Henry Orenstein

This article is about . For other uses of "Henry", see Henry (disambiguation)|The name or term "Henry" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Henry (disambiguation).}}
You wish your grandpa's life was half as interesting as this man's.

Henry Orenstein, born Henryk Orenstein (October 13, 1923 – December 14, 2021), was the man credited by former Hasbro CEO Alan Hassenfeld as "the catalyst" for Transformers existing: the man who convinced Hasbro to buy these funny looking Diaclone and Micro Change toys and repackage them. He also shares the original patent for the Generation 1 rubsigns with George Dunsay.<ref>Justia Patents: Henry Orenstein "Heat energizable identification label for toys. Patent number: D297337"</ref>

His real life was more amazing than Transformers.

Personal life

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Hello Hasbro? You're about twelve years too early.

Henryk Orenstein was born in [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Hrubieszów|{{#if:||Hrubieszów}}]], Poland, as the second-youngest son of a Jewish family. He spent World War II first as a refugee from the German invasion of Poland, fleeing to the Soviet-controlled zone; after the Nazis conquered the rest of Poland and invaded the USSR, the Orensteins had to turn themselves in, and he subsequently survived five different concentration camps. Together with his three brothers, he registered for a special squad of Jewish scientists and mathematicians, called the "Kommando", even though he was no actual genius at mathematics: he assumed they might live longer. The project's goal was to develop a special gas that could paralyze enemy tanks and later historians confirmed this was personally approved by Heinrich Himmler, but the project never actually did anything; Orenstein himself assumes that it was a sham thought up by the German scientists in charge so they could avoid military service on the Eastern Front.

After having been rescued by Soviet troops, Orenstein emigrated to the United States in 1947, changed his first name to "Henry" and soon opened his own grocery store, which he eventually sold off. He subsequently became president and CEO of Deluxe Reading (also known under its brands Deluxe Topper, Deluxe Toy Creations, Topper Corp., Topper Toy Group, and Topper Toys), where he invented many successful toys such as the [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Johnny Lightning|{{#if:||Johnny Lightning}}]] cars, the [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Johnny Seven OMA|{{#if:||Johnny Seven OMA}}]], and the [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Dawn doll|{{#if:||Dawn doll}}]]s. Overall, Orenstein held over 100 patents in the toy field. Mattel allegedly had meetings on how to stop the man.<ref>Newsweek: "Meet Henry Orenstein, The Man Who Changed How The World Plays" quoting Susie Orenstein: "Former employees of Mattel would tell us how they’d have days of meetings on how to destroy Henry Orenstein."</ref> However, in 1973, Topper Toys/Deluxe Reading filed for bankruptcy. <ref name="nytimes">New York Times article from April 3, 1973 that mentions the bankruptcy. </ref> The Securities and Exchange Commission also sought an injunction against Topper Toys, Orenstein, and other officers of the corporation, for violation of antifraud, registration, and corporate reporting provisions related to a public offering of stock.<ref name="sec1973">Securities and Exchange Commission release dated November 1973, which mentions a complaint filed with the District Court against Topper and Orenstein.</ref> An injunction was entered in 1974 by consent without Orenstein or the other defendants admitting or denying the allegations.<ref name="sec1974">Securities and Exchange Commission release dated March 1974, which mentions the district court having permanently enjoined Orenstein and the other defendants in the Topper case from several violations of the securities laws.</ref> Subsequently, Orenstein went on to be a pitch-man for toy companies like Hasbro.

In 1983, he went to Takara to convince their president that their transforming toys were ripe for an American rebrand and then went on to successfully sell Hasbro CEO Stephen D. Hassenfeld on creating what became Transformers. As well as being "the bridge" between Hasbro and Takara, he facilitated the meeting between Dunsay and Takara that would be influential on the rest of the line.<ref>Newsweek: "Meet Henry Orenstein, The Man Who Changed How The World Plays"</ref><ref>TF Archive interview with Dunsay</ref> Following that, he created the rubsign. While this was his last contribution to the franchise, it made him quite a bit of money and he proudly talked about it a lot at the time.

In 1987, Orenstein, already in his mid-60s, discovered the world of poker. Finding television broadcasts of poker games "boring", he invented the hole card camera, the table-level camera that allows television audiences and announcers to view players' hands and hidden cards. This innovation led to a boom in poker tournaments<ref>Jewish Telegraph Agency: "He, more than any other person, is the sole reason for the explosion of poker in this country," Jon Miller, senior vice president of NBC Sports, tells JTA. "He created the camera. Everybody who shows poker on television now uses his technology."</ref> and television shows, some of which were launched by Orenstein himself. As a result, he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2008.

The Lejb and Golda Orenstein Building, an eleven-story building for low-income families in New York City, is named after Henry Orenstein's parents who died in the Holocaust. Henry Orenstein himself paid for air conditioners in all apartments and security. Another Lejb and Golda Orenstein Building is located in Kiryat Ono, Israel, which was also largely funded by Henry Orenstein. He also ensured Yekaterina Lipinskaja, the Polish woman who sheltered his family for months, was added to Israel's Righteous Among the Nations memorial for gentiles who aided Jews in the Holocaust.

Orenstein also authored two books, his autobiography I Shall Live: Surviving Against All Odds, 1939-1945 (1987, reissued in 2010 as I Shall Live: Surviving the Holocaust 1939-1945 and as an e-Book I Shall Live: Surviving the Holocaust Against All Odds) and Abram: The Life of an Israeli Patriot (1999), a biography of Abram Silberstein, who fought in the British Army during World War II.

At the age of 98, Mr. Orenstein passed away due to complications of COVID-19 at his home in New Jersey.

Notes

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  • The Transformers fandom first learned about Orenstein's existence via a newspaper article published in 2005. The writer of the article exaggerated Orenstein's involvement in the creation of the Transformers brand by implying that Orenstein himself had "invented" Transformers. The original article even featured a photo of a somewhat bewildered Orenstein holding 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime, a figure created nearly 20 years after his stint at Hasbro. Other articles have made the same error, while others have been more correct, with Gambling Planet managing the odd trick of being correct but then also claiming Hasbro executives from the time had tried to downplay his involvement.<ref>Gambling Planet: "The amazing mind of Henry Orenstein: from Transformers to Texas Hold-Em" (archive)</ref>
  • In a 2016 Newsweek interview, Orenstein recounted discovering a Takara toy-to-plane transformer at the New York Toy Fair and said that he himself came up with the idea of toys with more complex transformations.<ref>Newsweek: "You needed a big company to do what I thought should be done: making real transformations from complex things to other complex things."</ref> As Takara's robot toys already existed and it was the Tokyo Toy Show where Hasbro first saw them, this is probably him misremembering the exact events. The toys Orenstein saw in 1983 were most likely Diakron or Kronoform toys, and there was indeed a train to jet Diaclone toy that was in the Kronoform range.<ref>Kronoform Protectron at Toy Archive</ref>
  • Orenstein has also been incorrectly credited (by Aaron Archer no less) for coming up with the name Transformers, which was actually the idea of Jay Bacal.<ref>TF Archive interview with Dunsay: Nevermore:

"Who originally came up with the name "The Transformers"? Aaron Archer of Hasbro recently said it was Henry Orenstein, but apparently Joe Bacal of Griffin-Bacal also once credited his son Jay with creating the name."

George Dunsay: "The name came from Griffin-Bacal. Mr Orenstein contributed very little past the original introduction."</ref>

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References

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