LJN Toys was founded in 1970 by Jack Friedman, who later founded THQ and Jakks Pacific. The name LJN came from the initials of Lewis J. Norman, the reverse of Norman J. Lewis, whose toy company had employed Friedman as a sales representative in the 1960s. Lewis initially backed the company financially, but later sold his interest to a Chinese investor.
In 1985, MCA/Universal, which had been actively acquiring companies in the mid-1980s, acquired LJN for $66 million or $67 million in an effort to retain more profits from the merchandising of its film properties. The company was already well known by then for its WWF wrestling figures. That same year, LJN had one of its greatest successes in action figures with ThunderCats (1985).
In 1986, LJN started publishing video games, nearly all of them based on licenses and/or released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Most of the studio's games were outsourced, sometimes to studios (mostly of British origin) who would go on to make much better-known games, like Atlus (Snowboard Kids, Shin Megami Tensei, Xexyz, etc.), Westone (the Wonder Boy studio) and Rare (GoldenEye (1997), Banjo-Kazooie, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Killer Instinct etc.).
Also in 1986, LJN created a subsidiary, Entertech, to sell a new line of battery-powered water guns, as well as a home version of the Photon laser-tag game (which debuted at the same time Worlds of Wonder launched their "Lazer Tag" line). The Entertech water guns were heavily marketed for their realistic appearance (The Look! The Feel! The Sound! So Real! EN-TER-TECH!), and even put out a sub-line with a Rambo license, but it all backfired spectacularly when police officers mistook the toy guns for real weapons in several incidents, resulting in kids getting shot and killed by mistake. Not only that, but criminals used them in robberies. Despite remaking the guns in bright neon colors, Entertech never fully recovered, and found its market share waning in favor of less-realistic, but more powerful, water guns such as the Super Soaker line.
In 1990, MCA sold LJN to Acclaim Entertainment. Acclaim phased out the toy lines and liquidated the Entertech brand, so they could use the LJN brand to increase the number of games they could publish for the NES. Even after Nintendo dropped the publishing limitations, LJN continued to publish games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy as late as 1995, when the division was folded into Acclaim proper. For reasons unknown, Acclaim revived the brand in 2000 to publish one Sega Dreamcast title, Spirit of Speed '37.
Probably most well-known today as the Arch-Enemy of a certain angry fuckin' Nerd.
Video games published by LJN (sorted by developer):
Rare
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit
- The Amazing Spider-Man
- A Nightmare on Elm Street
- WWF WrestleMania Challenge
- Beetlejuice
- Beetlejuice: Horrific Hijinx from the Neitherworld!
Bits Studios
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day (SNES and Game Boy versions)
- The Amazing Spider-Man 2
- Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six
- The Amazing Spider-Man 3: Invasion of the Spider-Slayers
- Alien³ (Game Boy version)
- Wolverine: Adamantium Rage (SNES version only; Sega Genesis version was by Teeny Weeny Games)
Sculptured Software
- Roger Clemens' MVP Baseball
- WWF Superstars 2
- WWF WrestleMania: Steel Cage Challenge
- WWF Super WrestleMania
- WWF Royal Rumble
- WWF Raw
Beam Software
- Back to the Future
- The Punisher
- Bill & Ted's Excellent Game Boy Adventure: A Bogus Journey!
- True Lies
Software Creations
- Pictionary
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day (NES version)
- Wolverine
- Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge
- Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage
- The Incredible Crash Dummies (NES, Game Boy, Game Gear, and Master System versions)
Gray Matter
- The Incredible Crash Dummies (SNES version)
- WWF King of the Ring note
Atlus
- Friday the 13th
- Gotcha! The Sport!note
- Jawsnote
- The Karate Kid
- Major League Baseball
- NFL Football
- T & C Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage
Probe Entertainment
- Alien³ (Amiga, NES, SNES, Commodore 64, Game Gear, and Master System versions)
- T2: The Arcade Game
Rocket Science Productions
- Bill & Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure
Broadsword Interactive
- Spirit of Speed 1937
Unknown developer (could be either Bothtec or Pixel)
- The Uncanny X-Men
Toys, dolls and action figures made by LJN:
- Bionic Six
- The Blinkins
- Boy George of Culture Club
- CHiPs
- Dune (1984)
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Emergency!
- Entertech water pistols
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
- Gremlins
- Howard the Duck (a plushie of Howard, not released due to the film's failure)
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
- Michael Jackson
- LJN Video Art System
- Magnum, P.I.
- Photon
- Brooke Shields
- S.W.A.T. (1975)
- ThunderCats (1985)
- Tiger Sharks
- Series/V1983
- Voltron
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit
- WWF Wrestling
