December 17, 2017: Strong Museum Revisited

It's that most wonderful time of the year: Toy-industry research time! I'm headed out to New York for a visit to the Strong Museum, prepping for another deep dive into the museum's archive of Playthings magazine. This marks my second visit this year, and this time around, I'm narrowing my focus to search for retailer anecdotes and sales data on Kenner's Star Wars toys for the years 1978 through 1982. 

As a secondary target for this trip, I'll be collecting articles on the explosive growth of TSR's Dungeon & Dragons roleplaying game during that same period. Unlike the Star Wars research, which is destined to support the creation of my next book, the D&D information I collect has no specific purpose; I'm simply taking advantage of the opportunity to secure copies of articles about TSR and Dungeons & Dragons as a just-in-case. (Hey, you never know when that info will come in handy!)

If you live anywhere near the Strong Museum of Play, I recommend taking a day to enjoy the exhibits. And if you can't visit in person, there's always this recent Great Big Story video to give you a peek inside the museum's archives.

-- Phil Reed