Sad news as the former Chief Executive of Palitoy Bob Simpson has passed away. Simpson oversaw the company during a transformative period, taking the company from moderate profits in the 60’s to £30 million by 1980. Over on Alan Dawson’s Facebook page legendary Palitoy designer Bob Brechin remembers his friend.
Bob was a proud Scotsman from Edinburgh. During his National Service he was posted to Leicester and met his future wife. Wanting to be near her he joined the police force and was able to get a transfer to Leicester. He did not enjoy being in the police, especially the duty of traffic controller in the centre of the city, so he joined Cascelloid in its sales department. He quickly moved on, becoming the marketing manager of the company’s Palitoy toy brand. In the early 1960s Cascelloid’s owners BXL decided to sell off the toy division which began with a move of staff including Bob, his boss Miles Fletcher, and the design team under Bill Pugh, to the Coalville site, which had been manufacturing toys since 1937, just two years after the Palitoy name was registered.
This was when the Palitoy brand entered the modern world of TV advertising with the introduction of Tressy, Tiny Tears and Action Man. Bob was instrumental in gaining licences for all these products between 1964 and 1966. Particularly the licence for G I Joe from Hasbro in the USA. In an interview with Coalville Heritage Society, as part of The Many Faces of Palitoy centenary, Bob declared that he and Fletcher were having difficulty convincing Merryl Hassenfeld to grant Cascelloid the G.I. Joe Licence. “You English are all Pirates and Pikers” said Hassenfeld. Probably alluding to the fact that Pedigree in the UK were going to ‘knock off’ G I Joe with its Tommy Gunn. Bob was quick to reply “Well, I am a Scotsman from Edinburgh, so you will get a good deal from me”. The deal was struck.
Two years later, with three very strong tv-advertised toy lines, Bob played a big part in the sale of the Palitoy brand to General Mills Inc., fulfilling the brief from BXL. Fletcher, not wanting to work for an American company moved on to Mettoy and, after a year or so of American control, Bob became Chief Executive of Palitoy Limited. He would be responsible for not only seeing Tiny Tears being voted best girls toy for three consecutive years but also for Action Man getting many awards, including the Toy of the Decade in 1980. Many other licence agreements were entered into, such as those with Tommy, Mego and Kader. Other toy ranges were developed including Discovery Time, Parker Games, award-winning Pippa and the Bradgate wholesale division. From a £300,000 turnover pre-Tressy, Bob would steer the company to £30 million by the opening of the 1980s.
Come the start of that decade, the General Mills Toy Group was beginning its strategy of global branding. This involved directing the Palitoy management to close down licence deals with GMTG competitors such as Tomy and Mego. Later the long-running favourite baby doll Tiny Tears would go. Mainline Railways, which had been totally developed by Palitoy’s design and marketing teams, was closed down. All to make way for new American-designed toys such as Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears to join the first global toy brand, Star Wars…
