Toy Maker Gets Court OK for Operating Plan

Worlds of Wonder, the troubled maker of Teddy Ruxpin talking bears and other toys, said Tuesday that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved the company’s plans for operating the business through early next year.

The company’s secured lenders and unsecured creditors have already approved the plan.

Based in Fremont, Calif., Worlds of Wonder filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from its creditors last December. A victim of declining sales for its trademark electronic toys and overexpansion, the firm listed liabilities of $313.6 million and assets of $312.1 million.

In March, creditors forced the firm’s founder and chairman, Donald R. Kingsborough, to resign.

Worlds of Wonder said the court’s approval on Tuesday allows it to implement a plan for operating the business through Mar. 31, 1989. The company, which now sells such low-tech toys as jump ropes, plastic “germs” that come in a test tube and notebooks, said it expects to continue advertising its products and introducing new ones.