The company was established by Tom G. Murdough Jr. and Jack E. Hill in
Aurora, Ohio in 1967; Murdough purchased Hill's share of the company in 1969. The company was acquired by
Rubbermaid in 1984. Murdough signed an employment agreement with Rubbermaid under which he would stay with the new parent company for a five-year period as president and general manager through 1989. In 1991, Murdough established a new toy business called Step 2, now based in
Streetsboro, Ohio, aimed at competing with and outselling Little Tikes. In 1999, Rubbermaid merged with Newell to form
Newell Rubbermaid. The company was acquired by
MGA Entertainment in September 2006 from Newell Rubbermaid for an undisclosed sum. As of 2006, the 500 employees at Little Tikes were generating approximately $250 million in revenue of Rubbermaid's $6.3 billion in annual sales, and the acquisition was projected to add $15 to $25 million to MGA Entertainment's bottom line. The purchase was said to allow a better fit with MGA Entertainment, a manufacturer of children's toys and entertainment products founded in 1979 whose products included the
Bratz line of
fashion dolls. with a child occupant The firm's red and yellow
Cozy Coupe toy car, released in 1979, reached 6 million units in sales by its 25th anniversary in 2004, and was called the "world's best-selling car for much of this decade" by
The New York Times in 1998, outselling the
Honda Accord and
Ford Taurus. In 2009, cartoon eyes and a smile were added to the car. Murdough was nominated for the
Toy Industry Hall of Fame in 2019 and inducted in 2020. ==See also==