Playmates Toys

Playmates Holdings Limited
FormerlyPlaymates Industrial
Company typePublic
SEHK: 869
IndustryToy industry
Founded20 June 1966 (1966-06-20)
FounderSam Chan Tai-ho
Headquarters,
China
Key people
To Shu Sing (chairman)
Websiteplaymatestoys.com

Playmates Toys Limited is a Hong Kong toy company. The company was founded in Hong Kong in 1966 by Sam Chan Tai-ho as Playmates Industrial, manufacturing dolls for other companies. In 1975, Playmates began marketing its own line of preschool toys, and in 1977, opened an American subsidiary in Boston, Massachusetts. Another subsidiary was founded in California in 1983; in 1984, the company went public.

The company's first big success was in 1986, marketing a tape-playing, electronic robot doll named Cricket. In 1989, the company marketed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures which sold extremely well.