Dr. Allison Mullady, a Ph.D. in early childhood education from Arizona State University and former preschool and elementary school teacher, immediately grasped the play value in pretend-play toys. Early in her career, she even began recommending them to community groups and schools for interactive play programs. It's something she continues to do—but now as an entrepreneur. Today, Mullady has started her own toy company, Phoenix-based The Imaginative Child, a producer of pretend-play products that are primarily non-licensed.

And she's not alone. In 2007, there are more companies than ever offering up role-play toys, props and costumes, and, in doing so, further moving the category away from the Halloween costume market. Sure, pretend play has long incorporated popular children's characters and continues to do so with popular lines based on Shrek, Spider-Man, or pirate Captain Jack Sparrow, but several companies are sticking to their guns and working to keep the role play category supplied with toys that have no licenses attached.

Movie star, restaurant owner, veterinarian, and, of course, doctor, are some professions that kids can recreate by using Imaginative Child's I'm a Star, Let's Play Restaurant, Let's Play Veterinarian and I'm a Doctor kits, which include pieces for dress-up plus accessories related to each field. Mullady tells Playthings that the fact that her kits are non-licensed gives them more play value in the long term, because actors, chefs, vets and doctors are all people that kids come in contact with (or are exposed to in film or TV) every day.

“The Imaginative Child strives to create pretend play/role play products that have a theme, but allow children opportunities to create and imagine within the framework of that theme,” says Mullady. “There should be some familiarity with the role or character and what that person would say or do. For example, children have likely visited the doctor and may have seen one on television or in the media. This gives them some basic vocabulary and ideas for play but allows for them to create the details of their character and be creative.”

Up next for the company will be an expansion of its Dramatic Play Boxes and Ima (“I'm a”) kits line, plus a new line, Busy Bundles interactive activity sets.

One of the most interesting facets of the pretend play market is the number of small companies who've managed to make their mark in such a narrow segment of the overall children's entertainment business. And more of them enter the fray every day.

Once such firm is Eventyr Company ApS. The Horshom, Denmark-based manufacturer—whose name means “The Fairy Tale Company” in Danish—recently made its U.S. debut exclusively at FAO Schwarz, after already making a name for itself internationally in Sweden, the U.K., Germany, Norway, France and Italy. Eventyr is also in talks to expand to additional U.S. and Canadian retailers in 2008 who are interested in stocking the company's high-end fantasy costumes and coordinating accessories like crowns, hats, arm and leg armor, hoods and masks.

Eventyr started when former furniture designer Benedikte Qvortrup and fashion designer Tine Bodnia noticed that their children would move away from the television once they gave them something to dress up in and pretend with, so they started stitching highly detailed fairies, dragons, knights, princesses and other characters. Today, none of the company's costumes are tied to a property, and next year it will expand from strictly fantasy themes into more pirate and flower themes. “It's not necessary to be a special character,” says Marianne Lorentzen, Eventyr accounting manager. “It is important [for kids] to just live in their own knight and princess world, being exactly the character they create themselves.”

This kind of child-created play is quite popular at retail, says Ann Rowland, who currently offers products from 12 different manufacturers in the role play section at Wee Little Sprouts, her Fallbrook, Calif., toy store. Some top sellers are pirate products, dress-up skirts—including pettiskirts designed by Kandi Lightner at Kaiya Eve, Los Angeles, which she says “are every little girl's dream”—from Germany's Wooden Ideas and fabric play products from Forrestville, Calif.-based Sarah's Silks.

The 3-year-old toy store features clothing, organic items, baby and nursery products, toys and gifts for the infant- through toddler-aged child. Rowland says her customers have never taken issue with the lack of licensed products in her shop. “Although we do get an occasional request for character-derived products, many of our customers appreciate the toy and dress up selections we have brought in,” she says. “Our customers know that we seek out toys that are heirloom quality with high play value.”

Rowland says there is a definite resurgence in pirates, a theme in which she's noticed more cross-over items for girls, as well as a continuing demand for designs based on traditional female favorites like princess and fairy dress-up items.

Rowlands also notes that her 4-year-old daughter creates her own characters and scenarios, or will modify characters she knows from TV or animals that she has seen or read about to create her own story. “Adding a simple thing like a blanket for a cape or a yardstick as a sword could turn any mild-mannered child into a princess, a superhero, a pirate, or a medieval knight. The best thing about simple items [is] they could be imagined as something different every day.”

For Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Elope, pirates are just a fraction of what's available in its extensive dress-up accessories and headwear lines. While the company offers some licensed and pop culture products—Alice in Wonderland, Elvis, and even sparkly, Bootsy Collins-inspired top hats and shades—a large percentage of its business is accessories in generic themes for kids and adults, such as cowboys, cats, witches, magicians and kings/queens. Kevin Johnson, Elope's CEO, says the company often asks children to draw the type of hat they want, which the company then develops and introduces to test groups.

“We have a niche product with hats, so we love properties that have prominent hats, like Harry Potter or Dr. Seuss,” he says. “But 90 percent of our business, however, is from our general items that are not tied into a character or property.” The company, which currently has 2,100 retailers in the U.S. and 100 internationally, will add on more fairies, pixies, elves and other types of forest creatures in 2008, as well as traditional characters like astronauts and robots.

Adrianna McMillan, president of West Covina, Calif.-based Time 2 Play, which offers play spaces like a Fairy Princess Castle, Red Carpet Runway, Wild West Sheriff Station, Pet Shop, a Burger Hut and a Cafe, tells Playthings she has been talking to some licensors and has been considering adding on licensed play environments from some evergreen properties. What has held her back is that several retailers have mentioned some disappointment with specific licenses, which concerns her. “We will keep talking to the licensors and eventually launch one or two [items] in fall 2008,” McMillan says. However, for now, McMillan enjoys being able to introduce products without licensors' strings attached. “It gives me and my designers the freedom to create an environment that has no restrictions.”

The Creativity Institute, a Metairie, La., online retailer of role play, educational and other toys, also focuses specifically on non-licensed toys that inspire creativity/imagination, although it does stock some licensed products. In addition to specific product categories, the store also breaks down toys that are recommended for libraries, schools, parents and grandparents, and for children from birth through age 12. Gywnn Torres, CIO, tells Playthings that whether a product is based on a character children are familiar with from television or one they see in everyday life, the imagination is still there in pretend play. Torres' store carries everything from puppets to dollhouses, action figures, playhouses, tents, musical instruments, art supplies and even blocks, which she considers part of the role play category because they allow kids to build and imagine. And so do licensed character products, she says.

“Children will probably look for a character they know, both because of the character's popularity and because it's easier to jump into a familiar role,” says Torres. “With a known character, the child can create and explore the character's history, relationships and experiences and expand on its personality. With a character the child invents, she can create all of the above, plus a whole menu of personality parameters. Either way, children have an opportunity for profound creative expression, particularly with an adult's encouragement.”

Peeling fruits and vegetables, play furniture, blocks and costumes that have easy zippers are some of the products that Kathy Palker, vice president and sales manager of Brand New World, Highpoint, N.C., offers in the role-play arena. “Children especially like to role-play community helpers like doctors, police officers, firefighters,” she says. “These are people they have met that they can then use to create their own person in the role.” Palker adds that role play and dress-up toys help target some specific development stages in children, including social skills, vocabulary and language. The company also tries to incorporate different educational activities (math, science, art and language) into each of its products.

In business since 2003, Brand New World currently works with 400 retailers nationally and with three overseas. New in 2008 will be more multicultural dress-up designs as well as games and early childhood furniture, which she hopes will help the company expand further into the school and toy specialty markets.

Walled Lake, Mich.-based manufacturer American Plastic Toys also offers imaginative play items without attached licensed characters, which company president Steve Mellos says lets APT continue to market toys originally created in the 1970s, '80s and '90s. The company has so far only added one license, Jeep, to its popular Push and Pedal Trike and Deluxe Wagon products.

“None of our large role play items are licensed and the kids don't mind,” he tells Playthings. “Our best selling item is our Home-Style Kitchen and it's not licensed. We prefer to develop general toys that can be timeless classics.” APT's in-house designer, Darcy Arnold, adds that the inspiration for products usually comes from brainstorming and buyer/ consumer feedback. APT sells to major retailers in Canada, Mexico, South America and Australia; it will launch an updated version of its Deluxe Tool Bench and new Laundry Center next year as well as ride-on vehicles and sports toys.

The Imaginative Child's Mullady also believes in the power of classics. Their open endedness, she says, will usually win over the most popular character of the moment. “My inspiration comes from the children and the enjoyment you see when they let their imagination go and just have some good, old-fashioned fun.”