Why the Paw Patrol story started with sawdust
Toronto toy company marketed Earth Buddy sawdust creation before launching Air Hogs and a TV show
There's a long history of animated TV shows that have made the jump to the big screen, from Rugrats to The Simpsons to SpongeBob SquarePants.
The most recent one is Paw Patrol. According to CBC News, the animated series began in 2013 and is "about a group of do-good dogs who are led by a 10-year old boy, named Ryder."
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Paw Patrol: The Movie reaches the big screen on Aug. 20, and Alberta teen Will Brisbin is the voice of one of the characters. According to the Internet Movie Database, he is the voice of Ryder.
That's not the only Canadian connection. Paw Patrol is produced by Toronto company Spin Master, which got its start by creating and licensing toys before branching out onto TV and movie screens.
It began with the Earth Buddy ...
A profile that aired on the CBC business program Venture in February 2000 re-introduced viewers to founder Anton Rabie and took viewers back to the company's origins in 1993, when Rabie was just 23 years old.
"His product back then: Earth Buddies," said host Diane Buckner. "You remember: those grass-head things."
The Earth Buddy had a comical, bespectacled face and grew grass from the top of its head to resemble hair.
Rabie and his partners from business school, Ronnen Harary and Ben Varadi, were seen at work in a 1994 Venture profile getting the product to market. Factory workers in a downtown Toronto warehouse assembled Earth Buddies from sawdust grass seed and stretchy nylon.
"They were green, rough and wrestling with cash flow," said Buckner in voice-over. "They took a chance, manufacturing huge quantities."
But their gamble paid off, Buckner said. The partners had come out of the venture with "half a million dollars" in profit.
... then came the Air Hogs
Fast-forward to late 1998, when Buckner said the company, now called Spin Master, had begun to get a new product off the ground. It was by then a "$10 million toy company," she said.
"They're masters of media spin for sure," said Buckner, as viewers saw magazine covers of the company founders with their latest licensed product. "All over the newsstand with one of the hottest toys of the year: Air Hogs."
The gift-giving season was coming, and the company was having trouble keeping up with orders for Air Hogs.
"It's the world's first mass-produced, air pressure-powered airplane," said Buckner. "Pump it up, and watch it fly."
Varadi was already trying out another model of flying plane, but it didn't "impress him much," said Buckner.
According to the Globe and Mail, Air Hogs were the tenth product marketed by Spin Master.
"Air Hogs are among the most intricately engineered toys launched in the past decade," Rabie told the paper in October 1998. "They have taken our company to a completely new level."
Fifteen years later, Paw Patrol debuted as the company's foray into television production. According to Spin Master's official website, it became "the #1 preschool show in North America."
At the end of 2020, Ronnen and Harady announced their intention to step down from their roles as co-CEOs some time in 2021.
