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In November, the National Toy Hall of Fame announced three new inductees — the puppet, the Super Soaker squirt gun, and the game Twister.

"Twister... was notable for using people as the game pieces.  When Twister was new in the 1960s, Sears Roebuck refused to list it in its catalog — 'They said it was selling sex in a box — and without Sears, sales languished....  The company that made Twister, Milton Bradley, was set to discontinue it.  But that word did not reach Johnny Carson, who played Twister on The Tonight Show.  It looked as if he and the actress Eva Gabor were crawling all over each other.  The audience roared with laughter, and... Twister's sales took off the next morning.

"The Super Soaker took the wimpy squirt gun and gave it a boost of technology....  It was invented by a NASA aerospace engineer who was trying out a prototype cooling device in his bathtub at home.  He realized it might appeal to aspiring astronauts.  As with Twister, Mr. Carson figured in its success.  He aimed a Super Soaker at Ed McMahon on The Tonight Show in 1989.

"...Among the judges, the puppet was the big winner this year.  It was one of those 'why hasn't it happened before?'....  Jon Stewart, in a segment on The Daily Show in 2009, complained that not inducting the puppet sooner was like having a heat source hall of fame, and not inducting fire."

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