Children (And Adults) Still Sticking with Vinyl Colorforms® 60 Years On

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Dec. 13, 2011 – Sixty years ago, two art students dreamed up a way to stick thin pieces of colored vinyl on semi-gloss boards which would easily peel off for continual creative play.  Sixty years later, Colorforms® still entertains children of all ages.

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of Colorforms®, University Games, which now owns the brand, released a special edition of the original Colorforms® set, a spiral bound book of 350 geometric shapes in five colors, along with a reversible two-sided play board, a history of the game, and a certificate of authenticity.

Harry and Patricia Kislevitz, struggling New York City art students, found paint to be too expensive, and bought rolls of vinyl from a purse manufacturer.  Cutting the paper-thin material into various shapes, they discovered the pieces stuck to the semi-gloss paint on the walls of their bathroom.  Originally basic geometric shapes in bright primary colors were placed adjacent to or overlapped on other shapes to create an infinite number of images.  A rectangle and two circles make a car, a square and a triangle make a house. 

With the help of their friends and Harry’s father, a die-cutter, the couple produced and assembled the first kits themselves and shopped them around to retailers.  FAO Schwarz ordered 1,000 boxes, and before long the Kislevitzes opened a factory and began advertising.  Colorforms® was one of the first brands in the toy industry to be promoted in television commercials, using the slogan, “It’s More Fun To Play The Colorforms Way!”  These Colorforms® sets were sold with a shiny plastic laminated board that held the vinyl pieces in place by cohesion, as their molecules actually intermingle. 

Over the years, Colorforms® licensed cartoon characters including Popeye, Gumby, Mickey Mouse, and Peanuts; comic book superheroes Superman, Batman, The Incredible Hulk, and Spiderman; television programs The Addams Family, The Three Stooges, The Muppets, and Star Trek; musicians KISS and Michael Jackson; and Barbie, among many others.

Many of these sets were of a dress-up format, with human or animal figures and background scenes on the plastic board, and vinyl pieces of clothing, accessories, and other objects to select and apply to the board.  Over the years, the Colorforms® line has included games, puzzles, and interactive books.  
 
By 1991, Colorforms® had sold more than a billion sets, and in 2004, a collectible Beatles Colorforms® set sold for $520. 

University Games, which acquired the brand in 1998, promotes Colorforms® as “the same great fun, safe, creative, and imaginative play products you and your parents had fun with growing up.”
 
In on-line comments, parents raved about the nostalgic joy Colorforms® brought them, how the vinyl pieces are easy to pick up and put away since they stick to each other, and how it is “more educational than an Xbox game.”

In 2000, Colorforms® was selected by the Toy Industry Association as one of the Top 100 toys of the century, along with Monopoly, Crayola Crayons, Teddy Bears, Yo-Yos, the Magic 8-ball, and Frisbee.  Criteria for making the list included longevity in the market, introducing a new technology and play pattern, and sales and demand.

In 2011, Colorforms® was also named one of the top 100 toys of all time by TIME magazine.

Twenty-first century Colorforms® playsets are devoted to Spongebob Squarepants, Dora the Explorer, Fancy Nancy, and Backyardigans, among other characters.  Current Colorforms® sets can be ordered from toy stores or on-line, and are sometimes sold in gift shops of art museums. 

For more information about Colorforms®, go to www.colorforms.com and www.ugames.com/colorforms.

The Vinyl Institute represents the leading manufacturers involved in the production of PVC/vinyl resin in the United States, and promotes the value of PVC/vinyl products to society. 

For more information on The Vinyl Institute, contact:
Jeffrey B. Palmer
Director of Marketing & Communications
The Vinyl Institute
571-970-3327
jpalmer@vinylinfo.org

Also go to www.vinylindesign.com, www.achievegreen.net, and www.vinylinfo.org.