Dakin/Applause Toys

## Applause/Dakin Toys

An advertisement for Dakin in a 1983 toy catalog

**Applause Inc.** was a company that produced stuffed toys and collectible figurines. Along with normal plush animals, the company also produced licensed toys from Warner Brothers, *Garfield*, Jim Henson's *Muppets* and *Jurassic Park*.

## **Summary:**

The company was founded in 1966 by Wallace Berrie who originally named it after himself. In 1979, The Wallace Berrie Company obtained the worldwide rights to Peyo’s *The Smurfs* and would release mini figurines of the blue little characters (priced $1.50) the following year, going on to become the best-selling toys of 1982. On that very same year, the company acquired the Applause division from Knickerbocker Toys which allowed them the licenses to Disney, *Sesame Street,* and *Raggedy Ann and Andy*. In 1986, The Wallace Berrie Company changed their name to Applause and they would sell various small figures and dolls based on properties like *Batman* and The California Raisins up until the early 1990’s.Their stuffed animal industry reach its highest peak in 1986 with a total of $769 million generated by each product they sole, but slowly plummeted about $934 million in 1988 thanks to the rise of electronic and fad oriented toys like Teddy Ruxpin and the Cabbage Patch Kids. In 1992, Applause released the Magic Trolls Babies toy line which faced competition with the Battle Trolls figures manufactured by Hasbro. In May 1993, Design Licensing Group, the North American licensing representative for Viva La Wombat!, signed a multiyear licensing agreement with Applause, allowing the company to use the contemporary artwork on a wide range of decorative accessory products in conjunction with Springs Industries and Terragrafics, who would market novelty bedding and picture frames, respectively, under the Viva La Wombat! label. In 1994, the company further explored direct marketing, establishing Applause Express, a program which created products in prepackaged sets offered either retail or via phone order.

From 1991 to 1995, Applause was the world business leader in products based on classic entertainment licensed brands with in-store merchandising displays as a platform for entertainment event properties (ie. *The Lion King*, *The Flintstones, Pocahontas, The Little Mermaid, Star Trek,* and *Star Wars*). It was during this period that the company achieved their most significant event by purchasing the license rights to the *Looney Tunes* characters. In late 1995, Applause acquired Dakin Toys, a California based company from Woodland Hills that was the most widely recognized name in stuffed animals and was first founded in 1955 by Richard Dakin as an import business. This acquisition strengthened Applause's generic stuffed animal business to balance out its already strong entertainment license portfolio. Applause created a Strategic Alliances Group to oversee products for food-related and premium-based programs such as from Taco Bell, KFC, Kellogg's, General Mills, and Pillsbury. In 1998 the company produced fast food toys for *A Bug's Life* and *Mulan* (both McDonalds), *Pokémon* (KFC) and Roland Emmerich’s *Godzilla* (Taco Bell).

It became apparent in 2004 that the company wouldn’t be able to survive for much longer and in a rather dark ending to the story, CEO Bob Solomon took his own life. Applause filed for bankruptcy shortly after his death, but the brand name was acquired by Russ Berrie during an auction and lives on through his Kid Brands company.

## **Plushes:**

Given that they’ve released a lot of products from the late 1960’s to their tragic ending in the early 2000’s, it should come to no surprise that a few items of theirs never made it off the design table. These aren’t all the ones I could find, but these are just a few:

* The Simpsons/Applause

## **References:**

1. ↑ http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/applause-inc-history/
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applause\_(toy\_company)