Toys were once little wooden things, painstakingly handmade, often beautifully crafted to move, tilt and make noises when played with by curious children. But then Bakelite was invented and the transition to moulded plastic playthings began.
Since then the playground scene has been dominated by fads, from marbles to those incessant fidget spinners. There's also been the "kiddification" of military technology recently, like drones, but most toys that you get in an actual toy shop (not the Apple store) still bear at least some resemblance to the ones I played with as a child.
For parents wanting their kids' playthings to have an educative function, Leap Frog's robust tablets have been helping young ones learn to count, but most five-year-olds still thinkthe iPad Pro is the most entertaining toy of all...