Rest In Play - 2020 - 2029

Brendan O'Brien, American actor and voice artist, was born on May 9, 1962 and passed away on March 23, 2023. He was best known for his role as the voice of Crash Bandicoot, along with many other chara...cter voices for the Crash Bandicoot video games. O'Brien attended Loyola Marymount University, but his acting career began well before his college years. At 9 years old, he got his first role in the television film Honor Thy Father. He was also featured in 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain, P.U.N.K.S., Race to Space, and Grindhouse. O'Brien got the role of Crash Bandicoot in 1996 and continued voicing characters in the Crash Bandicoot universe until 2004, coming back in 2016 for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. Brendan O'Brien married Ingrid K. Behrens in 2000.Show more

Harry Bradley was an American car designer best known for his work with Hot Wheels. He was born on May 25, 1929 in California, and at age 14, contracted polio and became paralyzed from the waist down.... He spent most of his time drawing, and attended College of Wooster before attending Pratt Institute at the recommendation of General Motors. While studying at Pratt, he started his own custom design consulting business, contributing to Street Rodder, Customs Illustrated, and Rod & Custom. While finishing his last semester at Pratt, Bradley joined General Motors. It was there that he met the Alexander Brothers. Over the next eight years, Bradley designed 10 custom cars, including the 1964 Alexa and the 1967 Dodge Deora. in 1966, Bradley began working for Mattel on Hot Wheels. After working at Mattel, Bradley founded his own company and also taught classes at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. Bradley passed away on May 13, 2023.Show more

The ATA recently published the sad news of the passing of Lyn Crown on Friday the 26th May, 2023. Lyn, the dearly loved wife of the late Gerald Crown was a wonderful support to him at Crown and And...rews Pty Ltd, as well as fulfilling the role of Finance Manager. In the early days of Crown and Andrews, Lyn also visited the stores like David Jones, Grace Bros, Myers etc doing their stock re-fill orders and then coming back to the warehouse to pack and invoice the orders. Attending the Toy Fair and the 25 Year Club function was some of the highlights for Lyn as she enjoyed catching up with friends from the toy industry. Many people within the industry became lifelong friends to Lyn even after they decided to move on.Show more

John Romita Sr., born January 24, 1930, was an American comic book artist best known for his work on Marvel Comics' The Amazing Spider-Man. He passed away peacefully at the age of 93 on June 12, 2023.... Romita graduated from Manhattan's School of Industrial Art. He began his career in comics in 1949 working on the series Famous Funnies before moving on to work as a ghost artist for Marvel's Timely Comics. Eventually, Timely Comics evolved into Atlas Comics, and Romita was working on horror comics, war comics, and romance comics, among others. Next, Romita worked for DC comics as a romance-comics artist, but soon after he began work there, Marvel editor Stan Lee offered him a job with a higher salary and more flexibility. An offer he couldn't turn down, Romita began working for Marvel. At Marvel, Romita was assigned to drawing Daredevil comics, but was soon put on Spider-Man, where he co-created the characters Mary Jane Watson, the Punisher, Kingpin, Wolverine, and Luke Cage. He brought a new romance style to Spiderman that soon became the new house style for the character. Romita was promoted to Marvel's art director in 1973 and heavily influenced the look of Marvel comics throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Romita received an Inkpot Award in 1979, was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2002, and was inducted into the Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame in 2020. John Romita Sr. was married to Virginia Bruno, who also worked for Marvel as a traffic manager. Together they had two sons, one of which, John Jr. followed in his footsteps and is now a successful comic book artist himself.Show more

Ron Stuart, President of Learning Wrap-ups, passed away on June 22, 2023. Stuart attended Weber State College, where he met his wife, Christine Fackrell. In the early 1980s, Stuart and his mother ...founded Learning Wrap-ups, a company he was passionate about throughout his entire life. Through his effort, Learning Wrap-ups was a successful, impactful company that helped children master basic math facts. Above all, Stuart valued his family and creating relationships with people in all areas of his life.Show more

Emile Morel, creative director of Ubisoft's Beyond Good & Evil 2, passed away at age 40 in July of 2023. Morel started his career at Ubisoft over 14 years ago as a game designer. Aside from Beyond... Good & Evil 2, he worked on Rayman Legends and Rayman Fiesta Run. Prior to Unisoft, Morel worked for four years at Eden Games, working on titles including Test Drive Unlimited 2, The Adventures of Tintin: The Game, and Alone in the Dark.Show more

Dr. Doris Mae Bergen was born on February 11, 1932 and passed away on July 5, 2023. Dr. Bergen was a professor of Educational Psychology at Miami University. She has written numerous books and earned ...dozens of national honors. Many of her papers are stored in the Archives at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY. In 2019, she was inducted into the Senior Citizens Hall of Fame. Dr. Bergen attended Heidelberg College and Ohio State University before getting her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Michigan State University at age 42. Dr. Bergen was active with the Hamilton Tree Board and was an active member of her church, the Hopedale UU Community.Show more

Simon Hedge was born on August 26, 1996 and passed away on June 20, 2023 after a short battle with cancer. He was the former managing director of Flair Leisure Products, the company he co-founded with... Peter Brown 24 years ago. Hedge began his career in the toy industry in the early 1990s when he joined Hasbro. In 1995, Hedge joined Peter Brown and Russ Ward at K'Nex, where he managed the supply chain and operations. Shortly before founding Flair, Hedge found himself working for Hasbro again. In the beginning of Flair, Hedge worked as the commercial director overseeing marketing and operations. Within 5 years, Flair became a "Sunday Times Fast track 100" and was named Company of the Year at the 2004 Toy Fair industry awards. In 2009, Flair won Supplier of the Year and Girls' Toy of the year for Sylvanian Families. In 2011, Flair became the No. 4 toy company in the UK. In 2013, Hedge became the managing director of Flair, and held this position for 8 years. In 2021, he left the business and started working at Singleton Trading. Simon Hedge will be missed by many: family, friends, and colleagues.Show more

John Cook passed away on June 28th 2023. A model maker and toy inventor, he worked at Mattel, Kenner and Playskool. He worked on Hot Wheels playsets, Star Wars, Strawberry Shortcake, Play Doh, Carci ...doll and much more. He founded John Cook Toy Designs over thirty years ago, where did built models and designed toys.Show more

Liam Smyth, one of the co-founders of Smyths Toys Superstores, passed away in July of 2023. He and his brothers, Tony, Padraig, and Tommie grew the business from one small shop in Claremorris into one... of Europe's biggest specialist toy chains. Smyth was a supporter of the Claremorris Gaelic athletic Association and was known as a leading figure in the business life of the town.Show more