But the movie, while not exactly a flop, wasn’t the big success the studio had predicted. In the early 1980s, the movie version of “Annie” provided another licensing opportunity for the company, which invested heavily in a full line of dolls and accessories. Knickerbocker established Applause as a separate division for many of its licensed products in the late 1970s. By this time, the company’s headquarters were in Middlesex, New Jersey. The 1970s brought deals to make Holly Hobbie, Bozo the Clown, and Little House on the Prairie dolls, in cloth and vinyl. They offered a huge variety over the next twenty years. Knickerbocker’s biggest licensing coup came in 1962 when they convinced the family of Raggedy Ann and Andy creator Johnny Gruelle to let them produce the iconic rag dolls. By this period, the dolls were made overseas. Characters from Hanna-Barbera cartoons, including The Flintstones, Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear were big sellers. The boom in children’s animated television series provided a renewed opportunity for licensing in the 1960s. All-vinyl squeaky toys were also part of the catalog. In the late 1950s and 1960s, Knickerbocker produced many dolls and anthropomorphic animals with soft vinyl faces, and others with vinyl heads on plush bodies. The products from this era were produced at a factory in North Hollywood, California, although the company was still headquartered in New York. Toys, including guns, trucks, and sand pails, were also part of the line. The company made small hard plastic dolls and animal figures in the post-war period. They also licensed characters from the comic strip Blondie during this period.

They produced dolls from Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio films, in both composition and cloth.

They continued producing plush animals throughout much of their history.Ī licensing deal with Walt Disney brought Knickerbocker great success in the 1930s. By the 1920s, Leo Weiss was president of the company, which at that time made mostly teddy bears.

Not much is known of the firm’s early history, but it is believed that the family changed its name to Knickerbocker (a nickname for Dutch New Yorkers) at some point. The Knickerbocker Toy Company dates back to the mid-19th century, with a New York family of Dutch immigrants named Van Whye, who produced wooden alphabet blocks and puzzles.

Magic attic dolls