The story
Predecessor
Chantex, Inc. was a Canadian manufacturing company founded in the late 19th century by the Zuckerman family. The business grew to sales of $4.5 million in 1980. In 1980, Chantex merged with Earl Takefman's Randim Marketing, Inc., a school supply manufacturer and wholesaler, to become Charan Industries Inc. Charan Industries would expand into other industries, including acquiring a hockey equipment brand in the mid-1980s. Its Charan Toy, Inc. subsidiary had become a leading licensing toy company by 1985.
Formation and licensing expansion
In January 1988, Charan Industries established Toy Biz, Inc. The company was originally based in the Rockville Centre, Long Island, New York. Toy Biz released its first action figures in 1989, for DC Comics.
In 1990, Toy Biz, Inc. was purchased by businessman Ike Perlmutter. In 1993, Toy Biz made a deal for "exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free licenses" of Marvel Characters for 46 percent of Toy Biz equity. Avi Arad, a toy designer and comic book fan, joined Toy Biz that same year.
Toy Biz continued licensing outside brands, including DC Comics characters, producing goods such as the Batman's Batmobile and some action figures, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess action figures based on the Action Pack television series shown on many New World Television stations. Also, agreements with Gerber and NASCAR were acquired. In 1995, Toy Biz acquired Spectra Star, Inc. and Quest Aerospace Education, Inc., both toy companies. Toy Biz started up its Classic Heroes candy division in 1996, which sold candy/toy combinations using mainly Marvel characters. The company also entered the electronic learning aids (ELA) segment of the toy industry in 1996 with a licensing agreement with Apple Computer.
In the late 1990s, Marvel Entertainment Group filed for bankruptcy and became the subject of a battle for control in bankruptcy court.
Marvel Enterprises merger
In June 1998, Marvel Entertainment Group merged with Toy Biz, Inc. The new company became Marvel Enterprises, and 'Toy Biz' became the toy division of the new company.
In 1999, Toy Biz ventured into professional wrestling, acquiring the master toy license for World Championship Wrestling (WCW). After two years, the license deal was cut short, due to WCW being purchased by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 2001.
In 2001, Marvel Enterprises licensed the rights to the 'Toy Biz' name to a Hong Kong–based toy manufacturer, Toy Biz Worldwide Ltd. Toy Biz also outsourced much of the manufacturing to Toy Biz Worldwide Ltd.
Read the full text
Toy Biz were also notable for producing action figures for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy between 2001 and 2005. Having developed a good working relationship with New Line Cinema following their Blade toy line, Toy Biz managed to get the rights in spite of stiff competition from other companies. Toy Biz made several developments with this line - going for a slightly larger 6 inch scaled figure as opposed to the 3 31/4” scale popularised by toy lines such as Hasbro's Star Wars figures and going for a mixture of screen accuracy and articulation/playability in order to appease both child and adult collectors.
The company would later license products for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), Curious George and Cartoon Network series, Code Lyoko.
Decline
In January 2006, Marvel Entertainment signed a five-year licensing agreement with Hasbro Inc. for $205 million, giving Hasbro the right to make toys and games based on Marvel Comic licenses. As a result of this, Marvel Entertainment prematurely terminated its agreements with Toy Biz Worldwide Ltd, by a year. As a result of the early termination, Marvel Entertainment paid Toy Biz Worldwide Ltd. a penalty of between $13–16 million USD.
Following the loss of the Marvel Comics license to Hasbro in January 2007, the Marvel Toys division released a new series called Legendary Comic Book Heroes between July 2007 and August 2007 – making action figures of non-Marvel Comic characters. The division distributed its final TNA Wrestling and Curious George assortments in August 2007. Marvel Entertainment quietly closed the Marvel Toys division.
From Wikipedia’s article on Toy Biz, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4