Rest In Play - 2020 - 2029

Timothy Moodie, known by friends and family as "Moots," was born on October 24, 1954 and passed away on January 29, 2026. Tim grew up all over America and ended up settling in Minnesota. He attend...ed the University of Minnesota and studied Communications, Radio, & Television before starting his career as a voice talent for radio and television commercials. He also did a stint in advertising before starting his own business, which set him on the path toward a career in toys and games for over 40 years. Tim leaves behind his loving wife, Barbara, his son, Griffin, and his daughter, Colleen. He will be deeply and dearly missed by all those that knew and loved him.Show more

Greg Hyman was born on June 25, 1947 and passed away on May 1, 2026. He is best known as the creator of Tickle Me Elmo. Greg was born in New York and attended Cornell University for a short while ...before dropping out to focus on inventing. His early experiments including a hovering bumper car and an anti-siphoning device to protect gas tanks in cars. Eventually, Greg got into toy inventing with Larry Greenberg. An electric musical toy he created was acquired by Playskool in 1979, and from there, he created dolls that "drank" milk from bottles and another that had an audible heart beat when you pressed a toy stethoscope to its chest. He and Greenberg developed nearly 50 inventions together before Greenberg's death in 1992. Rob Dubren, another inventor friend of his, suggested developing a toy that could laugh, and Greg came out with Tickles the Chimp. Together the met with Tyco Toys, who were not interested in Tickles, but loved the giggling technology, and suggested subbing in Elmo for a monkey. After Tyco won the license to produce Sesame Street plush toys, Tickle Me Elmo was developed, and not only was it an instant hit, but it became one of the most iconic toys.Show more

Cris Lehman passed away on January 31, 2026 at the age of 69 following complications from pancreatic cancer. Cris was best known for his role as co-founder and CFO of University Games, and spent the m...ajority of his career building the company alongside Bob Moog, his college roommate, best friend, and business partner. Cris leaves behind a loving wife Melinda, and three children. He will be deeply and dearly missed by all who knew and loved him.Show more

Brian Triptree was born in 1939 and passed away in 2026. He was a prominent figure in the British toy industry for more than 50 years. His career in toys and games began when he joined Ideal Uk, th...e British arm of the well-known American toy company. He launched new toys and games, supported advertising campaigns, and built a nationwide network of retail buyers and executives. At 35 years old in 1974, Brian and his business partner decided to go off on their own and founded Action Games & Toys, more commonly known as Action GT, and launched at Toy Fair in Brighton with Grand Slam Football. Over the years, Action GT found great success with toys and games including Domino Rally, Rubik Snake, Mr Pop, Perfection, and Monster Zillion Bubbles, among many others. In 1988, Tyco USA made Action GT their UK distributor, and two years later acquired them. Brian became Managing Director of Tyco UK, and when Tyco acquired Universal Matchbox in 1992, he lead that business too. In 1966, Brian tried a new venture once more, establishing The Sales Partnership, which represented Pressman Games USA and many others. He ran his business with charisma and success until his retirement in 2015. Brian leaves behind his wife of over 60 years, Susan, his daughter, Ali, his son, James, and four grandchildren. He will be deeply and dearly missed by all those that knew and loved him.Show more

John Boyce was born on January 5, 1972 and passed away on February 21, 2026. John was passionate about the arts. He graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from the Cleveland Institute of Art and spe...nt a lot of time in his mother's pottery studio, which sparked his passion for drawing. John went on to design toys for Hasbro in Rhode Island. He was part of the relaunch of Star Wars toys and GI Joe action figures, and is one of the few that can say he's had a GI Joe figure made in his name and likeness. He contributed original designs to recent Spiderman movies and met with sports figures and entertainers to transform them into action figures. John married Robin Kubas in 2008. They had three children together, Noah, Cameron, and Evan. He will be deeply and dearly missed by all those that knew and loved him.Show more

Lam Leung-tim was born on March 30, 1924 and passed away on November 10, 2025. He is best remembered as the inventor of the yellow rubber duck. Lam was born in Hong Kong but his family fled to mai...nland China in 1942. There, Lam worked as a farmer and a vendor at a village market. Four years later, Lam returned to Hong Kong with a strong enthusiasm for toys. This led him to the plastics industry, as he believed good toys could be made from plastic. He worked at Winsome Plastic Works in 1948, when he came up with the idea of mass-producing the very first yellow rubber duck. This yellow rubber duck became a symbol of the Hong Kong toy industry. In 1955, Lam left Winsome Plastic Works to found his own toy factory, Forward Products Company Industries. Just five years later, he merged with Winsome Plastic Works to form Forward Winsome Industries Limited. His company went on to produce toys for American companies including Mattel, Hasbro, and Hallmark. Lam became known as the "father of Transformers in China" because he opened up the Chinese market for Hasbro to bring their hit toy to China. He received the Federation of Hong Kong Industries' Industrialist of the Year Award in 2015. In 2019, the government awarded Lam the Bronze Bauhinia Star in recognition of his contributions to Hong Kong’s industrial development. Even at over 90 years old, Lam was still a sharp businessman. He founded another company, Funderful Creations, in 2014, and produced and marketed yellow rubber ducks. Lam lived to be 101 years old. He was avidly involved in philanthropy, donating to universities all over the world.Show more

Sam Kieth was born on January 11, 1963 and passed away on March 15, 2026 at the age of 63. He was best known as the creator of The Maxx and Zero Girl and the co-creator of The Sandman. Sam started ...becoming well known in the comic book world in 1984, when he inked Matt Wagner's Mage. A year later, he inked Fish Police. Then in 1989, he penciled the first five issues of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. He collaborated with Alan Grant on a Penguin story, and illustrated two volumes of William Messner-Loeb's Epicurus the Sage. He drew an Aliens miniseries for Dark Horse comics, and then The Incredible Hulk vol. 2 #368, which was where he got his started drawing covers for Marvel Comics Presents. In the 1990s, Sam left Marvel to create the original series The Maxx for Image Comics. It went on to ran 35 issues, all of which were plotted and illustrated by Sam. The Maxx was then adapted as part of MTV's Oddities. Next, in 2001, Sam created the series Zero Girl for DC Comics' Windstorm imprint, and followed that with Four Women later that year. In 2004, he launched the Scratch series featuring a teenage werewolf. Beginning in 2007, Sam wrote and drew the five-issue series Batman: Secrets. Kieth wrote and illustrated the original hardcover graphic novel Arkham Asylum: Madness, which ended up on The New York Times' best seller list. in 2013, Sam won an Inkpot Award at San Diego Comic-Con.Show more

George Atamian was born on December 27, 1937 and passed away on October 15, 2025. He was an educator, scientist, astronomer, and inventor. George co-founded the Talcott Mountain Science Center in ...Avon, CT which opened in 1967 on a former Nike missile tracking site. He joined Bushnell, a division of Bausch and Lomb, where he worked in the Astronomical Telescope Division. In 1992, he joined Educational Insights, where he developed and sourced many educational toys. He also proudly served as President of The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys where he remained until his retirement. George married Maryann Hamparian in 1959 and they had three children together: Elizabeth, George, and Hope. He also was a proud grandfather to Eric George. He will be deeply and dearly missed by all that knew and loved him.Show more

Stuart Moore was born in 1937 and passed away in 2025. He is best remembered as the creator of Tiny Tears. Stuart knew the career he wanted to be in from the start. He joined Cascelloid straight ou...t of school and worked in the factor. After two years of National Service, he returned to Cascelloid and started sculpting new dolls for the company's new Palitoy brand. During the 1950s, Stuart took on the task of completely redesigning Palitoy's doll, Patsy. He turned Patsy into one that cried real tears, and Patsy became Tiny Tears, which was an immediate hit. Stuart went on to become Doll Design manager and sculpted and designed many other dolls, including Teeny Tiny Tears and Teeny Weeny Tiny Tears in addition to designs like Carrie, Winnie the Pooh and Girls World. When the Palitoy design department was closed down by the new American owners in 1984, Stuart continued to work as a sculptor and designer until he retired.Show more

Tomonobu Itagaki was born on April 1, 1967 and passed away in October 2025. He was a Japanese video game designer best known for creating the Dead or Alive series as well as reviving the Ninja Gaiden ...franchise. Tomonobu was born in Tokoyo and graduated from Waseda University's School of Law in 1992. That same year, he joined Tecmo as a graphics programmer, starting his work on the Super Famicom Soccer video game. His first career breakthrough came in 1996 with Dead or Alive, a game based on Sega Model 2 hardware and created in response to a request from the Tecmo management when the company was in financial trouble. Then came Dead or Alive 2, which only increased his popularity. With Dead or Alive 3, he moved to Xbox, citing how much more powerful, developer friendly and easier the Xbox's architecture was to work with compared to other consoles. Tomonobu was appointed the head of Tecmo's third creative department in 2001 and assumed leadership of Team Ninja that same year. In 2004, Tomonobu came out with Ninja Gaiden with his sights set on creating "the best and the ultimate action game." In 2008, he announced he would be resigning from Tecmo and suing them for 148 million yen for withholding a bonus promised for his previous works. In 2009, IGN named him as one of the top 100 game creators of all time, and in 2010, he and a few other members of Team Ninja created Valhalla Game Studios. In 2021, Tomonubu unveiled his own video game studio, Itagaki Games. Tomonobu leaves behind a wife and daughter.Show more