Joining Magic 8 Ball in the 2018 list of honorees were Uno and pinball. The other finalists on the list of 12 were these:

• American Girl Dolls
• chalk
• Chutes and Ladders
• Fisher-Price Corn Popper
• Masters of the Universe
• sled
• tic-tac-toe
• Tickle Me Elmo
• Tudor Electric Football.

Magic 8 Ball burst onto the scene in 1946. With its randomly generated answers to whatever questions people posed to it, the Ball gained fame (although not entirely reliable in gaining people fortune). The person holding the Ball shook it while asking a question, and the Ball would then enable one of 20 preprogrammed answers mystically float to the surface. Some of the more famous answers were "Signs point to Yes," "No," "You may rely on it," and "Ask again later." Magic 8 Ball also appeared in various TV shows, first on the 1960s show The Dick Van Dyke Show and then in later years on Friends and The Simpsons.

Uno was the creation of Merle Robbins, a barbershop owner from Ohio. He based Uno on another well-known card game, Crazy Eights. The idea is for each player to get rid of all the cards he or she is dealt as quickly as possible. Cards have numbers and colors, and a player can rid of a card by placing in on the pile on top of a "match," of either number or color. (For example, if the top of the pile has a red 4, then a player can top that red 4 with either another red card or another 4 card.) Each Uno deck also comes with a handful of hazard cards, which a player can place atop the discard pile, forcing the next player to draw extra cards. Robbins eventually sold the rights to Mattel, which has produced a great many decks, including specialized ones (with themes like Disney and Hello Kitty).

Pinball is much older than either Magic 8 or Uno. The modern, coin-operated pinball machine dates to the 1930s, but some historians trace the idea of pinball to the 18th-Century French game bagatelle. It was the addition of side-of-machine flippers that transformed pinball into a game of skill. Pinball machines have become familiar sites at many gathering places, including arcades, amusement parks, and restaurants. It is quite common as well to sea specialized pinball machines (such as ones sporting logos and characters from TV shows and movies).

The National Toy Hall of Fame announces its inductees each year, after the toys are selected by a committee of curators and historians.

The hall, in Rochester, N.Y., has an annual celebration of toys and has named a handful as Hall of Famers every year since 1998. The hall has resided in its current location, the Strong, since 2002.

Criteria for induction include:

• being widely recognized enduring in popularity for many years
• fostering learning and/or creativity through play.

The Toy Hall of Fame first inducted toys in 1998, when the list included Barbie®, LEGO®, the Frisbee®, and marbles.

To nominate a toy, click here.