Fisher-Price

Fisher-Price is a well known brand of toys. They are produced in East Aurora, New York, as a division of Mattel Toys. One of the better known lines of Fisher-Price is their Little People toys, which include various sets of buildings and vehicles with their respective people figures, which used to be manufactured in wood but are now manufactured in plastic. The Little People characters are armless and legless. In addition to them, Fisher-Price also had, during the 1970s and 1980s, a series of full bodied action figures.

History

Fisher-Price is named after two of the company's founders, Herman Fisher and Irving Price. The other original founder was a woman, Helen Schelle. The three founders went in 1930 to the international toy's fair in New York City. They brought 16 toys with them. Fisher-Price was basically dedicated to the making of wooden toy dogs at that time. That tradition continued on for the next four decades.

During the 1960s, Fisher-Price began to produce their famous Little People line, with items such as school buses, farms, etc. hitting the markets. The Little People toys gained much popularity and quickly replaced the wooden dogs on Fisher-Prices production line. In 1969, Quaker Oats Company bought over Fisher-Price.

During the 1970s, Little People expanded to include Sesame Street characters on its line, and also the Sesame Street buildings.

In 1991, Fisher-Price became independent, and in 1993, a merger between Fisher-Price and Mattel is agreed upon, Fisher-Price becoming a unit of Mattel then.

In 1997, after Mattel acquired the Tyco Toys brand, Mattel decided it would market all of its infant and pre-schoolers products under the name of Fisher-Price.