Galoob was founded as Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. in 1954 in San Francisco, California and was reported to be the third-largest toy maker in the US at the time of its acquisition by toy giant Hasbro in 1998. Since then, Galoob's logo has continued to appear on the packaging of a number of toys produced by Hasbro.
Before its acquisition by Hasbro, Galoob held three separate Star Trek licenses. It produced the first action figures and toys based on Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1988, created a line of figures for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier in 1989, and released a series of Star Trek "Micro Machines" starship miniatures from 1993 until 1997.
The history and development of the Galoob line was featured in the 2018 "Star Trek" episode of the Netflix series The Toys That Made Us. In the documentary, former Galoob CEO and son of founders Lewis and Barbara, David Galoob, conceded that his company had from the outset made an assessment error when they took on the Star Trek license, "We did not think Star Trek was a license for adults. We thought the Star Trek license would sell to the kids," thereby underestimating the vast adult collector's fanbase who desired accuracy, instead taking their cue from the Star Wars toys as released by Kenner Toys. Consequently their action figure lines were not only small, but not particularly accurate either, with many production errors to boot. "It just never really hit its stride at retail," Galoob further admitted, "never was anything like Star Wars, and ultimately we dropped it."
Before its acquisition by Hasbro, Galoob held three separate Star Trek licenses. It produced the first action figures and toys based on Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1988, created a line of figures for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier in 1989, and released a series of Star Trek "Micro Machines" starship miniatures from 1993 until 1997.
The history and development of the Galoob line was featured in the 2018 "Star Trek" episode of the Netflix series The Toys That Made Us. In the documentary, former Galoob CEO and son of founders Lewis and Barbara, David Galoob, conceded that his company had from the outset made an assessment error when they took on the Star Trek license, "We did not think Star Trek was a license for adults. We thought the Star Trek license would sell to the kids," thereby underestimating the vast adult collector's fanbase who desired accuracy, instead taking their cue from the Star Wars toys as released by Kenner Toys. Consequently their action figure lines were not only small, but not particularly accurate either, with many production errors to boot. "It just never really hit its stride at retail," Galoob further admitted, "never was anything like Star Wars, and ultimately we dropped it."