Worlds of Wonder (toy company)
| Industry | Consumer electronics, video games |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1985 |
| Defunct | 1991 |
| Fate | Closed, properties liquidated |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Don Kingsborough |
| Products | Teddy Ruxpin, Lazer Tag, Nintendo Entertainment System (distribution) |
| Revenue | $320 million sales in 1986 |
Worlds of Wonder (WoW) was an American toy company founded in 1985 by former Atari sales president Don Kingsborough, and former Atari employee Mark Robert Goldberg. Its founding was inspired by a prototype that became its launch product, Teddy Ruxpin. In 1986, it launched Lazer Tag and filed an IPO which Fortune magazine called "one of the year's most sought after stock sales". WoW partnered with the young Nintendo of America as retail sales distributor, crucial to the landmark launch and rise of the Nintendo Entertainment System from 1986 to 1987.
Still in the wake of the disastrous video game crash of 1983, WoW leveraged the market power of its own hit toys pressure the retailers to buy the NES. The breakthrough success of the NES resurrected the failed American video game market. Nintendo capped WoW's windfall sales commissions for the NES at $1 million per year per sales staff. In 1987, WoW's success had diminished due to several factors, including its miscalculation of its products' obsolescence in the toy industry's boom–bust cycle. In October, Nintendo canceled the partnership and hired away WoW's sales staff.
Worlds of Wonder was closed in 1991. Across the decades, other companies have given major technology refreshes to new generations of Teddy Ruxpin and Lazer Tag.