Playtoy Industries was a

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

-based toy company founded by 1973 in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, with president Jerry Smith and vice-presidents Stephen Morris and Ron Burke. In 1997, it moved to

Concord, Ontario Concord is a suburban industrial district in the City of Vaughan in York Region, located north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. According to the 2001 Census, Concord has 8,255 residents. It is accessed by two provincial highways: Highway 407 a ...

. They went out of business in mid 1999. Playtoy both developed its own games, and licensed from others. Most often, they licensed from

Pressman Toy Corporation Pressman Toy Corporation is a toy manufacturer based in Richardson, Texas. Founded in 1922 by Jack Pressman, it currently focuses on family games and licensed products. History The company was founded in 1922 by Jack Pressman, who brought in ...

. Playtoy Industries would then translate the product into French in order to ship a bilingual product. Playtoy introduced three new Canadian games each year. They licensed some of these to

, as in the case of IQ2000. The company also distributed a range of games in Canada for the

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...

. Games were manufactured both locally at their combined offices/factory and overseas. The most notable exceptions were hoolahoops and some other plastic products which were assembled by ARC Industries (a sheltered workshop for adults with a developmental disability). Playtoy also manufactured games based on TV game shows, such as

La Guerre des clans ''La Guerre des clans'' (''The Clan Wars/The War of the Clans'') is a Canadian French language television game show based on the American series ''Family Feud'' and was hosted by Luc Senay. It was taped at TQS in Montreal and ran from 1992 to ...

from

TQS Noovo is a Canadian French-language terrestrial television network owned by the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE Inc. The network has five owned-and-operated and three affiliated stations throughout Quebec, although it can also be seen over-the-ai ...

, and other shows from

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...

and some other Canadian channels. They were Johnson & Johnson's infant toys distributor in Canada (and responsible for the French translation). Playtoy's mass manufactured Co-Operative Game line was licensed from Jim Deacove
Family Pastimes
, who continued to manufacture the same games in small batches. Thus the same games, with the same titles, were sold in two forms at the same time.

Distributed games

Red Box Line (value line) * Snakes & Ladders (1998) * Pickup Sticks *

Checkers Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; British English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers ...

*Tic Tac Toe *Replacement Chess Pieces Developed by/for Playtoy *IQ 2000 / Jeu de savoir (1984) Game of Knowledge (UK), Spiel des Wissens (Germany), Kwestie van weten (Netherlands), Seneca, el juego del saber (Spanish) *IQ 2000 Rock Edition *Inve$tor (1985) *Domino Rally *Tongue Twister (1988) *Monster Dominoes *Forever Green (1991) Licensed from Pressman Toy Corporation *Picture Tri-Ominos (1973) *Safely Home Game (1985) *La roue chanceuse / Wheel of Fortune (1988) *"Siege" ( Game of Battle Action similar to Crossbows and Catapults ) 1994 *

Rummikub ''Rummikub'' () is a tile-based game for 2 to 4 players, combining elements of the card game rummy and mahjong. There are 106 tiles in the game, including 104 numbered tiles (valued 1 to 13 in four different colors, two copies of each) and two jo ...

Charades Charades (, ). is a parlor game, parlor or party game, party word game, word guessing game. Originally, the game was a dramatic form of literary charades: a single person would act out each syllable of a word or phrase in order, followed by the w ...

Licensed from BroderBund *Where in the World is Carmen San Diego (board game) Co-Operative Games Line, licensed from Family Pastimes, Inc * Granny's House * Harvest Time * Funny Faces * Mountaineering * Deep Sea Diving * Sleeping Grump Unknown *

/Family Feud (1993) *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Sewer Hockey (this is the only known Playtoy product which was sold in Quebec, without being translated into French) *Dizzy Dizzy Dinosaur *Real Squirmin' Bugs (1997) * Crazy Bones *Grand Champion Toy Horses Distributed on behalf of Johnson and Johnson * Balls in a Bowl

References

{{reflist Toy companies of Canada Defunct manufacturing companies of Canada History of manufacturing in Ontario