The World of toys II

　　Professional inventors know the nuts and bolts of b ringing toys to life.

　　At play works studio, an amazing array of toys come s to life. From Scooby Doo to Star Wars characters.

　　But it's not all fun and games.

　　When you see the toy business in the movies, everyb ody sings in toy factories, everything is dancing aroun d. And I wish it was that way. But it really is a busin ess. It's not something that's frivolous.

　　At Play works, we make every kind of toy that you c ould imagine. We make stuffed animals, we make bottles for shampoo. That doesn't really qualify as a toy but w hen we get through with it it's a toy.

　　It may start with ideas and characters, but a toy i s born from a model called a prototype.

　　When you make a toy of a character you have to firs t think about what's right for that character. Then you have to be an artist who can draw a portraiture because we need to draw what the character looks like from the front, the back, the side. You need to be a master scul ptor. You need to be able to take clay and shape it and pinch it and push it until it looks just like the actor . We take a rough wax cast that our mold maker makes. A nd then we use dental tools to scrape down and sand the sculpture in places. And when we're done we have a scul pture that is very, very detailed.

　　The toy will pass through an elaborate series of st eps before it's complete from meticulous painting to ma nufacturing.

　　Toys have become a wildly popular art form. And whi le their shapes constantly change, their magical appeal is timeless.

　　For little boys, for centuries the great toy was th e horse. Because the horse is the symbol of adventure. It's the symbol of going out into the world. It release s the imagination. And it was replaced by the steam tra in and then by the electric train and finally by the sp ace ship. But it's still the same toy.

　　The child doll and the baby doll that you nurse and put to bed is a 19th century invention. And what they d o is they give the little girl a dream into what she sa n become.

　　Though toys have been around for thousands of years , it is only in the past few centuries that children ha ve had any real time to play.

　　As children's free time increased, so did the toy b usiness… and in the second half of the 20th century, th at business skyrocketed.

　　Today, the business of toys is dominated by superpo wers. But toy makers of all kinds continue to inspire u s, as they reinvent the magic that makes us want to pla y.