Voting Open for Toy Industry Hall of Fame 2014 Inductees
NEW YORK - The Toy Industry Association (TIA) officially opened the vote for the latest inductees into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame.
Voting started August 19th and will run through Friday, September 13th. This year's candidates were chosen from 24 nominees, who were submitted for consideration by members of the Hall of Fame (HOF) Committee.
Living candidates for Induction into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame include: Jill Barad, former CEO, Mattel; Horst Brandstätter, president and sole owner; Playmobil/geobra Brandstätter GmbH & Co. KG; Thomas Chan, chairman and CEO; Playmates Toys Inc.; Joel Glickman, founder, K'Nex Brands; and Bruce Raiffe, president, Gund, a division of Enesco.
Candidates for posthumous induction are Jack Friedman, former chairman, CEO and co-founder, JakksPacific; Harvey Greenfield, hairman of the board, Commonwealth Toy & Novelty Co. Inc.; and Arthur "Spud" Melin and Richard Knerr, co-founders of Wham-O Toy.
An announcement of the 2014 inductees will be made in conjunction with promotion of the annual Toy of the Year (TOTY) awards program, and inductees will be honored during the TOTY Awards ceremony on Saturday evening, February 15, 2014, at the Grand Hyatt hotel, which will officially launch Toy Fair Week in New York City.
This is the 29th year for TIA Hall of Fame and here is a list of past inductees I still say the TIA is an Old Boys Club with their heads still stuck in the last century but they are spending a LOT of money to create a permanent home for the HoF and the Toy of the Year awards at the Strong Museum of Play and I love to support the Strong.