Thinkway Toys was a Canadian-based toy company known for creating most of the tie-in toys for Pixar films. Being Pixar's main collaborator, Thinkway made toys for films such as Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc., and WALL-E. The company has also made toys for Disney, Universal and Warner Brothers as well, with some toys being made for franchises such as Despicable Me and Star Wars.
Founded in Canada, in the city of Markham, Ontario, Thinkway Toys lasted from 1984 to 2023, and served as the worldwide master toy license for Toy Story from 1995 to 2003.
History[]
When Toy Story was being made in 1995, Disney was having trouble finding distributors willing to produce the toy products for the film. With the film coming out in only 8 months, larger toy companies such as Mattel and Hasbro as well as Disney Consumer Products had turned down the daunting task of having to produce the Toy Story merchandise. Then in February, after bringing their idea for Toy Story brand toys to the New York Toy Fair, the small retailer Thinkway Toys agreed to produce them. By the film's release, despite the relatively short period of time given, Thinkway Toys had created the first Buzz and Woody toys.