Etch A Sketch, Classic Red Drawing Toy with Magic Screen, for Ages 3 and Up

Product Information

Etch A Sketch is a mechanical drawing toy invented by André Cassagnes of France and subsequently manufactured by the Ohio Art Company. [1] It is now owned by Spin Master of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

a b "Etch A Sketch Creator Dies". Gifts & Decorative Accessories Magazine. 31 January 2013. Archived from the original on 2 February 2013 . Retrieved 2 February 2013. In 2001, manufacturing was moved to a plant in Shenzhen, China, to cut production costs. The Ohio Art Company was facing bankruptcy before securing financing to stay viable. It sold the rights to the Etch A Sketch name and the design to the Toronto-based Spin Master Corporation in February 2016. The toy got into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2003, the Toy Industry Association named Etch A Sketch one of the 100 most memorable toys of the 20th century. Etch A Sketch was manufactured in Bryan, Ohio until the company moved the manufacturing plant to Shenzhen, China in 2001. [13] sewingfool - duly noted. In my excitement to share my old toy I misused the word, as apparently did Ohio Arts. Thank you for your comment. L.a.o. Toy Industry Association Announces Its Century of Toys List". Business Wire. 21 January 2003 . Retrieved 5 March 2022.

The Etch A Sketch toy was invented in the late 1950s by André Cassagnes, an electrician who branded the toy L’Écran Magique (The Magic Screen). In 1959, he took his drawing toy to the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, Germany where The Ohio Art Company saw it and acquired it. The Ohio Art Company launched the toy in the United States in time for the Christmas season in 1960, marked Etch A Sketch. Over 600,000 units of the toy were sold during this time. And that’s part of the fun, isn’t it? Not knowing how it works? The idea – in a young, fertile imagination – that it might actually be magic? If you prefer to think of it that way, I can’t blame you, but you should stop reading, because here’s what’s going on under the screen: The toy was originally marketed as the “Télécran" in France, but was later called the “L’Ecran Magique,” or Magic Screen. It was eventually re-named the Etch A Sketch by the Ohio Art Company. 6. IT WORKS AS A PLOTTER. Originally, the toy used a plate glass screen, which was criticized by safety advocates for being easily broken and a danger to children. [8] In November 1970, Consumers Union filed a petition with the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, asking for emergency action under the 1969 Child Protection and Toy Safety Act. [9] The Food and Drug Administration responded that the toy had been redesigned, replacing the glass plate with plastic. [10]

Also inside are horizontal and vertical bars connected by thin steel wires to the knobs on the face of the toy. A stylus is mounted where the two bars cross, so when you turn a knob, it moves its bar and the bar moves the stylus. As the stylus moves across the inside surface of the screen, it scrapes off the aluminum powder and creates a dark line on the light gray screen, which is just the darkness of the toy’s interior set against the lighter aluminum powder. Some of the image captions in this section may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia guidelinesfor succinctness. Please improve this article if you can. ( June 2023) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)In 1993, Ohio launched a color Etch A Sketch. [7] Similar to the original Etch A Sketch, it used the traditional two-knob interface to draw, but also featured six colors. It also had the ability to produce a color copy of each picture drawn.