NJ Toy Maker Who Inspired 'Transformers' Dies Of COVID At 98

LIVINGSTON, NJ — A 98-year-old inventor who's credited with inspiring the popular Transformers action figures and other toys passed away last month in a hospital in Livingston due to COVID-19, his family told the New York Times.

Henry Orenstein, 98, survived five concentration camps and went on to launch a successful toy company in the United States in the 1950s, the Times noted. Orenstein also invented a way to televise poker tournaments.

"A Polish Jew," the obituary reads, "Mr. Orenstein survived a hellish journey through five
concentration camps — and the shock of his parents’ murders in a cemetery in Poland — to become a merchant of fun."

Orenstein founded the Topper Corporation and was "instrumental" in the introduction of Transformers action figures released by Hasbro, the story says. At a toy fair in New York in the 1980s, he saw a Japanese car that transformed into an airplane — and began toying with ideas.

Transformers is globally known for its television shows and series of American science fiction action movies.

He met his wife Carolyn in 1967 at a toy fair when she was demonstrating a Suzy Homemaker toy, the story says. He also published a memoir in 2010 about surviving the Holocaust.

Read more about Henry Orenstein here.

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