Burt Meyer, who invented toys like Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, Lite-Brite and Mouse Lure within the Nineteen Sixties that delighted generations of youngsters, has died. He was 99.
Meyer’s creations arrived within the postwar increase, when plastic molding and mass manufacturing reworked how American children performed. That shift opened the door for extra dynamic toys, and Meyer seized the second with designs that may keep on cabinets for many years.
Meyer died on Oct. 30, mentioned Rebecca Mathis, government director at King-Bruwaert Home, a retirement neighborhood in Burr Ridge, Illinois, the place he lived.
Meyer succeeded by straddling two usually conflicting worlds, carrying a boundless childlike creativeness alongside a realistic understanding of machines.
The concept for Lite-Brite got here in 1966 when Meyer was strolling in Manhattan with Marvin Glass, who owned one of many largest toy design corporations on the time, and the 2 males handed a window show that includes lots of of coloured lights. Engineers on the firm doubted that electic lights may very well be safely tailored for kids, in response to Tim Walsh, who interviewed Meyer for his 2005 e book “Timeless Toys.”
Meyer, an worker at Marvin Glass & Associates, insisted it might.
“There’s billions of concepts on the market,” Walsh wrote, “however executing them right into a remaining inventive answer is usually the onerous half.”
The Sturdy Nationwide Museum of Play through AP
Meyer got here up with a small backlit field and black paper sheets that allowed children to create illuminated patterns. Lite-Brite was a success, incomes spots on Time Journal’s listing of 100 best toys and within the Sturdy Nationwide Museum of Play’s corridor of fame. New variations are nonetheless being bought.
Meyer had an identical position with a design workforce that reimagined a cumbersome boxing arcade recreation for house use. The unique idea stalled in growth after a featherweight boxer died from a mind harm, making any toy that invoked the tragedy unmarketable, firm leaders thought.
Meyer revisited the concept with a easy shift. “That is too good to cross up,” he recalled saying in a 2010 interview. “Let’s take it away from humanity, let’s make it robots. And we cannot have them fall over, we’ll have one thing humorous occur.”
The end result was Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, a small recreation the place gamers management the fighters’ fists by urgent buttons on joysticks. A participant wins by hitting the jaw of the opposing robotic, theatrically popping up the spring-loaded head.
The toy remained recognizable to later generations, showing within the movie “Toy Story 2,” and the toy firm Mattel introduced plans in 2021 for a reside motion film adaptation.
Meyer launched his personal agency, Meyer/Glass Design, within the mid-Eighties. The corporate developed quite a few best-sellers together with Gooey Louie, the place kids picked boogers our of Louie’s nostril, and the Fairly Fairly Princess board recreation. His son, Steve Meyer, ran the enterprise till 2006, in response to The New York Occasions.
The Sturdy Nationwide Museum of Play through AP 
Born in 1926 as Burton Carpenter Meyer, he enlisted within the Navy and served for 2 years as an plane mechanic. After retiring from toy making, he moved to Downers Grove, a suburb of Chicago, the place he constructed small planes and may very well be seen deftly steering them aloft from a close-by personal airfield properly into his 80s.
In interviews, Meyer usually drew parallels between aerospace engineering and toy design, saying each required ingenutity and teamwork.
“Whenever you’re flying the airplane, use each useful resource that you’ve in there. That is why we had been capable of end up so many profitable merchandise,” Meyer mentioned, crediting his success to the extremely collaborative atmosphere at Marvin Glass & Associates.
Meyer’s automobile had an arrogance plate that mentioned TOYKING, and by most accounts, he was. In a 2010 interview, he mentioned he was nonetheless delighted by telling individuals what he did for a dwelling, and having them reply: “Oh, I performed with that!”
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