305
ROME. Henry Orenstein, the brilliant toy manufacturer, who conceived the Transformers line, died in the USA. Orenstein – who after surviving the ordeal of the Holocaust, had managed to start a large American toy company – created in 1984 the hugely popular toy-robots capable of transforming themselves into a car or animals; but he had also patented an ingenious way to watch poker tournaments on TV, revolutionizing the game of an entire generation of fans.
A Polish Jew who survived a hellish trip to five concentration camps and the shock of seeing his parents dead in Poland, the ingenious toy inventor made fun his source of revenge. He died of Covid at the age of 98.