Fisher-Price

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Fisher-Price's corporate logo.

Fisher-Price is a well-known brand of toys, with headquarters located in East Aurora, New York. The company is a division of Mattel. 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 made of wood and metal but are now made of plastic. The figures, which were once armless and legless but are now molded with more detail, have holes in the bottom allowing them to be used as finger puppets. Fisher-Price also had, during the 1970s and 1980s, a series of full bodied action figures, and currently have a popular line of action figures based on rescue service personnel.

History

Fisher-Price is named after two of the company's three founders, Herman Fisher and Irving Price (the third, Helen Schelle, is omitted). In 1930, the three founders went to the International Toy Fair in New York City, bringing 16 toys with them. At the time, Fisher-Price was essentially limited to the making of wooden toy dogs. That tradition continued on for nearly four decades.

During the 1960s, Fisher-Price began to produce their famous "Little People" line, with items such as schoolbuses, farms, etc. hitting the markets. The Little People toys gained much popularity and quickly replaced the wooden dogs on Fisher-Price's production line. In 1969, Quaker Oats Company bought Fisher-Price. During the period that the Quaker Oats company owned Fisher Price, they produced a very small amount of business-oriented products, such as door alarms, as well.

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

In 1991, Fisher-Price was spun off from Quaker, and in 1993, it merged with Mattel. Then, after Mattel acquired the Tyco Toys brand in 1997, Mattel decided it would market all of its infant and preschool products under the Fisher-Price name.

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