The RC2 Corporation, a division of Japan-based firm

Takara Tomy is a Japanese entertainment company that makes children's toys and merchandise. It was created from a merger on March 1st 2006 of two companies: Tomy (founded in 1924 as Tomiyama, changing the name to Tomy in 1963) and long-time rival Tak ...

, is a toy design, marketing, and distribution company headquartered in

Oak Brook, Illinois Oak Brook is a village mostly in DuPage County with a small portion in Cook County in Illinois. Per the 2020 census, the population was 8,163. This suburb of Chicago has the headquarters of several companies and organizations including Ace Ha ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Founded in 1992.

Overview

RC2 markets brands such as The First Years and

Lamaze The Lamaze technique, also known as the psychoprophylactic method or simply Lamaze, began as a prepared childbirth technique. As an alternative to medical intervention during childbirth, it was popularized in the 1950s by French obstetrician Dr. ...

. Its Learning Curve Brands subsidiary is dedicated to infant and preschool merchandise. The company went public in 1997. In 2005, they signed a deal with

Marathon Media Zodiak Kids & Family (formerly known as Marathon Media, Marathon Animation, Marathon Productions or Marathon Media Group) is a worldwide French television production company based in Neuilly-sur-Seine. The company was originally founded as Mara ...

to produce a line of ''

Totally Spies! ''Totally Spies!'' is an animated spy-fi series created by Vincent Chalvon-Demersay and David Michel mainly produced by French animation company Marathon Media and French broadcaster TF1, with seasons 3 to 5 being co-produced with Canadian c ...

'' dolls. By 2006, 91.8 percent of RC2's products were made in China. In 2007, the company made headlines after it was forced to recall 1.5 million

Thomas & Friends ''Thomas & Friends'' (originally known as ''Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends'' and later ''Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures!'') is a British children's television series that aired across 24 series from 1984 to 2021. Based on ''The ...

wooden toy trains after they were found to contain excessive amounts of lead. The toys involved in the recall had been manufactured in China. RC2 was acquired by

in 2011.

References

External links

Official website
(archived, 30 Oct 2007) Companies based in DuPage County, Illinois Takara Tomy Toy companies of the United States {{Toy-company-stub