Rest In Play - 2020 - 2029

Georges Gareau was the president of Canadian toy company, Bojeux.

Milogost Reczek was born on February 10, 1961 and passed away on December 14, 2021. He was a Polish voice actor. Milogost was best known in the video game industry for his Polish dubs of The Witch...er 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077. Other projects he's worked on include voicing Obi-Wan Kenobi from the Star Wars films, Talols, a supporting character in some recent Marvel movies, and some of the trains in a Polish translation of the children's show Thomas the Tank Engine.Show more

Peter Lockey, co-founder of The Puppet Company, passed away on July 1, 2021. Peter and his wife, Sue, founded The Puppet Company in 2001 with the goal of offering the largest range of puppets avai...lable anywhere. They shared the believe that there is something magical about owning a puppet. He will be deeply missed by all those that knew and loved him.Show more

John Maxim, an American toy and game inventor, passed away on February 6th, 2022. John's career started in the early 1970s when he worked at Mattel as a Preliminary Designer. After a few years, th...ough, he left to become an independent inventor. Here are some of the different toys and games he invented over the years: Ertl’s Bumble Ball, Crayola’s The Cutter, Irwin’s SpectraColor Image Pad, and Guzzlers from Ideal Toys. He was also involved in the production of Vivid Imagination’s Wibbly Wobbly Egg Race, Mattel’s Power Command Hot Wheels and countless other playthings. Later in his career, he became a founding member of the Sunshine Santas, a tight-knit group of independent inventors living in South Florida.Show more

Bill Burke passed away suddenly on August 9, 2021 at the age of 55. He was the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Licensing International. Bill started his career in licensing... at companies including HIT Entertainment, Sesame Workshop, and Foot Locker. He was the Senior Vice President of Marketing for CBS Consumer Products, where he led Global Marketing, International Licensing, and Licensing operations for iconic brands including Star Trek. He leaves behind a loving wife, Patty, and a son and daughter, Erin and Ryan. He will be deeply missed by all that knew and loved him.Show more

Tom Morey was born on August 15, 1935 and passed away on October 14, 2021. He was a musician, engineer, surfer, and most famously, inventor of the boogie board. Tom was a professional musician in t...he 1950s, and loved to surf. He attended USC and graduated in 1957. He then worked for Douglas Aircraft as an engineer, but left the corporate world in 1964, when he moved to Ventura and started a series of companies that served the surfing market. In 1971, he invited the Boogie board, and founded the company Morey Boogie shortly after. He sold Morey Boogie i 1977 and moved to Hawaii to work as a consultant and jazz musician. He moved around a bunch after this, changing occupations as he went, even changing his name to Y at one point. He lived in Washington and different parts of California, worked as an engineer, surfing consultant, and founding another company -- TomMorey.com. From 1999 to 2007, he developed new, soft-surfboard technology, hand-making boards. His most famous of these was the Swizzle, a parabolic-shaped longboard design.Show more

Jack Hirsh, founder and U.S. president of VTech Electronics North America, passed away in July of 2021. Jack began his career in the 1950s as a buyer and merchandiser for Jewel Companies. In the 1...970s, he moved to Mattel, where he handled sales. He also founded Waddingtons House of Games and worked as a representative of VTech toys before making the transition to founding president. He served as president until 1991, when he became Chairman of the Board. Jack leaves behind his wife, Bonnie Price, and many other extended family members, all who love and miss him dearly.Show more

Allison Katzman, creator of Blythe Dolls, was born on January 25, 1925 and passed away on February 25, 2020. Allison attended the Art Institute, where she met her husband, Robert Katzman. She worke...d in visual arts throughout her entire life, opening a ceramic studio, designing window displays for various businesses, and designing exhibits for the Chicago Science and Industry Museum. Eventually, she joined Marvin Glass & Associates. In 1972, she launched her Blythe Dolls, and though sales weren't great when the dolls first came out, now they are a cult collectable item. In 1999, though, Blythe was reborn. Photographer Gina Garan shot some high-fashion pictures of her. Junko Wong, who heads the Tokyo illustration agency Cross World Connections, was captivated. She helped bring Blythe to the attention of Japan’s Parco department store, which featured her in ads. CWC arranged to lease Blythe from Hasbro and Wong oversees the production of new dolls. Featuring eye-color changing technology, many people purchase Blythe Dolls and have them reimagined as a Mini-Me.Show more

Kazuhisa Hashimoto was born on November 15, 1958 and passed away on February 25, 2020. He was a Japanese video game developer, most famous for creating the Konami Code, a cheat code used in numerous v...ideo games. Kazuhisa joined the game company Konami in 1981. He started out developing circuit boards for coin-operated products like medal games. Later, Konami expanded into arcade games and then started bringing their arcade games to the video game screen for the Nintendo Entertainment System. One of the first games that Hashimoto worked on was Track & Field. It wasn't until 1986 when the Konami Code came to be. Kazuhisa inadvertently created it while bringing the arcade version of Gradius to the NES. Hashimoto knew the arcade version of the game was hard and he would likely not finish it, so he added a sequence of button presses that he could easily remember that gave the ship he controlled in the game the full range of power-ups so that he could easily complete the game for in-house testing purposes. He had intended to remove the programming code for that sequence before the game was shipped, but the game had shipped with the code included. Now, not only is it used in various different video games even from other developers, it's also an Easter egg in other forms of media.Show more

Jim Mariol, creator of the Little Tikes Cozy Coupe, passed away in early January of 2020. Jim was born during the Great Depression, and always had a fascination with cars, though his family couldn...'t afford one. He went on to study industrial design at the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. Just before he graduated, however, he was drafted to serve in the Army. After returning, he started Design Alliance, a design consultancy firm, and in 1976, Little Tikes became a client. Jim designed the Cozy Coupe for the company, and it became an instant hit. To date, it's sold over 10 million units across the world.Show more