We make the elves who make the toys, University of Cincinnati

We make the elves who make the toys

Catching up with University of Cincinnati graduates who design, invent and create some of the holiday season's most popular toys

by Barbara Blum
December 2013

We make the elves. Kinda’. At the very least, UC helps make the folks who design many of the toys on today's shelves and in Santa's sleigh, as well as some of the ones you grew up with. Certainly, the University of Cincinnati's industrial design produces toymakers.

UC’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning offers a bachelor’s degree in industrial design, a program ranked No. 1 in the nation by DesignIntelligence in 2012. (The graduate industrial design program ranked No. 2.) For those unfamiliar with the field, the DAAP industrial design program website may make the work seem … well … less than playful:

"Students learn to emphasize the humanistic qualities of products of mass production with special consideration for the comfort, safety, and aesthetic satisfaction that they may bring to the users.”

Yeah, yeah, but these guys make toys!

Many UC alums have been and are still active in the art and business of producing toys. In the spirit of the season, let’s meet a few of them. And more important, see what toys they helped design.

Hokey Pokey Elmo was released by Fisher-Price in 2003.

Walkin' Talkin' Lightning McQueen was released by Mattel in 2009.

Mike Hoeting and Sean Mullaney

Mike Hoeting, DAAP '90, and Sean Mullaney, DAAP '89, founded Bang Zoom Design, a Cincinnati-based product invention company, in 1991.The company has licensed more than 100 inventions, accounting for more than $1 billion in retail sales. In particular, they designed Hokey Pokey Elmo, Walkin' Talkin' Lightning McQueen, radio-control cars and motorcycles, as well as the Barbie and Jumping Tawny set. They have more than 13 patents in their names, including a remote-control motorized Slithering Jake the RC Snake.

Daniel Meyer

Daniel Meyer, DAAP '04, in 2009 became director of marketing and design at the newly founded The Bridge Direct in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area. The company has established itself as one of the premium producers of collectible toys. At the end of 2012, the company released its first line of Hobbit toys to coincide with Peter Jackson's three Hobbit movies. The Bridge Direct has also produced licensed toys for Frankenweenie, Looney Tunes, Richard Scarry, Arthur's Christmas, Justin Bieber, the Power Rangers and Jackie Evancho.

Its new “Flying Hero" toys for Christmas 2013 won the People’s Play Award for Best Action Figure in December. One other new toy, Pinkie Cooper and the Jet Set Pets, was among six nominations for Best Fashion Doll in the same People’s Play Awards.

Previously Meyer was brand manager with Jakks Pacific, a major toy and leisure-product company in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where he designed the action figures and playset related to the movie "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" in 2008.

The Bridge Direct action figures of Tauriel, an invisible Bilbo Baggins and Legolas Greenleaf.

One of the all-time classic Transformers, Optimus Prime.

"G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" action figures were released by Hasbro in 2009.

Steve Bono

Steve Bono, DAAP '91, is a toy designer, who, at one time, was head of design for Hasbro's international Action Man line. Bono had previously worked for Kenner (now a Hasbro subsidiary) and personally had a hand in developing a number of Transformers, including Optimus Prime, Nemesis Prime and Decepticon Rumble. He developed action figures for "Batman Forever," "Batman & Robin," "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" toy lines. Bono also helped design figures for the "G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra" movie.

Story on Bono originally on DAAP website

Eric Tscherne

Eric Tscherne, DAAP ’99, is a 2011 inductee of the Diecast Hall of Fame for his work as a Hot Wheels designer from 1998 to 2004. Currently, he is the design director for preschool toys at Spin Master Toys, managing a variety of licensed toy lines, most recently for the animated film, “Monsters University.”

Recently, he led the toy development for a new animated series, “PAW Patrol,” on Nickelodeon. The toys will be released in summer 2014, but, he says, “My team was responsible not only for the toys but for designing them prior to the show and then working with the animation studio, our internal entertainment development studio and Nickelodeon on the final visual designs and functions for the show.

Disney Pixar's "Monsters University" toys were released in May 2013.

A "Toothless" toy figure produced for "How to Train Your Dragon" by DreamWorks Animation.

Tscherne created "Sho-Stopper" and other original designs for Mattel Hot Wheels.

"I still get on the board from time to time, and personally I was responsible for the designs of the vehicles the characters drive and their backpacks and gear.” Tscherne also worked on toys for “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” “Zoobles” and Marshmallow Foam Furniture.

Prior to Spin Master, Tscherne worked at Upper Deck as director of design for toys and memorabilia and was responsible for collector-level action figures for sports stars like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Tony Romo and Muhammad Ali.

Tscherne designed figures like Muhammad Ali for Upper Deck.

Tscherne really made a name for himself with his work at Mattel on Hot Wheels and at Jada on brands like Big Time Muscle. “I designed over 25 $1.00 Hot Wheels cars. Some are scale renditions of full-size cars but most of mine were of my own original designs.” A picture of one of his original designs, Sho-Stopper (see car above), was featured on all of the 1/64-scale basic car packaging for two years.

Mattel's "Whiplash" RC car was released in 2002 with more than one million sold.

Jon and Sarah Vanderbeek

The innovative Vanderbeeks, Jon, DAAP '00, and Sarah, DAAP '01, started Sweet Spot Studio in 2006. Located in Edgewater, N.J., the company now has a team of designers creating toys, giftware and packaging.

An earlier creation of Jon's is "Whiplash," a stunt car he designed while part of The Obb invention firm. The car can flip and roll by remote control and was released by Mattel Wheels under the Tyco name in 2002. According to the Sweet Spot website, more than one million of the cars were sold.

Sweet Spot Studio

The Easy-Bake Oven was first released in 1963 by Kenner Products (now a division of Hasbro).

Ronald Bruce Howes Sr.

Ronald Bruce Howes Sr., (1927-2010) att. Eng '40s, created the Easy-Bake Oven while director of research and new product development at Kenner Products in the early 1960s. The toy oven was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2006 at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, N.Y. At that time, 23 million ovens had been sold and more than 140 million mixes. Howes was also involved in the development or refinement of Kenner's Spirograph, Give-a-Show Projector and Close-and-Play Record Player. He continued to invent items during his entire life, including high-tech defense weaponry devices and electrostatic printers.

Read the UC Magazine feature on Howes

The original Magic Eight Ball in its packaging from 1950.

Abe Bookman

Abe Bookman, (1898-1993) A&S '17, CAS '21, invented The Magic Eight Ball, a fortune-telling toy currently manufactured by Mattel. Bookman briefly attended UC's McMicken College of Liberal Arts, but needed to quit to care for his mother and siblings when his father died. Later he earned a degree at the Ohio Mechanics Institute (OMI), which eventually merged with UC.

During World War II, Alfred Carter in Cincinnati created a tube-like fortune-telling toy based upon a "spirit writing" device used by his mother, a successful clairvoyant. To produce it for wider distribution, OMI grad Bookman was brought into a partnership.

In 1944, Carter filed a patent on the device and attached Bookman's name to the patent. Their revised creation was originally sold as "Syco-Seer: The Miracle Home Fortune-Teller."

Before the patent was granted in '48, Carter died, and Bookman modified the product, this time encasing it in an iridescent crystal ball, which attracted the attention of Chicago's Brunswick Billiards company. In 1950, that company commissioned the black and white 8-ball that we know today.

Need we say more? Sources point to no.

Read UC Magazine story on Bookman

General link

Catch up with tons more UC grads and their toy designs

Latest Magazine

Past Issues

Social Media Stream