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◆ Did you have this?
👍 I had this💔 I wanted this1960s · toys
Etch A Sketch
Two white knobs, gray dust, and the panic of shaking your whole drawing away. Every family had one sitting on a shelf like a tiny TV you could almost control.
- Era
- 60s
- Released
- 1960
- Category
- toys
- Availability checked
- 7/17/2026
From the archive
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The pitch
Turn the knobs and draw anything you can dream up on the magic screen. Shake it once and start fresh. Etch A Sketch turns every kid into an artist and every living room into a quiet contest of who can draw the best stairs.
Why people remember it
- The red frame was everywhere in the 60s and 70s living rooms.
- Kids treated knob skills like a secret talent show trick.
- One hard shake reset everything, which was either relief or tragedy.
Did you know?
- French inventor Arthur Granjean called his original creation L'Ecran Magique, the Magic Screen.
- The toy uses aluminum powder behind glass; turning the knobs scrapes it off to create lines.
- Professional artists have sold Etch A Sketch portraits for thousands of dollars.
- Ohio Art bought the rights for $25,000 and sold millions before Spin Master took over the brand.
How people search for it
“drawing knobs toy”, “red screen drawing toy”, “shake to erase toy”
Tags
Questions people ask
- Is Etch A Sketch still made?
- Ohio Art branding changed hands, but the toy itself is still in production under Spin Master. New units work the same way.
- Why do people call it hard to draw on?
- Diagonal lines need both knobs moving at once. Most of us only mastered stairs and block letters.
