The parents of Fisher-Price: four visionaries obsessed with toys

In the early 1930s, East Aurora was a quiet town in western New York State. Everyone knew each other. In this village of wooden houses, Herman Fisher had a peculiar habit: he went door to door with a bag full of toy prototypes. He would greet the neighbors, ask to be let into the dining rooms of families with children for a moment, place the toys on the floor, and silently watch as the children dragged them, rolled them, or pulled their strings. If a toy sparked interest, he made a note of it; if it didn't work, he picked it up and returned to the workshop to adjust it. For Fisher, this almost empirical process was the only way to create toys that actually worked. While Fisher worked on the prototypes, Irving Price did the calculations, sought funding, and leveraged business contacts. He was a respected man in the town: he had been mayor and had made his career at Woolworth, one of the key retail chains in the United States in the last century. He knew what he could sell, how to present it, and who to get it to. Beside him, his wife, illustrator Margaret Evans Price, transformed the toy prototypes into charming characters and animals, giving the project an appealing visual identity. While Fisher refined the game, the Prices built the structure that would make it possible for it to become one of the most important companies in the history of the global toy industry.

Today, almost a century after those first wooden toys, Fisher-Price is part of Mattel, one of the industry giants, with annual sales of over $5.3 billion. Its products reach dozens of countries and remain one of the most recognized brands in the preschool stage. How did the brand's founders manage to bring to fruition a project that, almost a century later, is still a success in stores?

The beginnings of Fisher-Price

The story begins in 1930, in the midst of the Great Depression. Fisher, Price, Margaret Evans Price, and shopkeeper Helen Schelle combined talent, experience, and a touch of audacity to found a small toy company. They started with an initial capital of $100,000. In their first year, they designed sixteen wooden toys made of pine and decorated with brightly colored labels. They were simple pieces, but designed with a principle that Fisher repeated like a mantra: to create ingenious, durable toys with real play value. In 1931, they took them to the New York International Toy Fair. That fair changed everything: the Dr. Doodle, Granny Doodle, and other toys they presented became an immediate success.

Growth was meteoric. Despite the economic crisis of the time, Fisher-Price sold more than two million toys in the 1930s and became a household name in toy stores across the United States. Fisher continued testing each prototype with children and perfected each model until it withstood his demanding durability tests. In 1935, the company took a decisive step: it signed an agreement with Walt Disney to manufacture the first official toys of characters like Mickey Mouse. That gamble was key for two reasons: it put Fisher-Price on the international map and inaugurated a model—licensed toys—that is fundamental to the entire industry today. By 1936, the company was already profitable, and Fisher celebrated the milestone by personally distributing thousands of silver coins among the workers.

After the first major success of 1936, Fisher-Price grew rapidly and adapted well even to World War II, when it temporarily replaced toys with military equipment. With the baby boom Given the scarcity of wood at the time, the company opted for plastic. In the 1960s came the product that would define a generation: Play Family, later known as Little People, which became a sales phenomenon and solidified the brand's position as a leader in the preschool segment. By the time Herman Fisher retired in 1969, the company was already large and established enough for the retail giant Quaker Oats to acquire it and further expand it. In 1993, Mattel bought Fisher-Price for $1 billion and integrated it as its flagship global brand for early childhood.