How Silly Putty went from an industrial accident to a billion dollar toy. The invention of a #1 toy.

Scott ToyGuru Neitllich discusses one of his favorite toys with a million uses: Silly Putty! The history of the amazing toy from World War 2 laboratory to countless rejections at New York Toy Fair is one of the most interesting of the toy industry. Comes with our highest possible recommendation!

[larryzeffert]

Silly putty implies the existence of serious putty. C4?

[nunyafawkingbiz]

You are giving those people the wrong names! This whole thing is completely incorrect! That is my family that you are lying on and I'll make sure to report this video for false information and comment until you fix it! Stop falsifying history and changing names! That is disgusting and Un American!

[SkeleVader]

Hey, Scott, this is really informative! FYI, that picture of inventor James Wright is actually the picture of the poet James Arlington Wright. I just did a bit of research and had a hard time finding a picture of the Scottish inventor James Gilbert Wright. It seems, however, that many people are using the poet's portrait to represent the inventor (uh oh).

[OxBigly]

Could you please make a video about toy companies "morality" when it comes to using slave labor and financially supporting communist china.

I am legitimately curious about this.

[korydoe]

Cool video, I played with silly putty and always wondered why in an egg? Now I know, thanks!

[stevebragg]

Absent Minded Professor with Flubber came to mind while watching this video.

[mrrandom]

USE THE CORRECT NAMES! THIS IS INCORRECT AND SICKENING TO CHANGE THE TRUE NAMES OF THE PEOPLE IN THE VIDEO!!!! FIX IT

[DanyTV]

Great story! A cool subject of a video could be Fisher Price story, specially in the 70s when they made things like The Muppets and Adventure People

[johnmorey]

This reminds me of the time I learned that silly putty breaks windows.
Back in college, I had a night class with Dr. Daniel Wong. Dr. Wong was an amazing man - knolwedgable, kind, but he had a thick accent and sing-songy voice and a timbre that sounded like a lullaby (he sounded a lot like the priest from Princess bride), so night classes with him knocked people out en masse. Eventually, several of us students brought silly putty or other things to stay active, which worked. At the end of the semester, a few students gave me their putty, and so I accumulated about five eggs' worth in one big lump.

At the beginning of the next schoolyear, a friend of mine helped me as I moved into my dorm room. I remember hanging something on the wall and turning to see this THING, this OBJECT just smash through the window - with no resistance, like a brick! Then I saw my friend, eyes wide.
"I thought it would bounce, " he said. "Or maybe stick to the window."

Silly Putty broke my window. Like a BRICK.

And then my new roommate walked in and met me - laughing about a broken window, muttering about silly putty. I tried to close the blinds over the breakage, but the blinds fell apart in my hand. I tried to stow the broken blinds rod in a drawer under the bed, but the drawer came apart.

Anyway, my friend went to maintenance to report the accident. Apparently the maintenance guy spat his coffee over the desk. I retrieved the putty from the ground outside and still own it to this day.

[nunyafawkingbiz]

You should know that the descendants of these people are still alive and well and I'll make sure to show them all how this video is trying to white wash and completely disregard the true history of silly putty!

[thesisypheanjournal]

One writer -- I forget now who it was -- visited the lab where Silly Putty was invented before it started being marketed. It was just a novelty. The scientist handed it to him and he played with it and found it fascinating and amusing. Then the scientist told him to throw it to the floor as hard as he could. The writer found this instruction bizarre, but the scientist kept telling him to do it so he finally did and was so surprised that it bounced that in his mind it was simultaneously splatted on the floor like any other putty while he was also seeing it bounce.

[rolandkatsuragi]

I used to see these at the endcaps of registers in grocery stores. I always wanted one but wasn't allowed because they were "messy."

[vermis]

2lb of sugar a month!? That's less than most people these days eat per week!

We probably had silly putty in the UK but I don't remember it. Apart from being 'that toy stuff that you hear about in american TV shows', the name makes me think of an old 90s computer game.

[scottmefford]

So, my long held belief was close. I'd heard that it was a failed attempt at creating plastique.

[nealh]

i like the Thinking putty. comes in weird colors and shiny. same stuff just more for thinking I guess?

[vengeance]

Scott, I am also from Connecticut! North Central CT here, what about you?

[nerdrock]

Is Silly Putty good for 'tightening' loose joints on action figures?

[johnbourgeois]

THIS VIDEO IS COMPLETELY INACCURATE AND THE SILLY PUTTY DESCENDENTS ARE NOT GOING TO BE PLEASED TO SEE THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS NAMES BEING INCORRECT

[geraldsyta]

Oh never heard of it

As a child of the 80s
...
Reminded me of play doh

[lt.danicecream]

Newspaper comics and silly putty, good fun