type private industry high end fashion doll design production marketing and distribution founded 1991 founder robert tonner headquarters kingston new york u.s.a area served world wide website official website tonner doll company inc. is a collectible doll design and distribution company located in kingston new york . founded by robert tonner in 1991 tonner doll designs and markets original doll lines as well as a number of licensed dolls for movies such as harry potter spider man 3 and twilight . its original products include the tyler wentworth kitty collier and antoinette series . contents 1 history 2 licensing rights 3 effanbee buyout 4 notes 5 references 6 external links history edit tonner doll company inc. was founded in 1991 by robert tonner under the original name robert tonner doll designs rtdd . originally the company had only three employees tonner his partner harris safier and a part time seamstress . in february 1991 rtdd made its public debut at the american international toy fair in new york city . multi jointed porcelain fashion dolls and jointed porcelain child dolls were displayed at the fair in limited editions ranging in price from 650 to 1500 . through the marketing of safier newly hired publicist rebecca plasker along with robert tonner s quality of designs rtdd saw exponential growth in its first year . by the end of 1992 rtdd was well on its way to becoming a prosperous enterprise . however the massive demand would be overwhelming for the very small rtdd and only a fraction of the original orders would be filled . in 1995 tonner doll gained licensing rights for the recreation of the 1950s paper doll betsy mccall for reintroduction to the collectors market . to keep the cost down tonner decided to produce the doll in china . made from vinyl the betsy mccall license was one of the initial mainstream commercial successes of the company . over the coming years rtdd began to grow the size of its staff to accommodate the rising demand . this growth would lead the company to be renamed the tonner doll company ; a move that tonner felt reflected the growth of an independent artist driven company to what was becoming a professional business . by the year 2000 tonner doll employed 24 people including designers marketers and various sales and administrative staff . licensing rights edit tonner doll has the licensing rights to design and develop dolls based on many american television cinema comic book and video game franchises . since the 1995 issue of the betsy mccall doll tonner doll has gained the rights and recreated doll designs for movies such as 1997 s titanic kate winslet and 1999 s star wars episode i the phantom menace natalie portman . in 2006 tonner doll gained licensing rights to recreate the cast of the harry potter series as well as memoirs of a geisha . tonner doll has licensed comic book heroes and villains from dc comics for their dc stars collection . the line includes 13 17 and 22 inch dolls including various versions of aquaman batgirl batman black canary catwoman donna troy dove green lantern harley quinn hawkwoman huntress joker lois lane mera poison ivy power girl raven starfire supergirl linda danvers superman wonder woman diana prince and zatanna . 1 in the company s history tonner doll has also licensed the twilight saga lara croft tomb raider legend chicago 2002 film dreamgirls the chronicles of narnia the golden compass mary engelbreit s ann estelle fancy nancy th tre de la mode dick tracy get smart disney princesses mary poppins davy crockett pirates of the caribbean ava gardner joan crawford bette davis gone with the wind the wizard of oz miss piggy miss america and characters from the comic strip for better or for worse by lynn johnston . new licenses in the works include tim burton alice in wonderland 2010 film lord of the rings disney s prince of persia and disney princess tiana from the princess and the frog disney s first african american princess . effanbee buyout edit in 2002 tonner doll purchased the effanbee doll company inc. to obtain the rights to several classic characters from the company s century old history . they gained exclusive rights to bernard lipfert s 1928 patsy doll patsyette . effanbee also had the rights to reproduce fashion dolls licensed by tribune media like the brenda starr girl reporter series and the comic strip little orphan annie . for the first few years after the buyout the effanbee remained an independent subsidiary of tonner doll however today the two have become a conglomerate run under a singular management . the effanbee doll lines while are designed produced marketed and distributed by tonner doll retain the effanbee name . notes edit dc stars character figure collection . tonner doll . retrieved 2011 12 26 . references edit robert tonner inspirations a personal guided tour through the culture that shaped the acclaimed doll designers career and creations . reverie publishing company 2006 the robert tonner story dreams and dolls . by stephanie finnegan . portfolio press 2000 company website external links edit the tonner doll company inc. official website effanbee official website robert tonner official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title tonner doll company & oldid 741431871 categories doll manufacturing companiestoy companies of the united states navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages edit links this page was last modified on 27 september 2016 at 13 18 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view