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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 ''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 ...
'', ''
Jurassic Park ''Jurassic Park'', later also referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton and centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of cloned dinosaurs. It began in 1990 when ...
'' and ''
Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...
'' 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 Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
,
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, 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 A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...
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 produced by Muppets creator Jim Henson and featured a puppet that would later become the ''
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 ...
'' character Little Bird. The Bird was phased out by 1974. The company was purchased by
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 1967. In 1971, General Mills merged its Rainbow Crafts division into Kenner, bringing Play-Doh into the Kenner product line. In 1985, General Mills would spin-off both its Kenner and
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 ...
toy divisions to form Kenner Parker Toys, Inc. The following year Kenner Parker sold off its Lionel Trains division. Kenner Parker was acquired by Tonka in 1987. Under Tonka management, Kenner Products was reconstituted as a division. Tonka (including Kenner) was purchased by the toy company Hasbro in mid-1991. Hasbro closed the Cincinnati offices of Kenner in 2000, and Kenner's product lines were merged into Hasbro's.


Products and product lines

One of Kenner's original products was the "Bubble-Matic," a toy gun that blew bubbles. An "updated" version was available at least as late as the mid-1960s. Kenner introduced its popular Girder and Panel building sets construction toy in 1957, the Give-a-Show projector in 1959, the
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 ...
in 1963, the Electric Mold Master also in 1963, the Spirograph drawing toy in 1966, and the
Starting Lineup In sports, a starting lineup is an official list of the set of players who will participate in the event when the game begins. The players in the starting lineup are commonly referred to as ''starters'', whereas the others are ''substitutes'' o ...
sports action figure collectible line in 1988. Kenner Products obtained the rights to produce
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 fig ...
and playsets for the ''
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 ...
'' trilogy from 1976 through 1985. After Kenner acquired the license to produce ''Star Wars'' toys when the Mego Corporation rejected it in 1976, Kenner popularized the 3.75 inch
action figure An action figure is a poseable character (arts), character model figure made most commonly of plastic, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, military, video game or television program; fictional or historical. These figures are ...
that became an industry standard that continues to dominate the action figure toy market. Kenner also produced toys related to the popular 1970s TV series ''
The Six Million Dollar Man ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' is an American science fiction and action television series, running from 1973 to 1978, about a former astronaut, USAF Colonel Steve Austin, portrayed by Lee Majors. After a NASA test flight accident, Austin is reb ...
'' and the 1979 sci-fi movie ''
Alien Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...
''. In 1981, Kenner belatedly entered the diecast toy car market, with a short-lived range called Fast 111's. The 1980s also saw the release of the "Fashion Star Fillies" line of
model horse Model horses are scale replicas of real horses. They originated simultaneously – but independently – in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, followed later by Sweden (UK-influenced), Germany (US-influenced), and Australi ...
s, a product discontinued by the end of the decade. One of Kenner's most highly acclaimed lines was the
Super Powers Collection The Super Powers Collection was a line of action figures based on DC Comics superheroes and supervillains that was created by Kenner Products in the 1980s. History In 1984, DC Comics awarded the master toy license of their characters to Kenner ...
, produced from 1984 to 1986. These action figures were based on the famed superheroes of
DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...
. What made the line so successful was that the characters were modeled almost exactly from the style guide of the company; and also, each character performed some "action." For example, if
Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...
's legs are squeezed, he would throw a punch. Furthermore, Kenner was able to commission some of the characters' creators like Jack Kirby for his
New Gods The New Gods are a fictional extraterrestrial race appearing in the eponymous comic book series published by DC Comics, as well as selected other DC titles. Created and designed by Jack Kirby, they first appeared in February 1971 in ''New Gods'' ...
characters and
George Perez George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...
for Cyborg to design the action figures. In 1985, DC Comics named Kenner as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publication '' Fifty Who Made DC Great'' for its work on the Super Powers Collection. One of the more popular action figure lines in the late 1980s was Kenner's ''
The Real Ghostbusters ''The Real Ghostbusters'' is an American animated television series, a spin-off/sequel of the 1984 comedy film ''Ghostbusters''. The series ran from September 13, 1986, to October 5, 1991, and was produced by Columbia Pictures Television and DI ...
'', based on the 1986-1991 animated series adaptation of the 1984 feature film '' Ghostbusters''. The toy line debuted the same year as the cartoon and continued production through most of its run. Although the initial releases accurately resembled ''The Real Ghostbusters'' cartoon designs, unlike Super Powers, the toy line very soon stopped attempting to be faithful to the existing source material. Instead, new, original costumes, weapons and ghost characters were designed by Kenner, many of them centered on unique action features, similar to those popularized by
Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in more ...
's competing ''
Masters of the Universe ''Masters of the Universe'' (sometimes referred to as the ''He-Man'' or ''She-Ra'' series) is a sword and planet-themed media franchise created by Mattel. The main premise revolves around the conflict between He-Man (the alter ego of Prince Ada ...
'' toy line as well as Kenner's earlier Super Powers toy line. This idea of basing a toy line on well-known characters but then coming up with original designs that were not based on any published storylines represented a major shift in the design approach to action figure toy lines at the time. In previous years, one major approach to producing toy lines was to base them closely on popular, well-known characters from properties like ''Star Wars'',
Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...
, or DC Comics. The other major approach was for the toy companies to invent their own original characters and then help produce comic books and cartoons that promoted those exact designs (e.g., Hasbro's
G.I. 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), Ac ...
and
Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms, suc ...
and Mattel's ''Masters of the Universe''). In a departure from this, Kenner did not have any arrangement to incorporate their new concepts and designs into ''The Real Ghostbusters'' cartoons or comic books. This looser approach to the source material of licensed toy lines continued with Kenner's Dark Knight Collection, launched in 1990 and the first of their numerous lines based on the
Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...
character. This initial set was created to capitalize on the phenomenal success of the cinematic version of the character, releasing vehicles (such as the Batmobile or Batplane) inspired on the highly successful 1989 film. Kenner also made vehicles from the '' Batman Forever'' movie (1995). Later toy lines expanded beyond the movie series and took inspiration from Batman's animated series and comic book incarnations. Kenner went on to develop lines centered on Superman and other DC Comics characters as well. As with ''The Real Ghostbusters'', most of these DC Comics lines incorporated multi-colored costumes, weapons and action features which were not based directly on any existing storylines, although the character names and likenesses were typically drawn from the source material. This design approach to the DC Comics toy lines was continued to a large extent by Mattel when they took over the DC Comics license and produced lines based on the movies '' Batman Begins'', '' The Dark Knight'' and '' Superman Returns'' as well as the Justice League cartoons. Hasbro, Kenner's eventual buyer, has taken a similar approach with some of their action figure lines, most notably on their 2010 3.75"
Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book '' Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the ...
action figure line as well as some of their 2009 '' G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra'' product. In 1998, the ''Jurassic Park: Chaos Effect'' line was released but sales were less than expected. The ''Night Hunter'' series, the second line of toys based on ''Chaos Effect'', was planned for 1999, but was cancelled due to poor sales. The ''Jurassic Park'' series became more of an annoyance to Hasbro rather than a trademark brand name. Due to this, the overproduction of ''
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace ''Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace'' is a 1999 American Epic film, epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. It stars Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ahmed Best, Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Dan ...
'' toys, coupled with low sales, forced Hasbro to downsize by getting rid of the Kenner department in Cincinnati. 100 people were transferred and 420 were laid off. Among these 420 was the ''Jurassic Park'' design team (which also designed ''Batman'' among other toy lines), who had just started the very early concepts for '' Jurassic Park III''. Because of this, Hasbro assigned the toys from ''Jurassic Park III'' to their ''Star Wars'' design team, who scaled the humans to be in size with ''Star Wars'' figures and made the style of the toys similar to the ones from '' Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones''. In 2010, Hasbro began releasing modern ''Star Wars'' action figures with packaging reminiscent of the original Kenner 1978–1984 Star Wars product line. Star Wars: The Vintage Collection is composed of new highly pose-able figures, with screen-accurate likenesses. Hasbro had done this twice before, with the 2004 "vintage" Original Trilogy Collection and the 2006–2007 "vintage" Saga Collection but this is the first time that their Star Wars line was entirely dedicated to replica Kenner carded figures.


List of product lines

* ''
Alien Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...
'' *
Baby Alive Baby Alive is a baby doll brand made by Hasbro that eats, drinks, wets and in some cases messes and has a movable mouth. It was originally made and introduced by Kenner in 1973, and reintroduced by Hasbro in 2006. History 1970s-1980s The first ...
* Banjo-Matic * '' Batman & Robin'' * '' Batman Forever'' * '' Batman Returns'' * '' Batman: The Animated Series'' *
Batman Total Justice ''Batman Total Justice'' is a line of toys produced by Kenner based on Batman and other, connected, DC Comics characters. History In 1996, Kenner started production on a new line of DC Comics character figures. This line, like Legends of Batman ...
* Battle Brawlers * '' Beast Machines: Transformers'' * '' Beast Wars: Transformers'' * Beat the Buzz * '' Beetlejuice'' * Big Burger Grill * '' Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures'' * ''
The Bionic Woman ''The Bionic Woman'' is an American science fiction action-adventure television series created by Kenneth Johnson based on the 1972 novel ''Cyborg'' by Martin Caidin, starring Lindsay Wagner that aired from January 14, 1976, to May 13, 1978. ' ...
'' *
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 ...
* Bone Age * Bubbl-Matic * Building Blasters * Building Boulders, Flintstones * '' Butch and Sundance: The Early Days'' * '' Capitol Critters'' * '' Captain Planet and the Planeteers '' * '' Care Bears'' *
Care Bear Cousins 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 televisi ...
* Cassette Movie Projector * '' Centurions'' * '' Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos'' * Close 'n Play * ''
Congo Congo or The Congo may refer to either of two countries that border the Congo River in central Africa: * Democratic Republic of the Congo, the larger country to the southeast, capital Kinshasa, formerly known as Zaire, sometimes referred to a ...
'' * Daddy Saddle * Darci Covergirl * '' Dragonheart'' * Duke * Dusty *
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 ...
* Fairy Winkles
Fashion Star Fillies
* Fast 111's * Finger Pops *
Fluppy Dogs ''Fluppy Dogs'' is a one-hour animated television special that aired on November 27 (Thanksgiving), 1986 on ABC. It was intended to be a pilot for the third Walt Disney Television animated series, but the show was cancelled due to the special's lo ...
* ''
G.I. Joe Extreme ''G.I. Joe Extreme'' is a line of military-themed toys that was sold in retail from 1995 to 1997. The toys were produced by Kenner Products, Kenner following their acquisition by former competitor Hasbro and was intended to succeed the ''G.I. Joe ...
'' * '' Gargoyles'' * Girder and Panel building sets * Give-A-Show Projector * Glamour Gals * Gun That Shoots Around the Corner * Hardy Boys, The * Home Workshop, Motorized *
Hugga Bunch The Hugga Bunch was a 1980s toy line from the Kenner, Parker Brothers companies and Hallmark Cards. Starting in early 1985, the companies manufactured the Hugga Bunch dolls, each of which held a smaller doll called a "huglet" in their arms. Durin ...
* Hugo * ''
Jurassic Park ''Jurassic Park'', later also referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton and centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of cloned dinosaurs. It began in 1990 when ...
'' * '' Knight Rider'' * Li'l Loggers * ''
Littlest Pet Shop Littlest Pet Shop is a toy franchise and cartoon series owned by Hasbro. The original toy series was produced by Kenner in the early 1990s. An animated television series was made in 1995 by Sunbow Productions and Jean Chalopin Creativite et Deve ...
'' * Mega Force * Megabug Gladiators * ''
M.A.S.K. M.A.S.K. (Mobile Armored Strike Kommand) is a media franchise created by Kenner. The main premise revolved around the fight between the titular protagonist underground task force and the criminal organization V.E.N.O.M. (Vicious Evil Network o ...
'' * Milky, the Marvelous Milking Cow * Movie Viewer * ''
Mummies Alive! ''Mummies Alive!'' is an animated series from DIC Productions L.P. and Northern Lights Entertainment. It originally aired for one season in 1997. The show was part of a general trend of "mummymania" in 1990s pop culture. Plot In ancient Egypt, an ...
'' * My Magic Genie * Pistol That Shoots Around the Corner * Play-Doh * Play 'n Play Back Organ * ''
Police Academy A police academy, also known as a law enforcement training center, police college, or police university, is a training school for police cadets, designed to prepare them for the law enforcement agency they will be joining upon graduation, or othe ...
'' * Power Sub * ''
Predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...
'' * ''
Raiders of the Lost Ark ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. It stars Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronal ...
'' * ''
The Real Ghostbusters ''The Real Ghostbusters'' is an American animated television series, a spin-off/sequel of the 1984 comedy film ''Ghostbusters''. The series ran from September 13, 1986, to October 5, 1991, and was produced by Columbia Pictures Television and DI ...
'' * Red Line * '' Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves'' * '' RoboCop: The Animated Series'' * Robotman & Stellar * Rose Petal Place * Rotodraw * Run Joe Run *
Savage Mondo Blitzers {{Unreferenced, date=December 2009 Savage Mondo Blitzers were a line of miniature collectible toy figures on skateboards produced by Kenner in 1991 and sold in the United States, Italy, Greece, and Argentina. They were about an inch tall. They cam ...
* Say It! Play It! * Scuba Squad * Sea Wees * '' The Shadow'' * Shadow Strikers * ''
SilverHawks ''SilverHawks'' is an American animated television series developed by Rankin/Bass Productions and distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures in 1986. The animation was provided by Japanese studio Pacific Animation Corporation. In total, 65 episodes were ...
'' * ''
Steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...
'' * Technozoids ( Zoids) * Sip-Along Sam * ''
The Six Million Dollar Man ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' is an American science fiction and action television series, running from 1973 to 1978, about a former astronaut, USAF Colonel Steve Austin, portrayed by Lee Majors. After a NASA test flight accident, Austin is reb ...
'' * '' Sky Commanders'' * ''
Small Soldiers ''Small Soldiers'' is a 1998 American action comedy film directed by Joe Dante and written by Gavin Scott, Adam Rifkin, Ted Elliott, and Terry Rossio. It stars Kirsten Dunst and Gregory Smith, along with the voices of Frank Langella and Tommy L ...
'' * Spirograph * SSP Cars and Smash Up Derby * Super Sonic Power * ''
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 ...
'' *
Starting Lineup In sports, a starting lineup is an official list of the set of players who will participate in the event when the game begins. The players in the starting lineup are commonly referred to as ''starters'', whereas the others are ''substitutes'' o ...
* ''
Strawberry Shortcake Strawberry shortcake may refer to: * Strawberry shortcake (dessert), a shortcake served with strawberries * "Strawberry Shortcake, Huckleberry Pie," a song published in 1956; a version by The Brother Sisters was released by Mercury Records in 196 ...
'' *
Stretch Armstrong Stretch Armstrong is a large, gel-filled action figure that was first introduced in 1976 by Kenner. In 2016, at the New York Toy Fair, Hasbro announced the return of the Stretch Armstrong toy in its original 1976 design. Stretch Armstrong is m ...
*
Super Powers Collection The Super Powers Collection was a line of action figures based on DC Comics superheroes and supervillains that was created by Kenner Products in the 1980s. History In 1984, DC Comics awarded the master toy license of their characters to Kenner ...
* '' Superman: The Animated Series'' * '' Swamp Thing'' * '' Terminator 2: Judgment Day'' * Turn-A-Tune * VR Troopers * Vor-Tech * '' Waterworld'' * Wish World Kids * XRC * Zippity Speedway * Zoom-Loom Automatic Weaving Machine


See also

*
Super Powers Collection The Super Powers Collection was a line of action figures based on DC Comics superheroes and supervillains that was created by Kenner Products in the 1980s. History In 1984, DC Comics awarded the master toy license of their characters to Kenner ...


References


External links


The History of Kenner
on KennerToys.com (archived)

on The Old Toy Guide (archived) {{Authority control Defunct companies based in Cincinnati Toy companies of the United States Toy companies established in 1947 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 2000 Former Hasbro subsidiaries 1947 establishments in Ohio 2000 disestablishments in Ohio 1967 mergers and acquisitions 1987 mergers and acquisitions 1991 mergers and acquisitions