Most Popular Christmas Toy in 1963
Always remember to wear orange during hunting season.
The Easy-Bake Oven is a working toy oven which Kenner introduced in 1963, and which Hasbro still manufactured as of late April 2016.
The original toy used an ordinary incandescent light bulb as a heat source; current versions use a true heating element. Kenner sold 500,000 Easy-Bake Ovens in the first year of production.:8 By 1997, more than 16 million Easy-Bake Ovens (in 11 models) had been sold.
The oven comes with packets of cake mix and small round pans. (Additional mixes can be purchased separately.) After water is added to the mix in the pan, it is pushed into the oven through a slot. After cooking, the cake is pushed out through a slot in the other end.
Kenner Versions:
The Easy-Bake Oven was introduced in 1963 by Kenner Products, a Cincinnati, Ohio-based toy company. The original Kenner Easy-Bake Oven was heated by two 100-watt incandescent light bulbs, came in a pale yellow or turquoise, and was designed to resemble a conventional oven.The design changed many times over the years. An updated "Premier" model, available in avocado green or red, was released in 1969, followed by a "Mod" model in yellow or light green in 1971. A more recent model resembled a microwave oven.
The most collectible model of the Easy-Bake Oven is the one-of-a-kind model presented to the winner of the 5,000,000th Easy-Bake Oven Sweepstakes in 1972. The sweepstakes celebrated the toy oven's achievement of 5 million products sold.
Kenner licensed the Easy-Bake Oven to international markets. Japan represented a significant opportunity for Kenner. The toy oven was licensed to Nakajima Corporation who branded their version of the oven Margaret's Cooking Oven.
Marketing:
In 1962, Kenner created the Gooney Bird as part of its marketing efforts. The new corporate mascot was primarily used as part of the company logo, appearing on most product packaging along with the company slogan, “It’s Kenner, It’s Fun!” The bird was also used in trade publications and advertisements with the tagline, “This bird means business!”
In 1968, Kenner approached Muppet creator Jim Henson to create a Muppet version of the Gooney Bird. The bird appeared in Easy-Bake Oven commercials with child actress Barbara Price. The Gooney Bird became so popular that Henson refurbished the character as Little Bird, Big Bird's smaller counterpart, in early seasons of Sesame Street.
Hasbro Versions:
After Kenner became a division of Hasbro, which then closed it down, Hasbro continued to produce the oven. The Easy-Bake Oven and Snack Center was introduced in 1993.
A decade after the Easy-Bake Oven and Snack Center was introduced, the Real Meal Oven was released. This oven was different from the others in being able to cook larger portions, and two of them at once, using two pans at the same time. It won the 2003 Best Toy Parenting magazine Toy of the Year Award. The neutral colors were more accepted across gender lines, and were favored by parents, particularly in the midst of queries and complaints over versions not being offered for male children. The Real Meal pans were larger than the Easy Bake ones, and it could bake both desserts and main courses. Also, this model featured a heating element and did not require a light bulb.
In 2006, a different version of the Easy-Bake was released, featuring a stove-top warmer and a heating element. But like Hasbro's first version, it had smaller pans, and it could only bake one pan at a time. But the new front-loading Hasbro design, a substantial departure from the traditional push-through arrangement, was apparently ill-conceived, as all (approx. 985,000) such units were recalled over safety concerns and reported injuries.
The oven was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2006.
In 2011, the last version to use a 100-watt incandescent light bulb was replaced by a new version with a dedicated heating element, titled EASY-BAKE Ultimate Oven. The replacement was due to a greener lighting policy by the US Federal Government, which would eliminate incandescent light bulbs that put out sufficient heat to bake goods inside the Easy-Bake Oven. This rendered all models that used light bulbs as their heating elements obsolete, without being able to replace the part once the existing bulbs burned out. However, some critics of the redesign indicated that halogen light bulbs emitted sufficient heat to replace incandescent bulbs.
In 2012, Hasbro announced the premiere of a version of the Easy-Bake Oven in black and silver after meeting with McKenna Pope, a girl from New Jersey, who had started a Change.org petition asking the toy maker to offer the product in gender-neutral packaging. The prototype Easy-Bake Oven was also made available in blue. The redesigned product was slated to be unveiled in February 2013, at the New York Toy Fair.