 While growing up in his native Germany, Beck made toys for his younger siblings. After receiving training as a cabinetmaker, Beck still liked toys, so he pitched an idea for model airplanes to the Geobra Brandstaetter company. Owner Horst Brandstaetter hired him as a designer, and later assigned Beck to develop a series of toy figures. Beck worked for three years developing a toy that would have movable arms and heads, unlike toy soldiers, and fit well in small hands. He finished in 1971. "I would put the little figures in [children's] hands without saying anything about what they were. They accepted them right away," Beck said later. "They invented little scenarios for them. They never grew tired of playing with them." The company finally launched the figures in 1975 under the name of "Playmobil". The simple toy sets (pictured in the archive) was initially shunned by adult toy distributors, but children loved them, and within a year they were a worldwide hit. Since then, more than 2 billion pieces have been sold, and Brandstaetter still makes them. Beck retired from the company in 1999, and died January 30. He was 79.
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