Play Along Toys
Encyclopedia
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
-based toy company, and a wholly owned division of Jakks Pacific
Jakks Pacific
JAKKS Pacific, Inc. is a designer and marketer of toys and consumer products, with a range of products that feature numerous children's toy licenses...
.
In 1999, the founders of Play Along (among them Charlie Emby and Jay Foreman) chose the Britney Spears Doll line as the first licensing venture with their new company. The choice proved successful and was followed by other celebrity doll
Celebrity doll
A celebrity doll is a doll modelled after a celebrity.Celebrity dolls have been in production for a very long time. In the 1840s, several famous ballerinas were featured as paper dolls. Also in the 19th century, various military heroes were portrayed as dolls/figures. With the advent of silent...
s including Aaron Carter
Aaron Carter
Aaron Charles Carter is an American singer. He came to fame as a pop and hip hop singer in the late 1990s, establishing himself as a star among pre-teen and teenage audiences during the early-first decade of the 21st century....
, Venus Williams
Venus Williams
Venus Ebony Starr Williams is an American professional tennis player who is a former World No. 1 and is ranked World No. 101 as of 10 October 2011 in singles and World No. 20 in doubles as of 2011. She has been ranked World No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association on three separate...
, Serena Williams
Serena Williams
Serena Jameka Williams is an American professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. The Women's Tennis Association has ranked her world no. 1 in singles on five separate occasions. She became the world no. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002 and regained this ranking for the fifth time on...
and Mandy Moore
Mandy Moore
Amanda Leigh "Mandy" Moore is an American singer-songwriter, actress and fashion designer. Moore became famous as a teenager in the late 1990s, after the release of her teen pop albums So Real, I Wanna Be with You, and Mandy Moore. In 2007, she took an adult pop-folk direction with the release of...
. In 2001 Play Along partnered with toy design studio Art Asylum
Art Asylum
Art Asylum is a New York City based design studio and toy company.Originally started by Digger Mesch and Donna Soldano in 1996, Art Asylum was initially just a work-for-hire sculpting studio which designed various action figures, busts and statues for numerous toy companies such as ToyCom and...
for production of the studio's toys. Then, in 2002, Play Along decided to bring back one of the plush doll lines of the 1980s, the Care Bears
Care Bears
The Care Bears are characters created by American Greetings in 1981 for use on greeting cards. The original artwork for the cards was painted by artist Elena Kucharik. In 1983, Kenner turned the Care Bears into plush teddy bears...
. This brand, for which Play Along was awarded "License of the Year 2002" by the Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association (LIMA).
As the company's toy lines continued to grow, so did the Play Along team, having grown from a staff of five into a company with more than 100 employees, both in the U.S. and Hong Kong, producing toys for multiple brands including the Care Bears
Care Bears
The Care Bears are characters created by American Greetings in 1981 for use on greeting cards. The original artwork for the cards was painted by artist Elena Kucharik. In 1983, Kenner turned the Care Bears into plush teddy bears...
, THE DOG, The Lord of the Rings: Armies of Middle-earth, The Cat in the Hat
The Cat in the Hat
The Cat in the Hat is a children's book by Dr. Seuss and perhaps the most famous, featuring a tall, anthropomorphic, mischievous cat, wearing a tall, red and white-striped hat and a red bow tie. He also carries a pale blue umbrella...
, Teletubbies
Teletubbies
Teletubbies is a BBC children's television series targeted at pre-school viewers and produced from 1997 to 2001 by Ragdoll Productions. It was created by Ragdoll's creative director Anne Wood CBE and Andrew Davenport, who wrote each of the show's 365 episodes. The programme's original narrator was...
, Curly Q's, Doodle Bear, Sky Dancers and the Cabbage Patch Kids
Cabbage Patch Kids
Cabbage Patch Kids is a line of dolls created by American art student Xavier Roberts in 1978. It was originally called "Little People". The original dolls were all cloth and sold at local craft shows, then later at Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, Georgia...
.
The success of the company and its licenses made it an attractive target for others, with Jakks Pacific
Jakks Pacific
JAKKS Pacific, Inc. is a designer and marketer of toys and consumer products, with a range of products that feature numerous children's toy licenses...
buying the privately owned company in 2004, Play Along now run as a division within Jakks.
In Fall of 2007, Play Along released dolls and playsets based on Disney Channel
Disney Channel
Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
TV series, Hannah Montana
Hannah Montana
Hannah Montana is an American television series, which debuted on March 24, 2006 on the Disney Channel. The series focuses on a girl who lives a double life as an average teenage school girl named Miley Stewart by day and a famous pop singer named Hannah Montana by night, concealing her real...
, and movie, the Cheetah Girls
The Cheetah Girls (film)
The Cheetah Girls is a 2003 musical Disney Channel Original Movie, the first for Disney Channel, based on a bestselling series of young adult books of the same name by Deborah Gregory...
. The lines were very popular during the Christmas season. As of Fall 2008, more products have been added on to the Hannah Montana line, including the 2008 Holiday Popstar doll and Malibu Beach House playset; also, dolls based on the Disney Channel
Disney Channel
Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
movie, Camp Rock
Camp Rock
Camp Rock is a 2008 Disney Channel Original Movie starring the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato. The music is written by Julie Brown, Paul Brown, Regina Hicks and Karen Gist. The film is directed by Matthew Diamond and produced by Alan Sacks....
, were launched.
1999
- Britney SpearsBritney SpearsBritney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
- Sabrina: The Animated SeriesSabrina: The Animated SeriesSabrina: The Animated Series is an American animated television series based on the Archie Comics character Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. It was produced by DIC Entertainment, which was owned by Disney at the time...
Dolls - Bruce LeeBruce LeeBruce Lee was a Chinese American, Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement...
- BubblegumBubblegumBubblegum is a type of elastic chewing gum, designed to be blown out of the mouth as a bubble.-History:In 1928, Walter Diemer, an accountant for the Fleer Chewing Gum Company in Philadelphia, was experimenting with new gum recipes. One recipe was found to be less sticky than regular chewing gum,...
- Venus WilliamsVenus WilliamsVenus Ebony Starr Williams is an American professional tennis player who is a former World No. 1 and is ranked World No. 101 as of 10 October 2011 in singles and World No. 20 in doubles as of 2011. She has been ranked World No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association on three separate...
and Serena WilliamsSerena WilliamsSerena Jameka Williams is an American professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. The Women's Tennis Association has ranked her world no. 1 in singles on five separate occasions. She became the world no. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002 and regained this ranking for the fifth time on...
Dolls - VIPV.I.P. (TV series)V.I.P. is an American action/comedy-drama series starring Pamela Anderson. Created by J. F...
Dolls
2001
- Aaron CarterAaron CarterAaron Charles Carter is an American singer. He came to fame as a pop and hip hop singer in the late 1990s, establishing himself as a star among pre-teen and teenage audiences during the early-first decade of the 21st century....
Doll - Spy Kids 2
- Precious Moments
- Lisa FrankLisa FrankLisa Frank is an American pop artist and founder of Lisa Frank Incorporated, headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. The artist's work appears on various commercial elementary and middle-school products, mostly school supplies...
- A*teens Dolls
- Dream Dolls
2004
- Cabbage Patch KidsCabbage Patch KidsCabbage Patch Kids is a line of dolls created by American art student Xavier Roberts in 1978. It was originally called "Little People". The original dolls were all cloth and sold at local craft shows, then later at Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, Georgia...
- Doodle Bear/Doodle Monster (Discontinued 2008)
- The Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
(2004 only)
2007
- Cheetah Girls Dolls (2007 only)
- Hairspray DollsHairspray (2007 film)Hairspray is a 2007 musical film produced by Kolaja Productions and distributed by New Line Cinema. It was released in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom on July 20, 2007. The film is an adaptation of the 2002 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was based on John...
(2007 only) - Hannah Montana dollsHannah MontanaHannah Montana is an American television series, which debuted on March 24, 2006 on the Disney Channel. The series focuses on a girl who lives a double life as an average teenage school girl named Miley Stewart by day and a famous pop singer named Hannah Montana by night, concealing her real...
- Biscuit the Little Yellow Puppy
- Play Along Club (2007 only)
- Sweet SecretsSweet SecretsSweet Secrets was a toy introduced by Galoob in 1984 which transformed from jewelry, makeup and other girl-oriented objects to animals, girls with hair, and playsets. This was done by opening the object and unfolding the head, arms, and legs...
(Discontinued 2008)
2008
- BarneyBarney & FriendsBarney and Friends, also referred to by HiT Entertainment as Barney the Friendly Dinosaur, is an independent children's television show produced in the United States, aimed at children from ages 1-8...
- Camp Rock DollsCamp RockCamp Rock is a 2008 Disney Channel Original Movie starring the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato. The music is written by Julie Brown, Paul Brown, Regina Hicks and Karen Gist. The film is directed by Matthew Diamond and produced by Alan Sacks....
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince CaspianThe Chronicles of Narnia: Prince CaspianThe Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is a 2008 epic fantasy film based on Prince Caspian, the second published, fourth chronological novel in C. S. Lewis's epic fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia. It is the second in The Chronicles of Narnia film series from Walden Media, following The...
- CliffordClifford (character)Clifford is a main protagonist of the Clifford the Big Red Dog book series, written by Norman Bridwell, and originally published in 1963, and the television series of the same name, which is based upon it, and ran from 2000-2003. He was voiced by John Ritter....
- Curious GeorgeCurious GeorgeCurious George is the protagonist of a series of popular children's books by the same name, written by Hans Augusto Rey and Margret Rey. The books feature a curious brown monkey named George, who is brought from his home in Africa by "The Man with The Yellow Hat" to live with him in a big city.When...
- MiffyMiffyMiffy is a small female rabbit in a series of picture books drawn and written by Dutch artist Dick Bruna. Miffy's original Dutch name is Nijntje which stems from a toddler's pronunciation of the word "konijntje" meaning "little rabbit"....
- NascarNASCARThe National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
- Taylor Swift DollTaylor SwiftTaylor Alison Swift is an American country pop singer-songwriter, musician and actress.In 2006, she released her debut single "Tim McGraw", then her self-titled debut album, which was subsequently certified multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America...
- TeletubbiesTeletubbiesTeletubbies is a BBC children's television series targeted at pre-school viewers and produced from 1997 to 2001 by Ragdoll Productions. It was created by Ragdoll's creative director Anne Wood CBE and Andrew Davenport, who wrote each of the show's 365 episodes. The programme's original narrator was...
- The WigglesThe WigglesThe Wiggles are a children's group formed in Sydney, Australia in 1991. Their original members were Anthony Field, Phillip Wilcher, Murray Cook, Greg Page, and Jeff Fatt. Wilcher left the group after their first album...
- SpongeBob SquarePantsSpongeBob SquarePantsSpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series, created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. Much of the series centers on the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the underwater city of "Bikini Bottom"...