ToyBiz

Toy Biz (formerly stylized as ToyBiz and later re-branded as Marvel Toys) was an American toy company and a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment. It was best known for producing toys, mainly action figures of licensed brands and characters.

The company originated in Montreal, Quebec, as Charan Toys. In 1988, Charan Toys was renamed to ToyBiz and became an American firm. In 1990, it obtained the master toy license for Marvel Entertainment Group, and by 1993 became partially owned by Marvel. In 1998, ToyBiz merged with Marvel Entertainment Group to form Marvel Enterprises, with ToyBiz becoming its main toy subsidiary. In 2005, Marvel Enterprises was renamed to Marvel Entertainment, and Toy Biz began to replace "Toy Biz" with "Marvel Toys" on some of its figure lines to reflect the name change.

Due to Marvel Entertainment's bankruptcy, Hasbro purchased the rights to the master toy license for Marvel owned characters, with the first products releasing in January 2007. Marvel Toys attempted to survive with non-Marvel owned characters throughout 2007. The website for Marvel Toys eventually became inactive in late 2007, effectively marking the demise of the subsidiary.

Charan Toys (Canadian company)
The company's original forerunner was a Canadian company, Chantex, Inc., which started in the late 1800s. Started by the Zuckerman family, the business grew from $.16 million in sales to sales of $4.5 million in 1980. In 1980, Chantex merged with Earl Takefman's Randim Marketing, Inc., a school supply manufacturer and wholesaler to become Charan Industries Inc. In 1984, Charan went public. Its Charan Toy, Inc. subsidiary became a leading licensing toy company in 1985. In addition to toys, Charan used a very broad approach to implementing its brands across all lines, including acquiring a hockey equipment brand in the mid-1980s.

Toy Biz (American company)
Later, Toy Biz signed license agreements with DC and Marvel, to acquire rights to its characters. In 1990, Charan, including the Toy Biz subsidiary, was purchased by businessman Ike Perlmutter. In 1993, Toy Biz made a deal for "exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free licenses" of Marvel Characters for 46 percent of Toy Biz equity. Avi Arad, a toy designer and comic book fan joined Toy Biz that same year.

As of 1995, Toy Biz had 24 percent profit margins, which was better than Mattel's margin. Toy Biz continued licensing outside brands, including Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess action figures based on the Action Pack television series shown on many New World television stations. Also, agreements with Gerber and NASCAR were acquired. In 1995, Toy Biz acquired Spectra Star, Inc. and Quest Aerospace Education, Inc., both toy companies. Toy Biz started up its Classic Heroes candy division in 1996, which sold candy/toy combinations using mainly Marvel characters. The company also entered the electronic learning aids (ELA) segment of the toy industry in 1996 with a licensing agreement with Apple Computer.

Toy Biz partially acquired Marvel Entertainment Group. In the late 1990s, Marvel Entertainment Group filed for bankruptcy and became the subject of a battle for control in bankruptcy court. The company was salvaged in 1997 and merged with Toy Biz in 1998. The new company became Marvel Enterprises with Toy Biz became a division of the new company.



Toy Biz as a subsidiary
In 1999, Toy Biz ventured into professional wrestling. Toy Biz to acquired the master toy license of World Championship Wrestling (WCW). After two years, the license deal was cut short, due to WCW being purchased by the World Wrestling Federation/WWF (Now World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE) in 2001. The company also licensed products for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

In 2001, Marvel Enterprises licensed the rights to the Toy Biz name to a Hong Kong-based toy manufacturer, Toy Biz Worldwide Ltd. Toy Biz also outsourced much of the manufacturing to Toy Biz Worldwide. The deal was ended in 2006.

In September 2005, Marvel Enterprises changed its name to Marvel Entertainment to reflect the corporation's expansion into creating the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As a result of this change, Toy Biz would replace some branding of its figure lines, and replace it with a 'Marvel Toys' logo instead. This only applied to non-Marvel Comics products, as Marvel Comics characters would still continue to use the Toy Biz branding.

Marvel Entertainment licensing agreement to Hasbro
In January 2006, Marvel Entertainment signed a five-year licensing agreement with Hasbro Inc. for $205 million, giving Hasbro the right to make toys and games based on Marvel Comic licenses. As a result of this, Marvel Entertainment prematurely terminated its agreement with Toy Biz Worldwide Ltd, by a year. As a result of the early termination, Marvel Entertainment paid Toy Biz Worldwide a penalty of between $13-16 million USD. Marvel Entertainment officially stopped using the "Toy Biz" branding and name from the 1st of January 2007, and the division completely became Marvel Toys.

Throughout 2007, the division struggled to stay afloat without the Marvel Comic characters. The company introduced a series called the Legendary Comic Book Heroes - making action figures of non-Marvel Comic characters, though it suffered with poor sales. The company also furthered its TNA Wrestling, Code Lyoko and Curious George lines. Marvel Entertainment quietly began to close the division. In late 2007, the company's website went down, effectively ending Marvel Toys.