About Us
About Richard Gottlieb
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Richard Gottlieb has been providing consulting services to the U.S. and global toy industries since 1994. His company, Global Toy Experts, works with toy companies that wish to expand their business in the United States. The company also provides M&A services to companies and works with intellectual property creators as an agent. Global Toy Experts provides Expert Witness services to toy companies involved in litigation. Richard Dickson, Mattel, President, and Chief Operating Officer, has referred to Mr. Gottlieb as a toy industry icon.
Mr. Gottlieb is the publisher of Global Toy News, a web-based magazine founded in 2009. He is, moreover, co-Anchor with Chris Byrne, The Toy Guy®, of the influential “The Playground Podcast,” a show about issues affecting the toy and play industries.
He has represented leading toy companies, including Hasbro, D.C. Comics, Radio Flyer, Warner Brothers, Rubik’s Cube, Zuru, Rose Art, and Rockstar Games. Richard co-produces the annual Toy Talks Forum in Shenzhen, China, and has spoken at toy industry events in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Hong Kong; Shanghai, China, Guangzhou, China, Nuremberg, Germany, Copenhagen, Denmark; Zagreb, Croatia; New York; Los Angeles; and Chicago.
Richard has written numerous articles for his magazine, Global Toy News, and other toy publications in the U.S. and abroad. Due to his experience and expertise in the toy industry, he has been interviewed by hundreds of global media outlets, including ABC News, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and Newsweek, regarding toy industry issues. (Examples of my interviews are available at Global Toy Experts Interviews.
Richard appeared in the History Channel documentary, “Christmas Through the Decades 1960s” and “Christmas Through the Decades 1970s” as well as in “A Lego Brickumentary.” Richard has an MBA in Global Management and is a voting member of the National Toy Hall of Fame Selection Committee.
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About Chris Byrne
As an independent toy analyst, researcher and consultant, Chris brings more than 30 years of industry experience in the toy industry to his role. He is an acknowledged expert on toys and play in the culture and brings his extensive knowledge of toys, education, and child development to his work.
Chris began his career working on major toy brands in a variety of marketing and operations positions. He was instrumental in developing and merchandising many successful products, including those marketed under the Gabriel, Child Guidance, Creative Playthings, and Ideal brands. Chris led the team that established the game Pictionary as one of the most popular games of its era. In 1988, he formed Byrne Communications, with broad-based consulting in the toy, children’s entertainment, financial, and consumer products industries. He was one of the founders and creative director for the website TTPM. Today, Byrne Communications works with companies of all sizes and entrepreneurs, helping them develop and launch products. He regularly consults with the analyst and investment community about the international business of toys.
He is the creator, producer, and co-host with another industry veteran, Richard Gottlieb, co-contributor of this report of The Playground Podcast. This industry-facing weekly program covers a broad range of issues facing the contemporary toy industry.
Chris is also widely published on the topic of toys and family life, and his work has appeared in a variety of trade magazines, journals, and websites. He is also featured in the Netflix series, The Toys That Made Us as a toy historian and will be featured in an upcoming series on toys from National Geographic.
Chris’s book on the most popular toys from the 1950s to the 1980s, “Toy Time,” gives the background on some of the all-time classic toys. He is also the author of An Introduction to the U.S. Toy Industry: Serious Fun, published by Business Experts Press, which is an introductory textbook for students studying the toy business. His book Funny Business: Harnessing the Power of Play to Give Your Business a Competitive Advantage was published by Career Expert Press in 2015 and is widely used by management consultancies. He wrote two books for the Toy Association: Toys (2003) and They Came to Play: A History of the Toy Industry Association (2017).
Chris is extensively quoted in the media and regularly appears on local and national television, commenting on toys and demonstrating new products. His media appearances reached more than 200 million consumers in 2018 in just three months. He appears regularly on “Live! With Kelly & Ryan.” He has been seen on “Marie” with Marie Osmond, “Oprah, “Soap Talk,” “The Today Show,” “Good Morning America,” “The CBS Evening News,” “ABC Nightly News,” “Fox & Friends,” “CBS This Morning,” “Good Day New York,” CNBC, CNNfn, MSNBC, ABC, “The Motley Fool,” National Public Radio, Bloomberg Television and Radio, and on countless other national and local market business and consumer programs and publications in the U.S. and internationally.
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