Pokémon Cards and the Slide Join the Toy Hall of Fame

The Pokémon Trading Card Game entered the National Toy Hall of Fame on Thursday, Nov. 5, alongside Care Bears, bingo and a familiar piece of playground equipment, the slide. The Strong National Museum of Play announced the four inductees in Rochester, New York, and said they are already on view there.

The result puts a collectible card game that debuted in 1996 in the same class as a playground staple with no brand, box or rulebook. The four came from 12 finalists. The list also included Tickle Me Elmo, a different 1996 phenomenon, and games as varied as Mahjong and Yahtzee. The Associated Press reported the results, and Buffalo Toronto Public Media covered the announcement and the museum displays.

What made Pokémon cards a Hall of Fame game?

The Pokémon Trading Card Game began in Japan in 1996, following the original Pokémon video games for the Nintendo Game Boy. The Strong's entry on the card game credits interest in the translated video games in the United States with helping to bring the tabletop game to American players. The museum highlights how people who knew Pokémon from games, animation or manga could recognize the characters before learning the card rules.

In a standard match, two players use 60-card decks. Pokémon cards supply the creatures that battle, Energy cards power their attacks, and Trainer cards let players take actions that change the course of the game. A ready-made deck gives a newcomer a way to start. Someone who keeps playing can build around a favorite Pokémon, decide which supporting cards it needs and make changes when a strategy falls short. Collectors, meanwhile, can pursue a favorite creature or illustrator without entering a match. Those different ways to participate help explain why the word “trading” in the name matters as much as “game.”

The scale is unusual. The Pokémon Company's published figures put cumulative production at more than 85 billion cards by the end of March 2026. That measures cards produced, so it includes ordinary game pieces as well as cards collectors seek out. It gives a better sense of the size of the hobby than the sale price of a single rare card.

The anniversary also shows how the company sells to longtime fans and first-time players. The 30th Celebration expansion, released Sept. 16, includes foil versions of 30 classic cards and 30 Pikachu cards by different illustrators. Each booster includes one of those Pikachu cards. The older designs can be collected again, though The Pokémon Company says the classic reprints in the set cannot be used in the current Standard format. It is possible to enjoy the history in a pack without those cards changing which decks people can bring to a Standard event.

Pokémon's path from video games to cards and animation is one route for characters to reach new audiences. Another is the transition from a mobile game to a series of family movies, as in NewsCubby's coverage of the third Angry Birds film.

How did the playground slide earn a place?

The museum's history of the slide follows the form from amusement parks to neighborhood playgrounds. At Coney Island in 1906, riders on the Helter-Skelter Slide could take an escalator to the top before sliding down to a mattress. The early 20th-century playground movement brought smaller versions to public spaces. By the 1920s, wood and galvanized steel slides were among the fixtures Americans could find at municipal playgrounds.

The design has changed as parks have changed. The Strong notes that some cities in the mid-20th century built elaborate playgrounds with space, animal or fantasy themes. A slide could be built into a piece of equipment that looked like something else. Later designs incorporated materials such as coated surfaces and molded plastic. Contemporary slides can be part of larger, modular play structures, though the basic experience of climbing up and coming down remains familiar.

The Strong singled out exploration and the physical skills children practice when they climb, balance and move through a space. Its exhibit offers small-scale examples of slides, as Buffalo Toronto Public Media showed in its coverage. The class honors a type of play equipment, much as the hall previously honored the swing, rather than singling out one company or one playground's design.

How did Care Bears move from greeting cards to television?

The bears originated as greeting-card characters in the early 1980s. The museum's Care Bears entry traces the project to American Greetings, Those Characters From Cleveland and Kenner. Designer Muriel Fahrion helped establish their look. She described drawing early bears while working at Those Characters From Cleveland and said the team's themes came from popular greeting cards. The artists and writers worked together on characters and their backstories. Fahrion's first-person biography and her Westword interview describe that work.

The pastel bears and their designs gave the franchise a visual shorthand for feelings. A character could stand for good cheer, grumpiness or sunshine, a premise a child could recognize on a card and then use to tell a story with a plush bear.

Between 1983 and 1988, the brand spread to plush toys, small figures, television specials, a series and movies, according to The Strong. That expansion gave the same characters different jobs. On a screen they were part of a scripted adventure. At home a child could decide who was friends with whom or act out how one bear might respond when another was upset. The museum points to those possibilities for imaginative play and expression as part of the franchise's appeal across generations.

The property changed hands in 2026. Authentic Brands Group announced in August that it had completed the acquisition of the Care Bears intellectual property. The company said it would pursue new products, content and experiences. The buyer's plans concern where the franchise goes next. The museum recognized what people have already done with the toys.

Where did American bingo come from?

The Strong's history of bingo traces the American game to a tradition of lottery games going back to Italy around 1530. Related games traveled across Europe and took different forms. In 1920s America, a version called beano was played at fairs and carnivals, where players placed dried beans on their cards. Toy merchandiser Edwin S. Lowe helped popularize the game under the name bingo. It spread in the United States by the 1940s and became a fixture at church and charity fundraisers.

In a familiar American version, a caller draws from 75 numbers and players mark matches on a five-by-five card. The center is a free space and a completed pattern can be a row, column or diagonal. Because everyone listens for the same calls, the game can accommodate a roomful of players without a complicated setup. The Strong also describes games in the same family that use images or words, including Mexico's lotería. In the United States, the museum has observed bingo finding new audiences in venues such as bars and nightclubs as well as in community halls.

How did the hall get from 12 finalists to four inductees?

Anyone can nominate a toy. The Strong accepts suggestions year-round, with a July 31 deadline for consideration in that year's class. An internal museum group reviews nominations for recognition, staying power, the ways a toy invites discovery and the effect an innovation had on play or design. It also considers the mix of finalists. The September shortlist announcement said the hall receives thousands of nominations annually.

The Player's Choice ballot ran Sept. 16–23. The three toys with the most public votes went onto a single ballot and joined the ranked submissions of the advisory committee. The Strong counted the public as one member of the 23-member body. It usually inducts three toys. Museum communications director Shane Rhinewald told Buffalo Toronto Public Media that there were enough favorites at the top this year to include four.

Bop It!, Mahjong, Monster High dolls, Mouse Trap, Polly Pocket, Sorry!, Tickle Me Elmo and Yahtzee were the other eight finalists. Some, like Mouse Trap and Bop It!, use physical actions as part of a game. Others, like Polly Pocket, offer a setting that a player can carry and use to make up a story. The mix gives the committee a different question for each candidate. A game that keeps its original players returning for decades makes a different case from a design that gives a generation a new way to play.

The 2026 class also shows the contrast between familiar characters and the way audiences use them. Pokémon and Care Bears connect play with recognizable fictional worlds. Bingo and the slide can work without characters at all. NewsCubby's coverage of Netflix's planned PUBG adaptation looks at what happens when a game known for how people play it becomes the basis of a scripted story.

What's next?

The Strong has placed all four inductees on view and scheduled a weekend celebration at the Rochester museum. Its programs on Saturday, Nov. 7, and Sunday, Nov. 8, run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern. The Sunday schedule includes hands-on activities tied to earlier inductees, including Lincoln Logs and slime. Visitors can also see how the museum presents a single playable object beside something as large and varied as a playground design.

For anyone thinking about what should join them, the Hall of Fame's nomination instructions explain how to enter a suggestion for a future class. A useful nomination can explain who played with the toy, what they did with it and why those ways of playing lasted. The new class offers four examples, from learning to build a 60-card deck to climbing the steps of a slide.

Photo credits

The photographs are archival and illustrative. The museum photos show The Strong in Rochester. The slide, number-draw cage and portraits provide context for the story. Adaptations of ShareAlike photographs carry the same licenses as the originals.

• The Strong's atrium at night, Rochester, 2019 (Short). Misc / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped and used with motion and text in the Short.
• Dave Howell at the 2022 Pokémon World Championships (Short). Pokemon World Champ / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped and used with motion and text overlays.
• Representative metal playground slide (article image, Short and all covers). Stilfehler / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped and used with motion and text in the Short and headline text and branding on the article and Short covers. Adapted image retains CC BY-SA 3.0.
• Early Care Bears designer Muriel Fahrion, 2019 (Short). MurielOK / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped and used with motion and text overlays.
• Number-draw cage at the Latchis Theatre, Vermont, 2026 (Short). Artaxerxes / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0, cropped and used with motion and text overlays.
• The Strong exterior, Rochester, 2019 (Short). Misc / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped and used with motion and text overlays.
• The Strong exterior, Rochester, 2013 (Short). Ruhrfisch / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped and used with motion and text overlays.
• Representative playground slide, 2006 (Short). Hyena / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain dedication, cropped and used with motion and text overlays.
• Fureai slide, Japan, August 7, 2009 (Short). Miyuki Meinaka / Wikimedia Commons / CC0 1.0, cropped and used with motion and text overlays.

*Article image: representative playground slide. Stilfehler / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped, headline added).*

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