Ideal Toy Company

Ideal Toy Company was founded as Ideal Novelty and Toy Company in New York in 1907 by Morris and Rose Michtom after they had invented the Teddy bear in 1903. The company changed its name to Ideal Toy Company in 1938. In 1982, the company was sold to CBS Toy Company, which in turn sold Ideal to Viewmaster International in 1987, which renamed itself View-Master Ideal in the process. View-Master Ideal was later bought by Tyco Toys, Inc. of Mt. Laurel, New Jersey. The Ideal line remained part of Tyco until Tyco’s merger with Mattel, Inc., in 1997. The UK assets were sold to Hasbro which has released Mouse Trap and KerPlunk under its MB Games brand.

Certain brands and toys that originated with Ideal continued to be manufactured by Mattel, including Rubik's Cube and Magic 8-ball.

Ideal began making dolls in 1907. Their first doll was “Yellow Kid” from the “The Yellow Kid” comic strip by Richard Felton Outcault. After that they 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. Ideal produced over 200 variations of dolls throughout the composition era.

During the Baby Boom era, Ideal became the largest doll making company in the United States and began selling dolls under license in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Their most popular dolls included Betsy Wetsy, Toni, Saucy Walker, Shirley Temple, Miss Revlon, Patti Playpal, Tammy, Thumbelina, and Crissy.