Playskool is an American company that produces educational toys and games for children. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and is headquartered in

Pawtucket, Rhode Island Pawtucket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 75,604 at the 2020 census, making the city the fourth-largest in the state. Pawtucket borders Providence and East Providence to the south, Central Falls ...

History

The Playskool Institute was established by Lucille King in 1928 as a division of the John Schroeder Lumber Company in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. King, an employee at the company, developed wooden toys to use as teaching aids for children in the classroom. In 1935, the Playskool Institute became a division of Thorncraft, Inc., and established offices in Chicago, Illinois. 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 Kane is a borough in McKean County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, east by southeast of Erie. It was founded in 1864 by Civil War General Thomas L. Kane of the famous Bucktail Regiment at an elevated site 2210 feet (674 m) above sea level. ...

. 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 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 ...

; both companies were acquired by Hasbro, Inc. in 1984. After the acquisition, Playskool began operating out of

as a division of Hasbro. In 1985, Playskool released a line of infant products under the

Tommee Tippee Tommee Tippee is a feeding bottle and child care brand based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom. Its parent company, Mayborn Group is owned by Chinese insurance company Ping An Insurance. It is the fifth largest child care company in the w ...

brand name, including bibs and bottles. Many Hasbro products targeted at preschoolers were rebranded with the Playskool name, including

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

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 ...

. Playskool also began licensing toys from other designers, creating licensing agreements to manufacture

Teddy Ruxpin Teddy Ruxpin is an animatronic children's toy in the form of a talking 'Illiop', a creature which looks like a bear. The toy's mouth and eyes move while he reenacts stories played on an audio tape cassette deck built into its back. It was crea ...

Barney Barney may refer to: People and fictional characters * Barney (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Barney (surname), a list of people Film and television * the title character of ''Barney & Friends'', an American live actio ...

Arthur Arthur is a common male given name of Brittonic languages, Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. An ...

Teletubbies ''Teletubbies'' is a British children's television series created by Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport for the BBC. The programme focuses on four differently coloured characters known as the Teletubbies, named after the television screens on t ...

, and

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

branded products. Hasbro also began licensing the Playskool brand name to other vendors, manufacturing a number of products under the Playskool name, including books, baby care supplies, video games, and children's apparel.

Products

Playskool produces many lines of educational toys and games for children. Playskool's signature brands and toys include

Mr. Potato Head Mr. Potato Head is an American toy brand consisting of a plastic model of a potato "head" to which a variety of plastic parts can attach — typically ears, eyes, shoes, hat, nose, pants and mouth. Mr. Potato Head was invented and manufact ...

, Alphie,

Weeble Weebles is a range of children's roly-poly toys originating in the US in Hasbro's Playskool division on July 23, 1971. Tipping an egg-shaped Weeble causes a weight located at the bottom-center to be lifted off the ground. Once released, gravity ...

s, Elefun,

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

toys, and Gloworm. Playskool creates products for newborn to preschool-aged children; products like the Kick Start Gym, Step Start Walk 'n Ride, and the Tummy Time line are aimed at developing the motor skills of babies. Several toys, like Playskool's Pipeworks, Go Go Gears, and Busy Basics lines, were created to allow children to express creativity. Playskool also produces several dolls and action figures, including Dolly Surprise and Kota the Triceratops. During the 1970s, Playskool also released a toy series named "Familiar Places" which included several toy buildings along with vehicles and toy people, including a

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

restaurant,

Holiday Inn Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia. and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee that year. The chain was a division ...

hotel and

Texaco Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American Petroleum, oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its Gasoline, fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an Indepe ...

gas station. Playskool has released toys based on Television Programmes aimed at young children like

Top Wing ''Top Wing'' is a Canadian computer-animated television series created by Matthew Fernandes of Industrial Brothers. It was produced in-house by Industrial Brothers in connection with 9 Story Media Group. In Canada, the series debuted on Treehouse ...

, In the Night Garden...,

Boohbah ''Boohbah'' is a British preschool television series created by Anne Wood and produced by Wood's company, Ragdoll Productions, in association with GMTV. It originally premiered on ITV on 14 April 2003. The series was later broadcast on Ni ...

Bob the Builder ''Bob the Builder'' is a British animated children's television series created by Keith Chapman for HIT Entertainment and Hot Animation. The series follows the adventures of Bob, a building contractor, specialising in masonry, along with ...

and

Rubbadubbers ''Rubbadubbers'' is a 2003 British stop-motion children's television series produced by HIT Entertainment and Hot Animation. The series aired from 15 January 2003 to 3 November 2005 on BBC2 in the UK. Created by Peter Curtis, it features seven ...

. Playskool heroes toys feature characters from various properties in a scale more suited for younger children. These figures are similar to

Imaginext The Imaginext System is a brand of role-playing, adventure toys designed for kids 3 or older made by Mattel, as part of their Fisher-Price brand. History At the time of its introduction at the 2002 Toy Fair,

. These properties include: *

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 ...

Marvel Marvel may refer to: Business * Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company ** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment ** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe ** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comics * ...

* Transformers: Rescue Bots *

Power Rangers ''Power Rangers'' is an entertainment and merchandising franchise built around a live-action superhero television series, based on the Japanese tokusatsu franchise ''Super Sentai''. Produced first by Saban Entertainment, second by BVS Entert ...

* Jurassic Park (2015)

Brands

Playskool brands include: *

Allegra's Window ''Allegra's Window'' is an American children's television series that aired on Nickelodeon through its Nick Jr. block from October 24, 1994, to December 8, 1996, with reruns being shown until February 5, 1999; it was later shown on Noggin from F ...

(1994-2006) *

(1996-2000) *

Baby Einstein Baby Einstein (stylized as baby einstein) is an American franchise and line of multimedia products, including home video programs, CDs, books, flashcards, toys, and baby gear that specialize in interactive activities for infants and toddle ...

(1993-1999, moved to Fisher-Price) *

(2000-2004) *

(2004-2006) * Bragnam *

Caillou ''Caillou'' () is a Canadian educational children's television series which aired on Teletoon (both English and French versions), with its first episode airing on the former channel on September 15, 1997; it later moved to Treehouse TV, with i ...

(1997-2004) * Chappy (1972-1985) * Chuck and Friends * Clipo * Cool Crew * Definitely Dinosaurs *

Dragon Tales ''Dragon Tales'' is an animated educational television, educational fantasy children's television series created by Jim Coane and Ron Rodecker and developed by Coane, Wesley Eure, Jeffrey Scott, Cliff Ruby and Elana Lesser and produced by Sony Pi ...

(1999-2000, moved to Fisher-Price) *

The Furchester Hotel ''The Furchester Hotel'' is a puppet series that aired on CBeebies (the BBC's preschool network). It is the second British-American spin-off of ''Sesame Street'' that the BBC have made after '' Sesame Tree'' 6 years before. The show ran on CBeeb ...

(Late 2010s (Europe)) * Genius Quiz Machine *

Glo Friends ''The Glo Friends'' is an American television series that originally aired in 1986 as a segment of '' My Little Pony 'n Friends''. Produced by Sunbow Productions and Marvel Productions in collaboration with Toei Animation, the 26 segments of ''Glo ...

Go-Bots GoBots is a line of transforming robot toys produced by Tonka from 1983 to 1987, similar to Hasbro's Transformers (toy line), Transformers. Although initially a separate and competing line of toys, Tonka's Gobots became the intellectual property ...

Gullah Gullah Island ''Gullah Gullah Island'' is an American musical children's television series that was produced by and aired on the Nick Jr. programming block on the Nickelodeon network from October 24, 1994, to April 7, 1998. The show was hosted by Ron Daise - n ...

(1994-2006) * In the Night Garden... (2007-2010s) * Jurassic Park Junior (2015-2017, moved to Fisher-Price) * Jurassic World Dino Tracker *

Marvel Super Hero Adventures ''Marvel Super Hero Adventures'' is an animated series based on characters created by Marvel Comics. Aimed at a preschool audience, the shorts first air on Disney Channel's Disney Junior block, followed by the Disney Junior channel and later the M ...

* Mister Frosty *

* Moon and me * Noodleboro *

Peppa Pig ''Peppa Pig'' is a British preschool animated television series by Astley Baker Davies. The show follows Peppa, an anthropomorphic female piglet, and her family, as well as her peers portrayed as other animals. The show first aired on 31 Ma ...

(2021-present, moved from

Fisher Price Fisher-Price is an American company that produces educational toys for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, headquartered in East Aurora, New York. The company was founded in 1930 during the Great Depression by Herman Fisher, Irving Price, Helen ...

) * Pipeworks *

PJ Masks ''PJ Masks'' (French: Pyjamasques) is a computer-animated superhero children's television series based on the '' Les Pyjamasques'' book series by Romuald Racioppo. Produced by Frog Box, Entertainment One UK Limited, Walt Disney EMEA Production ...

(2021-present, moved from Just Play) * Poppin' Park *

(2019–present) *

(2004-2006) *

(2011-2022, moved to Just Play) *

Sid the Science Kid ''Sid the Science Kid'' (also known as ''Jim Henson's Sid the Science Kid'') is an American computer-animated children’s television series on PBS Kids. It aired from September 1, 2008 to March 25, 2013, with a total of 66 half-hour episodes pro ...

(2008-2013) * Speedstars *

Stanley Stanley may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Stanley'' (1972 film), an American horror film * ''Stanley'' (1984 film), an Australian comedy * ''Stanley'' (1999 film), an animated short * ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series) ...

(2002-2006) * Star Wars Galaxy Heroes *

Jedi Jedi (), Jedi Knights, or collectively the Jedi Order are the main heroic protagonists of many works of the '' Star Wars'' franchise. Working symbiotically alongside the Old Galactic Republic, and later supporting the Rebel Alliance, the Jedi ...

Force * Super Monsters * Talk 'n Play *

(1998-2006) *

(2017-2020) *

Tweenies ''Tweenies'' is a British live action Puppet children's television series created by Will Brenton and Iain Lauchlan. The programme is focused on four pre-school aged characters, known as the "Tweenies", playing, singing, dancing, and learning ...

(2000-2004) * Transformers: Rescue Bots (2011–Present) * Weebles * Wheel Pals

Slogans

References

External links

Playskool website at Hasbro

Official website
{{Authority control 1928 establishments in Wisconsin 1968 mergers and acquisitions 1984 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 1928 Companies based in Rhode Island Construction toys Hasbro brands Hasbro products Hasbro subsidiaries Pawtucket, Rhode Island Toy companies established in 1928