Beanie Babies are a line of stuffed toys created by American businessman H. Ty Warner, who founded Ty Inc. in 1986. The toys are stuffed with plastic pellets ("beans") rather than conventional soft stuffing. They come in many different forms, mostly animals.
Toys "R" Us is an American toy, clothing, and baby product retailer owned by Tru Kids, Inc. and various others. The company was founded in 1957; its first store was built in April 1948, with its headquarters located in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area.
Hy-Vee is an employee-owned chain of supermarkets in the Midwestern and Southern United States, with more than 280 locations in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and soon Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. Hy-Vee was founded in 1930 by Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg in Beaconsfield, Iowa, in a small brick building known as the Beaconsfield Supply Store, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
WOWT is a television station in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Gray Television. The station's studios are located on Farnam Street near downtown Omaha, and its transmitter is located on a "tower farm" near North 72nd Street and Crown Point Avenue in north-central Omaha.
KETV is a television station in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, affiliated with ABC. The station is owned by Hearst Television, and has studios on 10th Street in the historic Burlington Station, which carries the address of 7 Burlington Station. Its transmitter is located on a "tower farm" near North 72nd Street and Crown Point Avenue in north-central Omaha.
Anime NebrasKon is an annual three-day anime convention held during October at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. It is organized by the Nebraska Japanese Animation Society.
K·B Toys was an American chain of mall-based retail toy stores. The company was founded in 1922 as Kaufman Brothers, a wholesale candy store. The company opened a wholesale toy store in 1946, and ended its candy wholesales two years later to focus entirely on the toy industry. Retail sales began in the 1970s, under the name Kay-Bee Toy & Hobby.
The economy of Omaha, Nebraska has served as a major commercial hub in the Midwestern United States since its founding in 1854. Dubbed the "Motor Mouth City" by The New York Times, Omaha is widely regarded as the telecommunications capital of the United States. The city's economy includes agriculture, food processing, insurance, transportation, healthcare and education. Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway has lived in Omaha all of his life, as have the ConAgra Foods, Union Pacific Railroad and Mutual of Omaha Companies, and Kiewit Corporation, all Fortune 500 corporations.
Oriental Trading Company is a direct merchant of value-priced party supplies, arts and crafts, toys, novelties, and school supplies. It was founded in 1932 as one of the United States' first wholesaling companies. Oriental Trading has been recognized as one of the top 100 Internet retailers and one of the top 50 catalog companies. It is based in Omaha, Nebraska, and is owned by Berkshire Hathaway. Alternative known names for Oriental Trading Company include "Oriental Trading" & "OTC".
Spin Master is a Canadian multinational toy and entertainment company that markets consumer products for children. Its brands include Bakugan, Gund, Etch A Sketch, Meccano/ Erector, Air Hogs, PAW Patrol, Aquadoodle, Tech Deck, Hatchimals, Rubik's Cube, and Zoomer. Spin Master employs over 1,600 people globally with offices in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam.
The Larami Corporation was a toy company established in by David W. Ring in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1959. Larami produced licensed toys based on several movies and television shows. The toys were manufactured in Hong Kong and Japan, were often of low quality, and were sold on racks in grocery store toy aisles for less than a dollar. By the 1980s, Larami had a growing water gun product line, and launched the Super Soaker brand in 1991. In 1995, Larami was acquired by Hasbro Inc, who changed the name of the company to Larami Inc. before retiring the name in 2002.
Hallmark Cards, Inc. is a private, family-owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce Hall, Hallmark is the oldest and largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
Nebraska Medicine, is a private not-for-profit American healthcare company based in Omaha, Nebraska. The company was created as Nebraska Health System (NHS) in 1997, when Bishop Clarkson Hospital merged with the adjacent University Hospital in midtown Omaha. Renamed The Nebraska Medical Center in 2003, in 2014 the company merged with UNMC Physicians and Bellevue Medical Center to become Nebraska Medicine. The company has full ownership of two hospitals and 39 specialty and primary care clinics in and around Omaha, with partial ownership in two rural hospitals and a specialty hospital. Nebraska Medicine's main campus, Nebraska Medicine – Nebraska Medical Center, has 718 beds, while its Bellevue Medical Center campus has 91 beds.
The Cabbage Patch riots were a series of violent customer outbursts at several retail stores in the United States in the fall and winter of 1983. That year, Cabbage Patch Kids had been released for sale in the United States, causing a tremendous demand for the product. Most stores at the time typically only stocked between two and five hundred of the product, yet with thousands of customers surging the store attempting to obtain one of the dolls, many fought with other customers in order to obtain one of the products.
The Omaha Mammoths were a professional football team based in Omaha, Nebraska. They were a charter member of the Fall Experimental Football League, which was trying to become the developmental league for the National Football League. They played their home games at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, home of the College World Series and the former home of the United Football League's Omaha Nighthawks. The Mammoths were the first pro outdoor football franchise to play in Omaha since the Nighthawks.
Fingerlings are a toy line made by WowWee that is meant to be wrapped around your finger. The toy is a robotic monkey, unicorn, panda, dragon, or sloth that clings to your fingers and react to touch and sound by blinking and blowing kisses. In 2018, WowWee released Fingerlings Hugs for the Holiday season. The interactive plush toy is much bigger than the original Fingerlings, but have the same interactivity. The Fingerlings Hugs monkeys have long arms that kids can wrap around themselves.
TikTok, known in China as Douyin, is a short-form video hosting service owned by Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts a variety of short-form user videos, from genres like pranks, stunts, tricks, jokes, dance, and entertainment with durations from 15 seconds to ten minutes. TikTok is an international version of Douyin, which was originally released in the Chinese market in September 2016. TikTok was launched in 2017 for iOS and Android in most markets outside of mainland China; however, it became available worldwide only after merging with another Chinese social media service, Musical.ly, on 2 August 2018.
Tru Kids, Inc. is a company that owns the Toys "R" Us and Babies "R" Us brands in the United States. It was established on January 20, 2019 after its lenders cancelled the bankruptcy auction and took over the Toys "R" Us intellectual property in October 2018.
A Pop It is a fidget toy consisting of a usually-brightly colored silicone tray with pokable bubbles, similar to bubble wrap, that can be flipped and re-used. They come in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes, and are marketed as a stress-reliever. They rose in popularity in the spring of 2021 due to TikTok influencers as well as boredom and stress attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.
