Irwin Toy, a company that went from being a small Canadian toy distributor to a major toy manufacturer in just ten years, has been sold to Livgroup Investments, Ltd., a private holding company that purchased 100% of Irwin's stock for a total of $55 million.  Irwin, which manufactures a full line of Dragonball Z toys as well as Sailor Moon dolls, owes it success and prominence to the acquisition of the Dragonball Z license for Canada and the U.S.  When the Dragonball Z series first debuted in America as a syndicated TV series it ran up against the golden age of the infomercial.  Dragonball was forced to air in major markets at 5:30 am and other equally undesirable time slots.  Bandai America, which inherited the toy license from its parent company, dropped Dragonball after putting out toys for just one year.  Several toy companies (including Diamond Select) passed on the license before Irwin acquired it.  When Dragonball Z finally made it to the Cartoon Network, it became a major success and Irwin's gamble paid off bigtime. 

 

Irwin had a major presence at this year's New York Toy Fair (see 'Irwin Shows Off Horde of DBZ Toys'), and with the continuing success of their DBZ toy line, some rumors had the company being acquired by Mattel or Hasbro.  Unfortunately Irwin's success came a couple of years too late; both Mattel and Hasbro are in financial hot water, having had more than their share of financial difficulties brought on by expensive acquisitions.   Still, if Irwin didn't get the kind of incredible payout that other companies did during the height of the big two's acquisition mania, it ended up doing very well.  Irwin's new owner, Livgroup Investments, is privately owned by investor Richard Ivey and consumer products specialist Jean-Rene Halde.  Mr. Halde will take over Irwin Toys as CEO.  His job will be to find the property that will eventually be able to replace Dragonball Z and maintain Irwin Toy's newfound prominence in the North American toy market.