"who shakes and speaks as if being electrocuted when the switch is flipped. Others, such as Austin Powers were criticized for risque language in their sound chips and packaging. McFarlane Toys McFarlane Toys, a subsidiary of Todd McFarlane Productions, is a company founded by comics creator Todd McFarlane which makes highly detailed model figurines of characters from movies, comics, popular music, video games and various sporting genres. In 1994 Todd McFarlane was working with Mattel to produce action figures based on his comic book characters. When the two could not decide on how to make the toys to McFarlane's satisfaction,"
"Mattel Mattel, Inc. () is an American multinational toy manufacturing company founded in 1945 with headquarters in El Segundo, California. The products and brands it produces include Fisher-Price, Barbie, Monster High, Ever After High, Polly Pocket, Hot Wheels and Matchbox, Masters of the Universe, American Girl, board games, and WWE. In the early 1980s, Mattel produced video game systems, under its own brands and under license from Nintendo. The company has presence in 40 countries and territories and sells products in more than 150 countries. The company operates through three business segments: North America, international, and American Girl. It is"
"returned the company to profitability in 1977. Ruth Handler sold her stock in 1980. The Mattel Electronics line debuted in 1977 with an all-electronic handheld game. The success of the handheld led to the expansion of the line with game console then the line becoming its own corporation in 1982. Mattel Electronics forced Mattel to take a $394 million loss in 1983 and almost filed for bankruptcy. In 1979, through Feld Productions, Mattel purchased the Holiday on Ice and Ice Follies for $12 million. Also acquired that year was Western Publishing for $120 million in cash and stock. The Felds"
"all content creation units together under Mattel’s Chief Content Officer Catherine Balsam-Schwaber. HIT Entertainment HIT Entertainment Ltd. (styled ""HiT"") is a British-American entertainment company owned by Mattel and originally established in 1982 as Henson International Television (formerly styled ""hit!""). It was founded as the international distribution arm of Jim Henson Productions. HIT owns and distributes children's television series such as ""Barney & Friends"", ""Bob the Builder"", ""Thomas & Friends"", ""Fireman Sam"", and ""Angelina Ballerina"". Henson International Television was founded in 1982, by Jim Henson and Peter Orton as a distribution company for their children's, teens and family television. Orton had"
"1995. In 1993, Hasbro lost its bid for J. W. Spear & Sons, a U.K.-based game maker, to Mattel. In the US, Hasbro's growth since 1980 were from acquisitions and the leveraging of the new assets. New product development was not as successful except for movie and TV tie-in product lines with Jurassic Park and Barney. Thus, US sales were stagnant in the early 1990s, falling from 1993 to 1995. To turn domestic performance around in 1994, Hasbro merged the Hasbro Toy, Playskool, Playskool Baby, Kenner, and Kid Dimension units into the Hasbro Toy Group. Meanwhile, Mattel purchased Fisher-Price and"
"Handler's son. In the 1960s Random House books, his surname is Carson. According to Mattel, his middle name is Sean. Ken (doll) Ken is a fashion doll introduced by Mattel in 1961 as the fictional counterpart of Barbie, who was introduced two years earlier. Similar to his female counterpart, Ken has a fashionable line of clothing and accessories. In the Barbie mythos, Ken met Barbie on the set of a TV commercial in 1961, although Mattel has never specified the precise nature of their relationship. Since his debut, Ken has held at least 40 occupations. He was invented by Elliot"
"In 1938, Playskool was purchased by the Joseph Lumber Company, where Manuel Fink was placed in charge of operations. In 1940, Fink, along with Robert Meythaler, bought Playskool and established the Playskool Manufacturing Company. In 1943, Playskool bought the J.L. Wright Company, the manufacturer of Lincoln Logs. In 1958, Playskool merged with Holgate Toys, Inc., a wood product manufacturer based in Kane, Pennsylvania, and in 1962, they purchased the Halsam Company, a producer of wooden blocks, checkers, dominoes, and construction sets. In 1968, Playskool became a subsidiary of Milton Bradley; both companies were acquired by Hasbro, Inc. in 1984. After"
"HIT Entertainment HIT Entertainment Ltd. (styled ""HiT"") is a British-American entertainment company owned by Mattel and originally established in 1982 as Henson International Television (formerly styled ""hit!""). It was founded as the international distribution arm of Jim Henson Productions. HIT owns and distributes children's television series such as ""Barney & Friends"", ""Bob the Builder"", ""Thomas & Friends"", ""Fireman Sam"", and ""Angelina Ballerina"". Henson International Television was founded in 1982, by Jim Henson and Peter Orton as a distribution company for their children's, teens and family television. Orton had met Henson when he was at the Children's Television Workshop (now Sesame"
"Brothers. In 1998, Milton Bradley merged with Parker Brothers to form Hasbro Games. After the consolidation, Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers turned into brands of Hasbro before being both dropped in 2009 in favor of the parent company's name. Milton Bradley Company The Milton Bradley Company was an American board game manufacturer established by Milton Bradley in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1860. In 1920, it absorbed the game production of McLoughlin Brothers, formerly the largest game manufacturer in the United States. Milton Bradley found success making board games. In 1860, Milton Bradley moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, and set up the state's"
"Howard J. Morrison Howard J. Morrison (born 1932) is noted for his numerous contributions to the toy industry. Most notable is his work with Ralph H. Baer designing the game ""Simon"" while working for Marvin Glass at Marvin Glass and Associates. On leaving Marvin Glass and Associates, Morrison and his partners Jeffrey Breslow and Roben Terzian, were inducted into the Toy Industry Association Hall of Fame in 1998. Some of their best selling products include The Animal, Ants in the Pants, Guesstures (originally named Gestures), Brain Warp, California Roller Baby, Real Talking Bubba, Masterpiece, My Size Barbie, Casey Cartwheel, Jennie"
"by less bright dots). In 1978 the Milton Bradley Company entered the handheld market with Simon, a simple color-and-sound-matching game. Simon had no dedicated display, but featured four colored, lighted buttons; the original version was large enough to be used as a tabletop game or a handheld; later versions became increasingly smaller. The same year, Parker Brothers also released Merlin, a more sophisticated handheld which could play six different games using an array of 11 buttons with integrated LEDs. Despite their relative simplicity, each of these early games was highly successful. The initial success of Mattel and Parker Brothers' entries"
"manufacturing. The company's first big-seller was the ""Uke-a-doodle"", a toy ukulele. Ruth Handler claimed her daughter Barbara, who was becoming a pre-teen, played with paper dolls by pretending they were adults. Handler noticed that in such play, children would act out future events, rather than the present. Handler noted the limitations of the paper dolls, including how the paper clothing failed to attach well. She wanted to produce a three-dimensional plastic ""paper doll"" with an adult body and a wardrobe of fabric clothing, but her husband and Mr. Matson thought parents would not buy their children a doll with a"
"TDC Games TDC Games is a board game and jigsaw puzzle manufacturer formerly located in Itasca, Illinois. The company creates and sells family games, jigsaw puzzles, board games, and adult-oriented games. The company has merged with Wood Expressions of California, www.woodexpressions.com Approximately 4,000 retail stores sell the company's games in the United States, and stores in other countries including United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand also sell TDC products. The company was run by its two founders, Larry Balsamo and Sandra Bergeson. TDC was founded in 1984 by Larry Balsamo (former club owner, magician and owner of Hey! Wires Singing"
"play with paper dolls, and noticed that she often enjoyed giving them adult roles. At the time, most children's toy dolls were representations of infants. Realizing that there could be a gap in the market, Handler suggested the idea of an adult-bodied doll to her husband Elliot, a co-founder of the Mattel toy company. He was unenthusiastic about the idea, as were Mattel's directors. During a trip to Europe in 1956 with her children Barbara and Kenneth, Ruth Handler came across a German toy doll called Bild Lilli. The adult-figured doll was exactly what Handler had in mind, so she"
"retook the top spot in the toy industry. Hasbro Interactive was started in 1995 and released the Monopoly game on CD-ROM. Mattel also proposed a merger that year, but was turned down by the Hasbro board in 1996 due to antitrust issues and Justice Department investigation into exclusionary policies between toy manufacturers and toy retailers, particularly Toys ""R"" Us. In 1998, Hasbro bought Avalon Hill for $6 millionand Galoob for $220 million.In 1999 Wizards of the Coast was bought in a deal worth $325 million. Wizards of the Coast is now a subsidiary of Hasbro and has Avalon Hill as"
"begun developing electronic toys for preschoolers. In 2009, Fisher-Price bought all toy rights to Thomas & Friends except for the Wooden Railway line. Through Mattel's 2012 acquisition of HIT Entertainment, which subsequently became a division of Fisher-Price, Mattel now owns the property outright. With this, toys based on Mike the Knight and Bob the Builder have been subsequently released. On August 2, 2007, Fisher-Price recalled close to a million toys, including the Dora the Explorer and Sesame Street toys because of possible hazards due to the toys being coated in lead-based paint. Purchasers of Fisher-Price toys can get information on"
"was entirely dedicated to replica Kenner carded figures. Kenner Products Kenner Products was an American toy company founded in 1946. Throughout its history the Kenner brand produced several highly recognizable toys and merchandise lines, including action figures like the original series of ""Star Wars"" and ""Jurassic Park"", as well as die cast models. The company was closed by its corporate parent Hasbro in 2000. Founded in 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio, by brothers Albert, Phillip, and Joseph L. Steiner, the company was named after the street where the original corporate offices were located, just north of Cincinnati's Union Terminal. It was"
"Gymnast and Hot Wheels Criss Cross Crash. Together with others, Morrison shares over 100 toy-related U.S. patents. Howard J. Morrison Howard J. Morrison (born 1932) is noted for his numerous contributions to the toy industry. Most notable is his work with Ralph H. Baer designing the game ""Simon"" while working for Marvin Glass at Marvin Glass and Associates. On leaving Marvin Glass and Associates, Morrison and his partners Jeffrey Breslow and Roben Terzian, were inducted into the Toy Industry Association Hall of Fame in 1998. Some of their best selling products include The Animal, Ants in the Pants, Guesstures (originally"
"of Tyco until Tyco’s merger with Mattel, Inc., in 1997. Ideal's United Kingdom assets were sold to Hasbro, which has since released Mouse Trap and KerPlunk under its MB Games brand. Other toys that originated with Ideal continue to be marketed and sold by other companies, including Rubik's Cube by Hasbro and Magic 8-ball by Mattel. The Ideal brand was revived by Plaza Toys on its Fiddlestix building sticks products, but by January 2011 was a Poof-Slinky brand. In January 2014, the Ideal brand became part of a new company, Alex Brands, after the May 2013 acquisition of Alex Toys"
"was acquired by Tyco Toys, which is now a division of Mattel Inc. In the deal, Tyco sold the rights to four Schaper games including ""Cootie"" to Hasbro's Milton Bradley division. ""Cootie"" is manufactured and sold today through Milton Bradley with legs featuring in-line skates, sneakers, and other fanciful accessories. ""Big Mouth"" (1968) is a game for 2 to 4 players. Each player is given a giant fork, a green insect, and a paper plate that contains 6 different plastic food items (bananas, carrots, grapes, lemons, pineapples, strawberries). The players take turns using a spinner. If a spin yields a"
"launch of a film division, Mattel Films, that will make movies based on the company’s toy brands. Robbie Brenner was appointed to head the divison, with the title ""executive producer"" and will report directly to the CEO. The revived division's first two projects are expect to be Barbie and Masters of the Universe films. Mattel Mattel, Inc. () is an American multinational toy manufacturing company founded in 1945 with headquarters in El Segundo, California. The products and brands it produces include Fisher-Price, Barbie, Monster High, Ever After High, Polly Pocket, Hot Wheels and Matchbox, Masters of the Universe, American Girl,"
"by toy and game designer Reuben Klamer and was ""heartily endorsed"" by Art Linkletter. It is now part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and an inductee into the National Toy Hall of Fame. The game was originally created in 1860 by Milton Bradley as ""The Checkered Game of Life"", and was the first game created by Bradley, a successful lithographer. (His most important product to that point had been a portrait of Abraham Lincoln with a clean-shaven face, which did not do well once Lincoln grew his famous beard.) The game sold 45,000"
"Dong School"", and ""Romper Room"". In 1958, Play-Doh's sales reached nearly $3 million. In 1964, Play-Doh was exported to Britain, France, and Italy. In the 1980s, its cardboard can (with a rust-prone metal bottom) was replaced with a more cost effective plastic container. By 1965, Rainbow Crafts was issued a patent for Play-Doh. Also in 1965, General Mills purchased Rainbow Crafts and all rights to Play-Doh for $3 million, placing the compound with its Kenner Products subsidiary. In 1971, Rainbow Crafts and Kenner Products merged, and, in 1987, the Tonka Corporation bought the two. In 1991, Hasbro became Play-Doh's owner,"
"Kids Preferred Kids Preferred is an award-winning manufacturer of children's toys located in East Windsor, New Jersey. The company was founded by Louis Premselaar in 1983 and has offices in New Jersey, New York city, Hong Kong and Shanghai. In addition to their own brand of products, they produce toys licensed from: Harley Davidson, The World of Eric Carle, The World of Beatrix Potter, The Gruffalo, Pat the Bunny, Guess How Much I Love You, Arthur, Greenzys, Spot the Dog, Winnie-the-Pooh, Lion King, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Puff, The Magic Dragon, Biscuit, Elmer the Patchwork Elephant, Goodnight Moon, Between the"
"Fisher-Price Fisher-Price is an American company that produces educational toys for children and infants, headquartered in East Aurora, New York. Fisher-Price has been a subsidiary of Mattel since 1993. Founded in 1930 by Herman Fisher, Irving Price, Price's illustrator-artist wife Margaret Evans Price, and Helen Schelle, the name Fisher-Price was established by combining two of the three names. Fisher worked previously in manufacturing, selling and advertising games for a company in Churchville, New York. Price had retired from a major variety chain store, and Helen Schelle previously operated Penny Walker Toy Shop in Binghamton, New York. Fisher-Price’s fundamental toy-making principles"
"re-formed as ""Matchbox International Ltd."" Tooling and production were moved to Macau. Jack Odell went on to form a new company, Lledo, where he produced models similar to early Matchbox ""Models of Yesteryear"". Since 1996, the Matchbox brand has been owned by Mattel, creators of Hot Wheels. Some of the tools and dies created in the Lesney era were still used in the Matchbox line of 2007. Although the name Lesney became synonymous with Matchbox, the company produced several toys previous to and into the Matchbox era which were not sold under that famous moniker. Today, these are highly collectible"
"the toy, Lerner finally convinced a food company to distribute the plastic parts as premiums in breakfast cereal boxes. He sold the idea for $5,000. But in 1951, Lerner showed the idea to Henry and Merrill Hassenfeld, who conducted a small school supply and toy business called Hassenfeld Brothers (later changed to Hasbro). Realizing the toy was quite unlike anything in their line, they paid the cereal company $2,000 to stop production and bought the rights for $5,000. Lerner was offered an advance of $500 and a 5% royalty on every kit sold. The toy was dubbed Mr. Potato Head"
"in 1973 and manufactured the game with a change in the bug design but little change to the original game rules. In 1986, Hasbro, through its subsidiary Milton Bradley Co., arranged with Tyco Toys Inc. to purchase ""Cootie"" and three other games from the Schaper Toy Division of Kusan Inc. Milton Bradley brought a new look to ""Cootie"" with legs that sported in-line skates, sneakers, and other accessories. Though the Schaper company published other games including ""Ants in the Pants"", ""Don't Spill the Beans"", and ""Don't Break the Ice"", ""Cootie"" remained the company's best seller with over 50 million games"
"and promotional material for the toys. BMT licenses toys to companies throughout the world. Their clients include Mattel, Hasbro, Moose, Spin Master, Goliath, Playmates Toys. The company was founded by former employees of Marvin Glass and Associates; one of the pioneers in the toy industry. They have won numerous industry awards, and are considered positive supporters of toy invention and the toy industry. Big Monster Toys Big Monster Toys, LLC (BMT), established in May 1988, is a United States-based toy and game inventing and licensing company. Big Monster Toys is located at 21 S. Racine, in the West Loop of"
"continued to be used. In 1950 Hausemann & Hotte created De Netherlandse Spellenfabriek B.V. (NSF for short), their own cardboard factory, in order to break their dependence on other manufacturers and assure optimum quality. As the decade progressed, the firm introduced the game Electro, puzzles and the classic board game Stratego, which was launched in America, with great success. It was made in America under license for Hausemann & Hotte by Milton Bradley. This Americal link continued when Hausemann & Hotte brought the Barbie doll to the Netherlands. From 1967, as the market for games was experiencing massive growth, Hausemann"
"""The Christmas Toy"". Erickson served as a Creative Director for the product division of The Jim Henson Company and Children's Television Workshop from 1987 to 2000, in which time she art directed the creation of the popular children's toy Tickle Me Elmo. In 1977, she and Wayde Harrison established Harrison/Erickson, Inc., a design and marketing resource for national sports teams, television production and the advertising and toy industries, with Jim Henson Associates as their first client. Erickson designed many professional sports mascots, including the Phillie Phanatic and Youppi!, now in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. In 1994,"
"Kenner Products Kenner Products was an American toy company founded in 1946. Throughout its history the Kenner brand produced several highly recognizable toys and merchandise lines, including action figures like the original series of ""Star Wars"" and ""Jurassic Park"", as well as die cast models. The company was closed by its corporate parent Hasbro in 2000. Founded in 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio, by brothers Albert, Phillip, and Joseph L. Steiner, the company was named after the street where the original corporate offices were located, just north of Cincinnati's Union Terminal. It was a pioneer in the use of television advertisement"
"were sold under the Susy Goose name. In 1949, they started making plastic injection molded toys and then in the 1960s made Barbie and Ken furniture and accessories for Mattel. In 1967, the company moved its headquarters to Edon, Ohio. In 1972, the J.R. Headers Company moved into the space but only for a short time until 1976 when they moved out. Over the next 40 years, the building stood underutilized or vacant until 2014, when the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) approved a tax credit application by Excel-Sterling LDHA LP to provide Section 42 tax credits for the"