industry toys founded november 10 1969 founder thomas g. murdough jr. headquarters hudson ohio u.s. area served worldwide products children s toys number of employees 500 parent mga entertainment website www.littletikes.com www.littletikes.co.uk uk site little tikes is an american based manufacturer of children s toys with headquarters and manufacturing located in hudson ohio . the company also has other manufacturing and distribution facilities in asia and europe . little tikes products are mostly low tech molded plastic toys aimed primarily at infants and young children for indoor and outdoor use including its party kitchen and turtle sandbox . the company was established by thomas g. murdough jr. in november 10 1969 in aurora ohio . the company was acquired by rubbermaid in 1984 . murdough signed an employment agreement with rubbermaid under which he would stay with the new parent company for a five year period as president and general manager . in may 1989 murdough announced that he would be leaving little tikes at the end of that year to pursue other interests . 1 in 1991 murdough established a new toy business called step 2 now based in streetsboro ohio 2 aimed at competing with and outselling little tikes . 3 in 1999 rubbermaid merged with newell to form newell rubbermaid . the company was acquired by mga entertainment in september 2006 from newell rubbermaid for an undisclosed sum . 4 as of 2006 the 500 employees at little tikes were generating approximately 250 million in revenue of rubbermaid s 6.3 billion in annual sales and the acquisition was projected to add 15 to 25 million to mga entertainment s bottom line . the purchase was said to allow a better fit with mga entertainment a manufacturer of children s toys and entertainment products founded in 1979 whose products included the bratz line of fashion dolls . 5 the firm s red and yellow cozy coupe toy car reached 6 million units in sales by its 25th anniversary in 2004 6 and was called the world s best selling car for much of this decade by the new york times in 1998 outselling the honda accord and ford taurus . 7 while the company had traditionally focused on durable plastic toys that allow children to use their imagination while at play by 2004 it had introduced its magicook kitchen which uses radio frequency devices to allow components to communicate with each other such as having the stove respond when it recognizes that a piece of food is placed on it . 8 on may 14th 2014 a little tikes shady jump n slide bouncer went airborne due to a strong wind gust injuring three children two seriously . 9 references edit staff . little tikes founder to step down akron beacon journal may 13 1989 . accessed march 28 2009 . about us . step 2 . retrieved 2010 02 25 . staff . toy firm founder tries again can new venture beat little tikes at its own game san jose mercury news november 11 1991 . accessed march 29 2009 . luke robert . newell rubbermaid sells toy unit . atlanta journal constitution september 12 2006 . accessed march 28 2009 . stroope leslie . little tikes sold to bratz maker crain s cleveland business september 11 2006 . accessed march 28 2009 . the little tikes company history little tikes . accessed march 28 2009 . leimbach dulcie . very big seller in a very small market the new york times october 21 1998 . accessed march 29 2009 . via associated press . toymakers wonder how much tech is too much usa today june 2 2004 . accessed march 28 2009 . kids hurt after bounce house soars high in the air national public radio may 14 2014 . accessed may 14 2014 . external links edit official website v t e mga entertainment current brands bratz itikes lalaloopsy moxie girlz novi stars little workshop girls vi and va former brands bfc ink moxie teenz my e pets bratzillaz retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title little tikes & oldid 740122159 categories companies based in ohioamerican companies established in 1969summit county ohiotoy companies of the united statesmga entertainment brands 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 esperanto edit links this page was last modified on 19 september 2016 at 05 26 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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