Coleco

Coleco (1932 - 1989) was a company founded in 1932 by Maurice Greenberg as "Connecticut Leather Company". It became a highly successful toy company in the 1980s, known for its mass-produced version of Cabbage Patch Kids and, to a lesser extent, for its video game consoles Coleco Telstar and ColecoVision.

History

Coleco originally sold leather supplies to shoemakers. This led to a business in leather craft kits in the 1950s which led to the sale of plastic wading pools in the 1960s. The leather part of the business was then sold off.

Under CEO Arnold Greenberg, the company entered the video game console business with the Telstar in 1976. Dozens of companies were introducing game systems that year after Atari's successful Pong console. Nearly all of these new games were based on General Instrument's "Pong-on-a-chip". However, General Instrument had underestimated demand, and there were severe shortages; but Coleco had been one of the first to place their order, and as a result was one of the few companies to receive their full order. Though dedicated game consoles did not last long on the market, thanks to their early order Coleco was able to break even.

While the dedicated game console market was short lived, Coleco continued to do well in electronics. They transitioned next into handheld electronic games, a market popularized by Mattel. Coleco produced two very popular lines of games, the "head to head" series of two player sports games, and the mini-arcade series of licensed video arcade titles.

The ColecoVision video game console

Coleco returned to the video game console market in 1982 with the launch of the ColecoVision. While the system was quite popular, Coleco hedged their bet on videogames by introducing a line of game cartridges for the Atari 2600 and Mattel Intellivision. They also introduced the Coleco Gemini, a clone of the popular Atari 2600.

When the video game business began to implode in 1983, it seemed clear that video games were being replaced by home computers. Coleco's strategy was to introduce the Coleco Adam home computer, both as a stand-alone system and as an expansion module to ColecoVision. This effort failed, in large part because Adams were often unreliable. The Adam flopped; Coleco withdrew from electronics early in 1985.

Also in 1983, Coleco released the Cabbage Patch Kids series of dolls which were wildly successful. In 1986, they introduced an ALF plush based on the furry alien character who had his own TV series at the time, as well as a talking version and cassette-playing "Storytelling ALF" doll. But the staggering success of the dolls wasn't enough to stem the tide of red ink that had begun with the launch of the Adam computer. In 1988, the company filed for bankruptcy.

The reorganized Coleco sold off all of its North American assets and outsourced thousands of jobs to foreign countries, closing plants in Amsterdam, New York, and other cities. In 1989, the assets of Coleco were purchased by Hasbro.

In 2005, River West Brands, a Chicago-based brand revitalization company, re-introduced Coleco to the marketplace. In late 2006, they introduced the Coleco Sonic, a handheld system containing twenty Sega Master System and Sega Game Gear games.

Coleco in popular culture

• On The Simpsons episode "Lisa Gets an "A"", the ever unsuccessful salesman Gil tries to unload all his old Coleco Adams on Springfield Elementary School, before exclaiming "Now, let's talk rust-proofing. These Colecos'll rust up on ya like that! Shut up, Gil, close the deal!".

• During the South Park episode "Chickenpox", Kenny's father states, "We got a ColecoVision hooked up to the black and white"; to the puzzlement of his friends. Cartman went far enough as to say: "Oh my god, this is like a third-world country."

• A track is named "Coleco Vision" on the album Man Overboard by Canadian rapper Buck 65.

• The name of Gameavision, the game company featured in the G4 animated series Code Monkeys, was inspired by Coleco's name combination and former business, originally standing for Georgia Meat Division. Corporate rival Bellecovision is committed only to profit at the expense of its harried staff.

See also

• Electronic Quarterback
• Flintstone Kids
• Rambo and the Forces of Freedom
• Sectaurs
• Starcom: The U.S. Space Force

External links

• www.coleco.com River West Brands' Coleco product page
• Article at The Dot Eaters, a history of Coleco and the ColecoVision products