Imperial Toy

Founded in 1969, Los Angeles-based Imperial Toy LLC is best known for its Bubbles and Novelties and also distributes or manufactures girls' role-play toys and steel trucks. Imperial is also responsible for water pistols, rubber snakes, paddle balls, and roll caps, and manufactures low-priced yo-yos and marbles. Its yo-yos have a crown design on them. The yo-yos produced include: Candy Club, Champion, Giany Teeny, Hi-Tech, Hot Wheels, Imperial, Superstock, Super Sonic Space, and Teeny.

It manufactures SuperMiracle, Miracle, Buddy “L,” Livin' Large, Runway Pink, and Legends of the Wild West. Other copyrighted licenses include Nickelodeon; Sponge-Bob SquarePants; Dora the Explorer; Go, Diego, Go!; Backyardigans; Little Tikes; Thomas the Tank Engine; Bob the Builder; Batman; Ford; Dodge; leep; GM; and Universal Monsters. Imperial has offices in Moderna, Italy, and Hong Kong, as well as in Los Angeles. It distributes from Hong Kong, Memphis, Tennessee, and San Diego, California, to over 50 countries worldwide.

The company was founded by Fred Kort, a Holocaust survivor who came to Massachusetts in 1947 to work for General Electric. Transferred to Los Angeles, he worked for Martin Feder in the bubble business, then in 1969 he introduced the Hi-Bounce or Teeny Bouncer ball and launched his family business. Kort became a leading member of the Los Angeles lewish community, noted for his philanthropy. He died in 2003 and the Kort family sold the company to Peter Tiger and Art Hirsch in 2006.

In 1997 an explosion triggered by roll caps killed four employees. Imperial Toy also manufactured a toy feeding set that was subject to recall by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission after revelations that the nipple on the toy baby bottle posed a potential choking hazard. The company recalled 100,000 Cuddles Feeding Sets and Cuddles Meal Time sets sold at discount stores for $2.00 each between 1995 and 2001. An earlier recall in 1995 involved 100,000 Tammy the Turtle, Peppy the Penguin, and Sally the Seal toys as well as feeding sets and toy trucks that posed a fire hazard because they created sparks. Discount stores such as Ben Franklin and Reveo sold the Chinese imports for $2.00 to $4.00 from 1993 to 1995.

Imperial continues to expand. Buddy “L” joined its product line in 2002. Nickelodeon and Viacom chose Imperial as their outlet in 2006. In 2007 its Little Tikes sprinkler won a design award. In March 2008 Imperial [Page 316]purchased One Stop Toy, a company that since 1994 has provided prize-redemption toys for amusement centers. The same year it announced licensing agreements for Barney, Little Kitty, and Marvel products including sand and bubble toys. Imperial advertises its environmental friendliness on its home site. It notes recycling, reduction in packaging, and the first ever 100-percent recyclable bubble bottle, produced in 2007. Imperial also complies with appropriate safety testing standards—ASTM (formerly American society for Testing of Manufactures), EN-71 (flammability and migration of certain elements), and RoHS (restriction of hazardous substances).