<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Bernard Loomis was born in the Bronx, New York, on July 4, 1923. He died June 1, 2006. In 1960, he joined Mattel, where a major project was helping to market Chatty Cathy, the first talking doll. In 1969, when Mattel came out with its Hot Wheels line of miniature cars, Loomis proposed a 30-minute Hot Wheels cartoon show. Loomis originated the idea of producing television specials and series that promoted toys as much as they entertained. Loomis also focused on the idea of selling lines of toys, not individual products.

Loomis's best-known marketing triumph came in the holiday season of 1977 after he acquired a license to sell action figures based on the new Star Wars movie, knowing only that he liked the name. When the movie opened, demand for the toys outstripped supply, so he arranged for his company to sell gift certificates in otherwise empty boxes—and sold more than 500,000 of them. Another of Loomis's huge hits was an action figure based on the television program The Six Million Dollar Man.

He coined the word "toyetic" to describe concepts or characters that could easily be mass-produced toys.