Palitoy was a British

toy A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include toy blocks, board games, and dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed specifically for adults and pet ...

company. It manufactured some of the most popular toys in Britain, some original items and others under licence. Its products included Action Man, Action Girl,

Action Force Action Force is a brand of European action figures released in the 1980s that was based on the ''Action Man'' toyline. It was also used to introduce '' G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' toys to European markets. Several publishing companies have ...

Tiny Tears Tiny may refer to: Kane Places * Tiny, Ontario, a township in Canada * Tiny, Virginia, an unincorporated community in the US * Tiny Glacier, Wyoming, US Computing * Tiny BASIC, a dialect of the computer programming language BASIC * Tiny Encry ...

, Pippa,

Tressy Tressy was an American fashion doll with a feature to adjust the length of its hair. Tressy was first produced by American Character Doll Company in the 1960s and later by Ideal Toy Company in the 1970s. The doll was invented and patented by moder ...

, Mainline Model Railways,

Merlin Merlin ( cy, Myrddin, kw, Marzhin, br, Merzhin) is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a mage, with several other main roles. His usual depiction, based on an amalgamation of historic and le ...

, Star Wars figures,

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 Cin ...

and the

Care Bears Care Bears are multi-colored bears, originally painted in 1981 by artist Elena Kucharik to be used on greeting cards from American Greetings. In 1983, the characters were turned into plush teddy bears. The characters headlined their own televis ...

History

The Cascelloid Company was founded by Alfred Edward Pallett in

Coalville Coalville is an industrial town in the district of North West Leicestershire, Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England, with a population at the 2011 census of 34,575. It lies on the A511 trunk road between Leicester and Burton upon Tr ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

in 1919V&A Museum of Childhood website to produce

celluloid Celluloids are a class of materials produced by mixing nitrocellulose and camphor, often with added dyes and other agents. Once much more common for its use as photographic film before the advent of safer methods, celluloid's common contemporar ...

and

fancy goods Fancy may refer to: Places * Fancy, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a settlement * Fancy River, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Music Albums * ''Fancy'' (Bobbie Gentry album), 1970 * ''Fancy'' (Idiot Flesh album), 1997 * ''Fancy'' (video ...

. Their first toy was in 1920 and the first

doll A doll is a physical model, model typically of a human or humanoid character, often used as a toy for children. Dolls have also been used in traditional religious rituals throughout the world. Traditional dolls made of materials such as clay and ...

in 1925. Cascelloid was bought in 1931 by British Xylonite and the word "Palitoy" was created as a trademark in 1935 for their toy division.

Injection moulding Injection moulding (U.S. spelling: injection molding) is a manufacturing process for producing parts by injecting molten material into a mould, or mold. Injection moulding can be performed with a host of materials mainly including metals (for ...

was developed by British Xylonite in 1941 and was used for the Palitoy toy ranges. In 1978, the Chad Valley toys company was sold to Palitoy. Palitoy was sold to US food company

General Mills General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company orig ...

in 1968, and formed part of the company's toy division, sometimes known as CPG Products Corp (Creative Products Group Products Corp). In 1981, British toy group

Airfix Airfix is a British brand and former manufacturing company which produced injection-moulded plastic scale model kits. In the U.K., the name 'Airfix' is synonymous with plastic models of this type, often simply referred to as "an airfix kit" even ...

Products fell into receivership. Palitoy's owner General Mills acquired the Airfix kit range and its GMR model railways range.

also snapped up UK rights to

Meccano Meccano is a brand of scale model, model construction system created in 1898 by Frank Hornby in Liverpool, England. The system consists of reusable metal strips, plates, Structural steel#Common structural shapes, angle girders, wheels, axles and ...

. Back in 1971, it had acquired non-UK rights when it bought Meccano in France from the receivers of another British toy group, Tri-ang. Palitoy effectively ceased to be an independent business in 1984 when its parent company, CPG, part of General Mills, closed its entire design department leaving it effectively just a sales and marketing operation. In January 1985, General Mills announced it would be quitting the toy business. In the US, its toy business was split into three distinct companies:

Kenner 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 ' ...

(focused on toys),

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 wer ...

(focused on games) and Fun Dimensions (focused on crafts, model kits MPC and model trains Lionel). General Mills made the decision to merge Kenner and Parker into one entity and to sell off Fun Dimensions. This decision impacted Palitoy which adopted the Kenner Parker name and withdrew from the model and craft sector to help form one uniform global toy and games company. It sold the Airfix business to

Humbrol Humbrol Limited is a British brand and former manufacturer of paints, solvents, and other accessories for scale model kits and toys. In the past, Humbrol produced under its own brand and the Airfix, Sky Marks, Young Scientist, 1st Gear, High Sp ...

and a large part of Mainline Railways to

Dapol Dapol Ltd is a model railway manufacturer based in Chirk, Wales. The factory where some of the design and manufacturing take place is just over the border in England. The company is known for its model railway products in N gauge, OO gauge a ...

. On 1 May 1985, most of the work at Palitoy ended with 327 staff in manufacturing and distribution out of 585 made redundant and manufacturing shifted overseas. The restructure was undertaken in advance of the spin-off of General Mills' toy division CPG, separated from its parent in 1985 as Kenner Parker Toys, Inc. There were many potential acquirers of the business but the subsidiary was floated on the stock exchange with General Mills' shareholders getting equivalent shares in Kenner Parker. This was more tax efficient for General Mills. In 1987,

Tonka Tonka is an American producer of toy trucks. The company is known for making steel toy models of construction type trucks and machinery. Maisto International, which makes diecast vehicles, acquired the rights to use the Tonka name in a line of ...

purchased Kenner Parker including Palitoy for $555 million, borrowing extensively to fund the acquisition. However, the cost of servicing the debt meant Tonka itself had to find a buyer and it was eventually acquired by

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of ...

in 1991.Wojahn, Ellen (2003) Playing by Different Rules: The General Mills/Parker Brothers Merger" New York: Beard Books Hasbro closed the former Palitoy site in 1994 with manufacture of the last product made there,

, being transferred to Hasbro's Irish factory. In 2016 fans of the popular Palitoy Action Man toy gathered to celebrate his 50th birthday at the site, and in the following year Palitoy was honoured with a green plaque for helping "stoke children's imaginations" by Leicestershire County Council at Coalville Business Park, which now stands on the site of the former factory.

Toy list

* Revocopter * Action Man * Hi-play-dough *

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

Blythe The name Blythe ( or ) derives from Old English ''bliþe'' ("joyous, kind, cheerful, pleasant"; modern ''blithe''), and further back from Proto-Germanic ''*blithiz'' ("gentle, kind"). People * Blythe (given name), including a list of people named ...

References

{{Reflist Toy companies of the United Kingdom Bachmann Industries