After he tried it himself, he sat back and said, ‘That’s my item!’ He and Marvin inked a deal within an hour.” And thus, Lite-Brite came to life!,Hit the Lights!,After he tried it himself, he sat back and said, ‘That’s my item!’ He and Marvin inked a deal within an hour.” And thus, Lite-Brite came to life!
F
It was a colorful window display using hundreds of colorful lights. Marvin Glass Henry Stand and Burt Meyer were in New York City for the 1966 Toy Fair — and were part of the admiring crowd of onlookers. As toy designers they were one-track minded: how to create a toy with the bright-light concept? Undeterred by the difficulties of creating a cost-effective in-home safe product they got to work.
Burt Meyer burned some midnight oil creating a prototype that fit the bill. And once that was done it was easy to convince a company to manufacture it. In his words: “I brought (Hasbro president) Merrill Hassenfeld into our conference room. I dimmed the lights and plugged it [the Lite-Brite prototype] in. As soon as I put a peg in it lit up. After he tried it himself he sat back and said ‘That’s my item!’ He and Marvin inked a deal within an hour.” And thus Lite-Brite came to life!
1967 The Original Lite-Brite
Cheers for the new toy! Black box with light and included 400 pegs in eight colors — green blue red yellow orange pink purple and clear. Included were black use-once-and-toss templates for a boat flag ducks cat house flowers boy girl and pumpkin. (Except that no one ever threw them out after one use; they kept using them over and over even though the holes were all punched.)
2001 Lite-Brite Cube
Now you can have fun on all four sides. That means that more than one kid can play at a time. No more fights!
Create a free account to keep reading.
