Cabbage Patch Kids are a line of one-of-a-kind 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 and registered in the United States copyright office in 1978 as 'The Little People'. The brand was renamed 'Cabbage Patch Kids' by Roger L. Schlaifer when he acquired the exclusive worldwide licensing rights in 1982.
A teddy bear is a stuffed toy in the form of a bear. Developed apparently simultaneously by toymakers Morris Michtom in the U.S. and Richard Steiff under his aunt Margarete Steiff's company in Germany in the early years of the 20th century, and named after President Theodore Roosevelt, the teddy bear became a popular children's toy, celebrated in story, song, and film.
Ruth Marianna Handler was an American businesswoman and inventor. She served as the president of the toy manufacturer Mattel Inc. In 1959, she invented the Barbie doll, which sold over a billion toys worldwide. She was the founder and president of the world's largest toy company, which at its peak had 18,000 employees and annual sales of over $300 million. In 1974, the Handlers were forced to resign from Mattel, and in 1978 Ruth Handler was convicted of false reporting to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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.
A stuffed toy is a toy doll with an outer fabric sewn from a textile and stuffed with flexible material. They are known by many names, such as plush toys, plushies, stuffed animals, and stuffies; in Britain and Australia, they may also be called soft toys or cuddly toys. The stuffed toy originated from the Steiff company of Germany in the late 19th century and gained popularity following the creation of the "Teddy" bear in the US in 1903, at the same time the German toy inventor Richard Steiff designed a similar bear. In the 1990s, Ty Warner created Beanie Babies, a series of animals stuffed with plastic pellets that were popular as collector's items.
A sock monkey is a stuffed toy made from socks fashioned in the likeness of a monkey. These stuffed animals are a mixture of folk art and kitsch in the cultures of the United States and Canada. The typical sock monkey is brown and white with extra long limbs, a long tail and bright red lips. The animal may be adorned with additional ornamentation on its head or around its neck. The character has become part of popular culture and can be found in comic books and art.
H. Ty Warner is an American billionaire toy manufacturer, businessman, and former actor. He is the CEO, sole owner and founder of Ty Inc. which manufactures and distributes stuffed toys, including Beanie Babies and other lines. He is also the owner of Four Seasons Hotel New York, which he bought with profits earned selling Beanie Babies during a fad in the late 1990s. In 2020, he was No. 359 on the Forbes 400 list of the richest people in America, with a net worth of US$2.3 billion.
Baby Boom is a 1987 American romantic comedy film directed by Charles Shyer, written by Nancy Meyers and Shyer, and produced by Meyers and Bruce A. Block for United Artists. It stars Diane Keaton as a yuppie who discovers that a long-lost cousin has died, leaving her a fourteen-month-old baby girl as inheritance.
Gund is a Canadian-owned manufacturer of plush stuffed animals. The company is based in Edison, New Jersey, and distributes throughout the United States and Canada as well as in Europe, Japan, Australia, and South America. Gund is currently run by third generation family owner Bruce Raiffe whose grandfather Jacob Swedlin purchased the company from the original founder in 1925. Their slogan is “Gotta Getta Gund!”
Ganz Midwest-CBK LLC is a Canadian soft toy and home décor company, famous for its plush animals and collectibles. They are the manufacturer of Webkinz, a toy with an interactive virtual-reality Internet site for children.
Disney Consumer Products, Inc. is the retailing and licensing subsidiary of the Disney Parks, Experiences and Products segment of the Walt Disney Company. Previously, Consumer Products was a segment of Disney until 2016, then a unit of Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media (2016-2018).
Margarete Steiff was a seamstress who in 1880 founded Margarete Steiff GmbH, making toy stuffed animals.
Pillow Pets are a brand of stuffed toys with Velcro straps which enable them to be converted from a decorative pillow into a stuffed animal. The toys are made from chenille. Pillow Pets were invented by Jennifer Telfer in 2003. They first gained success when Telfer personally sold the toys close to the Christmas season of that year. They would later become more successful through television advertising, where the company's famous slogan, "It's a pillow, it's a pet, it's a Pillow Pet!" was featured in every ad. Pillow Pets have been used for charitable fund raising.
Teddy-Hermann GmbH is an international manufacturer of teddy bears and other plush toys based in Hirschaid, Germany. Teddy-Hermann is one of the oldest teddy bear producers in Germany. Its products are highly valued among collectors.
Freemountain Toys, Inc. was a company based in Bristol, Vermont that produced anthropomorphic vegetables and fruits called Vegimals and other plush toys and hats with stuffed appendages.
GIANTmicrobes is a toy company based in Stamford, Connecticut, founded by Drew Oliver. GIANTmicrobes manufactures designer plush stuffed toys resembling microbes, including human pathogens such as E. coli and the Epstein-Barr virus.
Bunnies By The Bay was founded in 1986 by sisters Suzanne Knutson and Krystal Kirkpatrick. The company's focus is on creating gifts for infants.
Juguetilandia is a Spanish company dedicated to the marketing of toys, costumes, gifts, outdoor and beach products whose headquarters is located in Finestrat (Alicante). The company has more than 50 retail outlets spread throughout Spain as well as its own E-commerce website.
Safari Ltd is an American family owned manufacturer and global distributor of animal figurine toys. Since 1982, they have produced hand-painted figurines designed to educate children, with the stated goal of teaching the importance of nature and conservation through play.
YooHoo & Friends is a Korean line of stuffed toys released by Aurora World around July 2006.
