- Did you know there were some toys that were discovered by accident?
These accidental toys came from the weirdest of things. What do you know about Playdoh and Etch A Sketch?
Playdoh is conic, brightly colored, and has a smell you will always remember.
As of 1955 there was a man named Andre Cassagnes. He lived in the South of France and was a handyman of sorts, who was allergic to flour, ruling him out of working in his parents’ bakery.
Instead he is around a different substance daily, used to make textured wallpaper. Aluminum dust wrote a note into it and it became inspiration for the first Etch A Sketch. Cassagnes spent a lot of time figuring out the surface that would work for the carbon material, he uses plastic but it’s not what he needs. This doesn’t seem to be the start of accidental toys.
In Ohio, Joe McVicker was in school when his dad was on the way to see him and died. His father had a company, Kutol, creating putty that cleans soot off of wallpaper. Soon other power sources are being used and things like easy to clean wallpaper were coming out but McVicker was forced into the role of running this company. His brother-in-law, Bill Rhodenbaugh, was hired to help rescue the company.
Then there is the parallel of a teacher from NJ runs a small nursery school and was always coming up with ideas. The dough they used to clean wallpaper was used to make ornaments. It was fun to play with. Kay calls her brother in law to come out to NJ to show him this dough.
Back in France, Cassagnes is realizing that plastic doesn’t have enough adhesion to work as his surface but glass could work. He used one smooth
even sheet and one smooth coating and it worked, you could “write on it!” Talk about accidental toys! Glass is charged one way and aluminum powder the other way so they attract each other. But he needed to encase the glass in something. The glass could shatter and cut kiddos and aluminum powder could make you sick if you inhaled too much of it. He needed to make it safe.
In New Jersey, McVicker went to see the putty that the kids were playing with. He saw them enjoying it, rolling it around and forming it into shapes. The color was ugly, it stunk like detergent and some things needed to be changed and reformulated. But they took out the detergent, added some coloring and made primary colors to start. This way, kids could mix it and theoretically make any color they want.
Kutol’s Rainbow Modeling Compound was the original name for Playdoh? The teacher said, “No, call it playdough,” but they made it shorter and spelled it Playdoh. The playdough didn’t smell like anything now though and everything needs a scent to be remembered by.
When it came to Etch A Sketch, Andre’s idea was to make it look like a mini television. By the mid 1950s, the number of US homes that owned a television went from just under 10% to 85%. Now you have something that looks like a tv and you can create what’s on the “tv” screen. He uses knobs to draw horizontally and vertically, all held together by one nylon string and it needs the right amount of tension to make it work correctly.
McVicker was trying to find the perfect Playdoh smell. As a sensory toy, they wanted to engage many senses. The smell of Playdoh is a mixture of vanilla
and almond and nothing else smells like it. McVicker was ready and turned every machine in his factory to making Playdoh that night. From cleaning agents to making children’s toys, it was a wild jump and big risk turning the company in this direction.
Cassagnes was still trying to figure out the perfect tension for it to work back in France. But when he tried to show it to someone, it didn’t work. So much for accidental toys, at least, not yet.
Back in the US, Kutol’s Wall Cleaner was already being sold to schools. They began selling Playdoh to schools. It was originally sold in huge galloon cans and it instantly became a hit in the Cincinnati area. He wants the Playdoh to be introduced to children worldwide. 
Captain Kangaroo came on in the morning when you were getting ready for
school and eating breakfast. Almost every kid who was watching tv was watching Captain Kangaroo. Manufacturers realized this was an advertiser’s dream and the show marketed toys to kids.
McVicker decided to introduce Playdoh to Captain Kangaroo. For what happens from there, read Accidental Toys and How They Were Discovered: Part Two.