Skip-It is a children's toy introduced in 1960s, the most popular variants of which were manufactured by Tiger Electronics in the 1980s and 1990s. The Skip-It apparatus was designed to be affixed to the child's ankle via a small plastic hoop and spun around in a 360 degree rotation while continuously skipped by the user.[1]
Early toys similar to the Skip-It included the Jingle Jump,[2] the trademark application for which was filed on December 30, 1963 by Jak-Pak Industries.[3]
In the spring of 1968, Montreal-based plastic company Twinpak released a toy with similar function known as the Footsee, supposedly based on a game Twinpak co-founder Bob Asch saw an Arab child play in Jerusalem.[4] The toy was a tremendous success in Canada, and Reliable Toy Company of Toronto released the Skipit (as the name was then spelled) that same year as a competitor. Twinpak sued Reliable for copying the design of their toy, and secured a temporary injunction prohibiting Reliable from manufacturing the Skipit,[5] but by June 15, 1968 the two companies had reached a settlement allowing Reliable to continue manufacturing Skipits.[6] Both toys were also distributed in the United States at this time. In 1975,[7] the Chemtoy Corporation would release a similar toy called the Lemon Twist, which featured a lemon-shaped ball.[8]
Tiger Electronics acquired the rights to the Skip-It in 1988 from its American rightsholder, the Paul E. Price Company.[9] Tiger Electronics added a mechanical digital counter to the ball, which was patented by Avi Arad and Melvin R. Kennedy in 1990.[10]
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Skip-It apparatus became a commercial success through its advertisements on daytime Nickelodeonbroadcasting as well as other children's programming.[11]
A version of the toy was featured in the Hong Kong martial art movie Butterfly and Sword (1993) where the character Miu Siu Siu / Ho Ching is seen playing with it.[12]
In 2011, Time magazine included it in their 100 greatest toys ever.[13] The Skip-It apparatus was designed to be affixed to the child's ankle via a small plastic hoop and spun around in a 360 degree rotation while continuously skipped by the user.[14]
In 2013, a spin-off of the board game Twister was developed, Twister Rave Skip-It.
^Mak, Michael (Director) (January 16, 1993). Butterfly and Sword (Motion picture) (in Cantonese). Hong Kong: Chang-Hong Channel Film & Video Co.[dead YouTube link]
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