Play Along Toys was a

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

-based toy company, and a wholly owned division of

Jakks Pacific Jakks Pacific, Inc. is an American company that designs and markets toys and consumer products, with a range of products that feature numerous children's toy licenses. The company is named after its founder, Jack Friedman, who had previously fo ...

. In 1999, the founders of Play Along (among them Charlie Emby, Jay Foreman, and Larry Geller) chose the Britney Spears Doll line as the first licensing venture with their new company. The choice proved successful and was followed by other celebrity dolls including

Aaron Carter Aaron Charles Carter (December 7, 1987November 5, 2022) was an American singer and rapper. He came to fame as a teen pop singer in the late 1990s, establishing himself as a star among preteen and teenage audiences during the first years of th ...

Venus Williams Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American professional tennis player. A former world No. 1 in both singles and doubles, Williams has won seven Grand Slam singles titles, five at Wimbledon and two at the US Open. She is ...

, Serena Williams and Mandy Moore. In 2001 Play Along partnered with toy design studio

Art Asylum Minimates are a block-styled miniature action figure originally created by Art Asylum in 2002 and now released by Diamond Select Toys. The basic Minimate figure design has a tall body that resembles an extremely simplified human form with 14 point ...

for production of the studio's toys. Then, in 2002, Play Along decided to bring back one of the plush doll lines of the 1980s, the

Care Bears Care Bears are multi-colored bears, originally painted in 1981 by artist Elena Kucharik to be used on greeting cards from American Greetings. In 1983, the characters were turned into plush teddy bears. The characters headlined their own televis ...

. This brand, for which Play Along was awarded "License of the Year 2002" by the Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association (LIMA). As the company's toy lines continued to grow, so did the Play Along team, having grown from a staff of five into a company with more than 100 employees, both in the U.S. and Hong Kong, producing toys for multiple brands including the

, The Dog and Friends, The Lord of the Rings: Armies of Middle-earth, The Cat in the Hat, Teletubbies, Curly Q's, Doodle Bear, Sky Dancers and the Cabbage Patch Kids. The success of the company and its licenses made it an attractive target for others, with

buying the privately owned company in 2004, Play Along now run as a division within Jakks. In Fall of 2007, Play Along released dolls and playsets based on Disney Channel TV series, Hannah Montana, and movie, the Cheetah Girls. The lines were very popular during the Christmas season. As of Fall 2008, more products have been added onto the Hannah Montana line, including the 2008 Holiday Popstar doll and Malibu Beach House playset; also, dolls based on the Disney Channel movie,

Camp Rock ''Camp Rock'' is a 2008 American musical television film directed by Matthew Diamond from a screenplay by Karin Gist, Regina Hicks, Julie Brown, and Paul Brown. The 73rd Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM), the film stars Demi Lovato, Joe Jo ...

, were launched. In 2009, the last doll line was made and the company closed.

Products

1999

* Britney Spears Dolls * Sabrina: The Animated Series Dolls * Bruce Lee/

Enter the Dragon ''Enter the Dragon'' ( zh, t=龍爭虎鬥) is a 1973 martial arts film directed by Robert Clouse and written by Michael Allin. The film stars Bruce Lee, John Saxon and Jim Kelly. It was Lee's final completed film appearance before his death o ...

Bubblegum Bubble gum or bubblegum is a type of chewing gum, designed to be inflated out of the mouth as a bubble. Bubble gum flavor While there is a bubble gum "flavor" – which various artificial flavorings including esters are mixed to obtain – it ...

and Serena Williams Dolls * V.I.P. Dolls

2000

* Mandy Moore Doll * Sisqo Doll

2001

Doll * Precious Moments *

Lisa Frank Lisa Frank (born 1955) is an American businesswoman, the founder of Lisa Frank Incorporated, headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. She is known for producing whimsical commercial design for school supplies and other products that are primarily mark ...

A*Teens A-Teens (stylized as A★TEENS or A*Teens) were a Swedish pop music group from Stockholm, Sweden, formed by Niklas Berg in 1998 originally as an ABBA tribute band called ABBA-Teens and was later renamed A-Teens. The band members were Marie Serne ...

Dolls *

Dream A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, althou ...

Dolls * 2gether Dolls * LFO Dolls

2002

* Spy Kids

2004

* Cabbage Patch Kids * Doodle Bear/Doodle Monster (Discontinued 2008) * '' The Lord of the Rings'' (2004 only) * Teletubbies

2005

* Sky Dancers *

Dragon Flyz ''Dragon Flyz'' is an animated television series created by Savin Yeatman-Eiffel and produced by Gaumont Multimédia in association with Abrams/Gentile Entertainment. The show, based on a toy line by Galoob, ran for two seasons, in syndication i ...

2006

* Domo * Puppy in My Pocket * Speed Stacks (discontinued 2008)

2007

* Cheetah Girls Dolls (2007 only) *

Hairspray Hairspray may refer to: * Hair spray, a personal grooming product that keeps hair protected from humidity and wind * ''Hairspray'' (1988 film), a film by John Waters ** ''Hairspray'' (1988 soundtrack), the film's soundtrack album ** ''Hairspray ...

Dolls (2007 only) * Hannah Montana Dolls * Barney * Play Along Club (2007 only) * Sweet Secrets (Discontinued 2008)

2008

Dolls * '' The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian'' * Clifford * Curious George *

Miffy Miffy ( nl, Nijntje, pronounced ) is a Character (arts), fictional rabbit appearing in a series of picture books drawn and written by Dutch artist Dick Bruna. The original Dutch name, "Nijntje", is a shortening of the diminutive ''konijntje'', "l ...

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...

* Taylor Swift Doll * '' The Wiggles'' * '' SpongeBob SquarePants''

2009

* '' Hannah Montana: The Movie'' Dolls

References

{{reflist Toy companies of the United States Companies based in Florida Doll manufacturing companies