls were testifying these gymnasts. And I was thinking, well, Nasir, why are we testifying now before the Senate committee? I mean, he's in prison forever, right? I mean, the state's got him in jail for 170. some odd years and the feds have got him in jail for 60 or 70 years.

I mean, it's a life sentence. The guy is, and he's a dirtbag. No question. Big time dirtbag. So why are we testifying now? Well, I go back and I listen to some of this testimony last night. And it is gut wrenching. Gut wrenching.

There's an eight-minute speech by Michaela Moroni that is amazing. If you have an opportunity to listen to it, And I should probably just play the whole seven minutes. It's seven minutes and 57 seconds for you because it is amazing. And not amazing in a good way. Amazing in a horrific way. She tells her story to this Senate committee and tells what happened to her. Well, she did speak out and nothing was done.

The FBI actually ended up lying after they finally did something. and they were in cahoots with the Olympic Committee and the Gymnastic Committee, and something needs to be done. I am really sick and tired of having stories come out almost weekly of how awful the FBI is. And it's been going on from top to bottom for a long time. Someone needs to go in, and maybe the entire government just needs to. to go in and start from the beginning again. I mean, that's what we were hoping that Trump would do.

He never did. He said he would, you know, drain the swamp. But the swamp was not drained at all. But it is horrific what happened to these girls. And in specific, this Michaela Moroni, and I'm sure she's no different than the other girls. I just listened to her particular speech to the Senate committee. I don't know what's going to be done.

I don't know what's going to happen. but if really the FBI and the people in charge of this investigation should be thrown in a jail cell right next to Nassar. And the FBI should be investigated and start from scratch again for what they do and their vision and what they're supposed to be doing for the United States. It's just incredible what happened to these young ladies. And I don't know how they get past it. They struggle every day with it, with the horrors. of what Nassar did to him and how much of a struggle it's been

since they reported it and it then continued. Just incredible that this guy was not taken out in Town Square and Stone. Just amazing. So I just wanted to go on record. I listen, I mean, it was just

horrific and I understand now why these girls are speaking out again, because they did break through that wall of silence finally. and report it. And she talked about being on a two or three hour phone call with the FBI and how badly it went because she covered everything.

And at the end, the FBI agent was like, is that all? Is that it? Are we done? And then, you know, it goes to the bottom of the drawer. Just incredible. They all should be, well, we'll just leave it at, in prison and we'll say that's, you know, what should happen to them, although a lot worse would be okay. And when I say all, I mean from the FBI to the Olympic Committee, to the Gymnastic Committee, to the

universities, to anyone that was involved in this and knowingly covered it up, knowingly lied, either legitimately lied out loud or by just omission, should all face consequences. And what they did to these young women now to just for the sake of their abilities is amazing. Just incredible how poorly these girls were treated. And they were world-class athletes, but they were just young girls. And they were mistreated and it was just horrific, just horrific.

And it's sickening, sickening that someone could let this happen. So any of people, any of you people involved, and I'm sure you all listened to chewing the fat, any of you people involved, I hope you are worried about someone knocking on your door and dragging you out soon because it should happen. and completely unrelated to this, an estimated 176 million American adults who identify as Christian, just 6% of them, which would be about, I don't know, 15 million out of the 176 million, actually hold a biblical worldview.

That's just a new study from Arizona Christian University. Don't worry about it. Also, did you know that most Christians in the United States don't believe the Holy Spirit is real? I'm sure doesn't have anything to do with how these girls were treated from the FBI, from the Olympic Committee, from the Gymnastic Committee.

Nothing could be further from the truth. And by the way, just a thought. If you don't really believe that the Holy Spirit is real, and this is maybe, you know, again, it's just me, Jeff Fisher, chewing the fat. Maybe. Maybe you're not really. really a Christian.

It's just the thought, though. It's the thought. Yeah. All right, let's go to the break room. I desperately need something to drink because I could get very angry quickly. And I don't want to. Gosh, darn it, I don't want to.

That is tremendous. So, quick space update. As long as we're, here in the break room, I see where Inspiration 4 blasted off on its history-making journey into orbit. We talked a little bit about that yesterday. And today, I see where NASA has now awarded $146 million, and the work is to be completed during the next 15 months to five separate companies, because they want these companies to develop Landers for its Artemis Moon program. Okay. So, you know, they want to get to the moon surface and they want these landers developed. So Blue Origin Federation of Kent, Washington, you know, Bezos, gets 25.6 million.

Dianetics of Huntsville, Alabama gets 40.8 million. Lockheed Martin of Litton, Colorado gets 35.2 million. Northrop Grumman of Dallas, Virginia, gets 34.8 million. And SpaceX, I just get 9.4 million. What? Oh, why come they only get 9.4 million? Elon gets the bite the bullet with under 10 million for this. Please, we need to bump that up a little bit.

I mean, what do they want him to fail? I mean, they can't be mad at him, right? I see where he, you know, he's had trouble trying to get his Tesla. And I know this is separate from, from SpaceX. I got it, okay. he's had problems setting up his Tesla sales buildings in states. States don't want Tesla to be able to set up his selling cars directly to consumers to cut car dealerships out of the process.

They're pissed. And so they don't want to let that happen. And so now they've opened a store and repair shop on Native American land. Yeah, we'll just, you know what? We'll just use Indian. territory property and we'll open it there. So there, take that federal government and state governments who won't let me open on your lands.

So he's going to use right now, it's in north of Santa Fe on tribal land and he's not subject to any of the state laws. So take that. It could be coming to Texas very soon. Just thinking about Elon there as he gets, he got the, he got the axe on the NASA money awards for the contracts under 10 million. And speaking to NASA, too, just another side note of NASA. You see, where Bill Nelson, former senator, former astronaut Bill Nelson, he's now the NASA

administrator. And Bill Nelson has got to be, what, 100? We've been covered him before. He's, what, 100 now? That's right. He's the same age as President Biden, 78 years old. And he never wasn't that great. a senator anyway from Florida.

But anyway, he's in charge of NASA. And this is the kind of leadership we have at NASA. So he was asked in an interview. So do you have a plan if the UAPs, the unidentified aerial phenomenons, which I believe they're looking at starting that program again through the Pentagon, do you have a plan? and he said, well, we really haven't crafted a plan for alien encounters,

even though the agency has worked in tandem with researchers exploring the possibility of alien life and has set messages into the universe on Earth's behalf. So you don't have a plan if a UAP turned out to be a spaced alien? No. Okay, why are you even in charge of NASA? please. I mean, I'm hoping that it's just top secret and it's easier for him to say no

than to say, well, we have certain plans in place if something were to happen. I can't talk about that here. Maybe it's just easier to look like you're an idiot and aren't thinking ahead as the head of NASA for aliens.

So it's easier to play dumb and say no. So it just, shuts everything down because if he says you can't talk about it then now you've got people digging around and trying to figure out you know what the plan actually is so maybe maybe i'll give him the benefit of the doubt at that except that i don't really want to give him the benefit of the doubt so we all loved seeing madonna at the vmAs uh looking great at 63 and uh but apparently fans did not i mean she was been every of the world was in love with her

for showing up and being half-naked, which, you know, that's what Madonna does. And I love her for it. Bless her heart. But Viacom, CBS, MTV's parent network, claims that the show increased reach, although they didn't say how they arrived at this conclusion because of course that's internal digital data.

Oh, okay. But we do know that according to the Nielsen ratings, they plunged 17% in the key demo between 18 and 49 from 2020 and hit an all-time low in viewers of all ages. So like nobody watched. So I'm not sure where they get that increased reach, maybe with total minutes consumed, I guess. So you have two people that watch the whole thing,

which boost your numbers, I guess. But nobody's watching the VMAs anymore because we don't care. Okay, the award shows are silly. I like them because I'm me, but I don't watch. Very few do I watch. Very few. I love them. I love to see them.

I love the pictures. I love how they all glad hand and suck up to each other, but I'm not going out of my way to watch them. I'm sorry, I'm just not doing that. The only one, I guess the Oscars and the Emmys I do kind of enjoy. And we have the Emmys coming up this weekend, as a matter of fact, with the great Cedric, the entertainer as the host. You see where Britney Spears has wiped her in. Instagram account? What's going on? Britt, what's happening? The Instagram is just gone. A message on the page read, user not found. I know it's over. Britt, what's going on? You're not over yet.

You're not free from the conservatorship. I know you're engaged now and, you know, probably getting talked to that you need to straighten up a little bit so you want to get those, you know, get those butt picks off of Instagram. those dancing videos off of Instagram. I got it. But just to have it go away? I mean, she had millions of followers. And so, okay, are you still going to want to be able to have a little money to survive on?

I would think. That's just me. Now, she posted on Twitter, don't worry, folks, just taking a little break from social media to celebrate my engagement. Emoji with a ring, winking smiley face.

I'll be back soon. Emoji with red lips and Rose and a star. Okay. You know, great. Thanks, Britt. We appreciate it. How many followers she have on Twitter? She only has 55.5 million followers on Twitter,

although she's following a lot. She's following 366,000 people. She doesn't follow me, though. What's going on, Britt? I got to get Britney on the phone. She doesn't follow at Jeffie JFR. Why not? Maybe because I don't follow her.

Oh, okay. So follow me on Twitter at Jeffie JFR, and I'm going to follow Britney and see if Brittany follows me back because I want Brittany to follow me back on Twitter. I do. There's not a chance in hell of that happening, but I want it to happen. And maybe she'll come back on Instagram, maybe. We'll see. You know, there's some, she's posted picks and vids on her Twitter account, too, that match up,

But those are usually matched up with the Instagram account. So we'll see. When I got a great deal on a great gift at Winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. At just $39.99, how could I resist? This luxurious will throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner?

A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss? Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at winners? Stop wondering, start gifting. Winners, find fabulous for less. So Time Magazine has released the highly anticipated, and I'm sure you like me were part of the highly anticipated crowd of the Time 100 list.

I write the most influential people of the year from Time Magazine, time 100 most influential people of 2021. And under icon status, Prince Harry and Megan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, of course, of course.

Icon status continues on with Naomi Osaka, Alexa and Elvani. Yeah, he gets it. Britney Spears, yeah, absolutely. Sherilyn Eiffel, okay, Dali Parton, Shohi Otani, Kathy Park, Hong, Luis Manuel Otero El Cantara,

Nersin Soda, and some other people with names I can't pronounce. Okay, I'll say them, but it's going to be butchered. Manjusa P. Colcarine, Russell Jung and Cynthia Choi, and Muna El Kurd, and Mohamed El Kurd. Okay, well, that wasn't too bad. Under Pioneers, Billy Elish. Ben Crump. Adi Yutorini

Sunsushili Felwynsard and Benedict Savoy Faithborough, Aurora James Adar Puna Walla, Phyllis Omede, Franz Timmermans Indira Mendoza and Claudia Spelman Roger Cox, Olympia Coral Mello Cruz, Dorita Rida

and Esther Zina Balmaval and El Thinsemant I don't know that that's the actual pronunciation for them but I mean for sure there under that. Then Titans! Titans!

Simone Biles! Yeah, she testified yesterday too, man. What this, that whole Larry Nasser thing has got me. What they did to these girls is, let alone what he did to them, what happened to them post that is agonizing. But anyway, Simone Biles is, you know, on the list under Titans. Tim Cook, Shonda Rimes, Timbaland, and Swindbland. Wiz Beets.

Nicole. Nicole Hannah Jones? Oh, my gosh. Tom Brady. Jun Jung. Alison Felix. Angelico Kizhou. Kenneth C. Frazier and Kenneth I.

Cheno. And Louisa Sriangano. Under artists, Kate Winslet. Yeah. No kidding. This year. Bad Bunny.

Chloe Zhao. Jason Sukina. Is that right? Jason Sukke. Ketus? Is that how he's pronounced his name? I don't know. And each one of these people have their story told by other celebrities. And Jason

has his by Seth Myers. Scarlett Johansson has hers by Jamie Lee Curtis. Lil Nas X. Jessica B. Harris, Bowen Yang, Tracy Ellis Ross, Mark Bradford. These are all under artists. N. K. K. Jemison. Stephen Young. Daniel Kaluya.

Omar Sy, Barbara Kruger, and Kane Brown. And they are all under the the artist and then leaders wow Noghizu Okanjo Aywila and Prince Harry and Megan wrote about her

Oh we got to see what Who is Nagosi Anjona Awila Let's see what she is She is the first African And first woman To lead the world trade organization

A 164 member group of nations That oversees trade across the world Ocania Awila took on the role of director General this march as a watershed moment for our global health and well-being. Make no mistake. Her job affects every person, family, and community. Well, that is something special, isn't it? That is great. Congratulations to her. I mean, it means a whole lot to me. I'll tell you that. Nagozy Okonjo, Iwila. Then you have Joe Biden, who

of course. Joe Biden is in front of a Jinping from China. I don't know that that makes a difference, but it's good that they're both side by side. Liz Cheney, Liz Cheney, Kamala Harris, Mario Drag, Tucker Carlson,

yeah. Nftali Bennett, Stacey Abrams. She lost a race. And now she's this superstar, man. congratulations to her because shit is amazing how she has come out of that man

losing one race in the state of Georgia and now she is a world-class influential person wow naib Bukli Buceli I guess it's Buckelly Donald Trump yeah

Norenja Modi Mobuba Sajam Joe Mancini Ibram Rassi Rachel Walensky yeah well she's wow you talk about the worst. Mamata Banzari,

Ron Klein, Alisa Lankan, Antaliyo, Abdul Ganhar Baradar. Yeah, Abdul. Yeah, you're the top, buddy. We love you.

You know, if you don't know who Abdul is, he's an Afghani politician. Uh-huh. Right. Innovators, Jensen Huang,

Elon Musk, Adrian Banfield, Norris, Willa Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith. Yeah, they're innovators. Caitlin Carriko. Mary Barra, John Nickengasson, Mimi Ong, Vitalik Butrin, Via, Barney Graham,

Frederick Otto and Gert Jean Van Oldenboro, Kanga Cuma, Sarah Menker, and Lydia Maraska. They're all under the innovators. Congratulations to everyone on the time most influential 100 list for 2021. Very impressive and it actually is. And now you know, the more you know. And it's just from chewing the fat. Congratulations to Time 100.

And I just can't wait to see Megan and Harry on the cover, and it'll just be great. Black Friday is here at IKEA, and the clock is ticking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-haves to cozy at-home essentials. all the little and big things you need to make this season shine.

But don't wait. Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca. Black Friday. IKEA. Bring home to life. Big day. Yesterday, they announced the new finalist for the National Toy Hall of Fame. And we have 12 new toys that could possibly go into the Hall of Fame.

Christopher Bench, the man, from the National Museum, Toy Hall of Fame. How are you, Chris? Good to see you. It's great to be with you, and I'm thrilled to have these 12 toys coming up for possible induction. Okay, so people can vote on them, right? So we're looking at the toys now. These are the ones that people get to vote on for an opportunity to go into the hall, right? Right.

We call it the Players' Choice poll, and between now and September 22nd, this is your chance. Every day, you can try to stuff the ballot box for the one of these that you want to get into the hall. I get a vote a day? Yes, this is better than other elections. Nice. That's fantastic. So the new toy, first, how many toys before I see, we have the new toys in front of you.

So we'll go through the new ones that could possibly go in. And some of them should, some of them should already be there. My gosh. But how many toys have you now into, in the hall? There are 74 toys already inducted into the hall. Okay. And so people can go to the museum and play with the toys and everything, right? This is the museum.

The Hall of Fame for the Toys is part of the Strong Museum, right? I'm sure I have that right. So we have a beautiful gallery where you can play with the toys. you can interact with them on screen and some really cool digital interactives. You can look into their history. You can see other examples. We've got biographies with their creators. It is so much fun.

I love that. All right. So let's go through the latest possible inductions into the hall and let people decide which ones they're going to vote for. So what do we have, Chris? Well, we've got a dozen finalists this year. It only fit six of them on my cart. So we can talk about these first and then pick up with the other ones.

Okay. So I brought a couple of the new inductees, or the new finalists, I should say. One of them is this game. Oh, yeah, the Settlers of Catan. It was originally called. Now it is just going by the name Catan. And it was such a breakthrough of a different type of playing. In contrast to something like Monopoly, where someone goes away crying because they've been bankrupted,

and I'm talking about the grownups here, not the kids. Catan challenged you to work cooperatively, to build a community, to work with resources on this uncharted island. It was a Euro-style game. It has helped change the world of tabletop gaming. Right. I mean, it only took, I don't know, a week or two to finish the game. So I understand. It was a fun game, though.

It was a fun game. It was almost like risk, you know, where you're building the world, right? Yeah, it's fun. So risk is right in front of me. Yeah. The toys of my personal childhood. And as you say, no risk game in our household ever ended in a single thing. Right.

And you sort of want to just keep an eye that no one was moving your armies around as a little behind-the-scenes suburb. It could never happen. It's a product of the Cold War era. It came out in the U.S. in 1959, right when the U.S. and Soviet Union were headbutting, we're going to dominate the world. This was your chance to reenact that on your own take.

That was fascinating. Okay. A new finalist this year is this world's smallest pinata, but something I didn't know about pignatas, associating them, especially with Mexican culture, that's where lots of people think of them. Right.

But yadas got their start in China in the 13th century. Of course they did. They have been all over the world, not necessarily called piñatas, but some kind of animal or container or device that was full of other toys or treats that you whack with a stick. And it is sort of a toy that gives toys. And it is part of the diversity of play all over the world that is part of the National Toy Hall of it. Right. Very cool. Okay. This young lady here, if you were around in 1983...

I wasn't, but go ahead. Maybe you remember when Cabbage Patch Kids were... Oh, my gosh. He must have toy of that holiday season. Absolutely. There were news stories about brawls, in parking lots and there weren't enough cabbage patch kids to go around they were white hot that year but they have proven that they have what it takes to stay they are still on the market to stay

they are not the craze of the moment but they are an enduring classic and that's why they're one of the finalists for the national boy hall of fame so then we have um also from the 80s he man and Masters of the Universe. Yeah, wow, no kidding. So some people have done dope slaps. You mean He-Man isn't already in the Hall of Fame? It was a synthesis of Saturday morning cartoon about He-Man and the Masters of the Universe,

universe, so to speak, and also selling all the toys that Mattel was making. They made the show. They made the toys. Parents got a little cranksy. That was a 30-minute ad for toys. but he's proven again, he's got staying power. He is part of our popular. Almost anyone would understand a reference to Skeletor today.

They are just part of our language. And then this next one, I find fascinating. That's something that you think would actually be in the hall, right? Right. I brought a teeny tiny. I'm going to recouple it here. Toy Fire Engine. And certainly in 2020, we were newly mindful.

of the importance of first responders, whether that's... Or people like firefighters, and it's a perfect year for the toy fire engine, whether that's a cast iron one from the 19th century, or a more modern plastic one

like I'm holding here today. They've been great play things for... Oh my gosh, forever. Right, every kid's had a fire engine, whether it's large or small or one that you sat on and rode around the yard on, whatever. A little car version. Fantastic.

Yeah. All right. So one of the toys that you don't have that are on the list, I'm a little disappointed, by the way, Chris. I wanted to see the corn popper. Okay. That annoying thing. I can't believe that's not already in the hall. It's its second time as a finalist. That's what I thought. Yeah, I thought we talked about it before. Yeah. And it is perfect developmentally for early walkers. Kids who are toddlers, they're learning to walk. They are mostly. by driving their parents insane with the popping balls inside the Fisher Price corn popper. Absolutely. The corn popper is a must have to annoy parents. You have to have that. Must have that. Okay, so what's left in the list? Well, if you want to talk about really old toys, sand is not only prehistoric sand goes back in geologic times. So sand is something people have been playing with, whether that's in a sandbox, whether that's sandcastles on the beach, whether it's therapy sand

that therapists use for various different purposes. So I can vote on, you put it that in as a voting thing this year, sand, really? Right, right. Isn't that just an overall thing? Well, I hear every year from the people who think dirt, rocks, sand, snow, water, all of those. Those are the oldest toys on the planet, right? I mean, you've got it. Look at this, Rockets from 10,000 years ago.

This used to be tossed into those hole. Yeah, I know. I understand that. But sand, I mean, I guess we definitely have all played with it, no question. Right, right. It is accessible in so many ways. Yeah. Because I was afraid I would knock over my bucket of sand on my cart and have my

set up right in front of you. Right. That's all good. All right. What's left? The game battleship. It started as a page. and pencil game.

I love battleship. In the 60s with Milton Bradley's plastic version. Yeah. Head-on-head strategy game. I love battleship. I'm surprised that's not in already, to be honest with you. That's a good game. I mean, when you have battleship and risk and settlers of Catan now,

those are three strong games that, you know, should almost should all be in it. Right. And I'm confident they will all get in. eventually. We have one more game this year, and that is the game Mahjong that stated in China. It became a craze in the U.S. in the 1920s. It has still played widely in the West and around the world. And there was, we were hooked on that in my house for a number of years. Yeah. I mean, I love that stupid game. And then what about, okay, so is backgammon in the hall? It is not in, but dominoes are. If we're thinking about tiles games,

and some other things. But that damon should be in. Yeah. Hello. What's happening? All right. So if I want to vote, is there anything else? Did we miss any of the toys?

Let me look at my list here. Did I miss any? Oh, certainly American Girl Dolls. Another product like that's from the mid-1980s, different style. Huge. So great about them was the history books that came along with those characters. Yeah. I mean, they were like kind of the larger version.

version of the Barbie, right, where you had to have the outfits and everything to go with them. Amazing. You can accessorize them to know. Yes. Thank you. I apologize for not calling them accessories. One more thing. Billiards for grownups.

Pool. Billiards. That table game is something I hadn't really thought about it. It's an indoor version of what was croquet or box. Right. And that's part of why it's played on that green. covered table. It's not on grass anymore. It's still on green.

Right. Miniaturized a bit so that you can have that competitive ball target game. That's incredible. Is Croquet in it? Is Croquet in the hall? Oh my gosh. That's a travesty. That has to be taken care of

immediately. You're in charge. You're in charge of collections. Make that happen. Okay. So is another game? You know, I was thinking, you think about games like that. What about, remember the game called Skiddle? You know, you toss the ball around the stick and it knocks down the bowling pins or the pins or whatever. If you tell me that's not in the hall, Chris.

It's not in the hall. We've got examples in the 500,000 items in the museum's collection, but not yet in the hall. So I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the museum as well. But when people want to, where do they have to go to vote for their favorite toys? Sure. The place to go is toy hall of fame.org. So that's an easy place to go for the player's choice poll. Okay, cool.

And I mean, they can obviously follow you guys on a museum of play on Twitter and the Strong Museum on Facebook. And that will lead you along as well. and I'm sure there's a link there that will take you to the Museum of Play.org to vote for the toys this year, right? Okay, so three of these go. Three of these get in, right? On November 4th. And we'll have the big announcement.

I'll love to have you back and talk about the voting and the three, you know, that gets in this year. Absolutely. I love it. So how, a couple things. How has it going at the museum? I know, you know, we obviously all suffer. pandemic level catastrophes in the last two years. I'm suitzaping 18 months, Jeff.

Okay, I got it. So how's it going? It is great. We have been reopened to the public. We were closed for three months in the spring of 2020, but we have been ramping up our attendance ever since. We've been a very safe environment with that appropriate social distancing, with new H-FAC systems.

It's going to be tough, though. It is, and we're big enough that people can spread out and have a great time under lots of different circumstances. So we're still below our 2019 numbers, but we are certainly, especially through the summer, we're welcoming big crowds of people who are all having a great time. Excellent. We're talking with Christopher Bench, Vice President of Collections for the Toy Hall of Fame and the Strong Museum. So what's the oldest toy? We talked about rocks and sand as, you know, toys.

But officially, what's the oldest toy that you have at the museum? Oh, well, actual, the example that is oldest probably goes back to some really early leather toys that were found in the River Thames in England, a leather ball, a, metal top. So some of those really basic things, a problem for us as museum curators, loads of those things just got used up.

Kids play death and they don't necessarily survive to get passed down to the grandkids to go to a museum and eventually all that kind of thing. But they're in stories, right? I mean, so we know that they existed. I mean, they're in

novels and actual history. books so we know that they existed. Right. And certainly play things like marbles go back to basically ancient times. They were clay marbles. They weren't glass marbles like ours. They were also toys very much like what we would call jacks. Sometimes those were animal vertebrae that think of chicken soup and that chicken backbone makes you eat spiny things to have a game as you bounce a ball. You're going to play with that chicken bone and get out of the house. That's what's going to happen. You're going to get out of the cave and play with that bone.

That's what you're going to do. So how difficult, as you know, you're in charge of collections. So are you, how difficult is it to travel the world and try to acquire these, especially in today's world with so many museums and you guys obviously are a museum as well. But how much difficulty do you have acquiring these? Certainly old things are really tough. to acquire what few survive are already in museums or private collections. We are constantly competing if it comes to auctions against deep-pocketed private collectors who are very determined.

We were just fitting on some pinball machines that were going for astronomical prices more than our budget or what they were truly worth seemed to be. I mean, people could actually, you know, perhaps purchase these and donate them to the museum, right? We are always open to that. We have acquired more than 7,000 new items for the museum's collection this year. Wow. Many goes through generous donations, like you're talking about. So we are constantly growing our collection.

So if I found something, let's say, you know, in my garage, I could, you know, donate it for cash, right? We always love to see photos from people. That's one of the brilliant... Oh, that's the good one of female and digital images that it isn't just a phone call saying, I have a great such and such. We can actually see what you're talking about and make a more informed decision

on whether it's something that fits. So does the museum have, and I'm sure you're going to say, why don't you just come to the museum, Jeff, and shut up? Does the museum have photos, speaking, of that. Do people would do people have people donated, say photos of their family or their friends

or old photos? You know when you know back in the black and white days of playing games that you can look at at the museum? We do and you can look at it right from your electronic device. If you go to the Museum of Play website, go to the collections section, there is a whole

segment there called People at Play. One of our main... Oh, that is cool. That shows from those black and white photos from 1850 to current digital photos. What I think is great that rather than basically having to steal something out of people's family albums, now they can share their digital image with us and you don't have to give it up. You are just giving a digital copy to the museum. And you're not giving that hard copy up anyway.

You're donating it to the museum, which is going to be used and shared with millions of people over the next centuries. Exactly. It is for the general good. I've got to find... I want to donate a picture of a game so that I'm on the toy Hall of Fame or at the museum anyway. That has to happen. Christopher Benz, thank you so much from the Toy Hall of Fame. I really appreciate your time. I know you're busy.

I'll let you go. But I appreciate your time and thank you very much for joining us here on Chew and the Fat. Stream and subscribe to more Blaze Media content at the blaze.com slash podcasts.