- Koosh ball
The Koosh ball is a
toy ball made ofrubber filaments attached to a soft core.The Koosh ball was developed in 1986 by Scott Stillinger to be easy for his daughter and son (5 and 8 years old respectively) to hold and throw. It was named after the sound it made when it landed. Stillinger started the
OddzOn Products Inc. company with his brother-in-law, Mark Button (who had previously been a marketing manager forMattel ), in 1987 in order to sell it. The Koosh ball was one of1988 's hotChristmas toys, appealing considerably to all ages. The company later expanded their product line to include 50 other Koosh-related products, including keyrings, baseball sets, and yo-yos. The number of Koosh Balls sold is estimated to be in the millions.The ball consists of approximately 2000 natural rubber filaments, and has been released in a variety of color combinations. A variation was the
Koosh Kins line of Koosh balls with cartooney faces and hands. Koosh Kins was made into a comic book mini-series byArchie Comics where they kept their cartoon-like appearance.Similar toys featuring lower-quality rubber filaments and much smaller sizes became a staple of arcade prizes and quarter machines.
The name "Koosh" also designates a game played using the Koosh ball and fabric rackets, the objective of which is to keep the ball airborne for as long as possible by passing it from person to person using the rackets.
In the late 1990s,
talk show hostRosie O'Donnell often threw Koosh balls into the audience and otherwise distributed them as gifts to audience members on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show ".Further reading
*"Boom time for toys predicted as the Koosh ball arrives". "Textline Multiple Source Collection (1981-1984)". January 30, 1989.
*"New toys not just for kids". "The Cleveland Plain Dealer". September 30, 1989.
*"Novelty rubber ball rises on list of top 20 toys". "Houston Chronicle". October 28, 1989.
*"What a Koosh Job. Strange ball bounces along the trend path." "Los Angeles Daily News". March 1, 1993.
*"OddzOn announces Koosh Vortex line expansions". "Playthings". February 1, 1994.
*"Toymaker parlays Koosh Ball into entire line of tactile toys." "The Pantagragh (Bloomington, IL)". June 17, 1995.
*"Firm selling 'WOW!' oddball toys generates profits". "The Cincinnati Post". June 17, 1995.
*Sara Rimer, "Putting a Smile on Sober Science." "The New York Times". May 13, 2004.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
