It is easy in today's modern world of electronic gadgets and shiny plastic to overlook the classic toys that have been around for generations. You can still find them, usually tucked away in areas labelled 'Classic Yesteryear', or in toy shops that are themselves tucked away in small corners of old towns, as though the town grew up around them, like a grain of sand inside the pearl. These classic toys have not become classics simply because there are still generations old enough to remember them from when they were young. Classics usually earn their status because they combine the three essential elements for any toy, which today's toy manufacturers sometimes need to remind themselves of.



A classic toy is one that has a simple and straightforward challenge or problem at its heart. Nothing too grand, and nothing that takes weeks of reading through a book to understand all the rules. Simplicity is the essential ingredient. Think about wooden puzzles - a picture scrambled up, and you have to put it back together, a Rubik's cube, a pile of bricks that you have to build a taller tower from than anybody else. Simple to understand, but much harder to solve than it looks.

The second rule of a classic toy to earn its status is that it should provide some satisfaction upon the child's achievement in solving it. A puzzle reveals a picture of a scene that is worth all that effort. A tower that looks amazing at the height it has reached, a cube that looks perfect and organised. The child needs to be able to show the adults what he or she has achieved, and gain their adulation and praise. We all need praise, and we all try harder if we know that we're likely to get it. A toy that provides a child with a puzzle that merits not only his or her own attention, but the praise of an adult should they complete it. The completed toy or puzzle is a certification in itself of their skill and dedication.

The third rule of any classic toy becoming an all time classic is that it's component parts should be sturdy enough to last. So many toys today have small, fragile parts that are mostly made of plastic. Once it is broken, then the whole toy is rendered useless. Once a piece is missing, the rest of it loses its appeal. The toys should be reasonably fixable, which means that if it does get broken, then dad can get it working again very quickly. If it takes dad all evening with thirteen screwdrivers, four pairs of pliers and a hammer just to get in to the thing, only for half a dozen coiled springs to leap out from who knows where, and the toy is quickly consigned to the non-classics box, otherwise known as the bin.

If you think of the classic toys that we all remember and loved, and see today in toy shops, they almost always adhere to these rules, and those that don't, are soon forgotten.