About US Toy Company

In a small apartment in 1953, Elvin and Frances Klein founded what is today U.S. Toy. As the parents of two young children they noticed a need for small novelty toys at their local drugstore. This realization led them to start a catalog based company, to sell hand packaged toys to drugstores and merchants. The entire family, including their two children, pitched in by packaging the small toys into plastic sleeves and placing them on the home display to be sent out. For many years, this toy rack was a permanent fixture in the Klein's living room. Over the ensuing decades, U.S. Toy evolved by opening a nationwide chain of retail stores, launching websites to supplement the various catalogs, and of course moving the operation from a family apartment to our Grandview, MO headquarters. In 1996, Frances received national recognition by earning the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for lifetime achievement. From its inception, the company has been family owned and operated. Three generations of family members and hundreds of "extended family" work together to further Frances and Elvin's vision of success. Read their story