Original subtitles

Classic toys like electric trains,

squishy colorful Play-Doh, the pinball machine,

or even a Slinky are the kinds of toys

that stand the test of time.

It all evokes nostalgia and memories of a simpler time

and are impervious to trends.

Last year, Americans spent more than $25 billion on toys.

Toys are beacons of our childhood,

and that's why full grown adults will spend

a whole lot of time

and even more money

trying to purchase a piece of their youth.

-I got my doll!

-Some of the most iconic toy brands have been

in business for decades.

And today we've got all access passes

to one of the most iconic toys,

Play-Doh.

What is it really made out of?

And how do they make 108,000 cans

of colorful sweet-smelling Play-Doh per day?

Plus, we'll see how a plastic manufacturer prepares

classic toy soldiers for battle.

We'll also get an inside look at pinball machines

and discover why they were once banned

in cities across America.

But all work and no play make Adam a dull boy.

Today, I want to have some fun.

This is "Modern Marvels: Classic Toys."

Here at the Cartamundi Factory

in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts,

they're making something so special

that just mention its name anywhere in the world

and someone is sure to crack a smile.

Play-Doh!

That crack and pop when you open the canister,

that distinctive smell.

Oh man, even through the mask.

You can use it to make a beautiful work of art

or a beautiful mess.

Believe it or not, Play-Doh was actually in our homes

for decades before it was ever seen as a play thing.

-So in 1933, Play-Doh was actually developed

to be a wallpaper cleaner.

And then over the years,

the wallpaper technology changed so much

that Play-Doh was really not required

to be a wallpaper cleaner.

By 1956, Joseph McVicker had re-imagined

the pliable cleaning substance.

-Thanks to his sister-in-law,

Kay Zufall who's a school teacher,

actually took Play-Doh to her classroom

and she was amazed with the way children were using Play-Doh

and expressing their creativity.

And that's really how Play-Doh transformed

to being a toy that it is today.

-As of 2021,

the year that Play-Doh celebrates its 65th anniversary,

they have sold 4.5 billion cans.

Last year alone, they shipped the same weight in product

as the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower combined.

We love it, we're familiar with it, but what's in it?

How do they make Play-Doh?

Hey, Jeremy?

I got to tell you, I love the smell.

You walk into this room

and you're immediately transported into your childhood.

-Yeah.

How many cans

of Play-Doh are you selling per year?

We're doing about 25 million cans per year,

108,000 cans per day.

And about 290 cans per minute.

That's crazy amounts that we're doing right here.

-I'm trying to wrap my head around this.

Look at this.

It's like if there was a little Play-Doh village

and this is where they all boarded the train.

Jeremy, please unlock the secrets of my childhood.

Tell me how they make Play-Doh, please.

-First, we want to put everything into the mixer

and we do that right here.

We have silos outside and we get deliveries once a week

and we run about 10,000 pounds a day.

Just like any dough,

Play-Doh has dry and wet ingredients

that are fed through separate channels

down into a mixing chamber.

The ingredients are deployed

not only in specific measurements,

but in a specific sequence.

The order of deployment is designed to ensure

that every ingredient is distributed evenly

within the mixer.

And mixing up the secret formula

for today's batch is operator Troy.

-First step is flour here, in our hopper.

Now, The flour going down.

it's all going down, we use 615 pounds per batch.

-How many batches are you going through in a day?

-We do about 18 batches a day, about a ton and a half-

- Of flour? - Yes.

-That much flour could make more

than 5,000 average batches of cookies,

which would amount to more than 300,000 cookies.

Once the hopper empties all of the flour into the mixer,

it's time to add the other ingredients.

That's incredible.

Is that suction? - Yeah.

-I need those for soil in my garden.

While Play-Doh is certified non-toxic,

it also contains chemical preservatives

and a high dose of salt.

It isn't intended to be eaten,

but it is still a wheat based dough

of infinite creativity waiting to happen.

Among the dry ingredients that are added

into the mixer are cornstarch, dry pigment,

two types of salt, and some top secret preservatives.

And some of the key wet ingredients include

liquid pigment, hot water, and of course,

the element that takes us back to our childhoods.

-This is the ingredient that every child loves it.

Once they open it up, you know, the can of Play-Doh,

this is what they smell here.

-That's it.

Wait, wait, wait one second.

Oh, it smells delightful.

Wait, is that little tiny cup of fragrance?

-Yep, gives you all the smell you need.

Beautiful, isn't it?

-That's crazy.

This sweet, flowery, vanilla-like fragrance

has slight overtones of cherry

and the natural smell of a wheat based dough.

And it's added purely for fragrance

because that is what helps identify

and distinguish the iconic Play-Doh.

Now the dough is ready to be mixed.

-I'm going to start back.

Now it's coming down for 15 minutes.

-15 minutes and Play-Doh is gonna pop out on that line?

-Yes.

No way!

What do you think it is about Play-Doh

that makes it so timeless?

-I think it's that it's adaptable.

It's up to your creativity to do what you want with it.

If it's up for the kids to make up their own mind with it.

Play-Doh isn't alone

in inspiring kids to use their imagination.

There is another classic toy that allows us

to build whatever we imagine,

from cherished monuments to entire cities,

one block at a time.

-Lego got started in the early 1900s

in a carpentry and woodworking shop

owned by Ole Kirk Christiansen.

Christiansen named his company

by shortening the Danish phrase Leg godt,

which means play well.

When he finally got a hold of plastics,

he realized that he could mold them into shapes.

-And then in 1946,

he bought his first injection molding machine.

By 1958, the first Lego bricks were released.

And all these years later,

the original 1958 Lego bricks will connect

to any of the bricks that are made today.

That accuracy in manufacturing is

what makes Lego one of the most classic toys ever.

It also means they can be handed down

from generation to generation.

-Between 1958 and 2008,

they made 400 billion bricks of Lego,

which means 10 people can actually make Lego towers

that are 40 billion pieces from here to the moon.

Legos recently released their largest set

to date, the Lego Art World Map.

With over 11,600 pieces,

it's 2,500 more pieces

than their previously largest set, the Architect Colosseum.

One of the largest Lego structures ever built is

a full scale Legos Star Wars X-Wing Fighter model.

It took 32 builders more than 17,000 hours

to put together over five million Lego bricks.

That's close to two years.

This life-sized replica is 42 times the size

and weighs than 45,000 pounds.

That's more than some actual fighter jets weigh.

From Lego roller coaster sets to Lego space shuttles,

there is an entire universe to re-imagine.

And there's another classic toy that can make us believe

we are our own heroes of the battlefield.

Little plastic soldiers have existed since the late 1930s

and allowed kids to feel

like they were their own World War II heroes,

defeating the enemy

and conquering make-believe battlefields.

-I'm Jeff Imel and I'm the president of BMC Toys.

We make new toys from old molds

and bring them to a whole new generation to enjoy.

Little green army men were inducted

into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2014.

If you say little green army men,

everybody knows what you're talking about.

It's just become a ubiquitous part of childhood

and our pop culture.

In the 1990s,

BMC Toys acquired molds from the 50s and 60s

to produce these historic plastic army sets.

BMC Toys then teamed up with Northeast Plastics

to operate the mid century molds.

-Everything that you're seeing on the shelf right now

is going to be original dyes made for army figures,

vehicles, things of that nature

from the 50s, 60s, and a little bit of the 70s.

The molds are owned by BMC Toys.

They have over 70 molds with us currently.

And it's still here, living and breathing and functioning,

is pretty impressive, you know.

They were making stuff back then

that really stood the test of time.

This is the injection molding departments.

This is where we're manufacturing the plastic parts.

We run over 70 molds of different army configurations,

20, 30,000 shots of this a year.

But those molds from the mid century

never included plastic army women.

That is, until Jeff Imel and BMC Toys decided to do it

in 2020.

-Soon after I began selling plastic army men,

I got a letter from a little girl saying,

"Hey, why don't we make girl army men?"

-About 18 months later,

BMC Toys released a new line of army women,

featuring a female captain

holding a handgun and binoculars,

a kneeling female soldier calling in an airstrike,

among 30 other poses.

They come in three colors, classic army green,

tan, and pink.

Classic toys, like little plastic soldiers,

are not gender specific or era specific.

Every new generation of kids inspires a love

of classic toys.

Some are so popular, they have their very own day,

like Play-Doh.

Every year on September 16th,

Americans celebrate this classic toy

that has reportedly sold upwards of four billion cans

since its debut in 1956.

And we're at their manufacturing facilities

in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts.

They're cranking out the colorful dough

to keep up with the continued demand.

All right, how does it go from being made

to coming to our store?

-So shortly, it's going to be coming through our mixer

out onto this first conveyor.

That's where our quality assurance comes into effect.

And they're going to take the temperature on that,

make sure we're hitting the right marks.

-What is the ideal temperature for freshly mixed Play-Doh?

-It's warmer than your average hot shower.

-Why?

-The mixer doesn't bake it,

it's the hot water that makes it go through the process

to turn it into dough.

-So it's residual heat from the hot water.

-Yeah.

Got it.

So as you can see here,

you can see the batch of dough,

the bright blue that we mixed.

-And it's steaming,

I can see the smoke coming off of it.

-Yeah, and that's going to go into our first hopper,

which is our sheeter.

That's where we want to get that steam out of there

and that heat.

The sheeter takes clumps of dough

coming from the mixer and thins them out

into one inch thick sheets to help cool them down.

Yeah, the sheet's going in the funnel.

Then what?

-That's an extruder,

so that's going to push the dough through.

It's kind of like a little wheel in there.

Think of like a mill on the river,

turning and bringing the water around.

So it pushes it through and then a knife cuts it

and it turns into a little four ounce slug.

Those four ounce chunks of Play-Doh,

a perfect amount for young imaginative hands,

then need to be canned.

-So that's where all our cups are going

to meet the dough right now.

-Amazing, amazing.

Now we're meeting the cans, the dough,

and the lid to make that full can of dough.

But the lids are loaded by hand, right?

Yep.

-So if you take some Play-Doh home

and it's not getting everywhere and you put it away,

that lid, courtesy of Gavin.

So thank him, America.

-Do it.

And for taking this selfie, he gave me a surprise gift.

It's still warm.

It's still warm!

It almost makes it more, more gooey and pliable.

That is amazing.

This was flour and pigment and salt

and cornstarch just moments ago, right up there with Troy,

and now I can do anything with it.

Once they're filled and capped,

these cans of Play-Doh magic are sent through machines

that check that they each weigh the standard four ounces

and that they don't contain any metal.

Cans are set onto a pallet

and need to wait 24 hours to undergo another QC check

to make sure they're chemically stable

and meet the food grade nontoxic standard.

After that, it's time to divide the cans into sleeves,

joining various color varieties into an assortment

of bold and vibrant colors.

-Once we have all three of those sleeves,

we have a couple of robots,

we call them the Three Stooges, Larry, Curly, and Moe.

These Stooges are no joke.

Larry and Curly work to pick up the sleeves of Play-Doh

and place them on the conveyor to feed Moe,

who puts them into cartons.

When we first started,

it felt like they were knocking heads

and that's why we started joking

about having the Three Stooges.

They're acting up all the time.

-I love it.

In recent years, Play-Doh sales are reported

to have increased 20% per year.

To meet that rising demand,

there are several Play-Doh factories around the globe.

At this factory, one batch

of their average 108,000 cans a day

have now been packed

and are ready to ship to retail stores.

But not all the Play-Doh made here ends up with consumers.

Misfit chunks that don't meet Hasbro's standards

are tossed out and you'll never guess their fate.

No, what?

So now why is this in here?

-Well, so this one was from our weigh scale.

This one was probably only 2 1/2, maybe three ounces,

so it didn't hit our specifications.

So we can't go and just put that back in the hopper

and re-run that.

Right.

-We go to a renewables company

and they'll create renewable energy from it.

- Is that right? - Yup.

Looking down at this glorious, colorful mass of Play-Doh,

there's one thing I must do before I say goodbye.

I'm glad I didn't wear a watch today.

This is every bit as awesome as I thought it would be!

Yes.

Oh.

-Like a kid in a candy shop.

-Just one souvenir.

-We'll get you a bucket to go.

- That's all I need. - Yeah?

-Classic toys like Play-Doh are blank canvases

for the imagination to create infinite possibilities.

But some classic toys have only one objective,

to score big.

The pinball machine.

Over the last decade or so,

interest in this classic toy has skyrocketed

with a growing number of players and competitions worldwide.

And while the demand rises,

there is still only one manufacturer

that stands high above the rest.

Now, while versions of pinball have existed

since Ulysses S. Grant was President in the 1870s,

today Stern is the world's oldest and largest manufacturer

of arcade quality pinball machines.

And in recent years,

Stern's revenue has seen year over year growth of up to 40%.

Here at their 110,000 square foot facility,

they do it all, from designing the game

to play testing the final product.

Each of these machines is a work of art.

So to find out how they've managed

to marry cutting-edge technology with nostalgia and fun,

I'm going to talk to the founder and CEO himself,

Gary Stern, to find out how they have become

the pinball wizards.

-My father started as a game operator

in the 30s in Philadelphia, and in 1947, he came to Chicago.

For four decades,

the Stern family worked with another famous pinball maker,

the Williams Company.

And in 1986, Stern branched off into their own company,

which Gary continues to run to this day.

-Pinball machines became extremely popular in the 1930s.

-The pinball machines were being made in Chicago.

About 140 different companies were manufacturing these

and they eventually got associated with

the Chicago Mafia.

Part of the issue was that they'd spit out payouts

for the highest scoring players,

and so it was considered gambling.

-In the 1940s in the US, people started to be worried

about children playing pinball.

And Fiorello LaGuardia in New York declaimed

against the robbing of schoolchildren's' pocket money

that should be used for buying lunch was going to pinball,

so they were banned.

The bans on pinball didn't stop people

from playing.

Much like prohibition,

speakeasy type play areas were established underground

for pinball to continue.

-The ban that kept pinball machines underground

was finally lifted in 1976 when an expert pinballer

by the name of Roger Sharp,

in front of the entire New York City Council,

Sharp pulled the plunger on a pinball machine

and pointed down the middle lane.

He said that because there was skill involved,

he knew that he could get the ball

to go down the middle lane.

-He hit it on the first time

and after that it was a six-O vote

and pinball machines were legal again.

-So that's really the one pinball game

that made the industry possible today.

And long after that saving,

the demand for this classic toy continues to rise.

New machines from Stern can run a tab

between four and $10,000.

They're using some of the latest technology

to keep the fun of this classic toy

both challenging and nostalgic.

To make a pinball machine, Stern starts here,

with a piece of wood, the play field.

Stern veteran Kenny will show us how it's done.

-Basically we start with a two by four piece of plywood.

We take it over to our CNC machines

that are, you know, programmed, and this is the output.

-So this thing makes every cut

that will be on the play field in one pass?

-Your ramps, your ball guides,

light fixtures, or your inserts.

My holes are off a little bit, it's never gonna work.

-I see, so you have to treat these two by four pieces

of plywood with the utmost precision.

-Absolutely.

If the slightest angle or hole is off

during this process, the entire gameplay experience

and assembly could be compromised.

After a board has been precisely cut and sanded smooth,

the inserts are installed.

These are the colored coverings that illuminate

once the lights have been connected under the board.

-This is a play field that we routed over there,

cleaned up all smooth and ready to be inserted.

These here are the inserts that we use.

-Well, those orange and those red look virtually the same.

How do you tell which is which?

-Actually they use a light table that we have over here

for inspecting the boards.

Wow.

These color inserts are what flash and light up,

hinting to the player where to aim and how to score big.

But the flashing lights are also the thing

that attract a person to insert the coin.

But not all classic toys require flashing lights

to be entertaining.

Some are just as amusing and just as classic

using only one long metal wire.

Classic toys often do not need batteries

or bells and whistles to tantalize young or old minds.

In fact, there's one toy that has been around

for over 75 years with over 300 million sold.

And it's only made up of one part.

-This is where we make the Slinky,

along with the Shrinky Dinks, and the spinwheels.

We still use some of the older equipment

we used back in 1945.

Let me show you around.

This is our spool of wire.

They put 1,600 pounds on a spool,

which makes approximately 3,200 Slinkys.

At Slinky's sole manufacturing facility,

they're making approximately 25 to 30,000 Slinkys daily.

-The yearly production is probably close

to around two million.

After we set the spool in place,

the wire's fed up through the machine

and then right through the straightener.

Then it goes up to the flattening mill,

which is where the magic happens

and that's where we give it its coil.

-There's a lot of classic toys

that were born completely by accident.

Slinky is one of them.

-Richard James was in the Navy

and he had springs on a table,

which were designed to keep equipment from breaking.

Well, one of those springs fell off the table

and then it just like dropped down onto a book

and then onto the floor.

And he thought, that's pretty amazing.

By the 1945 holiday season,

Slinky was introduced at Gimbels department store.

-When it debuted at the

department store in Philadelphia,

it was a huge hit.

They sold 400 units,

every one they had in less than 90 minutes.

Back then, a Slinky cost $1,

about $14 in today's value.

-This is where the Slinky gets cut here

into a specific length.

It comes down the strip.

Then the operators put the crimp on it.

The cramp is there for safety reasons.

Once an hour, we pull Slinkys off the belt,

and then we make sure it stands up

and we check the crimp to make sure the crimps are tight.

You stretch it out, it's about eight feet long

and there's 81 feet of wire here.

We have to make sure we hear the sound of the Slinky.

Every hour,

approximately 1,500 Slinkys travel down this conveyor belt

to be boxed.

That means every 2.4 seconds, a Slinky slides into its box.

Along with the classic Slinky,

they also produce the Giant Slinky, which is 30% longer,

the Junior Slinky, which is 25% the size of the classic,

and the neon multicolored Slinky.

They also make that familiar happy face.

-This is Slink.

He's the dog we have in Toy Story.

After his debut, Slink became very popular

and sales went into the millions.

I think the biggest draw towards the Slinky is

it's just an interesting toy.

That was a good one.

While this classic toy maker uses

tens of thousands of miles of wire per year,

the classic pinball machine is jam packed

with a quarter of a mile worth of wire,

hidden underneath each of the artfully designed play fields.

What are these called?

It's a harness of cables.

A harness of cables.

-Yeah, it's roughly 30 to 50 of these per game.

-Is each bundle, each harness, is that for a specific game

or can they be used interchangeably?

No, they're specific games.

-So each time you develop a new game,

this whole process starts all over again.

- Oh, yeah. - Oh my gosh.

-Anywhere from three to 500 lines of wire.

So this particular is a work instructions

for the Avengers back panel.

This is where you start.

And then the numbers correspond

to everything on the board over here.

So it says start at one, which is over here.

So we got the blue and white over here.

- Can I give it a shot? - Yep.

So we've got terminals two, three, and four.

-So it means it has to at least make it around.

-Yes, spin it a couple of times so it stays

and that's good, like two, three times.

And so we have to go to two,

then bring it back down, go to three, bring it back down.

After that, you can use a zip tie gun,

we zip tie the cables together, cut the cables,

and we're good to go.

By using some of the latest technologies

and wiring systems, Stern has been able

to enhance their machines with increasingly more features,

like LCD displays, LED lighting, and new challenges.

But some classic toys are just as entertaining,

requiring not much more than two disks

and a string wrapped around an axle.

-Some of the oldest toys in history

happens to be the yo-yo.

It's the only toy I know of that dates to 500 years BC.

Fast forward to the 1700s,

we have King Louie pictured

playing with a yo-yo.

-The yo-yo of today was brought to the US

by a Filipino immigrant in the 20s, Pedro Flores.

And he was hand carving these things.

-He started peddling his handmade yo-yos

to the kids around the Los Angeles area

and the goal was, is to get his own factory.

And he sold enough yo-yos to the kids

to where he got his factory.

And within one year, he was producing

300,000 yo-yos a day.

And it drew the attention of Donald Duncan.

And so Donald Duncan of the Duncan Toys Company

ended up purchasing the rights to yo-yo.

I mean, back in the day, you know, walking the dog was fun,

but I mean, these guys put five on a single hand.

So, you know, it just goes to show you

the imagination that we have,

and that really relates to the fact

that toys can really help us learn

and we can have fun at the same time.

Classic toys conjure the wistfulness

of some of the happiest days of life.

But a celebration of classic toys wouldn't be complete

without the one that sells 100 units every minute

and more than 55 million per year.

Whether you own one yourself

or just practice experimental make-overs

on one of these models,

Barbie is a legend created by one of the founders of Mattel.

-So, the founder of Barbie is Ruth Handler

and Ruth was inspired by her daughter, Barbara.

She watched her daughter play with paper dolls

and imagined that there would be a more inspirational

or aspirational way for her

to imagine a world of possibilities.

And in 1959, Barbie was born.

Barbie was an instant hit,

selling more than 300,000 dolls in the first year.

The first dolls cost $3 each and clothes cost one to five,

but Barbie of today has come a long way

from the Barbie of 1959.

Over the years, Barbie has held more than 200 occupations.

-Barbie has evolved over the years

the way women have evolved over the years.

She's always a perfect reflection of what's happening

in the time that she's living.

With over 24 different ethnicities,

multiple different hairstyles, body shapes,

and providing choice for girls and boys to play

and inspire and imagine a world of possibilities.

As Barbie continues to endure,

there's another classic toy maker that's just as persistent,

advancing the thrills and delights of the play field,

Stern Pinball.

Before the toys and parts can be assembled

onto a play field, they're inspected here by Andrew

and the quality assurance team

to ensure each one brings the wow factor

that is unique to pinball.

-So this is one of those 3,500 parts that we inspect

for every single game.

-I just recognized this guy.

This is from the Jurassic Park game.

-This is.

So what we're going to look for is cosmetic damage.

And you know, if it's missing paint on the teeth,

that's something that people would notice.

-I never even thought about that.

-And it's the same idea is with these spaceships back here,

if one of the wings is a different shade,

then it's just going to look weird on the game.

-Are you kidding?

-I can say that when you're playing

and you notice a little difference in color,

you never unnotice that.

So the last thing that we want is for someone

to buy a machine from us and see that little scratch.

Then every time they go back to play,

they can't focus on anything else,

even though there are flashing lights.

It's these parts that peak curiosity

and draw people to put the quarter in.

These details are important

because Stern isn't only focusing on making machines

to be housed in dark arcades.

They're manufacturing machines for personal consumption too,

which reportedly encompasses an estimated 45%

of all pinball machine sales in the last two decades.

Stern Pinball manufactures three to seven new titles

or themes of machines annually.

With each new line design,

they're using the newest technological advances

to incorporate new features and challenges.

In order for any of these things to work,

every component needs to be executed exactly as designed,

down to the smallest of holes

where the wires and parts will be attached.

Once a play field is dressed with its graphics,

additional holes are pressed where all the wires

and attachments will be connected.

-Ready to press?

- Let's press this guy. - Let's press this guy.

-Go for it.

-And then you have to remove it.

-Oh, but now I see these little tiny holes.

And that's the guide hole for different screws and?

-Yeah.

After the press,

we're going to have to drill every single one.

-The attention to detail has to now happen on both sides

for it to finally come together as a machine.

Once the connecting holes have been drilled

into the play field, it's moved here,

where the computer systems

and electronic wirings are attached.

I never in a million years thought this is

what the underside of a pinball machine looked like.

This complex entanglement of three to 500 wires

is hidden beneath the play field,

but so exact that game play can be seamless.

With 15 different themes in Stern's current lineup,

Javier and the assembly team are up against the demands

of cranking out thousands of machines per year

with exacting accuracy

so the player can focus on the challenges of the game

and scoring big.

Now that the play field has been confirmed

to operate as designed,

these pinball machines await the gleeful challengers

hoping for high scores.

Across 30 countries and in every American state,

there are reportedly some 6,000 tournament style

pinball competitions held every year.

Classic toys are the ones

that can withstand the test of time

and the rough and tumble of childhood's raucous good times.

And there's one classic toy

that has withstood 12 decades continuously,

taking a child's and adult's wonder to far off places.

Toy trains got their start in Europe in 1860,

but Lionel's realistic model trains caught the eyes of

consumers and set them apart from other toy train makers.

The original Lionel train was made to showcase batteries

in a window display, but it awed the public

and became the focus.

With the public demanding this new high tech train

for their homes,

the Lionel Manufacturing Company was founded

to meet the demand for this new toy.

-You think about controlling an electric toy train

in a home in 1900, when many homes didn't have electricity.

That was highly innovative.

The company experienced rapid growth

over the decades and by the 1950s,

Lionel was the largest toy train manufacturer in the world.

In subsequent decades,

with the rise of computers and video games,

Lionel is working to integrate today's technology

with their toy trains.

-One of the big things we've done is put Bluetooth

in every single locomotive.

So now you can run your locomotive with your phone.

-Go forward.

You're now playing the role of conductor.

All aboard.

All aboard.

As you're a child playing on the floor with your toy train,

you're not in the living room anymore.

You're climbing the mountains.

You're going into grand central station.

You're picking up people and dropping off freight.

-It's truly innovative

when you think about where this all started

back 120 years ago.

To this day,

there are still millions of train enthusiasts.

In fact, Neil Young is such a big fan of model trains

that he was once part owner of Lionel Trains.

And Rod Stewart's model train wouldn't fit

in most living rooms.

His set up includes

an elaborately designed 23 by 120 foot layout

that'll take you back to the 1940s cityscapes of Chicago

to New York.

Back at Stern,

I've been taken into a different world of play

with a different classic toy.

Now that we've seen a pinball machine come together,

it's time I step up to the play field

to see if I can meet the challenge.

In a competitive battle for the highest score,

who will reign supreme?

I, Adam Richman, or one Gary Stern,

owner of one of the most impactful pinball manufacturers

in the world?

-We're going to play for beer.

It'll be great.

I'm twice your age.

-And your name is on the machine.

This is your, you build them.

What are you saying, twice my age?

You're Gary Stern!

I mean, come on.

-Player one, you're up.

It says it right there.

-Yeah, just...

This is embarrassing.

In the last decade or so,

interest in pinball has skyrocketed.

And while Stern's ratio of personal sales

have reportedly increased from 35 to 60% over three years,

most buyers still prefer the coin operation feature anyway.

-Oh, I'm getting, I'm being hustled here.

In search of that authentic

and classic pinball experience.

-You're taking advantage of an old man.

Okay.

Now the pressure's on because I'm old and slow.

It's been a while since I've played this game, let's see.

Oh, I can't see a thing.

The force is strong with this one.

The key to pinball is

controlling the metal ball

that weighs almost half as much as a baseball

against a complex backdrop of obstacles.

-Oh, I didn't pay attention.

I almost missed that.

-Yeah, you didn't pay attention,

you only got a million points that ball.

But to master this craft

of juggling a chaotically careening ball is

to thoroughly enjoy the catching, the aiming,

the scoring, and ultimately the glory of endless fun.

Oh no, no!

Just passed me, I can't believe it.

Look at this score!

To play with this toy is to drift into nostalgia

that can only be created by classic toys.

Oh my God, it is as close as close can be.

I had 7.4 million, he had 7.7.

-Well, thank you very much for the game.

-Honestly, thank you.

-And the beer that I'm about to have.

-Yes, exactly.

If I'm going to be beaten by anybody,

let it be by one of the greats.

Much like these exquisite pinball machines themselves,

underneath the glittering, colorful, fantastical exterior

of any toy lays a whole lot of intricate technology,

incredible engineering, and a whole lot of hard work done

by a whole lot of hardworking people.

Like the toy engineers at Lionel Trains,

who are using the advancements of our generation

to take a 120 year old classic into the 21st century.

Or the collaborative teamup between BMC Toys

and Northeast Plastics,

who are finding new ways to adapt vintage mechanics

so that boys and girls alike can enjoy recreating

their own stories of heroism.

And like the makers of Slinky,

who are continually re-imagining a coil spring

to give it personality and life.

Sure, we all know the value of working hard

and handling our responsibilities,

but it's the stuff that makes us smile

that makes the living worthwhile.

So go out today, make some time to go play.

As for me, I'm going to go buy Gary a beer.