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A novelty item is an object which is specifically designed to serve no practical purpose, and is sold for its uniqueness, humor, or simply as something new (hence "novelty", or newness). The term also applies to practical items with fanciful or nonfunctional additions, such as novelty slippers. The term is normally applied to small objects, and is generally not used to describe larger items such as roadside attractions. Items may have an advertising or promotional purpose, or be a souvenir.
Usage
This term covers a range of small manufactured goods, such as collectables, gadgets and executive toys. Novelty items are generally devices that do not primarily have a practical function. Toys for adults are often classed as novelties. Some products have a brief period as a novelty item when they are actually new, only to become an established, commonly used product, such as the Hula Hoop or the Frisbee.
Others may have an educational element, such as Crooke's radiometer, Newton's cradle or the drinking bird, often popular as an executive toy. Sex toys are often described as novelty items (varying from this definition, as they do serve a practical purpose), and some products sold in sex shops may not have any practical sexual function, if operating primarily as a humorous gift, such as sex dice. Some food products may be considered novelty items, especially when first introduced, such as deep-fried Mars bars.
History
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List of novelty items
This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
- Big Mouth Billy Bass
- Bobblehead
- Bubble pipe
- BunaB
- Chattery Teeth
- Cheesehead
- Chinese finger trap
- Crookes radiometer
- Deely bobber
- Drinking bird
- Dehydrated Water
- Expandable water toy
- Garden gnome
- Groucho glasses
- Horse head mask
- Kit-Cat Klock
- Lava lamp
- Magic 8 Ball
- Mexican jumping bean
- Newton's cradle
- Novelty lighter
- Pet Rock
- Plasma globe
- Plastic flamingo
- Propeller beanie
- Radio Hat, while a practical item, was a novelty when it first appeared
- Rubik's Cube, now an established toy after a brief period as a novelty item
- Silly Putty
- Slime
- Slinky
- Snow globe
- Squirmle
- Talking clock
- Toffee hammer
- Trammel of Archimedes
- Umbrella Hat
- Useless machine
- Water capacitor
- X-Ray Specs
Further reading
- Cheap Laffs: The Art of the Novelty Item, Mark Newgarden, Abrams Books/PictureBox, 2004
See also
- Souvenir
- Notion
- Practical joke device
- Chindōgu, Japanese neologism for an "unuseless" invention
- Ephemera