Despite challenges, he insisted on using electricity in toys.
Burt Meyer, who invented toys like Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots, Lite-Brite and MouseTrap in the 1960s that delighted generations of children, has died. He was 99.
Meyer’s creations arrived in the postwar boom, when plastic molding and mass production transformed how American kids played. That shift opened the door for more dynamic toys, and Meyer seized the moment with designs that would stay on shelves for decades.
Meyer died on Oct. 30, said Rebecca Mathis, executive director at King-Bruwaert House, a retirement community in Burr Ridge, Illinois, where he lived.
Meyer succeeded by straddling two often conflicting worlds, carrying a boundless childlike imagination alongside a pragmatic understanding of machines.
The idea for Lite-Brite came in 1966 when Meyer was walking in Manhattan with Marvin Glass, who owned one of the largest toy design companies at the time, and the two men passed a window display featuring hundreds of colored lights. Engineers at the company doubted that electic lights could be safely adapted for children, according to Tim Walsh, who interviewed Meyer for his 2005 book “Timeless Toys.”
Meyer, an employee at Marvin Glass & Associates, insisted it could.
