Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Toys |
Founded | June 19, 1930 |
Founders | Herman Fisher Irving Price Margaret Evans Price Helen Schelle Rebecca D. Fisher |
Headquarters | , U.S. |
Products | Baby toys, dolls |
Brands |
|
Revenue | US$1.07 billion (2020) |
Parent | Quaker Oats Company (1969–1991) Mattel (1993–present) |
Website | fisher-price |
Footnotes /references [1] |
Fisher-Price, Inc. 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 Schelle, and Margaret Evans Price.
Notable Fisher-Price toys include the Little People toy line, Power Wheels, View-Master, Rescue Heroes, the Chatter Telephone, and the Rock-a-Stack. The company also manufactures a number of products and toys designed for infants.
Fisher-Price has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Mattel since 1993.
Fisher-Price was founded in 1930 during the Great Depression by Herman Fisher, Irving Price, Price's illustrator-artist wife Margaret Evans Price, and Helen Schelle. [2] [3] Fisher worked previously in manufacturing, selling and advertising games for a company in Churchville, New York. [4] Price had retired from a major variety chain store, and Helen Schelle previously operated Penny Walker Toy Shop [5] in Binghamton, New York. Fisher-Price's fundamental toy-making principles centered on intrinsic play value, ingenuity, strong construction, good value for the money, and action. Early toys were made of heavy steel parts and ponderosa pine, which resisted splintering and held up well to heavy use. The details and charm were added with colorful lithographic labels. [6] Mrs. Price was the first Art Director and designed push-pull toys for the opening line, based on characters from her children's books.
The mayor of Aurora, New York, supported Fisher by raising $100,000 in capital. [7] In 1931, three of the four founders took 16 of their wooden toys to the American International Toy Fair in New York City and they quickly became a success. The first Fisher-Price toy ever sold was "Dr. Doodle" in 1931. [8] In the early 1950s, Fisher-Price identified plastic as a material that could help the company incorporate longer-lasting decorations and brighter colors into its toys, introducing "Buzzy Bee"[ when? ] as the company's first. [9] By the end of the 1950s, Fisher-Price manufactured 39 toys incorporating plastics. [10]
During the 1960s, the Play Family (later known as Little People) product line was introduced and soon overtook the popularity of earlier toys. [11] The 'Family House' was one of the more popular Little People playsets. [11] Herman Fisher retired at the age of 71 in 1969 and The Quaker Oats Company bought Fisher-Price the same year. [12]
In 1991, Fisher-Price regained its independence from The Quaker Oats Company[ how? ] and became a publicly traded company. [13] Two years later, in November 1993, Mattel bought Fisher-Price. A new management group set the company's focus on basic, infant and preschool products and began expansion into international markets. By 1997, Mattel decided to market all of its preschool products under the Fisher-Price name.
In 2004, Royal Caribbean Cruise lines launched Fisher-Price Cabanas, play laboratories[ clarify ] for children on each of their cruise ships. [4]
Fisher-Price has created approximately 5,000 different toys since the early 1930s. [4] One of Fisher-Price's best-known lines is Little People toys, which includes people and animal figures along with various play sets such as a house, farm, school, garage and vehicles. The figures, which originally were wooden peg-style characters, are now molded of plastic and have detailed features. [14]
In addition to Little People, some of the toys and toy brands that have remained popular for many years include Power Wheels, View-Master, Rescue Heroes, the Chatter Telephone, [5] and the Rock-a-Stack. Other brands marketed under the Fisher-Price name over the years include Disney, Sesame Street, Dora the Explorer, and See 'n Say.
Fisher-Price also designs and sells infant care products and has begun developing electronic toys [15] for preschoolers.
In 2009, Fisher-Price bought all toy rights to Thomas & Friends except for the Wooden Railway line. Through Mattel's 2012 acquisition of HIT Entertainment, which subsequently became a division of Fisher-Price, Mattel now owns the property outright. With this, toys based on Mike the Knight and Bob the Builder have been subsequently released. [16]
On August 2, 2007, Fisher-Price recalled close to a million toys, including the Dora the Explorer and Sesame Street toys because of possible hazards due to the toys being coated in lead-based paint. [17] [18]
Fisher-Price recalled all 4.7 million of their Rock 'n Play sleepers on 12 April 2019, days after the company recalled 250,000 infant soothers. [19] The product was introduced in 2009, and holds the sleeping baby in an inclined position. More than 30 infants have died while sleeping in a Rock 'n Play. The Consumer Product Safety Commission said these deaths occurred "after the infants rolled over while unrestrained, or under other circumstances." [20]
Years before the introduction of the Rock 'n Play sleeper, in the mid-1990s, the American Academy of Pediatrics' Back to Sleep campaign recommended that "babies should not sleep for long periods in inclined devices". In babies under one year old, dying during sleep is the leading cause of accidental death. The recommendation that babies sleep flat on their backs, in an empty crib, has cut this death rate in half. [21]
The Rock 'n Play was designed 15 years after these sleep recommendations were published, and according to an article from The Washington Post, violated them. Fisher-Price sold the Rock 'n Play without first getting medical advice from more than one pediatric specialist, and without doing any real-world safety tests. They continued to sell it for years after the first deaths were reported. [21]
In January 2023, Fisher-Price re-announced the recall after additional infant deaths were reported. [22] [23]
Starting in the 1980s, seven games which carried the Fisher-Price name were developed by GameTek for the PC and the Commodore 64. In 1990, three of these titles were ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System:
Titles developed by Davidson & Associates include:
Other titles published by Fisher-Price include:
Other Fisher-Price products include Activegear for families on the go, books, software, car travel accessories, footwear, music, eyeglasses and videos.
Mattel, Inc. is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth and Elliot Handler in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. Mattel has a presence in 35 countries and territories; its products are sold in more than 150 countries. Mattel consists of three business segments: North America, International and American Girl.
Cabbage Patch Kids are a line of cloth dolls with plastic heads first produced by Coleco Industries in 1982. They were inspired by the Little People soft sculptured dolls sold by Xavier Roberts as collectibles. The brand was renamed 'Cabbage Patch Kids' by Roger L. Schlaifer when he acquired the exclusive worldwide licensing rights in 1982.
Bratz is an American fashion doll and media franchise created by former Mattel employee Carter Bryant for MGA Entertainment, which debuted in 2001.
Little People is a toy brand for children ages 6–36 months and to ages 3 and up, originally produced by Fisher-Price, Inc. in the 1960s as the Play Family People. The current product line consists of playsets, mini-sets and accessories, books, CDs, and DVDs focusing on various configurations of a group of characters by their names. Mattel reports that since the brand's launch, over 2-billion Little People figures have been sold in over 60 countries. In 2016, Little People was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.
HIT Entertainment Limited was a British-American entertainment company founded in 1982 as Henson International Television, the international distribution arm of The Jim Henson Company, by Jim Henson, Peter Orton, and Sophie Turner Laing. Orton alone took over the company in 1989 after learning Henson intended to sell the company to The Walt Disney Company. HIT owned and distributed children's television series such as Thomas & Friends, Fireman Sam, Bob the Builder, Pingu, Barney & Friends, and Angelina Ballerina.
Tickle Me Elmo is a children's plush toy from Tyco Preschool, a division of Tyco Toys, of the Muppet character Elmo from the children's television show Sesame Street. When squeezed, Elmo recites his trademark giggle. When squeezed three times, Elmo shakes and vibrates.
The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission is an independent agency of the United States government. The CPSC seeks to promote the safety of consumer products by addressing "unreasonable risks" of injury ; developing uniform safety standards ; and conducting research into product-related illness and injury. In part due to its small size, the CPSC attempts to coordinate with outside parties—including companies and consumer advocates—to leverage resources and expertise to achieve outcomes that advance consumer safety. The agency was created in 1972 through the Consumer Product Safety Act. The agency reports to Congress and the President; it is not part of any other department or agency in the federal government. The CPSC has five commissioners, who are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate for staggered seven-year terms. Historically, the commission was often run by three commissioners or fewer. Since 2009, however, the agency has generally been led by five commissioners, one of whom serves as chairman. The commissioners set policy for the CPSC. The CPSC is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland.
Since Barbie's introduction as a teenage fashion model in 1959, the doll has been portrayed with many careers. Dolls are sold with sets of clothes and accessories that fit the career being portrayed. For example, the Lifeguard Barbie playset includes a Barbie, an outfit with shoes, a lifeguard chair, a dolphin, and a life preserver, while the Spanish Teacher Barbie includes a Barbie, an outfit with shoes, flashcards, a Spanish quiz, an easel, a notebook, a key chain, and a hairbrush.
Jakks Pacific, Inc. is an American company that designs and markets toys and consumer products, with a range of products that feature numerous children's toy licenses. The company is named after its founder, Jack Friedman, who had previously founded LJN and THQ and presided over the company until retiring as CEO and chairman after March 31, 2010, a month before his death on May 3, 2010.
Pixter was among the first portable handheld touch screen drawing toys for children invented by Rehco, LLC and marketed by Fisher Price from 2000 through 2007. Pixter was pre-programmed with fun content and repeatable play. Pixter also could accept cartridge-based games and other activities. Pixter was originally marketed successfully with a black-and-white display but later was upgraded to a color display.
Rescue Heroes are a line of action figures targeted towards preschool-age children, released by Fisher-Price. The line was first introduced in 1997, depicting various rescue personnel, such as firefighters, police officers, and construction workers, which included interchangeable tool packs that attached to the back of figures and featured various electronic or mechanical gimmicks. In 1999 an animated television series of the same name debuted. A film titled Rescue Heroes: The Movie was released in 2003.
Playskool is an American brand of educational toys and games for children. The former Playskool manufacturing company was a subsidiary of the Milton Bradley Company and was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Playskool's last remaining plant in the aforementioned city was shut down in 1984, and Playskool became a brand of Hasbro, which had acquired Milton Bradley that same year.
MGA Entertainment Inc. is a manufacturer of children's toys and entertainment products founded in 1979. Its products include Bratz, Num Noms, Lalaloopsy, and Rainbow High, as well as toys targeted at boys such as Scan2Go. MGA also owns Little Tikes and animation studio MGA Studios.
Merchandise for the Thomas & Friends franchise has been produced to capitalize on the success of the television series Thomas & Friends. Whilst merchandise was produced alongside due to the popularity of the first of The Railway Series by the Rev. W. Awdry since 1945, and the original broadcast of the television series in 1984 in the United Kingdom, large numbers of manufacturers have sought to produce Thomas-branded items after the television series was broadcast in the United States and Japan.
Mega Brands Inc. is a Canadian children's toy company that is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of Mattel. Mega Bloks, a line of construction set toys, is its most popular product. Its other brands include Mega Construx, Mega Puzzles, and Board Dudes. The company distributes a wide range of construction toys, puzzles, and craft-based products.
Wooden toy trains are toy trains that run on a wooden track system with grooves to guide the wheels of the rolling stock. While the trains, tracks and scenery accessories are made mainly of wood, the engines and cars connect to each other using metal hooks or small magnets, and some use plastic wheels mounted on metal axles. Some trains are made to resemble anthropomorphical, fictional, and prototypical railroad equipment.
The Imaginext System is a brand of role-playing, adventure toys designed for kids 3 or older made by Mattel, under the label of Fisher-Price.
Zhang Shuhong was a Chinese businessman and factory owner. Zhang committed suicide after toys made at his factory for Fisher-Price were found to contain lead paint.