There was a toy based on the gyroscope created by Mattel Toy Co called "Whizzers" back in the late 60's/early 70's. What is not common knowledge is that that idea was pitched to them by a penniless guy off the streets in LA and he also had the name for them. They took his idea and ran with it and he received nothing until a lawyer "mysteriously" appeared, filed and won the lawsuit against them with the conditions that the settlement not be made public. There were those within the company that felt one of the executives counseled him and I've always thought I knew which one it was but he would not ever admit it.
The penniless man had plenty after that as he was given a piece of every unit sold in the settlement. The funny part about this was a newer product that had been spun off called "Mini-Whizzers" that came in a can. He received his piece of the Mini's only they didn't protect themselves and he got full comp for the Mini's as well. They decided to discontinue them and he agreed to just let one can represent one full "Whizzer" because he wanted kids to have the Mini's. I never met the man but I wanted to because he proved to be a bigger man than those over the R&D department.
I was with Mattel from 69-72 and there were 450 sales people nationwide and this company across two divisions, that based 80% of their revenue off Christmas, fired half the salesforce 3 days before Christmas and told them to leave their company cars at the closest major airport. I survived that bloodbath and the second but not the third in 1972. That was my first real look, at the ripe old age of 22, of just how corporate a corporation could be. A toy company firing 225 people 3 days before Christmas? I never bought a toy from them again.
JANITORS
ROCK
