Blaze (toy)

Blaze was a rocking-horse toy produced by Mattel toymakers and introduced in 1961. Blaze was featured prominently during children's television advertising (Mattel was the very first toymaker to advertise year around with television commercials). Unlike other rocking-horses of the time, Blaze was mounted on a stand that was said to be "untippable" and had no springs. The apparatus prevented pinched fingers, and was fitted out with a mechanism that moved the horses legs in "real life action." Another Mattel feature allowed Blaze to talk when you pulled his "Magic Ring." His talking voice unit was the very same one produced by Mattel and unveiled in 1960 in its talking Chatty Cathy doll, and later toys like the Talking Mister Ed puppet. Blaze could say 11 different things like, "How about some hay?"; he could also whinny and neigh. A toy like this, that could gallop and move realistically when the horse was rocked forward and backward, was something special.

Blaze was made of what Mattel called "hi-impact plastic" with black-and-white markings (a pinto pony), and a molded black saddle and red blanket. Blaze also had attached reins, fixed hand-posts, and 2-position foot rests. The stand was made of 1-inch tubular steel and was advertised as being "untippable." Saddle height was 29 inches and was recommended for ages 1–7. Blaze was marketed in most retail catalogs, such as Sears, J.C. Penney, and Montgomery Wards. When first issued, Blaze did not have the talking feature, this was added very quickly after his initial release, so there may be versions of this toy that do not, and never did, talk.

Toy

A toy is an item that can be used for play. Toys are generally played with by children and pets. Playing with toys is an enjoyable means of training young children for life in society. Different materials are used to make toys enjoyable to all ages. Many items are designed to serve as toys, but goods produced for other purposes can also be used. For instance, a small child may pick up a household item and "fly" it through the air as to pretend that it is an airplane. Another consideration is interactive digital entertainment. Some toys are produced primarily as collector's items and are intended for display only.

The origin of toys is prehistoric; dolls representing infants, animals, and soldiers, as well as representations of tools used by adults are readily found at archaeological sites. The origin of the word "toy" is unknown, but it is believed that it was first used in the 14th century. Toys are mainly made for children.

Playing with toys is important when it comes to growing up and learning about the world around us. Younger children use toys to discover their identity, help their bodies grow strong, learn cause and effect, explore relationships, and practice skills they will need as adults. Adults use toys to form and strengthen social bonds, teach, remember and reinforce lessons from their youth, discover their identity, exercise their minds and bodies, explore relationships, practice skills, and decorate their living spaces.

Toy dog

Toy dog traditionally refers to a very small dog or a grouping of small and very small breeds of dog. A toy dog may be of any of various dog types. Types of dogs referred to as toy dogs may include Spaniels, Pinschers and Terriers that have been bred down in size. Not all toy dogs are lapdogs, although that is an important and ancient type of toy dog. The very smallest toy dogs are sometimes called teacup size, although no major dog registry recognizes that term.

Small dogs

Dogs referred to as toy or teacup dogs, are dogs found in the Toy Group of breed registries, may be of the very ancient lapdog type, or they may be small versions of hunting dogs or working dogs, bred down in size for a particular kind of work or to create a pet of convenient size. In the past, very small dogs not used for hunting were kept as symbols of affluence, as watchdogs, and for the health function of attracting fleas away from their owners.

Breeds

Most major dog clubs in the English-speaking world have a toy group, under one exact name or another, in which they place breeds of dog that the kennel club categorises as toy, based on size and tradition. The Kennel Club (UK), the Canadian Kennel Club, the American Kennel Club, the Australian National Kennel Council, and the New Zealand Kennel Club all have a group named "Toy", all though they may not all categorise the same breeds in this category. The United States has a second major kennel club, the United Kennel Club (UKC, originally formed for hunting and working breeds, though general today), and it does not recognize such a group; instead, small dogs are placed with larger dogs of their type, or into a UKC's "Companion Dog" group.As of September 2008, the American Kennel Club began debating whether or not to change the name of their "Toy" group to "Companion", in order to emphasise that dogs are not playthings, but the name change was resisted by traditionalists.

Toy (Toy album)

TOY is the 2012 eponymous debut album by London-based band TOY.

The album was recorded in early 2012, by music producer Dan Carey at his South London studio. Their album artwork is by artist Leif Podhajsky

Tracklisting

References

Blaze

Blaze may refer to:

Places

Music

Fiction

List of Mortal Kombat characters

This is a list of playable characters from the Mortal Kombat fighting game series and the games in which they appear. The series takes place in a fictional universe composed of six realms, which were created by the Elder Gods. The Elder Gods created a fighting tournament called Mortal Kombat to reduce the wars between the realms. The first Mortal Kombat game introduces a tournament in which Earthrealm can be destroyed if it loses once again.

The Earthrealm warriors manage to defeat the champion Goro and tournament host Shang Tsung, but this leads Tsung to search for other ways to destroy Earthrealm. Since then, every game features a new mortal who wishes to conquer the realms, therefore violating the rules of Mortal Kombat. By Mortal Kombat: Deception, most of the main characters had been killed by Shang Tsung and Quan Chi (neither of whom were playable in the game), but by Mortal Kombat: Armageddon all of them return.

Character overview

Appearances in the fighting games in the series:

Blaze (dinghy)

The Blaze was designed in the mid-90's by Ian Howlett, one time International 14 designer and associated with Americas Cup design work and John Caig, winner of Fireball Worlds. It is a powerful winged single-hander with well-developed 10 m²sail. Unusually in recent performance designs both foils are pivoting enabling the centreboard to be adjusted from the wing as well making it particularly suitable for estuaries and shallow lakes.

Development

The Blaze was originally built by Ian Howlett and John Caig, and marketed by Topper International from 1996. In 2000 an active class association ran a sail development program to produce a more responsive sail, dropping some of the excessive leech of the original that proved 'difficult' in any real breeze for many helms. The slight loss in area was countered by a more efficient sail and balanced handling characteristics, and the class rapidly adopted the sail with numbers raced and sold rising very rapidly. In 2006 Topper moved out of performance composite boats and the manufacturing and marketing rights transferred to Cirrus Raceboats (www.cirrusrace.com) who have refined the boat further and work with Rondar to produce the current boat. As of November 2007 there are just under 250 registered boats.