Rest In Play - 2020 - 2029

Amparo Serrano, known as Amparín Serrano, was born on October 31, 1965 and passed away on August 12, 2022. She was a Mexican graphic designer, most famous for creating the Distroller brand "Virgencit...a Plis" that caricatured the image of Our Lady Guadalupe, and "Ksi Meritos/Neonate Babies" that featured baby dolls. Serrano founded Distroller in 2004 and it quickly became a success in toys, licensing, and entertainment. Serrano was originally a member of the band Media Luna, with singles "La Luna," "Dime por qué," and "Sueños."Show more

Arthur Houtman, Vertigo Games managing director, passed away on Thursday, July 28, 2022. Houtman was the co-founder of Vanguard Games and Force Field and also the managing director of Vertigo Studi...os Amsterdam. Because of his influence and direction, Vertigo Studios transformed from its indie beginnings to the well-known and solid studio that it is today. Some games Houtman was involved in the production of include Halo: Spartan Assault and Halo: Spartan Strike. Houtman was married to his wife, Bridget, and together they had one son, Arno.Show more

Arnold Thaler was born on March 10, 1923 and passed away at 99 years of age on September 12, 2022. He was the former Chairman of Viewmaster-Ideal, and served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II.... He was deeply involved in The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, The United State Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Moriah Congregation. He enjoyed philanthropy, cultural activities, tennis, the opera, and the Yankees.Show more

Kazuki Takahashi, creator of Yu-Gi-Oh! passed away on July 4, 2022 while trying to save children and adults from drowning. Takahashi was born on October 4, 1961. He made his serial manga debut in ...1986 with Go-Q-Choji Ikkiman, an adaptation of the TV sports anime. He also created Tokio no Tsuma, Tennenshoku Danji Buray, and Drump. In 2015, Takahashi won the Inkpot Award from Comic-Con International for his outstanding contributions to comics. Takahashi loved playing games, including shogi, mahjong, card games, and tabletop role-playing games. Takahashi's Yu-Gi-Oh! manga is one of the most successful in the world, with the trading card game earning a Guinness World Record in 2011 for the "trading card game with the highest number of sales in the world."Show more

Archer Maclean was born on January 28, 1962 and passed away in December of 2022. He was best known for his work on Dropzone on the Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64. Maclean also worked on International... Karate in 1986, International Karate+ in 1987, and Archer Maclean Presents Pool Paradise. Many of these games were developed at Awesome studios, which Maclean co-founded in 2002. After leaving the developer in 2005, he founded Awesome Play, which created the 2009 Nintendo title Speedzone. Speedzone was the last game Maclean developed, but he also wrote for Retro Gamer Magazine.Show more

Bob Smith, a programmer at Atari, passed away on May 13, 2023. Smith worked the most on the Atari 2600, designing well known games including Video Pinball in 1980, Star Wars: The Arcade Game in 1983, ...Solar Eclipse in 1995, and many, many more. Smith was also the co-founder of Imagic in 1981 with Bill Grubb, Rob Fulop, and Dennis Koble. All four men had worked at Atari. Together at Imagic they released 24 titles, including Atlantis in 1982 and Moonsweeper in 1983.Show more

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