1903–1939 Morris and Rose Michtom founded the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company, in
Brooklyn,
New York, when they invented the
Teddy bear in 1903. Rose had made the original "Teddy's Bear" for their children. Morris and Rose sent a bear to President "Teddy" Roosevelt, and asked permission to use his name for the bear. Roosevelt "adopted" the bear and had it present in his campaign and on display at White House functions. After Morris Michtom's death in 1938, the company changed its name to the Ideal Toy Company, and Michtom's nephew Abraham Katz became chief executive. Ideal began making dolls in 1907 to complement its line of
teddy bears. Their first doll was “Yellow Kid,” from
Richard Felton Outcault's
comic strip of the
same name. After that, Ideal began making a line of baby and character dolls such as
Naughty Marietta (from the
Victor Herbert operetta), and
Admiral Dot. Ideal advertised their dolls as "unbreakable," since they were made of
composition, a material made of sawdust and glue, rather than ceramics. Ideal produced over 200 variations of dolls throughout the composition era. In 1914, Ideal had a boy doll launched named the Uneeda Kid, after a
biscuit company. The 15-inch boy doll wore a blue and white bloomer suit and held a box of Uneeda Biscuits under his arm. One of Ideal's most lasting products was
Betsy Wetsy, introduced in 1934 and in production for more than 50 years. The doll was named after the daughter of Abraham Katz, the head of the company. In 2003, the Toy Industry Association named Betsy Wetsy to its Century of Toys List, a compilation commemorating the 100 most memorable and most creative toys of the 20th century. Debuting in 1934, the Shirley Temple doll was Ideal's best-selling doll. Master sculptor, Vincent J. DeFilippo spent 27 years creating dolls for Ideal. Some of the company's most popular dolls during this period were
Tammy (1962–1966),
Flatsy dolls (1969–1973),
Crissy (1969–1974), and
Tressy (1970–1972). Ideal had a hobby division in the 1950s, then shifted from that to games in 1962. In 1951, Ideal partnered with its competitors the
American Character Doll Company and the
Alexander Doll Company to establish the United States-Israeli Toy and Plastic Corporation. The company was created to produce material for toys in Israel; the U.S. Ideal CEO, Abraham Katz, was named president of the new company. In 1953, Ideal won the licensing rights to produce the
U.S. Forest Service's
Smokey Bear. They kept their licensing until 1968 when the U.S. Forest Service switched to Knickerbocker. as well as specific products like the "
Tressy" Gro-Hair doll.
1970–1999 By the early 1970s, 30% of the company's sales were games such as
Mouse Trap and Hands Down. In late 1971, Ideal joined the
New York Stock Exchange. Valued at $71 million, it was one of the U.S.'s top three toy companies. The toy was sold in stores beginning in 1980. The Rubik's Cube was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2014. Ideal had earnings of $3.7 million in fiscal year 1979–1980, but lost $15.5 million in fiscal year 1980–1981. Sales both years averaged around $150 million. In 1984, CBS sold Ideal to
Viewmaster International, which renamed itself "View-Master Ideal" in the process. In 1989, View-Master Ideal was bought by
Tyco Toys of Mt. Laurel,
New Jersey, for $43.9 million. The Ideal line remained part of Tyco until Tyco's merger with
Mattel, Inc., in 1997. Ideal's United Kingdom assets were sold to
Hasbro, which has since released
Mouse Trap,
Buck-a-roo!, and
KerPlunk under its
MB Games brand. Other toys that originated with Ideal continue to be marketed and sold by other companies, including
Rubik's Cube by
Hasbro and
Magic 8 Ball by
Mattel.
21st century The Ideal trademarks, and most toy molds not purchased by Hasbro or Mattel, were purchased by Jay Horowitz, of American Plastic Equipment, who later transferred all rights to American Plastic Equipment's subsidiary, American Classic Toys. Mr. Horowitz licensed the trademark and toy rights to Plaza Toys, to be used on its Fiddlestix building sticks products, and eventually sold the mark and toy rights in January 2011, to Poof-
Slinky. In January 2014, the Ideal brand and toy rights became part of a new company, Alex Brands, after the May 2013 acquisition of Alex Toys by Propel Equity Partners. In early 2019, Jay Horowitz of American Classic Toys entered into an exclusive license agreement with the Juna Group to represent worldwide select Ideal brands (not included in the sale to Poof-Slinky) in all categories outside of toys and playthings. In 2023, this license agreement was acquired from The Juna Group by CSN Press LLC, publishers of the weekly newspaper,
Comic Shop News. ==Product lines==