Big Monster Toys, LLC (BMT), established in May 1988, was a United States-based toy and game inventing and licensing company.
History
Big Monster Toys was founded in 1988 by Jeff Breslow,
Howard Morrison
Sir Howard Leslie Morrison (18 August 1935 – 24 September 2009) was a New Zealand entertainer. From 1964 until his death in 2009, he was one of New Zealand's leading television and concert performers. Morrison was also known for his active ...
, and Rouben Terzian, three former partners of
Marvin Glass & Associates.
MGA was one of the pioneers of the post-
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
American toy industry.
Breslow, Morrison, and Terzian teamed with two principal designers from MGA, Don Rosenwinkel and John Zaruba. Together, they formed Breslow Morrison Terzian & Associates" (the initial basis of the "BMT" acronym).
About
Big Monster Toys was located in the
West Loop
The Near West Side, one of the 77 community areas of Chicago, is on the West Side, west of the Chicago River and adjacent to the Loop. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 started on the Near West Side. Waves of immigration shaped the history of t ...
of
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
.
The studio occupied roughly of space for over 25 designers. Their facilities included an audio
recording studio
A recording studio is a specialized facility for Sound recording and reproduction, recording and Audio mixing, mixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home proje ...
, a full
machine shop
A machine shop or engineering workshop is a room, building, or company where machining, a form of subtractive manufacturing, is done. In a machine shop, machinists use machine tools and cutting tool (machining), cutting tools to make parts, usua ...
, plastic molding, electronic design, software programming, 3D printing, a paint shop, exercise equipment, and a digital video authorship and editing facility.
Big Monster Toys invented and engineered toys from concept to prototype. BMT also helped to develop the marketing position, product name, packaging and promotional material for the toys. BMT licensed toys to companies throughout the world. Their clients included
Mattel
Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth Handler, ...
,
Hasbro
Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herma ...
(and formerly Tiger Electronics), Moose,
Spin Master
Spin Master Corp. (formerly known as Spin Master Toys) is a Canadian multinational toy and entertainment company. Spin Master employs over 1,600 people globally with offices in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ital ...
, Goliath,
Playmates Toys
Playmates Toys Limited is a Hong Kong toy company. The company was founded in Hong Kong in 1966 by Sam Chan Tai-ho as Playmates Industrial, manufacturing dolls for other companies. In 1975, Playmates began marketing its own line of preschool to ...
.
BMT won numerous industry awards, and was considered a positive supporter of toy invention and the toy industry. Breslow, Morrison, and Terzian were inducted into the
Toy Industry Hall of Fame
Established in 1984, the Toy Industry Hall of Fame honors the contributions of toy makers internationally. The Hall of Fame is administered by the Toy Industry Foundation, a division of the United States Toy Industry Association.
See also
* N ...
, in 1998, for their successful 31-year collaborative efforts.
On November 29, 2023, the company ceased all future operations and laid off its entire workforce. On December 28, 2023, partner Sam Unsicker confirmed that while the staff had been dismissed, the business remained operational for the purpose of collecting ongoing royalties.
References
External links
Big Monster Toys homepage
Companies based in Chicago
Toy companies established in 1988
Toy companies of the United States
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