There are few stories that recall childhood memories, nostlogia and a bit of sadness. But this is one of them.

Toymaker Fisher-Price is scaling back its world famous View-Master. The View-Master is an American icon. Tens of millions of children [myself included, I had the binoculars one and a flashlight-like projection one] have grown up on them. They debuted at New York’s 1939 World’s Fair [whatever happened to those?] and immediately became a hit. Before color television, the View-Master allowed millions of children to enjoy full-color 3D images that amused generations. The binoculars are cheap and the wheel of photos even cheaper, so the View-Master quickly became an American commodity “as common as frozen food.”

But the View-Master is more than a “child’s plaything,” it also served and continues to serve adult purposes as well.

During the second world war the armed forces produced training reels for identifying enemy and friendly aircraft and ships. After the war View-Masters became household items, as common as frozen food. . . . Recently the University of Missouri football programme promoted its candidate for the Heisman trophy by giving away viewers moulded in the college colours and a reel of highlights from the season. Medical students used View-Master to study a 3D atlas of human anatomy.

Over 1.5 billion [!] photo-wheels were made.

[Back in the day when every thing came in a View-Master reel.]

But now the View-Master is getting a downsizing. Fisher-Price is not about to discontinue it, but it will no longer produce so many wheels as it previously did. Only a few one based on famous children book’s stories will be sold.

I can’t help but feel somewhat sad. When I was growing it, this was one of the coolest things. But for today’s children with the aura of entertainment within reach it seems very passe. Certainly a DVD is better than viewing a film through 12 frames. But simply entertainment has it virtues.

In all, more than 1.5 billion reels have been produced, every one of them to the same size and format, and usable in every model of viewer ever made.