Ideal touted its new game Toss Across in its 1967 catalog: "Everybody loves it — ...young and old, at parties, on the beach, anywhere!" — Photo courtesy of Tim Walsh
Toss Across
Debut: 1969
Inventors: Norman McFarland, Burt Meyer
Companies: Ideal, Tyco, Mattel
Object of the game: Like its predecessor tic-tac-toe, the object of Toss Across is to be the first player or team to line up three matching symbols in a row. This version of the game, however, requires players to toss beanbags in hopes of spinning the targets to either an X or an O.
History: Marvin Glass & Associates worked with Norman McFarland, a professor of design at the University of Illinois, to create this updated version of tic-tac-toe, which involves a combination of skill and luck. To avoid the dreaded deadlock that often occurs with the original game, the company made its version three-dimensional and allowed a player to erase the X his opponent just won or turn it into the O he needs to win. Marvin Glass & Associates sold it to the now defunct Ideal Toy Company.
Updated version: An electronic version of Toss Across includes lights and sounds.
Trivia: The Ideal Toy Company got its start in 1903 and was the first teddy bear manufacturing company in the United States.
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