вЂњItвЂ™s really an experiential brand and it stands for active social play,вЂќ he said. вЂњNerf became a brand thatвЂ™s bigger than a blaster and bigger than a ball,вЂќ said Byrne, who co-hosts the toy-focused podcast The Playground. adding foam basketballs and indoor basketball hoops, and footballs, then moving into the category that is its biggest seller today, blasters that shoot foam darts and balls. sold more than four million of them the first year, according to Toy Time.Дuring its 50-plus years, and since Hasbro acquired it in 1991, Nerf has always expanded logically, Byrne said in a interview. The toy was marketed as the ball you could play with in the house, and was launched in a 1969 commercial featuring the Monkees. They shaped the foam into Nerf balls and sent them to board game company Parker Bros. Guyer and his designers decided throwing foam pieces at each other was fun. Toy history author Chris Byrne, in the Nerf chapter of his book, вЂњToy Time! From Hula Hoops to He-Man to Hungry Hungry Hippos: A Look Back At The Most-Beloved Toys of Decades PastвЂќ describes how that game never took off, but the foam pieces did. The 52-year-old Nerf brand was born when toy inventor Reyn Guyer, creator of another classic, Twister, was developing a game that involved pieces of foam that could be thrown at rival players. вЂњWe feel like thereвЂ™s a lot of growth to come, which is one of the things weвЂ™re really excited about as we think about the opportunity we have across those three operating units to extend Nerf.вЂќ

вЂњNerf is a very important franchise brand for Hasbro,вЂќ Eric Nyman, Chief Consumer Officer, and Chief Operating Officer, Consumer Products, at Hasbro, said in a interview. Those brands are viewed as having the ability to create value in all three of HasbroвЂ™s core businesses: consumer products, digital gaming, and entertainment, as outlined by CEO and Chairman Brian Goldner in an Investors Day presentation last month. Hasbro has a toy portfolio of close to 1,500 brands but only a few of those are what it calls вЂњfranchise brandsвЂќ - properties like Nerf, Transformers, Monopoly, Power Rangers, Play-Doh. NerfвЂ™s expansion into entertainment-driven roles comes as smaller, but increasingly skillfull, competitors are gunning for some of its market share.

When did nerf come out