subject: History Of The Space Hopper Hoppity Hop [print this page] History Of The Space Hopper Hoppity Hop History Of The Space Hopper Hoppity Hop
The first space hopper went by the name of PON-PON, and was the creation of an Italian who was named Aquilino Cosani, who came from the north of Italy,and worked at Ledragomma, also base in northern Italy.
The PON-PON was patented by Aquilino in 1968 in Italy, and in 1969 it was introduced into the UK thru an advert placed in the Cambridge Evening Newsperiodical. In 1971 Cosani patented the PON-PON in the north America. North America already had a toy similar to the space hopper that people bouncedon, and this ball was built by the Sun company, and went by the name of Hoppity Hop. All space hopper type toys are known as Hippity Hop or Hoppity Hopthese days, due to the prevalence of the original bouncy ball that could be ridden by people created by the Sun company.
In Great Britain the Space Hopper (name in the UK) was created by Mettoy, which later became Mettoy-Corgi. Another company built a different version ofthe hopper, but this bouncing ball had smooth handles for the rider to to take hold of, whereas the very firsthad ribbed handles in order to havebetter grip. The other company had the monica of Wembley.
To begin with the hoppers comprised of a handle shaped like a ring on the top of the toy which was gripped by the rider, and were built out of rubber.These ridable bouncy toys were provided in a choice of two colours, either blue colour or red colour. Sun built themed versions of the hopper duringthe 1970s, which featured a hard plastic bust attached to the toyin the shape of some favourite character of fiction. Two of the characters of fictionrepresented were Donald Duck and Micky Mouse.
The space hopper was popular during the 1960s and 1970s, with a resurgence of interest in the United Kingdom during the 1990s and on till the presenttime, thanks to the rave culture of the time, where the space hoppers were recognised as being a part of the scene. In the USA due to an arrival ofcompetition from foreign creators and distributors of the hopper the Hoppity Hop's popularity waned and finally the production of the USA version of
the hopper ended.
To begin with the north American version of the bouncy ball that could be ridden by people, the Hoppity Hop, was targeted at both children and grownups, but due to the small size of the largest version, it was usable by by people beyond a certain height unless the adult was similar to a youngster
in build.
In the 1990s Europe had a version of the hopper was called the Hop, and was built by the Italian company Ledragomma / Ledraplastic. These werefashioned from a common ball used in exercising at the time named Gymnic exercise balls. These space hoppers had a maximum size of 26 inches.
The space hopper today - Sizes for adults are more available these days and can be found in sizes of 80cm, 100cm and 120cm. They are generally mademore robust than the original sized balls, having very much thicker skins and typically made from vinyl.
