Child World (fictional)

Child World, Inc. is an American chain of toy stores founded by Sid Shneider and Joseph Arnesano in in 1962. The chain is currently headquartered in. Child World, Inc. also operates stores under the names Children's Palace, the name of a chain of stores the company acquired from Kobacker Stores in 1977, and Lionel Toys, created in 1994 when the chain purchased the assets of the former toy store chains (, Lionel Playworld and Lionel Toy Warehouse), though it has mostly phased the former two names out on newer stores in favor of the Child World name.

History
On August 2, 1992, Child World was purchased from Avon by, a. Doyon would bring Child World out of bankruptcy as part of a plan that included installing former executive Abraham Neeman as the new CEO.

In 1993, Child World, after failing a merger attempt with 's toy store chains (, Lionel Playworld and Lionel Toy Warehouse), purchased the assets of the division for US$1 million. The stores were re-organized under the name Lionel Toys, as a new third brand of the company. Child World continues to pay royalties to to use the name on those stores.

In 2009, Doyon filed to sell Child World to for $10.2 million. The deal was finalized nearly two years later, on August 31, 2011, the proceeds from the sale were donated to Alaska Native and Native American youth organizations.

In 2015, Tompkins Toys, a UK-based toy retailer, purchased Child World, Inc. from Apollo for an estimated US$15 million.

In 2018, after longtime competitor Toys "R" Us filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closed all of its U.S. stores, Child World, Inc. purchased a number of former Toys "R" Us and/or Babies "R" Us locations and converted them into Child World locations, opening most of them during the 2018 holiday season. The purchased ex-TRU properties included a number of former Toys "R" Us and/or Babies "R" Us locations in major retail areas on the East coast, as well as several locations in California and all three of Toys "R" Us' locations in Taiguaye.