Kinder Surprise, also known as Kinder Egg or Kinder Surprise Egg, is a milk chocolate consisting of a chocolate egg surrounding a yellow plastic capsule with a small toy inside. Manufactured by the Italian company Ferrero since 1974, it was co-created by Michele Ferrero and William Salice, and is one of several candies sold under the Kinder brand. Kinder Surprise was originally created with children in mind, replicating an Italian Easter family tradition in which adults give children large chocolate eggs with toys inside. However, Kinder Surprise toys have become collectible for adults as well. Since 1974, 30 billion Kinder Surprise eggs have been sold worldwide.
Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited is a Canadian retail company which operates in the automotive, hardware, sports, leisure and housewares sectors. Its Canadian operations include: Canadian Tire, Mark's, FGL Sports, PartSource, and the Canadian operations of Party City. Canadian Tire acquired the Norwegian clothing and textile company Helly Hansen from the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan in 2018.
Kimberly-Clark Corporation is an American multinational personal care corporation that produces mostly paper-based consumer products. The company manufactures sanitary paper products and surgical & medical instruments. Kimberly-Clark brand name products include Kleenex facial tissue, Kotex feminine hygiene products, Cottonelle, Scott and Andrex toilet paper, Wypall utility wipes, KimWipes scientific cleaning wipes and Huggies disposable diapers and baby wipes.
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 loss leader is a pricing strategy where a product is sold at a price below its market cost to stimulate other sales of more profitable goods or services. With this sales promotion/marketing strategy, a "leader" is any popular article, i.e., sold at a low price to attract customers.
Dollar Tree, Inc. is an American multi-price-point chain of discount variety stores. Headquartered in Chesapeake, Virginia, it is a Fortune 500 company and operates 15,115 stores throughout the 48 contiguous U.S. states and Canada. Its stores are supported by a nationwide logistics network of 24 distribution centers. Additionally, the company operates stores under the name of Dollar Bills, as well as a multi-price-point variety chain under the Family Dollar banner.
Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, commonly known as "LP", is an American building materials manufacturer. The Company was founded in 1973 and is currently based in Nashville, Tennessee. LP pioneered the U.S. production of oriented strand board (OSB) panels. Today, LP is the world's largest producer of OSB, and manufactures engineered wood building products. LP products are sold to builders and homeowners through building materials distributors and dealers and retail home centers.
The history of Lego began in 1932, when Ole Kirk Christiansen who owned a Danish carpentry workshop that at first only produced furniture started making wooden toys and later named the new toy company Lego in 1934. Later when injection molding was introduced to Denmark after World War II Ole Kirk bought an injection molding machine for the company to make toys in 1947. That same year Kirk and his son obtained samples of plastic interlocking bricks which inspired the later lego bricks created in 1949. The brick and lego system continued to be modified with new molds and colours being added and removed over the decades. Lego still continues into the 21st century as a popular and very profitable line of construction kits and related products and services, with a significant impact on various areas in popular culture. Despite its expansion, the company remains privately held.
PetSmart is a privately held American chain of pet superstores, which sell pet products, services, and small pets. It is the leading North American pet company, and its direct competitor is Petco. Its indirect competitors are Amazon, Walmart, and Target. As of 2020, PetSmart has more than 1,650 stores in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Its stores sell pet food, pet supplies, pet accessories, and small pets. Stores also provide services including grooming, dog daycare, dog and cat boarding, veterinary care via in-store third-party clinics, and dog training. They also offer dog and cat adoption via in-store adoption centers facilitated by the non-profit PetSmart Charities.
BeaverTails is a Canadian restaurant chain, specializing in pastries known as BeaverTails, that is operated by BeaverTails Canada Inc. Its namesake products are fried dough pastries, individually hand stretched to resemble beaver's tails, with various toppings added on the pastry.
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, Board Dudes and Rose Art. The company distributes a wide range of construction toys, puzzles, and craft-based products.
The PlasmaCar is a plastic ride-on toy car designed for children, made popular by Canadian toy distributor PlaSmart. The PlasmaCar can be propelled by wiggling the front steering wheel which is attached to two pivoting wheels touching the ground. It harnesses the natural forces of inertia, centrifugal force, gravity, and friction in order to drive the car forward and backward. It does not require a power source such as batteries, fuel, pedals, or gears - it simply runs on the child's ability to wiggle the steering wheel. It can be operated indoors and/or outdoors, though it works best on a smooth, flat surface.
i-Gami is a toy in which small plastic pieces can be bent and snapped together to form small to large three-dimensional figures. It began production in 2006 by Plastic Play Inc. before being acquired by PlaSmart Inc.
Yummy Dough is a baking mixture, which requires addition of water and is then kneaded into a smooth dough. It was invented in 2005 and was first introduced to the market in 2007. The product's consistency is similar to that of a modeling clay such as Play-Doh. It is edible raw and can be baked. Yummy Dough contains colouring agents which are vegetable-based.
Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Evenflo Company, Inc. operates the juvenile travel and home safety businesses with products that include car seats, travel systems, safety gates, high chairs, play yards, stationary activity centers, infant carriers and doorway jumpers. Evenflo Company Inc. has two manufacturing facilities: one in Piqua, Ohio, and one in Tijuana, Mexico.
Outset Media Corporation is a Canadian company which develops and distributes family entertainment products, specializing in board games, party games, card games, and jigsaw puzzles. In addition to developing its own games, Outset Media also distributes games and puzzles in Canada for United States-based companies.
Roominate is a construction set introduced by Maykah Inc., a company founded by Alice Brooks and Bettina Chen, in 2012. The product, marketed at girls aged 6–10, consists of modular plastic building pieces that can interlock to create models and includes circuits that can be wired. Originally funded through Kickstarter, the company received an investment from Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner during the sixth season of Shark Tank. In 2016, Roominate was acquired by toy manufacturer PlayMonster.
Fuhu was a company that made the Nabi series of tablet computers. The company filed for bankruptcy, eventually leading to the company's closure on January 9, 2016. Mattel later acquired and continued the brand with the Nabi SE for a few years until the Nabi line was quietly discontinued in 2019.
Giatec Scientific Inc. is a Canadian-based company with headquarters located in Ottawa, Ontario. It is a developer and manufacturer of nondestructive testing quality control and condition assessment devices for the construction industry.
Medical Guardian is an American personal emergency response systems (PERS) provider headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The company has appeared in Inc. Magazine's list of 5000 fastest-growing U.S. companies nine years in a row from 2013 to 2021.
