THE HUNT FOR HELEN OF TOY!

We are currently engaged in an intense research effort to gather all information possible about this company and those who owned the company or worked with them in any capacity. Please get in touch if you can help us locate any folks involved directly with Helen of Toy, or their relatives, former employees, associates, friends, etc. - or even any rumors, hearsay or second hand information at all about the company that may help fill in all the blanks.

We hope to locate any surviving individuals with any firsthand information and get it completely documented for posterity before all of this factual knowledge is simply lost forever as so often happens when old toy companies disappear (which leaves frustrated future toy researchers guessing for the rest of time.)

So far we have found very limited information about Helen of Toy, but we have at least found one person’s name attached to the Company: The Mysterious Mr. Charles Fogarty.

According to the searchable database at the US Copyright Office, The "Task Force" War Game by Helen of Toy, was copyrighted in 1957 by the game's "author" - Charles Fogarty. It appears the existing 1957 copyright was updated/renewed in 1985, seemingly by Mr. Fogarty himself or perhaps by his estate.

It appears that Charles Fogarty had the DBA name (Doing Business As) “Helen Of Toy.”

Records also suggest that in 1995, a Petition To Cancel Trademark was made (by an Unknown Party) to cancel Fogarty's Trademark on Task Force. Evidently, when such a Petition is made, the Trademark Office attempts to contact the original holder of the Trademark by mail. When mail contact fails at the last known address of original holder, the Trademark Office then posts the Petition Information publicly. Evidently all this was done, yet it appears Mr. Fogarty was not located - so it is quite possible that his Task Force Trademark was canceled back in the late 1990’s.

The Copyright and the Trademark info below is posted here exactly as it appeared during the public Internet searches. Perhaps someone out there can translate the true legal meaning of this information for us:

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1. Registration Number: RE-253-045

Title: Task force. By acCharles Fogarty.

Claimant: Charles Fogarty [Author]

Effective Registration Date: 25Mar85

Original Registration Date: 10Sep57

Original Registration Number: A324156.

A Miscellaneous: C.O. corres.

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The Trademark reference we found was the at the following web link:

http://www.uspto.gov/go/og/1995/week11/patserv.htm

This link states the following information about Charles Fogarty and Task Force:

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Service by Publication

A petition to cancel the registrations identified below having been filed, and the notice of such proceeding sent by certified mail to registrant at the last known address having been returned by the Postal Service as undeliverable, notice is hereby given that unless the registrant listed herein, their assigns or legal representatives, shall enter an appearance within thirty days of this publication, the cancellation will proceed as in the case of default.

Charles Fogarty, d.b.a. Helen of Toy, Brooklyn, N.Y., Reg. No. 676,260, for the mark "TASK FORCE" and design, Canc. No. 22,094.

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The precise meaning and result of this information is unknown at this point. Our best guess is that Helen of Toy was a “one man operation” owned and run by Mr. Charles Fogarty. Mr. Fogarty had the original Trademark for Task Force from 1957 until it was canceled by someone for unknown reasons in 1995.

Beyond this limited information, we simply have no information at all about Helen of Toy, Co. Please help if you can. Many thanks to those who have offered assistance thus far.

We would like to know the following at least:

1) Who owned and ran the company.

2) How big was the company - how many employees, what sort of annual sales/income did it generate over the years, how many units did it sell roughly in total, etc.

3) Did the company operate under any other names? (i.e. - Five Star Toys seems to be associated with similar products - perhaps as an early incarnation of Helen of Toy?)

4) Did the company move around or was Commack, NY the sole location?

5) What were the products made by Helen of Toy - is there a master list or complete catalogue of all their products?

6) What became of any extra stock when the company went out of business? Does such stock still exist anywhere in storage these days?

7) Are there any current Copyrights or Trademarks held on any Helen of Toy products?

8) Who designed each Game or Toy Set?

9) Who supplied the figures and pieces for the Sets? Where were they manufactured?

10) Were any toys and figures/game pieces created specifically for Helen of Toy Games or were they all pre-existing items which were simply utilized by Helen of Toy Games?

11) What became of the Helen of Toy business itself? Is the Commack property/location/building still there?

12) Are there any photos of the Helen of Toy Company operation itself and/or staff?

13) What became of the Helen of Toy original product designs and artwork?

14) Who handled the Helen of Toy Advertising? Who designed the Ad text for comic books? When did the comic book advertising start/end?

15) Were any Helen of Toy products ever advertised or sold anywhere outside of comic books?

16) Was Helen of Toy associated in any way with other comic book advertisers such as Lucky Products, Honor House Products, Bi-A-Toy, Compix, Inc., Josely Company. etc.?

One interesting note about Helen of Toy appears in Richard O’Brien’s great book called “Collecting American Made Toy Soldiers” (Edition No. 3.) O’Brien states that he’d once read an article (which he’d since lost) all about the companies offering Comic Book Toy Soldiers. He said he recalled that the article’s author had found that all or almost all of these companies such as Helen of Toy, Lucky Products, Josely Company, etc.. were possibly run by the same people - a “husband and wife team.” If this is true, perhaps this team was headed by none other than Charles Fogarty?

It remains a mystery until we gather more research information. Please help if you can.

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