All language subtitles for Modern.Marvels.S21E14.Top.Toys.and.Games.1080p.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H264-BTN_track3_[eng]

- Today, I'm an East
Longmeadow, Massachusetts

in the Cartamundi factory.

Now you may not
have heard of them

but I can guarantee you heard
of what they make right here.

One of the top
games of all time,

played by more than
a billion people.

It's a little game from
Hasbro that you might know,

called Monopoly.

Some of our top toys and games
have endured for generations,

centuries even millennia
and the business

of play earns some
serious money.

The global market for
toys and games is more

than $92 billion a year

and that's not Monopoly money,
that's the real thing.

I want to know how
this industry continues

to sell our favorite
top toys and games

while innovating and
creating completely

new ones every year.

How does Hot Wheels design
the 130 new car models

introduced every year?

And how is Mattel
using cutting edge tech

to bring He-Man to a
new generation of fans?

So the spinners landed on me

and it is my turn to
find out, game on.

This is Modern Marvels,
Top Toys and Games.

[upbeat music]

Hasbro was founded in
1923 with three brothers

with the last name of
Hassenfeld, hence, Hasbro.

Who in the beginning,

their fledging Rhode Island
company made ends meet

by selling textile remnants,
pencil cases, school supplies,

eventually they branched out
to include paint, crayons,

even toy doctors kits for
little boys and girls.

Today, Hasbro is one the
largest toy manufacturers

in the world with annual
revenue in the neighborhood

of five billion Dollars and one

of their all time
best selling items,

the classic beloved
board game, Monopoly.

It's as popular as it ever was.

It's available in 114 countries

and it's been translated
into 47 languages.

To keep up with that massive
demand, Hasbro partnered

with Cartamundi,
an established card

and board game company with
roots going back to 1765.

Today, Cartamundi is one

of the largest board
game manufacturers

in the entire country.

We're going to tour their 1.2
million square foot facility

where 400 workers create

two million monopoly games
a year and so much more.

I'm gonna meet plant manager,
Gary Brennan to find out

what has kept Hasbro
and Cartamundi winning

all these years and hopefully,
pass go and collect my $200.

I call dibs on the race car.

- [Adam] Just walking through
here, the variety

of how many games that are

in this very building,
it blows my mind.

- We make over 200 items,

but we're usually focusing
on about 20 at any one time.

Items like Monopoly,
Scrabble, Yahtzee,

Sorry!

Trouble, items that
we all grew up with.

I don't think there's
any household in America

that isn't familiar with some

of the products that
run through here.

- What is the number one seller?

- [Gary] Monopoly
and or Connect 4.

It's a race every year.

- No kidding and
how many games roll

off the line here at
Cartamundi everyday?

- At peak period, we'll
make a million games a week.

- And it all starts right here?

- Yes it does.

- Will you take me through
the making of Monopoly?

- It would be my pleasure.

- Everyone knows this game
is all about making money

and these bills get
shuffled, traded,

held and spent for hours.

So they have to made from
the best quality paper

and printed with a very
detailed printing process

in order to withstand
years of wear and tear.

I'm meeting with Jim Hare,
the technical manager

of printing at
Cartamundi, who is going

to show me how they print
half a billion Dollars worth

of Monopoly money every week.

Jim, how are you, sir?

- How are you?

- I'm excellent, so tell
me what's going on here?

- So this is the unit,

this is where actually the
ink goes into the press,

up here, ink fountain,
holds a reservoir of ink,

ink ball, see it spinning
around, conductors coming up,

taking ink off, going into a
series of rollers on the front,

the white looking
thing is the plate,

that has an image
burned into it,

where the image,
we'll take the ink,

where there's no image,
it takes on water.

- [Adam] Jim explains to me

that each aluminum
printing plate they use

has an etched image
of monopoly money.

When they run the plate
through the machine,

water is attracted to
all the blank areas.

Ink is attracted only
to the etched surface.

So when the plate
rolls onto the paper,

only the etched images of
Monopoly bills are printed.

- This is a cutting unit
and you can hear it.

- That's the sound
of the blade cutting?

- Every 28 inches it
is cutting the sheet.

- When the money's
being fed that fast,

how do you know that
it's being cut precisely

and not cutting in the
middle of one of the bills?

- So we have an
inspection area here.

To get a sheet up, we'll
hit this button right here.

- Okay.

- Set comes up, you take that
sheet, go ahead and grab it.

Yeah, bring it
over to the table.

- These cut marks make sure

that all the Monopoly money
is the exact right size

so that when you hold all that
Monopoly dough in your hand,

it all matches perfectly and

when you're printing half
a billion Dollars a week

in Monopoly money,

you can't afford
to make mistakes.

Next, Tim Stowers
is gonna show me

how they cut these sheets of
Monopoly money into bills.

How are you sir?

Pleasure to meet you.

- Pleasure to meet you.

- [Adam] Tim says he cuts
18 to 19,000 bundles

of Monopoly money a day
but he's not doing all

of those one at a time.

All right, will you
show me how that's done?

- All right, we bring
it right over here.

- Wait a minute, wait a minute,

how the hell did you move
that stack with two fingers?

- Gee, must be that
air table, huh?

- [Adam] Air table?

- [Tim] Yes.

- Wait a minute.

That's got balls on it.

- Yes, balls with
pressure underneath them,

it's like in the old days, if
you've ever played air hockey.

- Air hockey!

- Same thing.

- Similar to the way
an air hockey table

makes the puck glide
above the surface,

this table is covered with
hundreds of rubber balls.

When weight presses
down on them,

it releases tiny jets of air

that makes moving heavy
stacks of paper effortless.

Can I try?

- Sure.

- That is crazy.

Look at that.

It's a little bit
like air hockey.

That is insane.

Sometimes it's the simple things
that could be the most fun.

In fact, some of the
most memorable toys

had the most simple origins.

Like in the case of
one, Potato Head.

In 1952, Hasbro revolutionized
the toy industry

with that very special spud,

Mr. Potato Head.

It has sold more than
100 million units

in over 30 countries.

The toy was the brainchild of
the inventor, George Lerner.

In 1949, Lerner created toys

by taking small
plastic body parts

with prongs and sticking them

into actual potatoes
and other vegetables.

The first kits came
with a styrofoam head

but suggested kids use
their own potato torso.

Potato Head toys
flew off the shelves,

raking in four million Dollars
in the first few months.

In the year after its debut,

Mrs. Potato Head was introduced

and a whole potato
family would follow,

with Brother Spud
and Sister Yam.

All right, so we
slide these things

on down effortlessly
with the air table,

they go into the cutter,
what's the next step?

- Okay, make sure it's square.

We got about a 1,000
isobars of pressure.

- One isobar represents the
weight of the atmosphere

or the weight of gravity a
person would feel standing

on the surface of the Earth.

Multiply that
pressure by a 1,000

and you'd have the
amount of force

that this blade is using
on these stacks of money.

That stack is solid paper,

about six and a half
inches thick and it's going

through it like a hot
knife through butter.

So it's moving forward for
the length of each bill.

- Correct.

- Does it give you a warning,

like is there a
noise or something?

- That's what I go
by, I go by sound.

- [Adam] When Tim is done,
each one of these thick stacks

of paper will become 1.3
million Dollars worth

of Monopoly money.

That's enough money to
fill almost 65 games.

Tim, thank you for your time.

- Yes.

- Onward we go.

- [Adam] When people talk
about their favorite toy cars,

there is one brand that is
always at the top of that list.

With over 20,000
different variations

and more than 6
billion produced,

one of the top toys of
all time are die-cast cars

that look and race
like the real thing,

I'm talking about Hot Wheels,
invented by Mattel in 1968

and to see how they've
maintained their top toy status

for 53 years,

we're getting an inside look

to see how they're
designed at Mattel.

[gentle upbeat music]

- I'm the design director for
Hot Wheels die-cast vehicles

and we're here at the
Mattel Design Center.

This is where the magic happens.

These are toys that are
first and foremost designed

to appeal to kids
but at the same time,

it's got a appeal
to adults as well

because we have a huge
adult fan base and

when we were able to do
is because many of us,

myself included, actually
come from the auto industry,

so we're not just toy
designers, you know,

coming up with fun toys,

we're also car designers
creating really cool aesthetics

that we know are gonna appeal
to both a kid and the adult.

For a Hot Wheels basic car,

it takes basically 18
months from start to finish.

It's a lot of fun.

- [Adam] Mattel designs
over 130 brand new cars

every year and

that process starts
as a 2D concept

or a sketch from a designer.

In the past, someone
would carve the concept

into a clay prototype but today,

it goes from 2D to
a digital 3D model

but to give the designers
something they could touch

and feel and inspect,
this 3D image

becomes a tangible object in
the Mattel 3D printing lab.

- [Man] Right now our PolyJet
3D printer is printing

various Hot Wheels cars,
the different colors,

it uses quite a few different
resin materials instead

of just inks to give us the
highest quality prototype.

Here we just scrape
our PolyJet card off.

- [Adam] When the prototypes
come off the 3D printer,

they have to be cleaned
from all the excess resin,

so that the designers can
inspect them and make sure

that the cars look just
the way they planned.

When the founder of Mattel
invented Hot Wheels,

he hired a rocket scientist

to make sure that
these cars could race

and perform the
way a car should.

This performance is
one of the reasons

why Hot Wheels are
still so popular,

so each model has to be
able to do the things

that a kid wants them
to do on the track,

like the loop, the corner
booster and the power launcher.

- And then the last thing
is the gravity drop.

This is a test that
we have a lot of fun

with internally, we do our
own internal competition.

It needs to be able to
roll at least 25 feet,

if it doesn't, it doesn't
pass and we'll go back

to the drawing
board and make sure

that we get
everything just right.

All right, three, two, one, go.

Oh yeah, that's good.

- [Adam] One reason why
Hot Wheels still attracts

as many adults as they
do kids is because

of their Garage of
Legends which are cars

that were so popular as toys,

they made them into actual cars.

- All right, well, here we are.

This is the Hot Wheels
Garage of Legends.

As you can see around me,

a bunch of really
cool life-size cars.

So the first Hot Wheels
car every produced

was actually this
Camaro right here,

this is the 1967 Camaro,

so we got this one for
the kid and of course,

the big one here for mom or dad,

the Hot Wheels fan
that never grew up.

- [Adam] Hot Wheels
aren't the only top toy

that you can hold in your hand,

one of the top toys of
all time comes in a form

of a puzzle cube with more

than 43 quintillion
possible combinations.

- Rubik's Cube was
developed in 1974

by a guy in Hungary
named ErnQ Rubik,

he was a professor looking

for a way to teach
spacial relationships

and spacial modeling
to his students.

- [Adam] The US, the name
was changed to Rubik's Cube

and it was an instant hit.

Within the first three years
after its release here,

it sold 100 million
units around the world.

- And if doing it with your
hands wasn't difficult enough,

there was actually
a guy by the name

of Jakub Kipa from Poland
who solved it with his feet.

- There are also some people

who can solve a Rubik's Cube
blind folded within 17 seconds.

The Rubik's Cube
remains popular today

with speed cubing
tournaments being held

around the world and
people being able

to solve the cube in
under four seconds.

Our top toys and games
are ones that we love

at first sight and
have an iconic look

that we've come to love
over years of playing.

Here at Cartamundi,

they make almost 44
million games a year.

When you see one of
these games at the store

or in your closet,
it's the iconic look

that makes you want to play.

I'm going to see how this
world famous game gives

that signature look
that makes you

want to pass go and
collect your $200.

How many games does
this represent?

- This is gonna be
about 10,000 games.

- 10,000 games.

And how long will
it take the factory

to produce 10,000 games?

- [Gary] We'll run these off
at better than 2,000 an hour.

- [Adam] Oh my gosh.

- Monopoly is a global brand,

there's 147 countries,
14 different languages,

it is critical to the
customer that the colors

that are seen in the
United States match up

with colors that
might be printed

all throughout the world.

- [Adam] Jim, the printing
manager is going to walk me

through the process of getting
all these colors just right.

Oh my God, that's terrifying.

So this massive thing
is a giant printer?

All of this?

- [Jim] Correct,
all 125 feet of it.

- This looks like if a tractor
and a printer had a baby,

it's something that's pretty
intimidating to stand near,

this looks like
it would kill you.

Tell me first of all,

how many sheets get loaded on
average for the typical run?

Or does it depend?

- This type of material, we
normally run 80,000 a shift.

- That is amazing.

- Let me take you
through the press.

- Please.

Your standard desktop printer

at home prints all four
colors at the same time,

but Jim explains that here,

each sheet goes through
a separate printer unit

for each color.

The first pass prints
the black ink, then,

they print cyan or blue
right on top of it,

then magenta or
pink on top of that,

then yellow and finally,
the unique pantone,

345 Monopoly green.

- So we combined all that,

this is what we get
for our end result.

- Look how beautiful that is.

- What we have is crosshairs,
we use a magnifying glass

called a loupe, we put
all that crosshair exactly

on top of each other.

So you've got all five
colors right there.

When it looks like one
black, you're doing good.

But all five are right
on top of each other.

- [Adam] Each time a color
is printed onto the pink,

it prints eight tiny crosshair,

if all of the ink levels
are properly aligned,

the crosshair will
look black

and have clear,
straight edges.

If any of the
colors are off,

the crosshairs will
look blurry

or tinted with a
certain color.

So, you want it to look
like black and clean.

- Correct.

So we went through
the top press,

the middle picture is
what we're printing.

That's a live camera,
it's taking shots

as the sheets are going through.

- Wait a minute, that's
not a stopped image?

- No.

- That's actually something-

- That's actually moving.

- [Adam] So it's like an
ultra high speed camera.

- Exactly.

- Can you show me how
this beauty works?

- Right this way.

What we have up is the camera,

shooting through the
catwalk in the floor.

That's actual taking a picture

of every sheet as
it's running by.

- That camera is
shooting through a slit

that's barely an
inch an a half wide

and getting a full image?

- [Jim] Absolutely.

- [Adam] At that rate?

- [Jim] At that rate.

- Now something tells me,

that a printer card on
something like these,

it's not like
Hewlett-Packard at home.

- No, we have eight
pounds cartridges of ink.

- Oh my God.

- It's going back and forth
scanning the ink fountain.

- Oh, look, look, look.

- [Jim] Yep, there is goes.

- A big bloop
about the size

of like a Hershey kiss
just dropped right

on to the roller.

This looks like the coolest
queso fountain ever.

It's just like, if
NASA made a printer,

this would be it, I'm gonna
let you get back to it.

Let's go check out the
rest of the process.

Games like Monopoly are top toys

because they inspire
the imagination

of the would-be entrepreneur

but other top toys open
worlds of adventure.

- [Spokesman] Only G.I. Joe

is G.I. Joe.

- [Adam] Possibly in
response to Mattel's Barbie,

Hasbro introduced
G.I. Joe in 1964

as the worlds
first action figure

and it became an instant hit.

Within two years, G.I.
Joe figures made up 66%

of Hasbro's profits.

- [Adam] The first figures
were 12 inches tall

and reportedly,

Hasbro sales team was prohibited
from using the term doll.

Worrying that boys wouldn't
want to play with it,

so they coined the
term, action figure.

And G.I. Joe blazed a
trail for generations

of action figures to follow
but ultimately in 1978,

G.I. Joe was taken
off the market.

Then in the early 80s

with the success
of similar toys,

like the Kenner
Star Wars figures,

a smaller version of G.I.
Joe was brought back.

In the first year back,

the new G.I. Joe made more
than 50 million Dollars.

G.I. Joe has remained in
the zeitgeist ever since.

[children laughing]

- [Adam] The action figure
toy market

is a 1.6 billion
dollar industry

and with G.I. Joe
blazing the trail,

action figures have been
one of the top selling toys

for decades.

And in 1982 here at Mattel,

they created a classic
series that sold

over two billion Dollars
worth of action figures,

He-Man and the Masters
of the Universe.

This series that
some say was based

on Conan the Barbarian
warded over 20%

of the action figure
market in the early 80s.

- At the time, there
was nothing else

like Masters on the market.

These were figures that were

of a totally different size

and scale than
kids were used to,

they were these beefy,

chunky five and a half inch
characters that were muscular.

They were heroic and
this was at a time

when the biggest players in
the game would have been Hasbro

with their G.I. Joe
line and of course,

Kenner with Star Wars and
those were 3.75 inch figures

that had a much thinner frame.

- [Adam] But there was something
extra special about He-Man

and the Masters of the
Universe that made it

so powerful for kids and kids

were apart of how it all began.

- Kids actually drove the
I have the power classic

He-Man statement
when he transforms,

some years ago in
a testing session

in a consumer panel with kids,

kids kept talking about power,

they kept talking
about the weaponry

and they helped create the
expression, I have the power,

which has now transcended

Masters of the Universe and has

become a pop culture
iconic statement.

- They had five years of glory,
82 to 87 was just massive.

They ended up selling
$400 million worth

of Masters of the Universe toys

in 1986 and then selling
7 million in 1987.

It crashed spectacularly.

- [Adam] But true
top toys never die.

Starting in 2021, He-Man is
back in a huge muscular way

with a new Netflix series
and an all new line

of action figures designed
right here at Mattel

and we get to see how
they design this top toy.

- I design the action
figure and see it

through the process from
concept into final production.

Back in the day, the vintage
figure only had six points

of articulation and
what we're doing now

is modernizing it with
being a bigger scale,

more detail, more articulation,

about 30 points of articulation.

First we start by getting
the animation reference

from the Netflix animation.

We start off with a drawing,

in this case, He-Man,

you need to
translate this 2D art

into a 3D action
figure and then we have

to make a sheet
outlining what comes

with the figure,
what are the specs,

the sizes and what we want
as far as articulation.

- [Adam] Next, it goes
to the 3D animation team.

- Here in the
sculpting department,

we get the designs from our
designer and we bring it

in a computer and we just
start using the reference

that they give us and we
use this special device

called geomagic touch

and using this it's
just like a pen,

but in 3D, we can
move it around.

It's just like
sculpting with hand

but we just do it on
the computer instead.

It's sort of like a
really high-tech mouse,

stylus and when I'm touching
the piece in the computer,

I can actually feel it.

It gives me forced
feedback sort of like,

you know, your game
controller when you get shot,

you can feel that little rumble.

So this kind of gives
me that feedback

so I can feel it
as I'm sculpting.

So it kind of mimics that
hand sculpting motion

that you can't really
get with a mouse.

So here we have Skeletor

which is He-Man's main
nemesis and I can come in here

with a tool and manipulate
his face a little bit.

Let's give him a nose.

There's a rough
nose on Skeletor.

He doesn't look as evil.

Interesting.

I've never seen him
with a nose before.

With this program, if
designers can dream it,

we can pretty much make it.

- [Adam] After this,
it's off to 3D printing.

[gentle upbeat music]

- Today we are printing
a couple of Master

of the Universe figures, we
have a He-Man and a Skeletor.

- [Adam] Here at Mattel's
3D printing room,

they use a
stereolithography 3D printer

which fires a laser
into liquid resin

curing it almost instantly.

The tray lowers itself
by very small increments

until each layer of
the model is completed.

Then, after a quick power wash,

they hand them back to the
design team for review.

- Here we have the final He-Man
and Skeletor action figures,

looking at all the
pieces I can remember

all the functionality
that I specified

on the figure and I think
it turned out pretty good.

And I think kids are gonna have
fun playing with this

[making fighting sounds]
Chu, chu, chu...

and adults as well.

[upbeat music]

- [Adam] There are so many
top games

made right here at Cartamundi,

but I'm taking a break
from Monopoly to see

how they make the
board of another game

that families were playing
even before Monopoly,

it's a game based on the Indian
crosses and circles game,

Parcheesi

but you know it as Sorry!

So break down the
process for me,

what happens along the line?

- The machine has a divider
that separates two panels.

The two panels get
fed into the wheel,

so you have one,
two, three stations

that fold all four sides.

- Leo explains that
the process starts

with chip board, they'll
take some Sorry! game sheets

hot off the printer and glue it

onto the chipboard, then it
gets cut, scored and folded.

What is this?

- That's glue.

- You said this is the glue?

- Yes.

I've got a tank
on the other side

that'll actually melt
it as it's needed.

- So this is how it's
loaded, just like this?

- Yeah.

- Or do you load
it piece by piece?

- [Leo] No, no, you put
the whole thing in there.

- It smells like grade school.

- [Leo] Does it?

- This glue has to be heated

to just the right
temperature and spread

over the boards at the same rate

that they're flying
through the machine,

it's a finely
orchestrated ballet.

Is it that roller
that puts the glue?

- Yeah, this machine is
being fed from the bottom.

- [Adam] Okay.

- [Leo] So it's picking up
your labels from the bottom,

throwing that right
on to the glue roll.

- It goes against
the whole glue roll.

- Yes, glue roll and
then it's separated back

to the drum and that's
how you get your label

onto the board and your
backing onto the board.

- Now, what happens there?

That machine is punching
down, what does that do?

- That's your
die cutter.

On one side, it cuts through

and the other side is
scored only halfway.

- Ah, so it makes
this cut and then-

- Score is only half a cut

and then it goes
through the folder.

- [Adam] All right, so
it folds length wise-

- [Leo] Yeah, over the
side and then it goes

into a stacker and the stacker
counts 10 boards in a pile.

- [Adam] How many to a pallet?

- [Leo] 2,400.

- And that represents
only about a 10th of

what you're gonna put out today.

- [Leo] Yes.

- My God.

The technology of
these machines is

what allows the people
at Cartamundi to keep up

with the constant demand
of the worlds most sought

after games and the numbers
they put out are just staggering

but they wouldn't
be able to meet the demand

if it wasn't for some
pretty amazing machines

and the incredible
people who run them.

Will this machine run
Sorry! boards the whole day?

- Make Sorry!, Clue,

Candy Land, Shoots and Ladders,

we change it to different
sizes, Risk.

- Right here.

- Huge board.

- And they go through
the same cutter.

- Same cutter, yes.

- There's a lot of
moving parts here,

a lot of things could go wrong,

I want him to pay attention, so-

- [indistinct]

- I'm gonna give you some love,

I'm gonna pat the glue,

I'm gonna go down and check
out the rest of this machine.

Monopoly is one of the top games

of chance and
strategy and it begins

with the roll of the dice
but the dice were around far

before this iconic
game was dreamt up.

In fact, dice are among the
oldest known gaming tools.

In what's now
south eastern Iran,

they found a set of dice
that dates back 3,000 years.

The earliest known
boardgames are even older.

The Egyptians played
boardgames 5,000 years ago,

we don't know exactly what
the rules of those games were,

but other games
from ancient times

are still played today and
those include chess and Go.

Go, is possibly the
worlds oldest board game

still played in
its original form.

Thought to have originated

at least 2,500 to 4,000
years ago in China.

Some ancient board games
aren't exactly the same

as their modern version,
the earliest forms

of chess were invented in
India in the six century

and one specific military
war game called Chaturanga

was probably the one

that most closely
resembles modern day chess.

- Our brains need to
be reactivated in a way

that chess allows you
to activate your brain

so that we are able

to problem solve the new
problems that we are facing.

We don't have all the
algorithms and chess allows us

to strategize and
figure things out.

- [Adam] Some of these games
have been around for 1,000s

of years and perhaps
humans will be playing them

for 1,000s of years to come.

Some of our top toys and games
are quite simple to design.

What could be more basic

than a box with a 25 watt bulb

and some colorful plastic pegs?

More than half a century
after it was invented,

Lite-Brite remains one

of the most remembered
and most loved toy.

Lite-Brite was conceived
in 1966 when executives

of a toy company were
walking down 5th Avenue

in New York City and
stopped to marvel

at a window display made
of 100s of colorful lights.

They set out to develop a
toy that would allow children

to create their own
designs using lights

but instead of 100s of
lights, their concept

included a light box with
a single low watt bulb

with colorful plastic
pegs that could

be punched through a piece
of black opaque paper.

The prototype was pitched to
Hasbro who signed the deal

within an hour, the first
Lite-Brite sets hit the shelves

in 1967 with 400 plastic
pegs and a variety of colors.

The first sets were nine
inches wide and 12 inches high

and came with templates
for things like a boat,

a train and animals.

Later, came numbers,
letters, cartoon characters

but the real appeal
was the ability

to unleash the imagination

and create almost any picture

with light and 54 years
after the first Lite-Brite

sets hit the shelves,
this nostalgic classic

is still loved today

and sometimes bigger
is definitely better,

like gigantic light boards
that fill kids and adults

alike with wonder and artists

who use the same
basic technology

to create amazing works of art.

Playing Monopoly
is not all chance,

players have to plot
and plan to win

and games of strategy
can take the shape

of different kinds of contests.

Whether it's a battle
on the high seas,

solving a murder mystery

or even plotting for
world domination.

In the early 1950s,

the famous French film
director Albert Lamorisse,

invented a board game called

La Conquete du Mond.

Which translates to
Conquest of the World

and the game was introduced
to the US in 1959

but it went by a different name.

Risk.

More than 100,000 units of the
game sold in its first year.

Another game of
strategy that centers

on warfare has origins
that are less clear.

It's been said that
Battleship was invented early

in the 20th century
enjoyed by soldiers

of World War One and
played with pen and paper.

Today, between video game
apps and electronic versions

of the Milton Bradley game,

they've sold over
100 million units.

And strategy games
aren't set entirely

within military context,

one of the most well-known
games of strategy may be Clue.

The game was released
in 1949 and was invented

by musician and crime
aficionado, Anthony Pratt.

Some estimates say
there have been

over 150 million
games of Clue sold.

Whether you're trying

to figure out if it
was Colonel Mustard

with a candlestick
in the library or

how to conquer the world,
the appeal of the contest

of strategy will always
be among our top games.

One of the top toys for the
past 60 years has sold more

than 175 million units and comes

with two little white
knobs, no batteries needed.

For the past six
decades, 100s of version

of Etch A Sketch have
been brought to market.

Not only is there money to be
made in selling Etch A Sketch

but also in using it.

- I am an Etch A Sketch artist,

my art work sells for
between 100 and up

to $5,000 for an
original rendition.

So I spend full-time
Etch A Sketching now.

I can't believe it, five years.

Growing up, I had no idea

that I could ever
make a business out

of drawing on a Etch A
Sketch of all things,

if I had to guess just

how many hours I've logged
into an Etch A Sketch,

it's been over 25 years of
me actively using the toy so,

I've done that 10,000 hours

to become a master
at this point.

My Etch A Sketch
portraiture can take up

to 15 to 20 hours for
the most detailed work.

So today for this drawing,

we're actually going to use
the Pocket Etch A Sketch,

creating an Etch A
Sketch rendition

is a multi-step process.

First I am provided
with a reference photo

from the client as a one-to-one
scale reference photo

to the size of the
Etch A Sketch screen.

That helps me to figure out

the portions on
the Etch A Sketch

and I'm also going to
use a larger version

of the photo so that
I can pay attention

to more intricate details
that may not show up

in the one-to-one
scale reference photo.

Etch A Sketch is a
unique artistic medium.

The drawing is comprised
of one continuous line,

it is an extremely
unforgiving medium.

So you have to be
really confident

and commit entirely to the
line that you're drawing.

I wanna get to the
facial details first

because if I make a mistake,
I wanna make it early.

That's always a big
bummer if you spent all

of this time creating
something and then realize

at the very end that
oops, you've flubbed.

And I have to turn both
knobs simultaneously,

that allows me to accomplish
curves and diagonals.

Etch A Sketch is
inherently a nostalgic toy

so it lends really well

to recreating
famous masterpieces

'cause it's almost like
an irreverent art form

but I'm still revering
the work, it's just in a,

more of a low brow sense maybe.

And here we are.

Viola.

I'm one of the top Etch A
Sketch artists in the US,

it has opened the most
incredible doors to me,

I travel the world all thanks
to this magical little toy.

- [Adam] We all have our
favorite top toys and games,

playing with them
is the perfect way

to relive our favorite
childhood memories

and build new ones with
those we love and many

of those favorite
memories come packaged

in a brightly colored box
made and assembled right here

at Cartamundi in East
Longmeadow, Massachusets.

We've seen how the money,
the boards and the boxes

of Monopoly are made,
now, we get to see

how it all comes
together so that

when we open up
our favorite game,

it all looks exactly
like we remember it.

- This is the final
assembly area.

This is where it
all comes together.

- So before the
customer opens it,

this is the last
step that happens>

- That's exactly right,
the machine right here

is making a box cover

and the machine right here
is making the box bottom.

The box will be
offloaded onto a conveyor

which starts the
assembly process

and then the parts will travel

all the way down the
line and eventually go

up our spiral conveyor and right

into the finished [indistinct].

- Monopoly, the cards,
the money, the rules,

all have to get in and be in
very specific areas of the box?

- Correct.

- I have to see this.

We've seen the machines make
the boxes, let's go fill them!

- Let's go.

Oh yeah, I'll pass and go.

I'm collecting $200,

I'm getting out of jail for free

and I'm building a
hotel on Baltic.

The attention to detail
from all the folks

at Cartamundi all
comes down to this.

Packaging it into
that classic box

that we all know and love.

I'm just astonished.

After seeing the efficiency
of those machines,

to then just see people
being as efficient

as the machines are.

- Let me introduce
you to one of them.

Hi, Laura.

I wanna introduce
you to Adam Richman.

- How are you doing?

I'm sorry to interrupt you.

- Nice to meet you.

- Good to meet you too.

So how long have you been here?

- 42 years.

- [Adam] 42?

- Yes!

- Four decades, so what
is it about this place

that's made you stay so long?

- Oh I love the games-

- What's your favorite game?

- I love Monopoly because
my grandson love to play it.

- When someone opens a Monopoly
box that you've worked on,

what do you hope they feel
when they take it home?

- Good!

I hope they feel, I want
them to feel wonderful.

That I did that, that
I made somebody happy.

- You guys are like
ninjas, is there a trick

to being as efficient as that?

- You know, once you
get in the groove

and the rhythm of it,
it's a piece of cake.

Do you wanna try putting one in?

- Yeah, I'll try, I'll try.

So I'll go here, I'll go here.

- Yeah, can put one in.

- Yes ma'am.

- Just put it in there.

- Does it-

- Yeah, just sit it down.

- All right, we'll
partner, we'll partner.

- Yeah, [indistinct], I'm gonna
give you a million Dollars.

- Yeah, there we go, wait, wait.

I'm gonna make it rain,

I'm gonna make it
rain, make it rain.

You know what?

I would stay here for 42 years

if they tell me I'm working
with you, you're awesome.

- Oh, thank you, thank you.
You're awesome too.

- Of course, I mean it, thank
you, keep up the good work.

Be it that you've been
here for 42 years,

I've probably been the
recipient of your hard work.

So thank you so much.

- Thank you, thank you-

-You're a rock star,
I'll see you.

The famous author,
Roald Dahl, once said,

life is more fun
if you play games.

Well he also wrote a book
about a very lucky boy

who got to tour a
chocolate factory.

Now, while this incredible
facility doesn't make chocolate,

it makes something else
equally sweet and wonderful,

memories, laughter,
joy, nostalgia,

that's the magic
of games and toys.

They bring us together and
they make life worth living

and so the next time you open
up a Monopoly game printed

by someone like Jim,
unfold the game board made

by someone like Leo or his
wonderful team or unbox a toy

or action figure made by
the good folks at Mattel,

you'll realize that a lot of
very good people spent a lot

of hours at work so that we
can spend hours of playing.

Any night can be a game
night, so go ahead,

pull that old box of
joy out of that closet,

put the phones away, clear
off the living room table,

call over your friends and
your family and indulge

in your favorite games and toys.

The magic, the madness and
the Modern Marvel of it all.

See you next time.

[gentle upbeat music]