Inventor: Helen H. Malsed
Patent number: D179949
Filing date: Feb 28, 1956
Issue date: Mar 1957
Slinky week draws to a close with the classic Slinky Dog from the 50’s. Helen (Herrick) Malsed of Washington sent the the James’ a letter and drawings for developing Slinky pull-toys. The company loved her ideas and saw the potential of the Slinky Dog and Slinky Train. Slinky Dog debuted in 1952. Malsted received royalties of $60,000 to $70,000 annually for 17 years on her patent for the Slinky pull-toy idea, but never visited the plant.
In 1995, the Slinky Dog was redesigned for Pixar’s Toy Story. James Industries had discontinued their Slinky Dog a few years previously. Betty James approved of the new Slinky Dog, telling the press, “The earlier Slinky Dog wasn’t nearly as cute as this one.” The entire run of 825,000 redesigned Slinky Dogs sold out well before Christmas 1995, 40 years after the debut of the original Slinky. I hope everyone enjoyed learning about the weird and wonderful world of the Slinky. For more Slinky fun why not track down a copy of the Slinky computer game published by Cosmi in 1984 on the Commodore 64 platform?
