Helen Malsed Invented Slinky Toys

Helen Herrick Malsed was rarely at a loss for ideas.

The Seattle homemaker's ingenuity earned her modest fame and a reported $1 million in royalties as the inventor of Slinky pull toys and the Fisher-Price Snap Lock Beads.

Mrs. Malsed died Friday (Nov. 13) after suffering several strokes. She was 88.

Her son, Rick Malsed of Seattle, recalls his mother tested many toy and game ideas on him as a child. And sometimes, he'd contribute his own.

"I was given a regular Slinky coil for a gift one Christmas," he said. "I made the offhand suggestion, `I wonder what this would be like with wheels on it?' "

"She immediately made my dad go down in the basement, take apart one of my other toys and put the wheels on the Slinky. That was the beginning of the Slinky Train."

Illustrator Bob Johnson recalls that in the early 1950s Mrs. Malsed brought him a Slinky with blocks on either end and a pull-string from a window blind. He drew the proposed toy as a kind of Disney cartoon train.

"She sent it off to James Industries (Slinky patent holder) and I guess they bought the idea," he said. "The next year there were a bunch of Slinky trains at The Bon Marche store, and Helen had a fur coat and a royalty check for $35,000."

Mrs. Malsed also invented the Slinky Dog, Buzz-Around Bee and Mr. Zip pull-toys. Her toys became as sought-after in their day as Cabbage Patch dolls and Beanie Babies would be later.

Thanks largely to her ideas, James Industries had to expand its production facilities 16 times.

In 1983 Mrs. Malsed told The Seattle Times that her patents and royalties ran out in the mid-1970s, and she never knew how much she had earned. But some reports put the figure at $1 million.

"I'd get checks for $50,000 and just spend the money," she said.

Born in Cincinnati, she grew up in Tacoma and graduated from Annie Wright Seminary. She attended Whitman College in Walla Walla but dropped out after her lumberman father, Fred Herrick, went bankrupt during the Depression.

She studied advertising in San Francisco, then found work at Frederick & Nelson.

Mrs. Malsed quit her job to focus on her family, Magnolia neighborhood activities and volunteer work. She attended plays and was active in Ryther Four-and-Twenty children's charity and Seattle Fashion Group.

But her forte was developing products to teach and entertain children safely. She came up with the large Snap Lock beads after observing that the tiny, popular "pop beads" jewelry pieces were a choking hazard for infants and toddlers.

"She was always thinking up things," said her son. "She was just exceptionally creative and an incredible speller and grammarian. She read every inch of print, even the classifieds, in both Seattle papers every day."

Mrs. Malsed also rarely missed a Sunday matinee at the Magnolia Theater.

Other survivors include her sisters, Catherine Chastek of Spokane and Fredrica Adams, Seattle; two grandchildren; and a great-grandchild. Her husband of 32 years, Marion Parker Malsed, died in 1973.

Services were held in Spokane. Remembrances may go to the Virginia Mason Foundation, 1218 Terry Ave., Seattle, WA, 98101; or to Ryther Child Center, 2400 N.E. 95th St., Seattle, WA 98115.

Carole Beers' phone: 206-464-2391. Her e-mail: cbeers@seattletimes.com