Playskool

Playskool was founded in Milwaukee originally producing wooden educational toys for schools. It focused on developmental play for young children; Tinkertoy was invented by Charles Pajeau in 1914 and came to Playskool only later by acquisition. Acquired by Milton Bradley in 1968 and by Hasbro in 1984.

Lucille King, a Milwaukee schoolteacher who developed wooden toys as classroom teaching aids while working at the John Schroeder Lumber Company, where the line began as Playskool Institute.

Playskool started as an educational proposition rather than a commercial one: toys designed by a teacher, for use in a classroom, to develop specific skills. That origin gave the brand a credibility with parents and educators it never lost, and its name — "play school" — states the premise directly.

The range was wooden and simple: pull toys, shape sorters, pegboards, wooden blocks, puzzles and the school bus with its peg passengers. Playskool acquired Tinkertoy and worked with Lincoln Logs, bringing two of the oldest American construction toys under its name, and it acquired Halsam and its hardwood blocks in 1962.

Postwar success came with plastic as much as wood — Weebles, whose weighted egg bodies "wobble but they don't fall down", Sit 'n Spin, and Gloworm. Milton Bradley acquired Playskool in 1968, and Hasbro acquired Milton Bradley in 1984; Playskool remains Hasbro's preschool brand alongside Fisher-Price's rivalry from Mattel.