Marvin Glass and Associates (MGA) was a toy design and engineering firm based in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Marvin Glass (1914–1974) and his employees created some of the most successful toys and games of the twentieth century such as

Mr. Machine Mr. Machine is a once-popular children's mechanical toy originally manufactured by the Ideal Toy Company in 1960. Mr. Machine was designed by Marvin Glass – the toy designer – known for many popular 1960s & 1970s toys. The story goes that Ma ...

Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots ''Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots'' is a two-player action toy and game designed by Marvin Glass and Associates and was first manufactured by the Marx toy company in 1964. It features two dueling robot boxers, Red Rocker and Blue Bomber, mechanically ...

, Lite Brite, Ants in the Pants,

Mouse Trap A mousetrap is a specialized type of animal trap designed primarily to catch and, usually, kill mice. Mousetraps are usually set in an indoor location where there is a suspected infestation of rodents. Larger traps are designed to catch other s ...

Operation Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...

, Simon, Body Language, and the

Evel Knievel Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel (; October 17, 1938 – November 30, 2007) was an American stunt performer and entertainer. Over the course of his career, he attempted more than 75 ramp-to-ramp motorcycle jumps. Knievel was inducted into the Motor ...

Stunt Cycle.

History

Marvin Glass and Associates was founded in 1941. Its founder, Marvin Glass, was an entrepreneur and the creative force behind Marvin Glass and Associates. His salesmanship and uncanny ability to spark creativity in the designers he employed was unparalleled. In 1949, he licensed a "novelty item" to H. Fishlove & Company called Yakity Yak Talking Teeth. This item was invented by

Eddy Goldfarb A. Eddy Goldfarb (born Adolph Goldfarb; September 5, 1921) is an American toy inventor. The creator of over 800 toys, he is best known for inventing Yakity Yak Talking Teeth, Battling Tops, KerPlunk, Stompers, and Vac-U-Form. He is the subj ...

, who worked with Marvin Glass for a very short time after World War II. The first big hit for Marvin Glass was

, a toy invented by a former watchmaker named Leo Kripak. A child could take Mr. Machine apart and put him back together. It was licensed to

Ideal Toys Ideal Toy Company was an American toy company founded by Morris Michtom and his wife, Rose. During the post–World War II baby boom era, Ideal became the largest doll-making company in the United States. Their most popular dolls included Betsy ...

and became such a hit that Lionel Weintraub, its president, made it his company mascot and featured it in many of Ideal's early TV ads. The company became so successful that Marvin Glass got his company logo printed on every package for the items it invented and licensed. The organization's general counsel, James F. Coffee, and accountant Ernest Sonderling, were the architects of the successful business model whereby the designs and inventions were patented and licensed to various toy companies and manufacturers who would pay running royalties based on sales. Outside counsel, chairman and founder of the Intellectual Property Department at McDermott Will & Emery, Robert J. Schneider, was responsible for procuring the patents and protecting them from infringement. Mr. Schneider is currently co-chair of the Intellectual Property Department of

Taft, Stettinius & Hollister Taft Stettinius & Hollister, commonly known as "Taft", is an American, white-shoe law firm founded in Cincinnati, with offices in Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Delaware, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; Denver, Colorado; Detroit, Michigan; Indianapoli ...

LLP.

Joseph M. Burck Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

was a senior designer at Marvin Glass through the mid-1960s to early 1980s and invented or designed many of MGA's hottest items such as Inch Worm,

Lite-Brite Lite-Brite is a toy that was originally marketed in 1967. It consists of a light box with small colored plastic pegs that fit into a panel and illuminate to create a lit picture, by either using one of the included templates or creating a "freef ...

, Astrolite,

Which Witch ''Which Witch'' is a musical written by Norwegian singers/composers Benedicte Adrian and Ingrid Bjørnov. The storyline for ''Which Witch'' was derived from the witch finder's manual ''Malleus Maleficarum'', and the original script was writte ...

Masterpiece A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

SSP Racers SSP is an abbreviation that may stand for: Arts and entertainment *Silversun Pickups, an American alternative rock band *Super Sonic Power, a line of toys by Kenner Products in the 1970s Companies *E. W. Scripps Company, stock symbol *SSP Group ...

, Chu-Bops, and the

line of toys (Burck was Knievel's personal guest at the infamous Snake River Canyon jump.) Burck holds 10 US patents for items developed by MGA. ''

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

'' named Lite-Brite one of the top 100 toys of all time. Marvin Glass died in 1974. Two years later, managing partner Anson Isaacson, partner Joseph Callan and designer Kathy Dunn were shot and killed and two others seriously wounded at the company's offices in Chicago. The perpetrator was 33-year old Albert Keller, a designer suffering from paranoid delusions who then killed himself. MGA was contracted by

Bally-Midway Midway Games Inc., known previously as Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known as simply Midway, was an American video game developer and publisher. Midway's franchises included ''Mortal Kombat'', '' Rampage'', ''Spy Hunter'', ...

to design coin-operated video games during the 1980s. Some of the games produced by MGA during this era include '' Tapper'', ''

Domino Man ''Domino Man'' is an arcade game released by Bally Midway in 1983. The player controls Domino Man, a bespectacled, balding man wearing a beat-up turtleneck sweater and sporting a mustache who attempts to set up a number of giant dominoes across ...

'' and ''

Timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

''. The company continued in operation until 1988. Several partners from Marvin Glass and Associates subsequently started Chicago-based

Big Monster Toys Big Monster Toys, LLC (BMT), established in May 1988, is a United States-based toy and game inventing and licensing company. History Big Monster Toys was founded in 1988 by Jeff Breslow, Howard Morrison, and Rouben Terzian, three former partne ...

Designs by manufacturer

Unknown

* 1969 Sketch a Toon

Amurol

* 1980 Chu-Bops

Aurora

* 1972 Skittle Horseshoes * 1973 Flip It

Cardinal

* 1969 Finders Keepers

Fisher-Price Toys

* 1988 Smoochees

Gilbert

* 1965

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

007 Action Toys * 1965 American Flyer All Aboard Sets

Hasbro

* 1963 Ambush! * 1967 That Kid Doll * 1967 Lite Brite * 1969 AstroLite, Astro Sound * 1971

Inchworm The geometer moths are moths belonging to the family Geometridae of the insect order Lepidoptera, the moths and butterflies. Their scientific name derives from the Ancient Greek ''geo'' γεω (derivative form of or "the earth"), and ''met ...

, Alley Up * 1973 Super Sunday Football *1974 Ricochet Racers * 1988 C.O.P.s and Crooks

Hubley

* 1962 Golferino (See also Milton Bradley)

Ideal

* 1960

* 1961 Robot Commando * 1962 Gaylord, Bop the Beetle, King Zor * 1963

* 1964 Crazy Clock * 1965 Fish Bait * 1964 Clancy the Great * 1965 Tigeroo Bike Siren * 1966 Babysitter Game * 1967 Careful * 1968 Little Lost Baby * 1969 Ants in the Pants * 1970 Mr. Mad * 1973

Stunt Cycle * 1977 Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Puppets & Trolley * 1985 Rocks Bugs and Things

Irwin

* 1963 Dandy the Lion * 1964 Interior Decorator Set

Kenner

* 1970 The Wall Walker * 1970 SSP * 1971 Smash Up Derby * 1972 Blythe Doll * 1975 Hugo Man of Thousand Faces

Lakeside

* 1970 Brink Ball * 1970 Mad Marbles

Marx

* 1961 Great Garloo * 1963 Penny the Poodle * 1964

* 1964 Perils of Pauline (board game) * 1972 Bops 'n Robbers * 1973 Silly Sammy

Matchbox

* 1972 Big M-X * 1974 ''Fighting Furies'' pirate action figures

Mattel

* 1961 PopZaBall

Milton Bradley

* 1963 Jungle Hunt * 1964 Time Bomb * 1965

Mystery Date ''Mystery Date'' is a 1991 American teen comedy film directed by Jonathan Wacks and starring Ethan Hawke, Teri Polo, and Brian McNamara. Shock-rockers Gwar have a brief cameo in the film. Plot Tom McHugh quickly learns that his perfect big brot ...

* 1966 Mosquito (game) * 1967 Fang Bang * 1968 Sand Lot Slugger, Bucket of Fun * 1969 Dynamite Shack * 1970 Snoopy and the Red Baron; Which Witch? * 1971 Stay Alive * 1974 Body Language * 1974 Trip Hammer * 1979 SIMON

Parker Brothers

* 1968 Situation 4 * 1970 Mind Maze, Rattle Battle, The Tiny Tim of Beautiful Things, Twiddler * 1971 Gnip Gnop,

* 1974 Tug Boat

Schaper Toys

* 1963 King of the Hill * 1966 Thing Ding * 1967 Clean Sweep * 1968 Big Mouth * 1972 Don't Blow Your Top * 1974 Jack Be Nimble

Whitman

* 1969 Humor Rumor

References

External links

Video: WBBM Channel 2 Chicago News
Feature story and interview of Marvin Glass (1972)
Working at the Marvin Glass Studio
- Recollections of a Former Employee by Erick Erickson
Marvin Glass page at Boardgame GeekPhoto:
Marvin Glass (center) won't unveil a new toy to a buyer unless he signs a promise not to copy it. Left, engineer John Parks of Glass's staff. {{DEFAULTSORT:Marvin Glass And Associates Toy companies of the United States Defunct toy manufacturers Defunct video game companies of the United States Toy inventors Companies based in Chicago American companies established in 1941 Consulting firms established in 1941 Design companies established in 1941 American companies disestablished in 1988 1941 establishments in Illinois 1988 disestablishments in Illinois Defunct companies based in Illinois