Colorforms
Creators	Harry and Patricia Kislevitz
Manufacturer	Colorforms Corporation
Era	1951(?) - Present
Materials	vinyl Polyvinyl chloride Polyvinyl chloride, commonly abbreviated PVC, is a thermoplastic polymer. It is a vinyl polymer constructed of repeating vinyl groups having one hydrogen replaced by chloride. Polyvinyl chloride is the third most widely produced plastic, after polyethylene and polypropylene. PVC is widely used in...
Country	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

Colorforms, invented by Harry and Patricia Kislevitz, refer to a general type of vinyl adhesive toy

Toy

A toy is any object that can be used for play. Toys are associated commonly with children and pets. Playing with toys is often thought to be an enjoyable means of training the young for life in human society. Different materials are used to make toys enjoyable and cuddly to both young and old...

 set produced under the Colorforms brand.

Definition

Colorforms are paper-thin, die-cut vinyl sheet images and shapes that are meant to be applied to a shiny plastic laminated board, much like placing paper doll

Paper doll

Paper dolls are figures cut out of paper, with separate clothes that are usually held onto the dolls by folding tabs. They have been inexpensive children's toys for almost two hundred years. Today, many artists are turning paper dolls into an art form....

s against a paper backdrop. The images stick to the background by adhesion

Adhesion

Adhesion is any attraction process between dissimilar molecular species that can potentially bring them in close contact. By contrast, cohesion takes place between similar molecules....

, which takes place when two highly polished surfaces come in contact. The Colorforms vinyl pieces can be repositioned to create new scenarios.

History

Founded in 1951, Colorforms is one of the oldest and best-known brands in the toy industry. It was the very first plastic-based creative toy, and one of the first toys ever advertised on television.

The original Colorforms sets were assembled by Harry and Pat Kislevitz, themselves, in their New York city apartment. Boxed sets began appearing in the 1950s and featured basic geometric shapes and bright primary colors. The company used the slogan "It's More Fun To Play The Colorforms Way!" in print ads and television commercials to promote their products.

The defining feature of most Colorforms play sets is their signature plastic ‘Stick-Ons™’that can be placed and repositioned on top of graphic backgrounds to create endless scenes at a child's whim. Over time, the Colorforms line has included imaginative play sets, games and puzzles, interactive books and creative activities for young children.

Since its inception, more than 1 billion Colorforms play sets have been sold - a number that keeps growing every year. With more than 75 toy products in current distribution, Colorforms continues to build on time-honored creative play patterns that generations of children have experienced and remember fondly.

Product Timeline

• 1951 - Harry and Patricia Kislevitz experiment with new flexibly vinyl material in semi-gloss painted bathroom; This is the beginning of the Colorforms concept.
• 1957 - Popeye becomes Colorforms' first licensed character applied to its products.
• 1959 - Paul Rand creates the Colorforms logo, still one of the most recognizable product symbols in the toy industry today.
• 1962 - Miss Weather, a Colorforms character featuring a wardrobe that changed with the weather, makes her debut.
• 1981 - Colorforms acquires licensing rights to Shrinky Dinks kits; during its licensing period, Colorforms created and marketed more than 50 different Shrinky Dinks toy activity and creativity kits.
• 1997 - Toy Biz acquires Colorforms.
• 1998 - University Games acquires Colorforms from Toy Biz.
• 2000 - Colorforms listed among the Top 10 Toys of the Century by the Toy Industry of America (TIA).
• 2011 - Colorforms named one of the Top 100 Toys of All Time by TIME Magazine.

Design

Adhesion and repositionability are the elegantly simple concepts behind Colorforms' success. Harry and Patricia discovered this when a friend who manufactured pocketbooks gave these two art students a roll of flexible paper-thin vinyl. The Kislevitzes discovered that the vinyl stuck to the semi-gloss paint in their bathroom, and began cutting shapes out of the material and placing them on the wall. Having fun with the process, the Kislevitzes left extra material and a pair of scissors out for guests to add to their creation. Based on the concept's success, the Kislevitzes decided to market their idea as a consumer product. Originally targeting other artists and adults, the product quickly became popular with children and the Colorforms brand took hold.

Today

Now inspiring its third generation of children, the Colorforms product range continues to build on time-honored creative play patterns. Playing with Colorforms promotes creative expression, concentration skills, comprehension of spatial relationships and manual dexterity. Marking its 60th anniversary, University Games, Colorfroms' parent company, is introducing a number of new product concepts that bring Colorforms activity toys to new dimensions while remaining true to the key values of this time-honored brand.

• Colorforms is Color and Shape. A rectangle and two circles become a car, a square, and a triangle become a house. Put them together and a story is born.
• Colorforms is Visual, Creative and Expressive. With endless opportunities for expression, everyday life doesn’t have to be ordinary – for anyone.
• Colorforms is Original and Interactive. Creating a whole new world is easy – limited only by imagination.
• Colorforms is Reusable, Repositionable and Forgiving. It is the ultimate in personalization. Change your mind and change the scene, over and over.
• Colorforms is Trusted and Nostalgic. It is a classic childhood experience that parents and grandparents remember with great affection – they want to share that experience with their children and grandchildren and capture it for themselves.
• Colorforms is Contemporary. It appeals to children just as much today as it did to previous generations, and lives comfortably wherever imagination and visual play have a home.
• Colorforms is Approachable, Clean and Easy. No learning curves, no complicated instructions, no fuss, no muss – just pick it up and start playing.
• Colorforms is Universal. It’s good wholesome fun for everyone.

Licensed Characters

The first licensed character product was released in 1957, featuring Popeye. Since then, Colorforms has continued to expand its licensed character agreements, with dozens of brands connected to Colorforms.

Later Colorforms licensed various properties, producing box sets supporting various cartoons, TV series and movie releases, including Peanuts

Peanuts

Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...

, Tarzan

Tarzan

Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...

, The Three Stooges, Doctor Dolittle

Doctor Dolittle (film)

Doctor Dolittle is a 1967 American musical film directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Rex Harrison, Samantha Eggar, Anthony Newley and Richard Attenborough. It's adapted by Leslie Bricusse from the novel series by Hugh Lofting, primarily The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, The Story of Doctor...

and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (film)

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a 1968 musical film with a script by Roald Dahl and Ken Hughes, and songs by the Sherman Brothers, loosely based on Ian Fleming's novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car. It starred Dick Van Dyke as Caractacus Potts and Sally Ann Howes as Truly Scrumptious. The...

. Over the years, the licensed properties associated with Colorforms have been many - too many to list. In 2011, the 60th anniversary year, Colorforms added the Green Lantern, My Little Pony, The Gruffalo, Tonka and Transformers, to name a few.

Products

Colorforms products have expanded beyond the simple "paper doll" concept to more than 75 Colorforms toy products currently in distribution, with more added every year.
The Colorforms series later expanded into cartoon character sets such as Popeye and Gumby and original character sets on household themes such as Miss Weather, a girl whose wardrobe changed with the weather, and Miss Cookie's Kitchen, a woman with a variety of kitchen tools and utensils.

Other products

The Colorforms Corporation also produced Shrinky Dinks

Shrinky Dinks

Shrinky Dinks are a children's toy/activity kit consisting of large flexible sheets which, when heated in an oven, shrink to small hard plates without altering their color or shape. They reached the height of their popularity in the 1980s...

, The Outer Space Men

Colorform Aliens

The Outer Space Men – also known as the Colorform Aliens – is a group of seven "bendy" action figures produced by the Colorforms Company in 1968, They were designed by toy inventor Mel Birnkrant...

 bendy action figure

Action figure

An action figure is a posable character figurine, made of plastic or other materials, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, video game, or television program. These action figures are usually marketed towards boys and male collectors...

s (1968), Dress-Up Sets, and Monster Print Putty. The latter, which was boxed in a skull-shaped plastic shield for a heightened "monster" effect, was a pliable clay-like substance that picked up newspaper-ink images when pressed upon them, similar to Silly Putty

Silly Putty

Silly Putty , is the Crayola-owned trademark name for a class of silicone polymers. It is marketed today as a toy for children, but was originally created by accident during research into potential rubber substitutes for use by the United States in World War II...

, except that Monster Print Putty could then transfer those images onto a special "Monster Print Paper" when applied to it.

Colorforms acquired the rights to license and distribute Shrinky Dinks in 1981, and continued creating and promoting their products until the brand was sold to Milton Bradley in 1989.

Acquisition

In 1997, Colorforms was acquired by Toy Biz. A year later, University Games acquired Colorforms from Toy Biz.