Born in Hackney East London.

Did an Engineering apprenticeship at Hammond and Champness Lift makers.

Chris actually wanted to be a rock star and he played in a band but needed a proper job.

Worked as a design engineer at Torvac designing electron beam welders.

Took a career change in 1974, sold his house in Cambridge and became a student.

Attended Central School of Art and Design in London 1974 studying Industrial Design.

Graduated with First Class Honours in 1977.

He set up Christpher Wiggs Design in a premises he had bought in Battersea while still at college.

He got involved with manufacturing unique styled Japanese soaking bath tubs amongst other designs.

In 1980 he partnered with Chris Taylor whom he had met at Central.
They started Taylor Wiggs Industrial Design.

They also started Formech Limited, design, build and sales of manual vacuum forming machines.

Rather poetically one of the Formech machines is now used in the workshop at Central School!

They then formed Origin Products Limited making plastic briefcases, winning the Crucible of Creativity Award at the Birmingham Gift Fair in 1981 (Seriously!)

Realising that hourly paid work would not fund the indulgent lifestyle they had planned, they started inventing and licensing toys.

They were joined by Brian Whitehead, a Central School Alumni.

Early success in toys was by partnering with Tom Kremer at Seven Towns till the Mid 1980s, licensing The Orb by Waddington’s and Parker Brothers which Origin helped manufacture in the Uk and Rubiks Clock which Chris designed and Manta Force with Bluebird.

They worked closely with Larry Mass originally at Art Taylor’s office in New York, then Larry started Seven Towns in the US.

The Orb was launched in 1983 and now bought back by Hasbro as Atomix 40 years later!

Origin then licensed a number of products to Bluebird and Peter Pan Playthings, developing some of the first products to be digitised by pantograph from pattern accurate models made by the skilled gnomes and elves at Origin. Hard to believe there was no internet and no 3D printing.

The first was Manta Force that ran for six years, then Zero Hour, Oh Penny and most famously of all Polly Pocket.

Chris made the first compact with clothes peg on the back and with a tiny one piece carved wooden doll inside for his daughter Kate after being given a huge metal badge by Dave Berko at Amtoy during a Toy fair in New York, the label read Cute as a Button.

Kate played with it for years then during a clear out gave it back to Chris.
It was shown to Torquil Norman at Bluebird who asked if the doll could articulate at the waist, which Brian swiftly prototyped.

Chris drew a series of interlocking compacts, and the concept was licensed to Bluebird then on to Mattel and Bandai.

It became the go to birthday party gift and is still loved by children the world over. Polly Pocket then influenced an enormous range of Licensed Miniature toys from Bluebird such as Disney’s Tiny Collection, Marvel, Batman, etc.

Chris probably designed and drew at least a thousand toys in his career, he was prolific, a wonderful artist and illustrator, a very good modelmaker and a fine engineer.

With an experienced team at Origin, who later went on to form the toy inventing company Fuse, Chris was able to spend more time indulging his musical roots and he built a full music studio at home and even became the manager and roadie for his son Ben’s band.

Chris also designed a unique hybrid Motorcycle come scooter and researched manufacturing it in the UK. In fact, many of today’s motorcycles look very like the concept Chris pioneered.

Chris bought a plot of land in Berkhamsted and build a unique home, with an enormous workshop and recording studio, a workshop with rooms as it was known.

Origin was sold to Mattel in 2007 and Chris then travelled the world, much of it on his bicycle before deciding to live in Eze in the South if France where he had a full workshop and a recording studio in the building.

Chris’s music lives at Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/h1hbc5a1Lg2h8YmP7

Chris is survived by his wife Carolyn, children Kate and Ben and 5 grandchildren.

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Simon Birchenough, John Stewart, Harry Thomson and Pierre Sourdive… Four I.D.I.O.T. winners on one page, Deej? Couldn’t find them?
No, I found them; just couldn’t persuade them! To be fair, Harry was just incredibly modest. Not only could he not bring himself to do an interview, but he was also mortified at the idea that we could get someone else to speak about his career!

So you’re not going to talk about him?
No – but he did give us a charming statement. Suffice to say Harry’s worked in the industry since 1980. He’s generated millions of sales through the products he’s licensed – and is very quick to give the credit to others.

Alright. You’re giving me the wide eye as if to say don’t ask any more than that…
That’s exactly right – I’m quite impressed, Bill… It’s not like you to take a hint. Ha! The only thing I’ll add is that Harry got his I.D.I.O.T. Award in 2004 at The Staple Inn. It’s an extraordinary Jacobean building in Holborn; looks like a jar of Everton mints…

Everton mints? If anyone knows what you’re talking about, should they write in?
You don’t know what an Everton Mint is?

No one knows what an Everton mint is!
Ha! Right, well… They’re mints that look like the Staple Inn! After the old Everton FC kit… Black and white stripes. No?! Everton Mints! I’ll put a photo in!

Can’t wait. Alright. Let’s put the statement in here…
I’ll just read it out… Harry said:

“I was genuinely surprised when I received the I.D.I.O.T. Award. It’s very nice to be recognised personally for your work. I do need to emphasise, though, that it’s teamwork that creates – then successfully gets to market – most of the best ideas.

My friends and colleagues, especially John and Shaun at Pape Woodward, with whom I’ve worked for over 40 years, equally deserve to share the award. 2025 marks my 50th year in the toy industry. At the last Inventors Dinner, it was great to see lots of new younger faces. The future of toy inventing lies with them now.”

Amazing! Nice guy!
Lovely guy!

Alright… Simon Birchenough and John Stewart. I used to speak with John when he worked with the BTHA – he was very passionate about helping new inventors.
That I can believe. He and Simon – as you know – were the founder partners of Worlds Apart. That was in 1983, but they met at design college in the 1970s. Over the next 35 years, they fostered a culture of innovation and design within the business – and the industry…

And Worlds Apart was acquired by Moose Toys in 2018…
Quite. And I’m told they were both delighted to visit recently and see how Moose – in John’s words – “turbocharged that innovative culture, is expanding the team and continuing to create award-winning products.” Generous words – as often seems to be the case in this industry; almost everyone is quite lovely! And I’m sure that’s what people would say about Simon and John if I asked for contributions.

You’re not going to?
No… Again, I sense they’re not crazy about people talking about them! Too modest, maybe. What I will say is that they won their I.D.I.O.T. Awards in 2013. That was at the British Medical Association… According to Mary Danby, they were given them because, “they were unfailingly supportive of inventors and always made time to encourage innovation and consider submissions of all kinds.”

Perfect. And finally, then… Pierre Sourdive… Where is Pierre?
Pierre Sourdive has achieved his life’s ambition! He’s an actor, living and working in Paris. I’m quite pleased for him, actually.

But he didn’t want to do an interview?
One must assume not… I emailed. I wrote. I phoned. I texted. I was this close to disguising myself as a gin-soaked sop and stalking the theatres of Paris!

Ha!
But then one of his former colleagues said something like: “If I know Pierre, he won’t want to be found…” So pain me though it did, I thought better of it.

Got it. Which is why we’ve got this list of – what should we call them? Testimonials?
Testimonials, yes… Tributes, maybe. I asked a few people that have worked with Pierre to say what they thought of him. And I tracked down a picture of him – but then I felt a bit uneasy about using it. I don’t think the man’s spoken to anyone in the industry for a couple of decades, so we’ll use an artist’s impression of him rather than his actual image.

And what did the publicity-shy Pierre actually do?
I believe he was best known as the marketing wizard at General Mills Miro-Meccano and – later – Ideal Loisir. Very good with TV commercials by all accounts – something of a guru at the time.

Alright… Let’s wrap this up with one quick question: when and where did Pierre win his I.D.I.O.T.?
You know, there’s a little uncertainty about that! Liz Moody has done a fair amount of research on the dates and locations, but the record keeping was a bit wobbly back then…

It’s an earlier one, then?
Yes. We think he got it in 1998 when Mike Myers got his second award… You’ll remember Mike won a mini one first! Either way, we’re pretty sure it was at The Copthorne Tara Hotel. Ordinarily, I’d give you a little tidbit about the location, Bill, but that hotel is conspicuously inconspicuous as an Inventor Dinner venue. All I can say is that it’s lovely and it’s very close to Olympia!

Ha! Alright! Thank you, Deej. And we’ll just go straight to the testimonials… Here’s what people said about Pierre Sourdive…

“Pierre had a particular openness to new ideas. During discussions, he could move from the world of toys to the theatre while wandering through books or the cinema, twirling from one to the other in the same sentence or the same minute… Always without stopping; restless, vibrating without ever showing off, thinking first of others. Above all, he wanted to convey lightness in an incessant flow of words and happiness.”
Bernard Farkas

“For me, Pierre has been a tremendous example of what a marketing genius is. He was always forward thinking on what we should be doing in order to advertise and promote the products sold by Ideal Loisirs…

I still have in my mind his idea of going to the toy fair in Paris with just a shopping cart full of catalogues and distributing them on site! Great! Also, being by the side of Bernard Farkas, they made an amazing scouting and sourcing team… They truly brought the best toys to France and then Europe.”
Laurent Taieb

“Pierre was a gem! He was funny and droll – a real character. I remember that he really wanted to be an actor… And that he always ordered his desert first, then had the main course afterwards!”
Chris Taylor

“I have known Pierre since 1976 or ’77 when I hired him to be the advertising manager at General Mills Miro-Meccano operation in France. TV advertising was beginning to be allowed in a limited way on French channels. He was very knowledgeable in film production and produced some excellent TV spots as the US material was inappropriate for French viewers.

The limits imposed by the French government meant TV advertising had to be very impactful for the restricted frequency of spots permitted. On the other hand, there was not so much limitation on content, so more freedom for creativity was possible.

A notable case was Kenner’s ‘Smash Up Derby’ toy. Pierre created a TV spot filmed in slow motion between two classic French cars renamed ‘Les Cascadeurs’. We sold a million units!

Pierre stayed with Miro Meccano after I had left – but I briefly joined him at Ideal-Loisirs and Majorette. There, he had created a dynamo of creative toys for the French market based on, at that time, the smaller US companies.

Pierre was always creative and positive with new ideas. He embraced them, perhaps even at times when they were not so great – but we all tend to do that. He was always a pleasure to work with. He often mentioned that his real love was for acting in theatre or films. Those were also his words to me after we’d both left Ideal-Loisirs in 1998.”
Mike Bucher

“Pierre Sourdive is a one off! He has an amazing sensor of humour, was a great guy to work with and was outstanding company. He loved toys and the toy business and was as knowledgeable about toys as anyone in the industry…

Despite his love and knowledge of the toy industry, Pierre made the surprising decision to walk away from one of his loves. He also enjoyed holidaying in deserts and living on street food many years before it became fashionable. A lovely man.”
Roger Dyson

“I loved working with Pierre – he is very smart and creative. I remember he once flew from Paris to NY and back in a day just to look at a new product line my team at Matchbox USA were working on. He was a really great product guy and a super-nice individual.”
John Barbour

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So Deej – here we are again! We’re discussing another I.D.I.O.T. winner that’s not yet done an interview: David Fear. But it’s not that we can’t find him?
No, quite so. I’ve been in touch with David. He hopes to do an interview at some point – just not now… But of course, we do want something on the site in time for the Inventors Dinner’s 40th anniversary…

Perfect. To give people a sense of what David Fear is all about, what’s he like?
Interesting place to start! You know, I quite like something Pete Kellond said about David… That – when it came to toy invention – David was the most passionate man he’d met. They worked together at Hasbro where David would smoke his pipe thoughtfully throughout every meeting. Worth remembering, Bill, that people used to be able to smoke at work… Pipes, cigarettes, cigars… Kippers sometimes!

Ha! These are creative people!
Pete describes David as a “quiet gentleman” but says his whole demeanour would change when he saw a toy he liked! He’d laugh and get tremendously excited. Consequently, he’d fight hard to keep items he liked. He’d also get very passionate if it looked like an item was going to be dropped for a disagreeable reason… A lack of attention, or something that didn’t make sense. And, interestingly, Ben Rathbone also used the word “gentleman” to describe David – adding that he has a great sense of humour.

Ben Rathbone worked with him at Hasbro?
Right! Apparently, David introduced Ben to “the wonderful world of Inventor Relations”. Ben says he still looks back at that time “with many fond memories of working with some of the greatest inventors of the time.” In fact, he goes a bit further than that… Ben credits David with teaching him how to be a great partner to the inventor community and how to be their advocates to the company they represented. So David was clearly a huge influence on Ben.

So David was at Hasbro with Pete and Ben – both fellow I.D.I.O.T. Award winners, so people can read interviews with them here and here… Where else did David work?
He was also at Bluebird and Tinker Toys. Perhaps most memorably, though, he was a product manager at Pedigree Dolls and Toys back in the sixties and seventies. Now, dolls are very much not my area, Bill, nor yours… And I don’t think Adam Butler has much to say about them either! That being the case, I’m going to draw on some of David’s friends and other resources to discuss this! First, an interview that David did a number of years ago in 12S magazine…

12S? What is that?
12S was a Sindy fanzine. 12S stands, I believe, for the size of the doll and its name: 12 inches; S for Sindy. And 12S, issue six, written and edited by Thom and Hilary Sewell in 2002, had a really in-depth interview with David Fear. I’m delighted to say Hilary’s given us permission to reproduce the article – it’s absolute gold! You can read see it in full here.

And actually, their headline was ‘Without Fear’ which is wonderfully ironic! But this is relevant because David contributed immeasurably to the development of Sindy. Sindy – for the benefit of younger and overseas readers— was the British Barbie. Or rather, she wasn’t! So for this, we need to go to the early 1960s when Lines Brothers was still a huge force in the toy industry…

That was one of the parent companies of Pedigree Dolls and Toys… Tri-ang Toys?
Right – John Reynolds talks about this in his I.D.I.O.T. interview here. As well as dolls, Lines Brothers made pushchairs, prams, rocking horses, go-karts… They owned Scalextric, Dinky Toys, Hornby, Meccano… Huge brands! They also owned the London toy shop Hamleys for a time.

I know Lines Brothers was run by three brothers in the Lines family – and that’s how Tri-ang got its name… Three Lines made a triangle.
Absolutely right! And in the early sixties, one of the directors – Alan Cathcart –was offered Barbie for the UK… But they had cold feet about it. So instead of jumping all in, they did some market research, which was unusual at the time…

What it showed was that English girls didn’t care for Barbie. They liked the idea of a fashion doll, but not what David described as the frilly, “full-busted, sugar-and-spice” Barbie. She was too American, basically. British girls couldn’t relate to her. So Pedigree set about designing a doll that would appeal to the UK market – one with what you might call a girl-next-door look.

More wholesome?
More wholesome, less severe; a larger, rounder face… And these wide, sideways-glancing eyes. It’s those – this is my opinion, not David’s – that made her look much younger and less confident than Barbie. And in relation to the rest of the Pedigree line, the eyes were somewhat radical because I believe they were their first eyes that didn’t automatically close when you laid the doll down…

Sleepy eyes…
…so Sindy was distinctly different. Also, her scale was important because although teenage dolls were popular in the 1950s, they were usually much bigger… Somewhere between 15 and 20 inches. Just as critically, they didn’t have fashion outfits that you collected, mixed and matched – and Sindy’s clothes were based on fashions of the day. That made her very relatable: little girls saw their big sisters and other teenagers wearing similar outfits. So Pedigree really nailed that and the accessories.

When did Sindy launch, Deej? And was David part of that?
He was a HUGE part of that; he co-ordinated the actual launch. And Sindy launched on September 6th, 1963. It didn’t go particularly smoothly, though… Not least of all because there wasn’t enough budget for Pedigree to launch nationally. Instead, they concentrated on the London area. Even then, sales of other fashion dolls had dropped off tremendously – so retailers were overstocked with old product. That made them a little gun-shy. But on that, I’ll just mention something interesting that formed part of the launch! Pedigree sent retailers a promotional record, a 45rpm gramophone, to introduce Sindy.

Wait a second – like a vinyl record? With music?
Well, yes and no – a vinyl record, yes… But the content was the jingle from the TV ad intercut with a chap speaking with a cut-glass English accent; received pronunciation. So for a little over four-minutes, it promotes and explains the Sindy range. We should put in a link to Our Sindy Museum here because they have the recording – it’s quite extraordinary. Actually, maybe we can transcribe it as well… Put that down the bottom. That being the case, I’ll just say that the TV jingle was produced by a now-dissolved company called Charles Hobson and Grey.

Okay, so the launch didn’t go well. At what point did things turn around?
The interesting thing here is how David explained Sindy’s TV adverts. Granted, they were limited to the London area… But, until then, it’d been customary for Lines Brothers to take 15-minute TV segments. They then showed the company’s whole new range in one go! But Sindy was advertised, as David put it, “like soap powder”. So the ads were short, frequent and focused.

And arguably, that worked rather too well! Despite retailer indifference, Sindy was a hit with the public almost immediately. In Colette Mansell’s book, The History of Sindy, the author says that – during the last three months of 1963, Pedigree delivered 200,000 Sindy dolls. The Daily Mail reported that it was the biggest selling toy that Christmas. But retailers were caught off guard – and the demand on David and the rest of the team was huge. They really struggled to keep up.

Wow…
So in next to no time, Pedigree found themselves with a hit. They quickly expanded the universe with an accessory range called Scenesetters – the name David gave it. Also, one of Sindy’s friends was called Poppet after the nickname of one of David’s girlfriends… Because by 1967, Sindy’s boyfriend – Paul – and little sister, Patch, had been added to the range, followed by Mitzi, Betsy, Vicki and Poppet to help make Sindy even more appealing in the rest of Europe. But Scenesetters in particular was a huge success! The furniture, play-scene accessories and vehicles Sindy started to accumulate outstripped the demand for clothing. And actually, there was an amusing story that David told in 12S…

It seems David did a presentation to distributors in Portugal. It was going pretty well until he showed Sindy’s horse – which was greeted with confusion. It turns out that the price of the toy horse could easily have bought you a real donkey over there! So that item needed a bit of a rethink. Ha!

Ha! Just to clarify, though… David didn’t design the toys? He wasn’t a product designer?
No. He would certainly speak with designers and, as he put it, say, “That’s not quite right”, or “Why don’t you do this, that or the other…” So he’d steer the ideas. A great example of that might be a horse cart that launched in 1982. It was called a gig in the UK, and a buggy in the USA…

Like a two-wheeled horse carriage?
Yes, exactly. My understanding is the design of this was researched by one of Pedigree’s R&D team, Peter Bing. At David’s urging, Peter went down to Regents Park early one Easter Monday to look at carriages in the London horse-harness parade. He took hundreds of photos of horses and carriages!

When he got back, David decided on which of the images the new buggy would be modelled. So by all accounts, he spent a tremendous amount of his time working on the styling, the packaging, the names and so on. Because – as you can imagine – Sindy evolved over the years; her look and movements were always developing. In fact, David instigated a ‘new look’ Sindy in 1968 that I think was rather bold!

In what way?
Just that the original was such a huge success… So any kind of tinkering runs a risk, I think. But the 1968 Sindy had a twisting waist and more bendable legs. More noticeably, they added inset eyelashes alongside those that were painted on. She had a more glamorous hairdo as well – actually, ‘more glamorous’ is probably the key thing here. Sindy still had that very open face, which many would say was her key feature, but her new look was more glamorous; a little less girl-next-door.

Also, in the mid-seventies, Pedigree launched another concept of David’s: Anna Moore and The Champions. Anna was a 10-inch doll, or just over, but specifically a showjumper… Happytime was her horse. They were modelled on a real-life champion showjumper, Anne Moore. I’d love to know more about the licensing deal there! Those toys were hugely articulated; you could pose them every which way! Naturally, the range included all sorts of equestrian clothes and accessories.

Amazing. We should probably start wrapping things up, Deej, but – of course – the reason we’re talking about David Fear right now is to celebrate his winning the I.D.I.O.T. Award. When did he get that?
I think that was 1994 at The Hurlingham Club in London. The Hurlingham Club is a private club with a stately Georgian mansion, croquet lawns, tennis courts, a botanical garden. Impressive… Naturally, getting the I.D.I.O.T. meant a great deal to him! He told me how proud and honoured he felt; that it was a tremendous honour to be elevated to the level of his industry heroes – including Sir Torquil Norman and Roger Ford.

Both I.D.I.O.T. winners themselves! Okay… Let’s wrap it up there, Deej. I’ll put in links to Sir Torquil Norman’s interview here, and Roger Ford’s here – well… Roger Ford’s is an interview with Max Ford, of course, but I’ll still link to it that way.
And then we can put in the record transcription… Also, I do just need to thank everybody that contributed to the piece: Hilary Sewell, Annie Jalili and Kathy Weatherhead at oursindymuseum.com… Pete Kellond, Mary Danby, Ben Rathbone, Colette Mansell, John Reynolds, Jon Morse at the V&A – and David himself!

And David himself. Done.

Launch Record Transcription

Take an S, take an I,
Take an N, D, Y,
And what have you got?
You’ve got Sindy!

You’ve got Sindy! Sindy: the doll you love to dress. Sindy: more than a doll.
A new rage for girls. Sindy: a completely new concept in doll promotion. Sindy: the doll they’ll ask for by name!

Never before has a doll – or indeed any other single toy – been so widely advertised on television – for children, and in children’s time! Between the 30th of September and Christmas alone, Sindy will appear on television 25 times.
And further vigorous advertising is scheduled all through 1964… Winter, spring, summer, autumn. Children will be hearing the catchy Sindy song – and singing it – and asking for Sindy by name. Maybe you’d like to hear it…

Take an S, take an I,
Take an N, D, Y,
And what have you got?
You’ve got Sindy!

The doll you love to dress!

Who is the belle of every ball.
Who wears the prettiest dress of them all?
Who is the girl they all love best?
It’s Sindy:

The doll you love to dress!

Who steals a scene at every show?
Who is the best dressed girl you know?
Who is the girl they all love best?
It’s Sindy!

The doll you love to dress!

Get Sindy and start collecting all these wonderful outfits. They’re beautifully made, like this duffle coat – perfect in every detail.

Who’s got a record player? Brush and comb?
A little doggy – all of her own!
Who is the girl they all love best?
It’s Sindy!

The doll you love to dress!

Sindy!

Sindy is a free-swinging girl. Every little girl’s dream of what she longs to become. Sindy has a beautiful wardrobe, designed by leading fashion experts. Matched and made with exquisite care. Perfect miniature replicas of the clothes worn by today’s young women… Sports clothes, glamour clothes, everyday clothes. Eight full outfits and more to come, each complete with accessories: a dog, skates, a gramophone… Everything a girl could want!

There are separates too! Eight individual items to supplement Sindy’s wardrobe, which are bought on their own. All Sindy dolls and outfits are beautifully boxed and presented. Sindy: the doll they’ll love to dress. The doll they’ll ask for by name… Catchy tune, wasn’t it? Like to hear it again?

Who’s got a record player? Brush and comb?
A little doggy – all of her own!
Who is the girl they all love best?
It’s Sindy!

The doll you love to dress!

Sindy!

Well, we’re selling Sindy in the home – now it’s up to you. This is your big chance to make profits higher than ever before. Remember: Sindy – the doll they’ll ask for by name. Be ready for them…

Our representative will be calling soon – but to make sure of supplies, fill in the reply-paid order form now. There’s a free display too with your first stock order, to provide a central tie up with television at the point of sale. Who is the doll they all love best? It’s Sindy the doll you love to dress…

Take an S, take an I,
Take an N, D, Y,
And what have you got?
You’ve got Sindy!

The doll you love to dress!

Who is the belle of every ball?
Who wears the prettiest dress of them all?
Who is the girl they all love best?
It’s Sindy:

The doll you love to dress!

Who steals the scene at every show?
Who is the best dressed girl you know?
Who is the girl they all love best?
It’s Sindy!

The doll you love to dress!

Get Sindy and start collecting all these wonderful outfits –
they’re beautifully made! Like this duffle coat: perfect in every detail…

Who’s got a record player? Brush and comb?
A little doggy – all of her own!
Who is the girl they all love best?
It’s Sindy!

The doll you love to dress!

Sindy!

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Nominations are now open for the 2025 I.D.I.O.T. Award, an accolade given out annually at the UK Toy Inventors’ Dinner.

The prestigious award – which stands for International Designer and Inventor of Toys – is given as a tribute to those who have made outstanding contributions to the toy industry.

The 40th annual UK Toy Inventors’ Dinner will take place during London Toy Fair on the evening of Wednesday, January 22nd aboard HMS Belfast, moored on the Thames between London Bridge and Tower Bridge.

To nominate someone for the I.D.I.O.T. award, please head to: https://inventorsdinner.com/idiot-awards.

To book your ticket to the UK Toy Inventors’ Dinner, click here.

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As part of our series on I.D.I.O.T. Award winners, we’re pleased to re-publish an interview with David Fear from 2002. By kind permission of Hilary Sewell, the following pages are published exactly as they appeared in 12S Magazine. Without Fear by Thom and Hilary Sewell. © 2002.

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Mary, thanks for making time! I just re-read your last Mojo interview – which people can see here. I think it’s important to remind folk that you’ve invented games yourself! What was your first one?
Hi Deej! My first successful game was Hollywood’s Reel Schpeel. I co-invented it with a real-estate colleague at the time and we had a great time doing it. We made many ‘top game’ lists in the media, and self produced for many years until we licensed a version of it. Afterwards, there were a few smaller games and of course MANY pitches! I admire inventors greatly for their creativity and persistence… And I love their stories!

How did it come to be on the market? Through what process did you go?
Like all small inventing and self-producing companies back then and now, we went through all the hard bits of playtesting, designing packaging, calling on retailers – you always remember your first sales! – and exhibiting at trade shows. It was exhibiting at trade shows that I met other inventors and formed DiscoverGames.com and then DiscoverGamesAndToys.com, which was a co-op of inventors.

Having a bigger booth with more toys and games meant more buyers and product acquisition execs stopped by to see what we had. It was a great way to meet people in the industry. During this time, I kept my day job, so I took vacation days to exhibit. Helping other inventors led to forming the Inventor Conferences we now host.

Brilliant! Have you any plans to invent again?
Yes, I do plan to invent again someday. Eddy Goldfarb is 103 and still tinkering. That being said, someone recently told me that I am an inventor of events, which is awesome.

Of which, your events continue to go from strength to strength! And you’re now at the beginning of a new era, in partnership with the Toy Association. What can we look forward to from that partnership?
We will be even stronger with the Toy Association resources. It is a new era for the Toy Association as well. They want to reach inventors and consumers and are fully backing us. Very exciting!

It’s a very exciting time. Congratulations! Now… In 2019, you won the I.D.I.O.T. Award. Do you recall the introduction to that? Who gave it, and what kind of thing they said?
Rich Mazel gave a wonderful, humorous and warm introduction. He told a story of catching me taking a catnap in what I thought was a hidden corner during our Inventor Conferences at Navy Pier… And, of course, that we both graduated from Notre Dame.

And at what point during the introduction did you think, ‘Hang on a second… Are they talking about me?!’
Since the stories were unique to me, I caught on early. It never crossed my mind that I would ever, ever even be considered. I didn’t think I was eligible. It had been a long time since I’d invented anything, and anything I invented was not the level of the inventors honoured throughout the years… So it was quite a shock as well as an extraordinary, amazing honour. I still can’t quite believe it.

Do you remember what you said accepting your award?
I remember thanking Simon Skelton and the Committee as well as Rich, but nothing else. I think I was in shock!

Well, I hope you can see how much you deserved it in hindsight! Thank you, Mary. I know how busy you are – particularly at this time of year – so thanks for making time.

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The post People of Play’s Mary Couzin on winning the I.D.I.O.T. Award – and a return to inventing? appeared first on Mojo Nation.

Max, thanks for doing this! Let’s dive right in. You pretty much grew up in the toy industry, so this question might carry quite a bit of weight… What was your favourite toy growing up?
You know, I checked this with my mum once because I always thought it was G.I. Joe… But then I wondered! So I asked my mother… She said, “Oh, it was those little soldier action figures…” So even my mother confirmed it.

There we go! I also have it in my head that you’re a big collector of LEGO minifigures. Have I got that right? Or did I make that up?
No, you’re right… They’re all in a cabinet in my toilet.

The LEGO’s in your toilet? Are you shitting bricks?!
Ha! Well… The toilet here is known as the toylet: T-O-Y-L-E-T. Shall I take you on a tour?

Ha! Toylet! Love it! By all means…
Here we go… This is where I’m up to on the last series. This whole cabinet opens up; it’s double thick. Somewhere behind here… There’s a whole other row behind this. It’s complete; all the series from the blindbags. I don’t know how many that is…

Too many, some would say – not enough, I’d say! What’s the appeal of the minifig to you, Max?
I think what’s so remarkable about them is that they’re so adaptable to all the licences. LEGO’s done a fantastic job… So often, you see toys come in and go out and breathe for a season or two depending on their TV show. LEGO’s created a collectible figure that could work with every license that’s ever been made – but it predates all of them!

Absolutely! So true…
And as a fan, I’m just as excited about the Harry Potter release they do in the bags – or boxes, now – as I am about the man dressed as a banana.

No argument for me… I wrote a short opinion piece on the minifigure. I could’ve written twice as much; it would still only be the tip of the iceberg. Now look: I was originally going to talk to you in the context of your winning the I.D.I.O.T. Award – but your dad, Roger Ford, also won it! So maybe we should start with him. Am I right in saying he had a hand in Connect 4?
Yes, dad was the head of design at MB Games before Hasbro bought them… So yes, he was involved in the engineering design of Connect 4. For example, he designed the original teeth that made the counters grip together…

The studs and dimples that made the sound?
I don’t remember them making a sound! Do they make a sound?

DON’T they make a sound?! A sort of ‘viiiiiiiiiiiip’ as they drop? I actually thought that’s why the dimples were there!
Maybe that was part of it. Mainly, the stacking I thought…

Well, you’d know better than I… Maybe they don’t go viiiiiiiiiiiip at all? Maybe I’m in the multiverse! In any case, Connect 4 was very satisfying… It’s satisfying to stack the counters. It’s satisfying to drop them. It’s satisfying to release them underneath! There’s no part of Connect 4 that isn’t satisfying, which is – presumably – the genius of the original design!
I think so, yes. And I still play a lot of Connect 4; my daughter Hetty is fantastic at it. But we use the travel version because we take it to restaurants… I still have the original set we had as children. I’ll check it out. I’m sending you a picture of my daughter playing Connect 4… That should come through. Our rule is that if you get five games in a row, you get a dot stuck to your forehead.

Got it… Okay! So in this photo, that dot says she’s beaten you five times running?
Yes. She was my Padawan in training but she’s getting really good at it.

Mmmm. Proud of her, you are! So at what point, Max, did you start working with your dad?
I joined my father’s company aged 21. I wasn’t planning to. I was working in PR, and a friend offered me a job as an estate agent in Mayfair…

Mayfair in London? Strewth… High end!
Right! I’m pretty sure I’d’ve been a more successful man today if I’d done that.
Anyway, I was so proud to tell dad I’d been offered this role. But dad, I remember very well, said, “No son of mine will be a fucking estate agent!”

Oh! Really?! Most fathers would’ve said, “No son of mine is going to play with toys for a living!”
Yes! Ha! He had an opinion on estate agents, it seems. He must have had a dislike of them, I guess. I don’t know why; I never really found out. But he took me in.

Took you in? Like an apprentice?
Well, yes. Actually, what I’ve come to appreciate lately is the word ‘master’, as in mastery of a profession. My father had mastered the design of toys – or games specifically, I would say. When he took me in, I don’t think he knew – even when he died – that the five years I worked for him was an apprenticeship for me. But it was clear to both of us that there was a great opportunity to learn, right up at the top level with people he knew…

Such as?
We’d be meeting with Alan Hassenfeld, Ben Varadi – all sorts of really rather cool people. As a 22-year-old boy I was there, quiet and listening and learning. My dad gave me an awful lot of tools, let’s say… I don’t think my dad appreciated, though, that what happens when you become a master is there’s not really anywhere else to go.

Is there not?
Not really. You either have to zen in the practice of the field, or to teach! Well… We never talked about it, but I think he got quite a lot out of teaching me how to do this. And I like to think today that it gave him a lot of joy to show me the way. From his company, I moved to Holland to run the development team for Upper Deck. Dad got quite a lot of joy in checking in on an almost daily basis on what I was up to and trying to advise and help. I think he got quite a lot out of it, which I’m grateful for – if I gave him that in return for what he gave me.

Which, from the sound of it, is a very great deal.
Right. And going back to something you said earlier, dad was – among all other things – an I.D.I.O.T. Award winner. I think for a lot of my career, especially after he died, I had a slightly egotistical goal to be an I.D.I.O.T. Award winner myself. When I was younger, it was a real ambition of mine; to be validated by one’s peers and above. I remember fantasising about it, actually.

That’s a very honest statement…
It’s just moments of slight vanity, in fact. Then I realised – when the award actually happened – that I’d gone past that, really. But I think actually getting the award was a bit of a shock. I didn’t expect it.

Well, no; so much so that you weren’t at the Inventor Dinner to collect it! Is it impolitic to ask where you were?
No, not at all! I planned to go – I do love that dinner – but then I made a decision not to go to London Toy Fair… Simply because Nuremberg would tick all the boxes.

Oh, I see! You weren’t in London at all…
No. Gary Pyper and I were talking the day before the fair. He was on the Inventor Dinner board. He said, “See you in London.” So I said, really in passing, “No, I’m not coming.” The next thing I knew Simon Skelton was calling me to tell me I’d won the I.D.I.O.T.

Crikey. Do you recall where were you; what were you doing?
When I got the phone call from Simon? I was with a friend, eating fish at a stand by a canal here in Holland. Simon explained I’d won. I think I said, “Fuck, really?” “Yes, you’re the I.D.I.O.T.” I was like, “Oh, shit.” Because there was still time to get on a plane and fly to London for the dinner. It was the same day, but I could’ve made it. But that would have been very vain.

Gosh. I imagine that must’ve been complicated for you, Max, given how much – earlier in your life – you thought it might mean TO win?
That was what was interesting… I was faced with the moment of deciding: do I get on a plane? To do what? Score this vanity goal? And I called my adviser, Aad Obbens. He worked at Jumbo for decades… I called him, and said, “What do I do?” He said, “Get on a plane and go.” And I said, “I don’t think I want to.” Because getting on a plane specifically because I’m going to win an award felt really odd. I just wasn’t jumping up and down about it. I was perplexed and going like, “Really?”

I hear you. I can’t imagine processing that.
It was a bit frustrating that the goal was gone. I wasn’t ready for it, I think. It was something I was working towards. Maybe I feel like it was awarded prematurely… Because look at other people that have won it, like Adi Golad, say. I mean, Adi Golad built Goliath, you know?! So I went from wanting it to not wanting it, and it was rather weird…

Anyway, that told me that the ego had gone – and that terrified me too because what happens when you’re not driven like that anymore? Then I thought, well, if I get on a plane, then I’m being vain. The whole thing threw me off, actually. In the end, I just decided almost to ignore that it happened because I didn’t know what I’d done to deserve the award – except try to make a living. I haven’t made the waves that others have. I’ve just been here a long time I guess. You’ll have to see what the powers-that-be say behind my back!

Oh, they don’t talk to me… I know my place! But this has been a real revelation, Max, because I didn’t know how complicated a subject the I.D.I.O.T. was for you. One thing that does cross my mind, though, was that – because you didn’t collect the award – you didn’t give a thank you speech…
No… But there’s only really one person to thank, isn’t there? I mean, I could’ve thanked my friends, and the people who supported me, but my father gave me everything. He gave me a great childhood too – oh, I’ve got goosebumps… Even today, I meet people who remember him in the industry and nothing but great stories, nothing but an honourable man. His secretary was with him – and moved company – for 35 years.

Wow.
Dad was just the embodiment of loyalty, and a gentleman, and – with that – this incredible creative who, remarkably, left a stamp on the game industry. It’s forgotten by consumers, and not known by many in the industry… But I have the privilege of having known my father not just AS a father, but also a man who worked, and knowing his work relationship is a whole other part of his life…

I had the privilege of traveling with him too, and getting to know him, learning from a master. Then – having mastered, to a level, what he taught me – to have had the honour of remaking the products that he made. I’m confident he’d be interested in and proud of what I did, so that’s great.

So, yes… There is only one man to thank and one person to thank. I could’ve collected the award, and I could’ve done an acceptance speech, but it would just be praise to him and a chance to say it’s an honour to have won the same award that he had, even if I still feel unworthy of that… My entire career is down to one man. My life is down to one man.

And now here I am, relaunching Hotel, and there are things that I do to memorialise him. I’ll show you a couple of examples. On this game, Don’t Wake Dad, the alarm clock says 22:12 in the 24-hour clock. The date of dad’s death was the 22nd of December. Then, for the new version of Hotel, the banknote needed a fake code…

Like a serial number?
Exactly, exactly. It starts RF151241. RF is for Roger Ford; 15/12/41 is his birthdate… And then 221207 is the date of his death. I put him in there to remember him. Because what else can I do? I can’t show him this stuff anymore. I wouldn’t be doing it without him. I don’t think I’m bad at what I do. And I’m grateful for the award, but don’t need it to tell me I can do it… I think it’s just okay to be grateful and put the vanities to one side.

This has been surprisingly moving, Max, you’ve really caught me off guard. It’s clear what your dad meant to you and I’m so grateful that you’ve shared that. To wrap things up with your dad, then: he also won the I.D.I.O.T. Award… Do you know what it meant to him?
I do, yes – absolutely… It meant a great deal to him. He was very proud of it. And actually, I grew up seeing that medallion on his bedside. I remember, before I worked for him – because he was quite an early winner; like number two or three or four…

Third, I think
Third. Well, I remember seeing this thing when he went to the Inventors Dinner… Him dressing up and wearing it when he left the house. It was a hell of a thing; this medallion around his neck like some sort of Lord Mayor piece of jewellery. It was a big thing for him.

After he died, one of the things I got from the house was this small, beautiful wooden tray. He kept all his cufflinks and things in it. I don’t have a need for that kind of tray! I think it’s got my Rennie Relief and hayfever-relief tablets and things sitting there. But it had his much-treasured I.D.I.O.T. Award in it.

Fantastic. Listen, Max – I can’t thank you enough for your time. It’s been very moving… I hope that lifts off the page; I hope I can leave all the heart in because it’s one of the most heartfelt interviews I’ve done.
Well… I’ve been getting goosebumps all the way through this, Deej. So thank you for bringing me in touch with that. I don’t get to say it often. I’m glad we had the chance to talk.

Thank you, Max.

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The post Awards for the Fords: Max Ford’s heartfelt thoughts on the family’s two I.D.I.O.T.s appeared first on Mojo Nation.

So, Deej: we’ve managed to feature almost all the I.D.I.O.T. Award winners in Mojo Nation interviews… But there are a couple that didn’t get back to you. Is it personal, do you think? Should I try?!
Ha! One of your milder insults, Bill; thank you! But I fear not… In fact, I have to keep reminding myself that – much as we want to talk to them – some of these amazing people have been retired or out of the industry for 20 or 30 years. They don’t want to speak to us – despite, Billy Langsworthy, the charm of the interviewer!

Yes – fair point… Would you want to chat to me 20 years after you left Mojo Nation?!
I don’t want to chat to you now! But with Paul Snyder, there’s still a chance; I’m still hoping that someone that worked with him will step up… Then we can take this down and put up a piece that really does Paul Snyder justice

The Snyder Justice Cut… But as it stands, we know enough about him to fill in some blanks?
Yes! For now, we can talk about him; get a feel for why he won the I.D.I.O.T. Award – then maybe see if we can coax him out of hiding!

And I meant to ask: is he one of those people that’s been out of the industry for a while?
He’s been out of the industry for about 25 years… I believe he’s retired and living on the west coast of Florida. But before he retired – get this – Paul Snyder worked at Fisher-Price for 29 years! He had two roles: first, he was a toy designer himself. Second, he did what we’d now call inventor relations. So he started out designing, then took on the role of scouting the world for toys as well.

And is there an example of a toy he designed? Or one that he found and was proud of?
Yes – we can do at least one of each… And actually, do you recall that I quite often used to ask interviewees, “What was your favourite toy growing up?”

Yes! Good question!
Well, more by good luck than good journalism, we can speak about that! Because Paul gave an interview about it some years ago. It turns out that he loved model kits of ships and airplanes… He also used to take pictures from magazines and turn them into homemade jigsaw puzzles, and he would build marble mazes out of cardboard. Then, when he was six, his parents gave him an electric train set. His parents built it overnight on Christmas Eve. As well as a beautiful train, part of the room was filled with model streets – plastic houses, trees and cars!

Amazing. Do you know when this was?
Yes – sorry, I meant to say: 1950; Christmas 1950. And I’m not into model trains at all, but I have to say this is a really great-looking train! I’ll put in a picture of it at the bottom; it’s a model of 1930’s Union Pacific streamlined passenger train. And that appears to have been an important toy memory for Paul, so I’m kicking things off with that! Then, in terms of a toy that he designed, there was the Play Family Village…

A playset for Fisher-Price Little People…
Right. They were enormously popular back then! It came out in 1973 and sold about 1.7 million units in the first year. And it’s worth saying: since Paul joined Fisher-Price as a Junior Designer in 1970, it’s reasonable to assume this was one of the first things he worked on. It’s really cute! It had a barber shop, police station, mechanic’s shop and firehouse.

How long was it before Paul started looking at other people’s ideas?
That’s a great question, Bill – which is my way of saying: I’ve no idea! Ha! But that might be something we can work out in a minute with the roller skates. I just wanted to mention one particular inventor item that was intriguing to me, though, because of the way Paul framed it… He said it came through as a complete surprise when he was in Japan. He’d looked at a number of items, and not seen anything he wanted to take it back to East Aurora – New York…

Fisher-Price’s head office?
Fisher-Price’s head office. But evidently, he didn’t want to leave empty handed! So he points to what looks like a plush toy up on a shelf and asks what it is. Even as they’re taking it down, they’re more or less saying, “You really don’t want this because it didn’t do well in our country.” It was a soft toy; you squeezed it and it sounded like a toy dinosaur’s roar! Because inside it was what Paul described as “a backwards bellows with foam in.” So when you squeezed it, it made this long roar; this kind of “E-huhhhhhhhrrr” sound!

That’s quite a noise. Can you make it with your mouth as well? Ha!
Ha! I could try; it might not be as good! Well, the reason I know that’s how they sounded is that my neighbour’s children had some of these things. I thought it was a range called ‘Dino-roarrrrr’ but I’m reliably informed they were called Puffalumps. This was in the early 1990s… But yes: that’s how they went: “E-huhhhhhhhrrr”. In any case…. Ha! In any case, after Fisher-Price developed the range, they sold a couple of million pieces.

And the noise – one last time, please!
“E-huhhhhhhhrrr”! I’ll see if I can find a video in a minute; you see if I’m wrong! Also, I wanted to say: the material was extraordinary on those things! They were made of this smooth, shiny nylon – almost like day-glo! So in no way did they look like traditional dinosaurs; they were really colourful, garish, noisy toys. They kind of looked like shell suits actually… Possibly not a helpful reference: if you’re old enough to remember shell suits, you’re old enough to remember Dino-roarrrrr. Or Puffalumps!

Or dinosaurs! You also mentioned a roller skate before we started…
Yes! Another inventor item Paul found became Fisher-Price’s 1-2-3 Roller Skates… Skates that had three settings. Setting one let you lock the wheels so that a child could just walk in them. Setting two let the kid skate forward – but stopped the skates rolling backwards! And setting three was a freewheeling roller skate. Which must’ve been pretty revolutionary at the time. Revolutionary! Pun not intended – or celebrated!

Well, I just googled those skates… Looks like they came out in 1983. And it makes sense, doesn’t it, that Paul was scouting by the late 70s… So moving onto Paul’s I.D.I.O.T. Award… Do we know how Paul felt about winning that?
We don’t, actually. We know it was the 1996 event at Kensington Roof Gardens. That was the year the decision was made to give out five mini I.D.I.O.T. Awards…

Oh, right… Paul Snyder was one of the mini awards?
Right! So his I.D.I.O.T. was given along with a bunch of others… All of whose names are links to interviews here! So the mini-award winners were Paul, Mike Lyden, Mike Meyers, Tom Mason, and Tom Kremer. So no… We don’t yet have a quote on how Paul felt about winning that specifically. What we do have – and I think this is a great way to wrap things up – are two terrific quotes about his working in the toy industry! First, Paul said, “I had more fun than any human being should be allowed!” He also said, “My career spanned 29 years, and every moment felt more like play than work.” – which I think is terrific.

Amazing! That’s a great quote; they’re both great.
He clearly loved it! Which is why I have high hopes that he’ll do an interview with us when he sees this error-ridden, patch-up job that he knows he could do better than! Ha!

Ha! Well, it’s rapidly heading downhill; let’s wrap it up before one of us does the dinosaur noise again.

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The post 30 years at Fisher Price: Deej Johnson on I.D.I.O.T. Award winner Paul Snyder appeared first on Mojo Nation.

Thanks for doing this, Mary. When we interview people about their route into toy invention, some people say they loved toy design: it was always the plan. Others are doing other stuff, and it’s a bit more like a trap door: “I was doing this, then I did this…”
Oh, I’m a trap door then.

You’re a trap door! So how did you how did you find your way in?
Well, if I’m going to start at the beginning … I would say that, unlike lots of inventors, I don’t have any design or invention background – but it’s in the blood. My brother was a very successful inventor of intravenous pumps. And while my father, who was a vet, didn’t have much to do with our lives, I’ve discovered that he invented an anaesthetic mask for dogs that was used for 30 years.

Wow!
But I think perhaps the key to the whole thing is that I’m descended from Charles Dickens. And this is where getting into the toy business starts. It’s quite bizarre, really… I hated school – the only thing I was any good at was English. And when I left school, I took the train down to Hastings, threw my horrible straw hat in the sea and watched it bob off towards France. “That’s enough of that!”

No university? No A-levels?
No, nothing. I became a secretary, then spent about eight years in television production, which I loved. I got to work on all sorts of things – documentaries, sports programmes, some dramas. Latterly, it was for ABC Television in Teddington – it’s defunct now. But I absolutely loved working in television.

Why did you leave?
Well, they merged companies and offered quite a lot of money if you said you’d be redundant. So I took my money, went to work in the States for a while, came back – and didn’t know what to do. And then I met somebody who said, “Oh, you’re just the person Mark Collins wants.” And Mark Collins was the son of William Collins, the founder of Collins Publishers, which is now HarperCollins. They needed a fiction editor for their Fontana paperback imprint. I’d never been in a publishing office in my life but I somehow managed to get the job. And on my first day there, I met Mark in reception. He said, “Come upstairs and meet your secretary…” And I thought, ‘My WHAT?’

Ha!
So my secretary really taught me how to do it. While I was there, I started writing. I’d always wanted to write, so I took over their series of horror stories as a compiler/editor. I did that for years and years. Then, in order to get myself published, I wrote some short stories myself to put in the books. They were pretty gruesome, scary stories.

I’m a massive horror fan, Mary, so I’m absolutely going to look for those!
It was a series called the Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories. And actually, somebody later compiled a book of my short stories. It’s called Party Pieces. I’ve always loved horror, but I don’t think I could write that sort of thing now – the real world seems to have overtaken fiction as far as horror is concerned. I also did some children’s ghost stories. In all, I wrote or compiled about 150 books and a couple of novels – all sorts of stuff – before I changed course yet again.

Amazing!
After I got married, I didn’t want to work full time because my husband was away such a lot. He was a BA pilot, and eventually became one of the first Concorde captains. So I was working from home doing all this writing… And then we had a daughter, and she used to sit on my study floor and play. One day, I was working on a book called Metal Mickey’s Boogie Book… Metal Mickey was a TV-series robot that lived in a house, and would wander around going “Boogie, boogie,” or something. I’m sorry, Billy, this is a very long story!

Noooooo, it’s great, it’s crazy… I love it. Metal Mickey’s Boogie Book…
So I’m working on Metal Mickey’s Boogie Book, and my daughter was playing with one of those magnetic theatres where you move the characters with a magnet on a stick. And I just happened to think that it was a very robotic movement. And I wondered if I could perhaps turn this into a robot game. And I had a game at the back of a cupboard, called Tell Me. Do you remember it?

Yes, the game with the spinner?
Right! So I got this Tell Me spinner and fitted it up with some elastic bands and magnets and put it under the stage of the theatre. I carved an old bit of balsa wood to make a robot that spun round and pointed at things you could pick up. But having done that, I didn’t know what to do with it… However, because I’d been doing Metal Mickey’s Boogie Book, I knew the character-licensing agent, a man called John Sinfield. I rang him and asked if anybody did Metal Mickey games. And he told me to go and see Ronnie Sampson at Invicta Plastics – they used to put out Mastermind.

So! I went to see him – and that was my first visit to a toy fair. He was quite interested and said send it in. We soon got to talking about other ideas. At that time, I was also a consultant editor for Armada Children’s Paperbacks, and I happened to have their publishing list with me. He looked through that and said, “Dickens?! That would make a good game…” So I said, “Funny you should say that – he was my great-great-grandfather! Would you like me to invent a game about Dickens?” And Ronnie said yes.

This is amazing!
Well, I went away and created a board game. I’d always been a big fan of board games, so this was a labour of love. I sent it to Ronnie. And I was used to publishing, where you would get an answer within a few weeks – but months went by on this; months and months and months! And eventually I said, “Oh, look – just give it back!” Then I rang John Sinfield again, and asked what I should do. He told me to show it to a certain three people at toy fair, and to mention his name. And that’s the thing about the toy business: people are so kind and so helpful and not protective of their own stuff. They freely give their advice, don’t they?

Yes. 100%.
It’s wonderful… So then I took it to Waddingtons, and the man there liked it. I was so excited! The second one was Michael Stanfield but it wasn’t for him. The third company on my list I’d never heard of… It was called Milton Bradley… It later became Hasbro, of course, but in those days the really big name for games in the UK was Waddingtons. Anyway, I walked around the corner, and there’s the biggest stand in the whole toy fair. I met the sales director. When he saw the game, he thought it was interesting and said, “Send it in.” So I did – and they bloomin’ did it!

And what was the game? What was it called?
The Dickens Game. Sorry! That was a very long story – but that’s how I got into it. Also, when the game was with Milton Bradley, I met Howard Webster, who was one of their product designers. He turned out to be the brother of one of my husband’s best friends, so we got friendly. A bit further down the line, he left Milton Bradley and came to work with me. So we worked together for quite a few years.

In the meantime, I experienced my first disappointment. The second game I sent them, they liked, but then dropped. And then I came up with a customisable game. It had different stickers you could put on the board and various puzzles to solve. One of the puzzles was the Mystery of the Chinese Necklace. You had to find these pearls, and – do you remember Roger Ford? Wonderful Roger Ford?

I didn’t know him personally, but I know the name.
He looked at this game with Mike Meyers, who was over from Milton Bradley in the States. And Roger said the setting I’d got for this mystery – ancient China – was the best thing. He told me to go away and forget all the customisable stuff. Just develop that theme. And I thought that was a fantastic opportunity –to be directed like that. Because as long as you follow people’s directions, they can’t hate what you do, can they?

I’m sure I could find a way! I’m just going to say that we spoke to Mike Myers about his career. People can read that here. And did you do it; did you focus on the mystery element?
Yes. I spent months on it… Months and months and months. I had a team of local children who’d come over every Saturday morning and play it and play it and play it and play it. When I took it back to Roger and Mike, I was so confident that I said, “You’d better buy this or somebody else will!” Well, they bought it on the spot – and it’s still going, 35 years later.

Amazing. And what’s that game called, Mary?
It’s called Mysteries of Old Peking, which is – I’m pleased to say – something of a classic in France. That’s always been its main market, but it’s sold about three and a half million copies worldwide. So it’s with Lansay as Les Mystères de Pékin, and now it’s with Buffalo in the States as Junior Detective.

Ah! We interviewed John Bell recently about that… I’ll link to that here. I didn’t realise that was Mysteries of Old Peking.
Yes, and it’s kind of its own brand in France these days… There are several versions of it: a junior version, a card-game version, an electronic version, and so on.

Wow. And at the time you first showed that, was inventing and pitching games a big part of what you were doing?
I carried on doing the writing as well. But Howard, who lived in Yorkshire at the time, would come down every few weeks for a couple of nights. We’d work on things together. And I couldn’t draw… This was long before you could do it all on the computer. We were barely out of typewriters. So if a game needed a logo, or a product drawing, I was a bit stuck. But Howard was fantastic. He taught me an awful lot about the toy business. The other person who was incredibly helpful was John Dixon…

From Dixon Manning?
Right. He was one of the early organisers of the Inventors’ Dinner. It was John who told me to come along to the event so I could meet people. And once you go to the Inventors’ Dinner, you’re recognised as a bona fide inventor. So you can then approach anybody and say, “Oh, I saw you at the dinner!” You know? You’re in. That was so valuable. And that’s why I’m so keen on it…

Anyway, just after Mysteries of Old Peking came out – and partly due to the different people who came to work with me – I started working on activities as well. I came up with this device for rolling paper beads. I made the prototype with a cotton reel and an elastic band, basically… I seem to be big on elastic bands! We sold it to Milton Bradley. It was called Bead Studio in the UK and Beautiful Beads in in the States. That sold around a couple of million, and the product is still on the market. Then we did another game for Milton Bradley, which was the Aladdin Magic Carpet Game.

With a flying carpet?
Right. That one was a case of our creating something without a brand in mind, and then a brand came along that perfectly fitted the idea. I think Howard had a niece who was very keen on doing art, and we talked about magic carpets. The niece wanted to do this amazing board, so I devised a mechanism for flying a magic carpet around it. Very lucky timing.

And your hide and seek game?
Pooh’s Hide and Seek Game, yes! For that one, it was just a drawing… Literally just a pencil sketch about rabbits on a bus. Parker Brothers turned it into a game with characters popping out of honeypots. Again, that was a huge seller. And that’s amazing, when you happen to match an idea to a brand in that way, because you just get lucky sometimes… So much of it is luck, isn’t it?

Absolutely. And is there any game of yours that you look at, Mary, and think of as being your most underrated?
There is, because it’s one I play with my grandchildren all the time. It’s their favourite game; it’s called Yo Ho Ho. A long time ago, Milton Bradley used to do what were known as ‘10 Deutschmark games’: little boxed games. I created it for that range. It’s really simple; just a roll and move game, but with big potential for being beastly to other players. Jumbo then did it as Mickey’s Yo Ho Ho, but I’ve never found anybody to do it since – hint!

Ha! And in terms of how you came to work with Carterbench… How did that happen?
That came through the Inventors’ Dinner, because Rob Kay – Carterbench’s MD – was on the committee at the time. In those days, the committee used to come down to my cottage in Berkshire in the summer for a lunch-in-the-garden meeting. Just an excuse, really.

We have to bring that back…
Welcome to! But I got to know Rob that way, and he thought it would be good to have a team down south – so we became Carterbench South. That way, if inventors in my part of the country wanted to work with Carterbench, they’d come and see me, and we would also go up to Macclesfield to work on projects with Suzanne Robinson and the rest of the Carterbench gang. The thing is, you never know where things are going to come from next, or what doors are going to open – and I hope they don’t ever shut. I love to wake up in the morning and think, ‘What have I got to do today? Oh, YES!’

I hear you. And everyone’s creative process is different in terms of how they have ideas… What sparks yours?
Working with other people. You’ve always got to have sounding boards. So eventually there were three of us: Nicky Wastie, Lynn Ash – now Lynn Middleton – and me. We were a trio, working together for at least 30 years. We know each other inside out. We’ve got a sort of shorthand… I think it’s fantastic working with people who know where you’re coming from and who know the business. I find not having to explain anything really liberating… Over time, we focussed as much on crafts as games, and Charlie Bason joined us for a number of years. Nicky – who is immensely creative on the activities front – and I are still working on lots of things.

And in your experience, what makes someone good at inventor relations at a company?
Oh, I don’t know! I knew you were going to ask me these questions, Billy! I don’t have any advice for anybody or anything like that… But one of the lovely things about this industry is that the people you meet tend to become friends for years, and I think it’s the friendly ones… You know, when you feel pleased that you’ve got a meeting with so and so. Because you know they’re going to say hello and sincerely ask, “How are you?” and make you feel like a person… And it’s just a pleasure to see them regardless of the outcome.

Incidentally, the best piece of advice ever given to me by a product picker came from Chris Campbell at Parker Brothers. He said the best inventors are tailors… “You want a bit off the sleeves? Certainly, sir.” “Some frou-frou around the hem? Of course, madam. No problem.” He was so right. Flexibility is key.

Great answer. And are there any key evolutions you’d point to, Mary? Things that show how the industry is different now in terms of how you pitch or develop ideas, say?
Well, I think one of the problems now is that everybody – except old people like me – is trained in video and graphics and CAD to a far greater degree. I mean, I do videos just because I like doing them… And I can do basic graphics –but I’ve had to teach myself. There was no such thing when I when I was starting out. And I can’t even draw! I mean, I can convey an idea, but I’m not an artist. Younger people are used to doing things properly. I can’t get away with what I used to!

Fascinating. And diving back into the Inventors’ Dinner, I’m interested: what was your first impression of that event?
Oh, everybody was so friendly! It was so easy to meet people and to have people say, “Oh, come and pitch to me!” – stuff like that. And because it’s an evening thing, and it’s kind of unofficial in its way, people don’t have to be too corporate, as it were.

And did you ever think it would still be going nearly 40 years later?
No! I mean, I joined the committee when Chris Taylor was mostly running it with John Dixon. They ran out of steam a little and stopped having it at a different venue every year, so we ended up in the Copthorne Tara Hotel in Kensington, which was a sort of, um, an underground dungeon. It was a really uninspiring place. And it was clear that the numbers were going to drop off because – well, who wants to do that every year? So when Chris and John said something about other people taking it on, Rob Kay looked at me and said, “Shall we?”

You know, I’ve just realised you’ve mentioned a lot of names and I need to flag some links! So people can read about Chris Taylor, John Dixon and Rob Kay here, here, and here! Sorry, Mary.
No, not at all. Anyway, from there, more people came and went. And it was brilliant. And now you’re doing it so fantastically, Billy. I’m really pleased because I can see it going on and on. And I don’t think it’s lost any of its spark.

Well, it’s easy to run with such supportive people in the room. And actually, the I.D.I.O.T. Award – given out at the Inventors’ Dinner is a good example of that… There’re lots of other industries where an award win is a great thing for some people and a bad thing for others, or it can be a bit “meh”! But I don’t think anyone’s ever been anything less than overwhelmed with support for the I.D.I.O.T. Was that true for you?
Oh, no; not at all. Mine was complete rubbish!

Ha! How so?
I’d only been to a couple of the dinners at that point. Honestly, I think they must’ve been wondering whom they could give it to. And maybe they thought it would be a good idea to give it to a woman back then. I was very new to the toy business, and I’d had a really nice meeting with Phil Orbanes that morning. I think he was with Parker Brothers at the time. Either way, he was presenting the award, and I think it was given to me just because we’d had a good meeting.

Oh, I’m sure you’re downplaying it. In any case, with the amount of products you’ve done now, you’ve earned it in retrospect!
Oh, you’re very nice! I’ve probably licensed about 150 products now – and I am very proud to be an I.D.I.O.T.

Of which, with some of the I.D.I.O.T. interviews, we’ve spoken to friends and colleagues of winners who’ve passed away, sadly. And again, I’m going to put links in so I’ll say ‘here’ a lot… We’ve had Fleur Tisdale talk about Simon Holdsworth here; Richard Wells spoke about Richard Pain here; Bob Fuhrer spoke about Michael Lyden here. There are more to come… But it’s amazing how enthusiastic and passionate people are; they really light up…
I think people actually love them. You know, there are people on that list that I think of with enormous affection… People who’ve been kind and helpful and done their absolute best to help you as an inventor.

Right. And Jonathan Becker talked about his dad, Jim here. Also, we shared a piece on Stan Clutton that Ron Dubren did here, and…
Oh, Stan… He was just MAGIC!

Well, we’ve never had a reaction like it to a post on LinkedIn. It was remarkable.
He was a lovely man. It’s the only way you can describe him. You know, you had to meet him. He always greeted you with a big smile and such enthusiasm, and I didn’t know him away from toy stuff. But Stan was just lovely.

Well look, thank you for doing this, Mary. Honestly, it’s been fascinating… It’s so interesting to learn that Charles Dickens was your great-great-grandfather and that a huge coincidence over that helped you get your start in the industry. Amazing! Is there a Dickens brand? Someone who looks after the Dickens licence?
Nooooo, no. Because it’s out of copyright. Anybody can do anything with it. The Dickens family is the most amazing organisation, though. We all know each other; there are hundreds of us! Actually, we’re currently organising an outing to the new Oliver! musical next Easter. And so far, I think 70 of us have signed up for it! But you know, being descended from Dickens means nobody ever thinks it’s odd if you achieve something. In most families, if you wrote a book, say, there’d be a bit of a fuss… “You’ve written a book? How marvellous!” With us it’s, “Okay… So what else is new?”

Ha!
So yes, my aunt was a best-selling novelist, and several people in the family have written books. And being related to Dickens does help when it comes to the publicity because it gives people something to hang it on.

Amazing. Maybe I’ll put it in our headline! Thank you, Mary. Brilliant.

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The post From horror to honeypots: prolific game inventor and author Mary Danby on why she’s proud to be an I.D.I.O.T. appeared first on Mojo Nation.

Writing a book in Spain… Permanently back in Canada… Working in interior design. These are just three of the rumours that made you very hard to find, Robin!
Ha! None of those are true – but in a way, Deej, I’m quite pleased I was hard to find. I like to keep a low profile!

Well, you’re doing a very good job. I’ve turned into Columbo! But thank you, then – all the more – for making time to talk, I’m so pleased we’re here.
You’re welcome. Having read the other I.D.I.O.T. pieces, though, I’m not sure I’m up to their level! I was never an inventor; my story and career path are a little different.

Yes, and that makes it all the more interesting, Robin, because you won the I.D.I.O.T. Award for your work in Product Development and Acquisitions for Waddingtons Games…
Yes, from 1984 until 1988 I was with them in Canada. Then, in 1989, I came to the UK and worked for them here.

And then spent some time with Hasbro?
Oh, yes – very briefly after we got bought by Hasbro. I was actually commuting between Leeds and London doing a few days a week at Waddingtons and a few days a week in Stockley Park for Hasbro… Mostly because when that takeover happened, people didn’t know if they were supposed to continue with their work or not. In terms of my job, though, I still needed ideas… Plus, I wanted to be DOING something – so I said I’d hop down there and help up here.

And your previous career was in journalism, was it not? Tell me about that…
Yes, I got a master’s in journalism in Canada. I wanted to be in print journalism. I liked radio as well, but you had to focus on something, so I picked print. Anyway, while I was there, this very charismatic woman – Gwen Page – came and talked to our magazine class and said if any of you want a job, contact me.

And just so I have my bearings, Robin, roughly when was this?
Actually, it’s around the time of Watergate so most students suddenly wanted to be investigative reporters – which is ridiculous straight out of journalism school. But Gwen was the only female publisher in Canada. She had a little company called Page Publications and put out a number of trade publications which were not glamorous at all. Gwen was great though – a tough boss and a mentor. We’re still close friends to this day.

You say the publications weren’t glamorous. They were just work horses, presumably?
Yes – there was very little colour in them, for example. They looked a bit – dreary may be the right word. You think of trade magazines today – they’re way better looking. Gwen hired me, though, and I loved working on six titles: Crafts Canada, Canadian Inn Business… I did Luggage and Leather Goods News, Sports Trade Canada and Computing Canada. The title that became my big one was Toys & Games. I have to confess, though, Deej, that toys and games weren’t a particular passion of mine at that stage… That might not be what you want to hear!

No, I don’t mind hearing that… I’ve gone off them a bit myself since I started working for Mojo!
Ha! I don’t believe that! What I did love, though, were the people in the industry. I was also fascinated by manufacturing… The likes of Coleco and Parker Brothers and Irwin Toy, Canada Games, Playtoy, Ganz Brothers… I’d go to all these factories and get to know the top dogs there. They were just lovely, lovely people.

Anyway, at some point, I was doing an article in Toys & Games. And in those days, you had to write a letter on a typewriter and send it out to people in the post… So I wrote this plea for interviews, and one letter went out to a pretty lacklustre little company that Waddingtons had bought up in Brampton, Ontario. But this Waddingtons House of Games, as they were called, didn’t respond to the letter. And actually, I even picked up the phone a few times and called them, but I couldn’t get anywhere.

Frustrating!
It was! After that issue went out, though, I got this phone call from an irate British man. He’s giving me hell down the phone… I’m crying, and saying sorry, but I explained how I tried my utmost to get an interview – and nobody responded. He went silent, then suddenly said, “Well… Then we’re going to have to change that.” This man’s name was Beric Watson. He was one of the three brothers that ran Waddingtons.

Oh! Because Victor Watson was very well-known for running it…
That’s right. Victor was the chair of the whole group. Beric was Managing Director of the games company, and there was John Watson – I’m not quite sure of his role. He might’ve been commercial or operations. Because Waddingtons, when it started, was primarily known for very specialised packaging and printing. They did postage stamps, for example, packaging for Easter eggs, labels for whiskey bottles…

Anyway, Beric had been sent to shut down the Canadian company because it was doing so badly. He was there on his own; he lived in a condominium not far from me and we became absolute friends. He and his wife came to my wedding, and he got to know my parents. In any case, he actually turned the Canadian company around completely.

He didn’t shut it down? He turned it around?
He completely turned it around! Beric himself was quite eccentric, but he was a great salesman, and people loved him. He introduced an array of products… Some were great, some were bizarre. One which really helped our fortunes was Isaac Asimov’s Super Quiz…

Isaac Asimov, did you say? The science fiction writer?
Yes. It was a quiz game… This was when Trivial Pursuit was out – but nobody really knew about it. In fact, I became friends with those guys too because – as a journalist – I’d go around the Montreal Toy Fair and see them at the very back with this game. And they used to invite me to these game sessions in in Toronto where everyone would just sit out and play it. So even early on, it was an amazing game – but nobody knew about it.

Did you write about it, just out of interest?
I did! I wrote the first positive article about it – before it took off. That took a few years… It wasn’t an overnight success, and advertising wasn’t part of it. Instead, they sold it through a great store called Mr. Gameway’s Ark in Toronto – and they had a great marketing ploy. They used to run tiny ads saying, ‘Games 357 to 667 are ready for pick up at Mr. Gameway’s Ark.’ So they started to create the demand where there was no demand! It was brilliant – those guys were off the wall.

That’s brilliant! You also said some of Beric’s products were bizarre…
Yes. One of more bizarre ones was an all-white jigsaw puzzle, for example. That way, he didn’t have to pay for print. I mean, he was bonkers! But we became really great friends. One day, he told me that – since the company was doing well – he was heading back to England… And how would I like to be Head of Product Development? And I said, “Well, what the heck do I know about that?!”

Ha! A very reasonable question!
Right? But he thought that since I’d been writing about toys and games for years, something must have rubbed off. At that time, I was doing so many publications – some bimonthly, some monthly… But I was typing on a typewriter, doing the layout, doing the pictures, doing the interviews, doing the trade shows. It’s a lot of work, even for someone like me who’s a bit of a workaholic. I was feeling a bit burned out, so… Yes. That’s how I started to work for Waddingtons in Canada. I was there for about four years, and I’d come to the UK and to look at products here too.

What brought you over to England permanently, then?
At some point, the Head of Product Development left. I can’t remember her name, I’m afraid; I didn’t really know her. But when she went, it left them in the lurch – so they brought me over for three months. I had to live in the Swallow Hotel in Wakefield, Yorkshire, which was pretty soul destroying. I quickly learned that the English don’t really invite you over for dinner or anything so there were some very long evenings.

So now you’re working at Waddingtons, living in the Swallow Hotel in Yorkshire, soul eroding slowly…
And bored!

And bored! But when they offered you a chance to move to England and do that job full time, you said yes?
Ha! I did, because I was blown away. It came right out of the blue, but I already knew the company. I knew the people. I knew where they were based, and I liked the company very much. And to be honest, I was 33, and I didn’t have much going on in Canada. Waddingtons had bought another company out there, and I didn’t much like the match. They moved really far out, too. And I just thought: this is not fun anymore…

Which can be a very good sign that it’s time to move on!
Exactly. And while I was still thinking about it, Beric said to me, “Would you be disappointed if you didn’t do it, do you think?” And I said yes! So that was my answer… And I started on April 1st, 1989. Ha! I came out of the little house that I was then renting – it didn’t have a phone in it, and there were no mobile phones either… But I wanted to call my parents. So I had to go to a phone box in the street and deal with, you know, the coins in the slot…

The old ten-pence pieces endlessly dropping in! Ha!
Ha! And outside the box, it started to snow, and I thought: what have I done? I’m like, “Oh, come on!” Once I settled down, though, it was great. Because I LOVED the company. And we had some fantastic products… Cluedo and Monopoly, of course… We had Top Trumps and Subbuteo. Subbuteo, I confess, I never understood at all! I just left that to someone else… But we had a really solid stable of products. And around the time I was brought in for product development, Tony Norton came in to do marketing.

I think Billy might’ve interviewed Tony. It was a while ago, but I’ll put a link to that here…
Well, back then he had his marketing hat on, and I had a product-finding hat. We worked together on many things. One game I really liked was a Carterbench product, Bizzy Buzzy Bumbles.

Bizzy Buzzy Bumble bees!
Did you just sing the advert?!

I did! Although ‘sing’ gives me more credit than I deserve… I still remember that advert; someone obviously did something very right!
Well – ha! I used to oversee the shooting of the TV commercials. And I loved that game because it was so simple to communicate. Another one that you might remember was a product I helped Milton Bradley do in the US – Dingbats. In the US, it was called Whotzit.

Oh, wow. That was a huge hit!
Yes. I love that game because I’m a word person. And actually, I became very close friends with the inventor – Paul Sellers. I got to know the family… Sadly, he passed away in the pandemic, but I still keep in touch with his wife. He was a lovely man and very clever. He was still working up to almost the day he died, aged 89. He was an amazing guy, a cartoonist and a wordsmith. He drew me a Dingbat on a piece of card and wrote a message on the back. I brought that along to show you, look… It’s lovely.

That’s amazing!
They were happy days! It was a real delight to work on. In terms of people, I had an amazing team at Waddingtons. There was Simon Pilkington, Steve Parry, Phil Radcliffe… Alison Durham – who later married Simon Pilkington! Great people. They were such great product developers; I was really proud of that range and proud of them. They were an amazing team.

When you look back, Robin, was there one product above all others that made you feel proud?
I think the product I’m most proud of was POGS… Because nobody wanted to do it; I had to fight tooth and nail for it. To me, it seemed to be a good fit for Waddingtons because it was a very specialised printing process: it had embossing, it had holograms, it had brilliant artwork. I couldn’t believe no one was interested. I kept on about it though and – eventually – our managing director, Alan Thompson, more or less said, “I’ll tell you what. You can do some research. But if it fails, will you just stop with this?” I said okay – and it was just HUGE.

I’m curious: why did you have such faith in that?
To me, it was just a no brainer because when I saw products I liked, it was a purely personal thing. Often, it would resonate with me from when I was a kid. And in this case, it was because I used to love playing marbles. I thought POGS were just like flat marbles! And I thought: it’s quick to learn, there are not a lot of rules, it’s easy, it’s instant, and it’s a collectible. So I just couldn’t see why this wouldn’t be a great idea.

Even though everyone else looked at you a bit strangely!
Oh, they looked at me like I had three heads. It was so frustrating! Anyway, ultimately, they went with it, and we had mail bags every day. Literally, bags and bags of mail. We never had that at Waddingtons – not ever. But there’d be four big mail bags coming in every day; kids writing letters about POGS, drawing pictures of their favourites and sharing their experiences. It was amazing. I was actually quite teary when I walked in and someone said, “You have to see this Robin, look… This is POG post.” I was very, very proud of that. The only downside was that POGS became so big that everyone had to start working on it!

Ha! But that’s a nice problem to have…
Yes. And a man called Andrew Palmer was my best ally on it once we said we were going to do it. He pulled out all the stops and really got into it. I think Simon was probably working on it too. Well – as I say, everyone was because we had to keep feeding them. But all the people that worked with me were amazing.

What a story! No surprise, then, Robin, that you were given the I.D.I.O.T. Award in 1995. Do you remember who did the preamble?
That was David Fear. And I’ve read some of your interviews, Deej, so I know what you’re about to ask! Unfortunately, I don’t remember what David said because I was just sitting there yakking away with my friends. You know how it is…

I do! There’s an excited babble in the room, and because it’s a surprise award, and no one imagines it’s going to be them, they’re not reallllly paying full attention until the preamble gets very specific.
Exactly. And in hindsight, there was really only one little clue ahead of time, because I had asked Mary Danby what she was wearing to the dinner… I told her I didn’t know whether I should just wear this or that – dress up a little – and she said, “Oh yes, I would wear that, definitely.” You know? Dress up a little!

Ha! That’s subtle! I like that Mary had your back! I hate having to keep saying this, Robin, but I’ll put a link in here to an interview with Mary Danby!
No problem! Anyway, I don’t know what David said because all I remember is that at one point I was sitting there watching and wondering who it was going to be. And he was doing something with the game, Guess Who?! Is it this? Is it this? Then I pretty much just heard my name… And when I did, I was SO embarrassed because – as you now know – I really do not like being in the limelight at all. I was so embarrassed, I wanted to just hide – and because I never suspected it, I don’t know what I said. I have no memory. None. It was just crazy.

Do you think you thanked somebody?
I don’t know. I was so shocked – I probably said very little. I probably said “Really?” I do remember sort of hiding down behind the podium and thinking, Oh, my lord! What am I going to say? And I wouldn’t have known who to thank – probably everybody in the industry! A big, long list because I just love the industry. I love all the people in it. I love their inventivity. I love the inventors… I love their personalities. I adore them. To this day, I would say all my friends are really interesting and accomplished; they’ve all done interesting things and most of them are quite creative sorts. I enjoy their creativity.

Shortly after winning the I.D.I.O.T., though, you moved on from Hasbro, which by then had bought by Waddingtons. Where did you go next?
In 1996, I went back to Canada for a short time to attend my mum’s funeral and regroup a little. Then, in 1997, I started my own little company, Robin Partners. There weren’t any partners, though, I just wanted to partner up with great people and utilise model makers and artists and game inventors. I assisted small-to-medium companies that didn’t have any product development expertise. And Robin Partners did pretty well, actually. Later, I did a lot of work – almost exclusively – for Richard Pain at Paul Lamond Games.

Ha!
You’re gong to link to him, aren’t you?!

Well, we just recently spoke with Richard Wells about Richard Pain’s I.D.I.O.T. Award. So yes, people can read that here.
Oh, Richard Wells! Yes… The Richards were fun. Richard Pain liked to have me on his stand at London Toy Fair, but I wasn’t going after being a big company – I sure didn’t want employees! In any case, from long before this, from about 1989, I had a partner, Tony Clegg – a Yorkshireman – with whom I wanted to spend more time. So I didn’t want an onerous job. Robin Partners kept me in the industry, and I got to see all the people I liked.

This just deepens the mystery, though, Robin, because there you are, award-winning inventor relations bod. You’re surrounded by fascinating, creative people. You love them all, you have wonderful friends! You start your own company to stay among them… Then you’re like Keyser Söze in The Usual Suspects: And like that… Fwaaar! You’re gone!
Ha! Well… One day, Tony just said to me, “Robin, do you still have to work?” And I said, “Well, I don’t HAVE to work, but it is what I do. It’s my identity.” He was having some health issues, though, so there was some talk around that and whether I should go back to writing because he knew I really loved it – and you can do that anywhere. But that kind of decision is difficult if what you do becomes SO much a part of who you are… You know? Because you have your whole identity in that role.

Yes. There comes a point where you find yourself asking, “If the thing I do is so much a part of my identity, then who am I when I stop doing the thing?”
Exactly. It’s so much a part of who I am… Exactly. That was exactly it.

Yes, I absolutely hear that.
Anyway, I didn’t go back to writing straight away because looking after Tony gave me a purpose. I loved him to bits… I’m not sure of the year I stopped in toys and games, but I just pulled up very quietly. I remained friends with some people. I still have the same email address from years ago… I didn’t see any reason to change that. But that was that. After Tony died in 2012, I had another crisis because I didn’t have an identity again. I had to start over – but I’m quite good at that.

And what keeps you busy now, Robin?
Well, as you know, Deej, I keep myself to myself, but I do some volunteer work here. I’m here at least once a day every day…

Worth mentioning that we’re meeting in the scorching sunshine in London’s Regent’s Park. What is it you do here?
Just after the pandemic, they were looking for volunteers for a newsletter they put out in the summer. It’s called Friends of Regents Park and Primrose Hill. The lady who edited it decided she was going to give it up. I saw the little advert they put out for it and wondered if I should do it… I put up my hand and I said I’d try for it. I wasn’t sure how interesting it was going to be, but when I got talking to some of the people that come here and work here, they were fascinating. I started getting into their lives and what they do – and they’re such interesting people.

And were you a shoo-in for that with your experience?!
No, not at all. I had to apply, and later they phoned me and said they’d like to interview me. I couldn’t believe it, actually. I was a bit unsure of it because, if you think about it, I’d had very few job interviews in my life; I’ve had one, I think.

Right. You’ve been in a network or self-employed your whole life.
Yes – so I wasn’t full of confidence as I imagined I’d be up against people that do interviews all the time. From what I gather, young people do interviews like eating Smarties, you know?

Ha! Eating Smarties! Ha! Yes, and every CV is completely bespoke for the role. It’s a blend of dark arts and real science!
Ha! Exactly. I haven’t even got a CV! So no, I didn’t have a lot of confidence about that process. But I do have the the ability to do the job, that’s for sure. So I was delighted when I got the job, and I work hard at it. I’m also on the committee for them here… It’s all voluntary, but I feel I’ve sort of found my niche – finally!

Well, the way I see it Robin you’ve found new niches over and over again… Doing something you love, then starting over with something else you love. And I’m really glad I managed to find you – thank you so much for taking part.

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The post Robin Black on working at Waddingtons, winning the I.D.I.O.T Award… And leaving toys and games appeared first on Mojo Nation.