John Sands is an Australian printing company and former distributor of games and computer hardware that is now a wholly owned subsidiary of
American Greetings
American Greetings Corporation is a privately owned American company and is the world's second largest greeting card producer behind Hallmark Cards. Based in Westlake, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, the company sells paper greeting cards, electroni ...
.
In 1851, John Sands and Thomas Kenny founded Sands and Kenny in Sydney. The firm later became Sands, Kenny & Co., and then John Sands Ltd.
American Greetings acquired John Sands from
Amcor
Amcor plc is a global packaging company. It develops and produces flexible packaging, rigid containers, specialty cartons, closures and services for food, beverage, pharmaceutical, medical-device, home and personal-care, and other products.
The ...
in December 1995 as part of a global expansion.
Distributor
John Sands acted as a distributor for
Milton Bradley
Milton Bradley (November 8, 1836 – May 30, 1911) was an American business magnate, game pioneer and publisher, credited by many with launching the board game industry, with his eponymous enterprise, which was purchased by Hasbro in 1984, and ...
from the 1960s to the 1990s, releasing board games in Australia including ''Foxy'', ''
The Game of Life
''The Game of Life'', also known simply as ''Life'', is a board game originally created in 1860 by Milton Bradley as ''The Checkered Game of Life'', the first ever board game for his own company, the Milton Bradley Company. ''The Game of Life'' ...
'', ''Wonderland'', ''Mix & Match'', ''Stay Alive'', '' Upwords'' and ''I Wish I Were''. Also as a result of Hasbro acquiring MB in 1984 John Sands took on the Australian distribution of
Transformers
''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms ...
,
GI Joe
''G.I. Joe'' is an American media franchise and a line of action figures owned and produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier ( U.S. Army) ...
, with the International Heroes branding from Action Force, Jem,
My Little Pony
''My Little Pony'' (''MLP'') is a toy line and media franchise developed by American toy company Hasbro. The first toys were developed by Bonnie Zacherle, Charles Muenchinger, and Steve D'Aguanno, and were produced in 1981. The ponies feature ...
, Glo Friends until Hasbro Australia was established in the 1990s.
John Sands Electronics, based at 6 Bay Street Port Melbourne, also distributed Sega computing hardware into the Australian market, including the hardware and software of the Sega
SG-1000
The is a home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was Sega's first entry into the home video game hardware business. Developed in response to a downturn in arcades starting in 1982, the SG-1000 was created on the advice of Hayao Nak ...
game console and SC-3000 computer.
John Sands was also the distributor of
Corgi Toys
Corgi Toys (trademark) is the brand name of a range of die-cast toy vehicles created by Mettoy and currently owned by Hornby Railways, Hornby.Mettoy in Australia and New Zealand.
It also has stationery products like Platignum Pens.
See also
*
Sands Directory
The Sands Directories, also published as the Sands and Kenny Directory and the Sands and McDougall Directory were annual publications in Australia.
They listed household, business, society, and Government contacts in Melbourne, Adelaide and Sy ...