Chicago’s Big Monster Toys lays off staff, shuts future operations

One of Chicago’s most peculiar businesses, Big Monster Toys, has shut its giant yellow door to new business on the Near West Side and laid off its employees.

The toy design studio at 21 S. Racine Ave. features an unusual entryway that has inspired curiosity, selfies and spur-of-the-moment knocks from passersby. But it wasn’t set up for people to drop in.

Inside, employees worked on toy concepts to license to manufacturers such as Mattel and Hasbro. The business blends fun and high pressure from rejection by toy companies. Designers worked among whimsical decorations such as a giant stuffed giraffe and an elevated train set that traversed the whole space.

Its workspace has been a regular on the Open House Chicago tours of the city’s beautiful and unusual places.

A partner in the business, Sam Unsicker, confirmed that the staff has been let go. He said in an email, “The truth of the matter is — Big Monster Toys is not/will not fully be closed. We have royalties that will remain to come in until the products are no longer being produced — so technically, we will still be open. We did have to close future operations on November 29th and unfortunately, had to let our employees go that day.”

Unsicker said an employment attorney advised him not to answer additional questions until separation agreements with staff are final. “I don’t completely understand why, but must take this advice for now,” he wrote.

The company’s website indicated it had more than 20 employees besides partners Unsicker, Brian Kujawski and Robert Annis.

The three partners are listed as managers of 21 South Racine LLC, which owns the Big Monster facility. Unsicker declined to discuss plans for the property, which is in a neighborhood developers covet.

Big Monster Toys moved to the Near West Side from River North in 2003. According to the company’s posted history, it dates from 1988 under prior ownership as Breslow, Morrison, Terzian & Associates. It used the name Big Monster Toys to keep the initials BMT.

Partners in the prior BMT firm originally hailed from Chicago toy design studio Marvin Glass & Associates, which was highly regarded by manufacturers and produced such winners as the games Mouse Trap and Operation. The Marvin Glass firm dissolved in 1988 and many of its employees formed their own toy design companies in the Chicago area, according to a remembrance posted at Peopleofplay.com, a networking site for those in the toy business.

The spinoff firms were called “shards of Glass” and assured that Chicago remained central to toy and game creation, said Steve Rehkemper, who competed against Big Monster. He used to work for Marvin Glass but went out on his own several years before its demise.

Rehkemper, who owns the design and manufacturing firms Rehco and Top Secret Toys in Chicago, said Big Monster “was the biggest and arguably the best. But as a result, they had a very high overhead.” He said Big Monster may technically remain in business to collect royalties and to possibly license ideas it has on the shelf.

Even when a toy producer licenses a product, the inventor can wait a long time for royalties. “Most of the big companies are working on 2025 now and for an inventor that would be a 2026 payday,” said Rehkemper, who operates at 1300 W. Washington Blvd.

Other factors hurting toy and game creators were the collapse of the Toys R Us “category killer” chain in 2018 and the rise of the online market, he said.

“You have saturation in the business, old and new toys on Amazon and eBay. That waters down what’s available at retail stores from the biggest companies,” Rehkemper said.

“It’s a shame an institution like [Big Monster] is unable to survive,” he said. “The toy companies really need to support inventors more.”

Big Monster has designed toys for Fisher Price and many other manufacturers. Online, its list of current “favorite toys” that it’s created include Rattlesnake Jake and Burping Bobby, manufactured by Goliath, and Xtreme Power Dump Truck, made by Jakks Pacifics.

Past hits from Big Monster Toys have included Mattel’s Uno Attack, Polly Pocket and Hot Wheels.

In a 2018 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Kujawski talked about the precarious nature of toy design. “It’s an industry of rejection,” he told the Tribune.