Disney's entry into character merchandising began in 1929 when Walt Disney licensed Mickey Mouse for a children's writing tablet, followed by the groundbreaking 1933 Mickey Mouse watch created by the Ingersoll-Waterbury Clock Company.

The 1950s and 1960s saw an expansion in vinyl figures, board games, and plush items, further amplified by the 1955 opening of Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Following the deaths of Walt Disney in 1966 and Roy O. Disney in 1971, the company underwent corporate restructuring under Michael Eisner and Frank Wells starting in 1984.

This era ushered in the Disney Renaissance, the opening of the first Disney Store in Glendale, California in 1987, and a 1990s boom in plastic action figures and interactive media. Under Bob Iger, who became CEO in 2005, Disney executed strategic acquisitions including Pixar Animation Studios in 2006 ($7.4 billion), Marvel Entertainment in 2009 ($4.24 billion), Lucasfilm in 2012, and 21st Century Fox in 2019 ($71.3 billion). In 2013, Disney expanded into the interactive toys-to-life market with Disney Infinity before uniting its media ecosystem under Disney+ in 2019.