Coleco

Founded: 1932

Headquarters:

United States

Coleco was an American-based company which was founded in 1932. It is well known for products such as its line of Cabbage Patch dolls and related merchandise and the ColecoVision Video game console.

History

Coleco started off as a shoe leather manufacturer before producing leather craft kits in the 1950s. In 1976 the company released the Telestar. It transitioned into producing handheld electronic games for a period before returning to the console market in 1982 with the release of the ColecoVision. They then began releasing Atari 2600 and Intellivision cartridges and also released a Atari 2600 clone called the Coleco Gemini. The video game crash of 1983 drove Coleco to go into home computers and they released the Coleco Adam home computer. It later released the highly successful Cabbage Patch kid toyline. Unfortunately the failed launch of the Adam computer resulted in Coleco declaring bankruptcy. In 1989 Coleco was purchased by Hasbro. The ColecoVision was re-introduced into the marketplace in 2005 and in late 2006 a handheld portable called Coleco Sonic was released.