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Kenner Products
Kenner Products, known simply as Kenner, 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'', '' Jurassic Park'' and ''Batman'' as well as die cast models. The company was closed by its corporate parent Hasbro in 2000. History Kenner was 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 Union Terminal. It was a pioneer in the use of television advertisement for the marketing of merchandise across the United States, beginning in 1958. In the early 1960s, Kenner introduced its corporate mascot, The Kenner Gooney Bird, which would be used in both its company logo (''"It's Kenner! It's fun!"'') and TV ads, in both animated form and puppetry. One commercial was produce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenner Star Wars Action Figures
Kenner ''Star Wars'' action figures are a line of over 100 unique toys, produced and sold from 1978 to 1985, among a total of more than 300 million ''Star Wars'' action figures sold then. Kenner began producing new ''Star Wars'' action figures in 1995. History The license for ''Star Wars'' action figures was offered in 1976 to the Mego Corporation, which was the leading company in action figures in the 1970s. Mego refused the offer and the license was subsequently picked up by Kenner, a division of General Mills Fun Group. ''Star Wars'' (1977) was the first film to successfully market toys based on the movie. In fact, they were so successful that George Lucas independently used the funds to finance the next two movie chapters, ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980) and ''Return of the Jedi'' (1983). Although the original ''Star Wars'' film had been released in May 1977, Kenner was unprepared for the unprecedented response to the film and the high demand for toys, mainly due ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Subsidiary
A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a same management being substantially controlled by same entity/group are called sister companies. The subsidiary can be a company (usually with limited liability) and may be a government- or state-owned enterprise. They are a common feature of modern business life, and most multinational corporations organize their operations in this way. Examples of holding companies are Berkshire Hathaway, Jefferies Financial Group, The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Discovery, or Citigroup; as well as more focused companies such as IBM, Xerox, and Microsoft. These, and others, organize their businesses into national and functional subsidiaries, often with multiple levels of subsidiaries. Details Subsidiaries are separate, distinct legal entities f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mego Corporation
The Mego Corporation was an American toy company that in its original iteration was first founded in 1954. Originally known as a purveyor of dime store toys, in 1971 the company shifted direction and became famous for producing licensed dolls (including the long-running "World's Greatest Super Heroes" line), celebrity dolls, and the Micronauts toy line. For a time in the 1970s, their line of 8-inch-scale action figures with interchangeable bodies became the industry standard. In 1982 Mego filed for bankruptcy, and by 1983, the Mego Corporation ceased to exist; today, Mego dolls and playsets can be highly prized collectibles, with some fetching hundreds, or even in some cases, thousands of dollars (depending on rarity) in the collectibles market. In July 2018, the newly-reformed Mego Corporation announced they would be producing a limited run of their classic style clothed dolls in their traditional 1/9 scale, as well as some 1/5 figures sold exclusively through Target. These dol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Starting Lineup (toy Line)
Starting Lineup is a brand of sports action figures originally produced from 1988 to 2001, first by Kenner and later by Hasbro. They were conceived by Pat McInally, himself a former professional American football player with the Cincinnati Bengals. The figures became very popular, and eventually included sports stars from baseball, football, basketball, and hockey; and, to a lesser extent, auto racing, boxing, track & field, skating, soccer, and golf. In the late 2010s, the figures made a comeback as a promotional item at several sporting events. McInally, who graduated cum laude from Harvard University and is the only NFL player with a verified perfect score on the Wonderlic test, came up with the idea during a visit to a toy store. He noticed that there were many figurines available of the likes of G.I. Joe, but none depicting famous athletes, whom McInally considered to be just as recognizable to children. Today, the figures are collector items, with prices per figure sometime ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spirograph
Spirograph is a geometric drawing device that produces mathematical roulette curves of the variety technically known as hypotrochoids and epitrochoids. The well-known toy version was developed by British engineer Denys Fisher and first sold in 1965. The name has been a registered trademark of Hasbro Inc. since 1998 following purchase of the company that had acquired the Denys Fisher company. The Spirograph brand was relaunched worldwide in 2013, with its original product configurations, by Kahootz Toys. History In 1827, Greek-born English architect and engineer Peter Hubert Desvignes developed and advertised a "Speiragraph", a device to create elaborate spiral drawings. A man named J. Jopling soon claimed to have previously invented similar methods. When working in Vienna between 1845 and 1848, Desvignes constructed a version of the machine that would help prevent banknote forgeries, as any of the nearly endless variations of roulette patterns that it could produce were ext ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Easy-Bake Oven
The Easy-Bake Oven is a working toy oven that Kenner introduced in 1963 and currently manufactured by Hasbro. The original toy used a pair of ordinary incandescent light bulbs as a heat source; current versions use a true heating element. Kenner sold 500,000 Easy-Bake Ovens in the first year of production. By 1997, more than 16 million Easy-Bake Ovens (in 11 models) had been sold."The Easy-Bake Oven, Gourmet Style" (with audio link), '','' December 8, 2003. Retrieved Nov. 11, 2006. The oven comes with pac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Girder And Panel Building Sets
Girder and Panel Building Sets were a series of plastic toy construction kits created by Kenner Toys in the mid-1950s. Since then, the building sets have gone in and out of production several times, under a succession of different owners of the designs. Overview The Girder and Panel Building Set construction kits enabled a child to build plastic models of mid-twentieth century style buildings. Vertical plastic columns were placed in the holes of a Masonite base board and horizontal girders were then locked into the vertical columns to create the skeletal structure of a model building. Brightly coloured plastic panels containing translucent "windows" could then be snapped onto the outer girders to create a curtain wall. Square navy-blue roof panels—some with translucent skylight domes molded into them—were laid on the topmost beams to complete the structure. Bridge and Turnpike sets were later introduced that also employed frameworks of girders but with roadway sections instead ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lionel Trains
Lionel, LLC is an American designer and importer of toy trains and model railroads that is headquartered in Concord, North Carolina. Its roots lie in the 1969 purchase of the Lionel product line from the Lionel Corporation by cereal conglomerate General Mills and subsequent purchase in 1986 by businessman Richard P. Kughn forming Lionel Trains, Inc. in 1986. The Martin Davis Investment Group (Wellspring) bought Lionel Trains, Inc. in 1995 and renamed it Lionel, LLC. According to its reorganization papers filed as part of its bankruptcy plan on May 21, 2007, about 95% of the company's sales come from O gauge trains. The plan estimated that about US$70 million worth of O gauge trains are sold each year, and that Lionel accounts for about 60% of that market, making it the largest manufacturer of O gauge trains. Lionel Eras Early History MPC/General Mills era (1970–1986) Lionel Corporation sold the tooling for its then-current product line and licensed the Lionel name to Gener ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parker Brothers
Parker Brothers (known by Parker outside of North America) was an American toy and game manufacturer which in 1991 became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883. Among its products were ''Monopoly (game), Monopoly'', Cluedo, Clue (licensed from the British publisher and known as ''Cluedo'' outside of North America), ''Sorry! (game), Sorry!'', ''Risk (game), Risk'', ''Trivial Pursuit'', ''Ouija'', ''Aggravation (board game), Aggravation'', ''Bop It'', ''Scrabble'' (under a joint partnership with Milton Bradley Company, Milton Bradley in North America and Canada), and ''Probe (parlor game), Probe''. The trade name became defunct with former products being marketed under the "Hasbro Gaming" label with the logo shown on Monopoly (game), Monopoly games. History Parker Brothers was founded by George Swinnerton Parker, George S. Parker. Parker's philosophy deviated from the prevalent theme of board game design; he believed th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Play-Doh
Play-Doh is a modeling compound for young children to make arts and crafts projects at home. The product was first manufactured in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, as a wallpaper cleaner in the 1930s. Play-Doh was then reworked and marketed to Cincinnati schools in the mid-1950s. Play-Doh was demonstrated at an educational convention in 1956 and prominent department stores opened retail accounts. Advertisements promoting Play-Doh on influential children's television shows in 1957 furthered the product's sales. Since its launch on the toy market in the mid-1950s, Play-Doh has generated a considerable amount of ancillary merchandise such as the Fun Factory. History Origin The non-toxic, non-staining, reusable modeling compound that came to be known as "Play-Doh" was a pliable, putty-like substance concocted by Noah McVicker of Cincinnati-based soap manufacturer Kutol Products. It was devised at the request of Kroger Grocery, which wanted a product that could clean coal residue f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rainbow Crafts
Rainbow Crafts, Inc. (traded as Rainbow Crafts) is a former toy manufacturing company created and operated by Noah McVicker and his nephew Joseph McVicker as a subsidiary of the midwestern soap company, Kutol Products.Walsh, Tim. ''Timeless Toys: Classic Toys and the Playmakers Who Created Them.'' Andrews McNeel Publishing, 2005.Ohio History Central: "Rainbow Crafts Company, Inc.." Retrieved 30 October 2008. The company manufactured , a modeling compound for children. Rainbow Crafts operated under the McVickers from 1956 until 1965 when it was sold to |
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