Denys Fisher was an English engineer

Engineer

An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...

 who invented the spirograph

Spirograph

Spirograph is a geometric drawing toy that produces mathematical curves of the variety technically known as hypotrochoids and epitrochoids. The term has also been used to describe a variety of software applications that display similar curves, and applied to the class of curves that can be produced...

 toy.

He left Leeds University to join the family firm, Kingfisher (Lubrication) Ltd. In 1960 he left the firm to set up his own company, Denys Fisher Engineering, in Leeds. In 1961 the company won a contract with NATO to supply springs and precision component for its 20 mm cannon. Between 1962 and 1964 he developed various drawing machines from Meccano

Meccano

Meccano is a model construction system comprising re-usable metal strips, plates, angle girders, wheels, axles and gears, with nuts and bolts to connect the pieces. It enables the building of working models and mechanical devices....

 pieces, eventually producing a prototype Spirograph

Spirograph

Spirograph is a geometric drawing toy that produces mathematical curves of the variety technically known as hypotrochoids and epitrochoids. The term has also been used to describe a variety of software applications that display similar curves, and applied to the class of curves that can be produced...

. Patented in 16 countries, it went on sale in Schofields department store

Schofields (department store)

Schofields was a department store that operated on The Headrow in Leeds, England from 1901 to 1996. For much of the 20th century Schofields, alongside rival Lewis's, was regarded as being the pinnacle of shopping in Leeds city centre....

 in Leeds in 1965. A year later, Fisher licensed Spirograph to Kenner Products

Kenner

Kenner Products was a toy company founded in 1947 by three brothers, Albert, Phillip, and Joseph L. Steiner, in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, and was named after the street where the original corporate offices were located, which is just north of Cincinnati's Union Terminal.Kenner introduced its...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. In 1967 Spirograph was chosen as the UK Toy of the Year.

In 1970, Fisher sold his company, which, as Denys Fisher Toys, produced other toys and board games, before being bought by Hasbro

Hasbro

Hasbro is a multinational toy and boardgame company from the United States of America. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States...

. Through the 1980s & 1990's he continued to work with Hasbro in developing new toys and refining Spirograph.

Toys and games

Denys Fisher Toys produced the following toys and games.
Board games

• Are You Being Served
• On the Buses
  On The Buses
  On the Buses was a British situation comedy created by Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney which was broadcast in the UK from 1969 to 1973. The writers' previous successes with The Rag Trade and Meet the Wife were for the BBC, but the Corporation rejected On the Buses, not seeing much comedy potential...
  
  
• The Fastest Gun
• Ghost Train
• Harvey Smith's Showjumping Game
• Haunted House
  Which Witch? (boardgame)
  Which Witch? is a children's board game published in 1970 by the Milton Bradley Company and designed by Marvin Glass and Associates. The board is shaped like a haunted house with four large rooms, assembled before play into a three-dimensional model house with vertical walls...
  
  
• Hotel
• It's a Knockout
  It's a Knockout
  It's a Knockout was adapted from the French show Intervilles. It ran between from 7 August 1966 to 25 December 1988 on BBC1, 28 May 1990 on ITV, 3 August 1991 to 24 December 1994 on S4C and from 3 September 1999 to 6 January 2001 on Channel 5, produced by Richard Hearsey and Ronin Entertainment...
  
  
• Miss UK game
• The New Avengers board game
• Scream Inn
• Six Million Dollar Man
• War of the Dalek
  Dalek
  The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
  
  s

Toys

• Cyborg, Muton and Android (reproductions of Takara
  Takara
  Takara Co., Ltd. was a Japanese toy company founded in 1955, that merged with another prominent Japanese toy company, Tomy Co., Ltd., on March 1, 2006 to form Takara Tomy, also known in English as TOMY Company Ltd....
  
  's Shonen Cyborg toys)
• Etch-a-Sketch
• Six Million Dollar Man
• Spirograph
  Spirograph
  Spirograph is a geometric drawing toy that produces mathematical curves of the variety technically known as hypotrochoids and epitrochoids. The term has also been used to describe a variety of software applications that display similar curves, and applied to the class of curves that can be produced...
  
  
• Stickle bricks
  Stickle bricks
  Stickle Bricks are a construction toy primarily intended for toddlers invented by Denys Fisher. The brand is owned by Hasbro and they are currently manufactured by Flair Leisure Products plc....
  
  
• Doctor Who
  Doctor Who
  Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
  
  dolls
• Skull Machine
• Outrider
• Stretch Armstrong
• stretch octopus ( Ollie & Olivia )

Non-board games

• Blockhead!
• George and Mildred
  George and Mildred
  George and Mildred is a British sitcom produced by Thames Television that aired from 1976 to 1979. It was a spin-off from Man About the House and starred Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce as an ill-matched married couple, George and Mildred Roper...
  
  
• Chip Away (1972) a complete sculpting and painting set for Boys and Girls from 5-13
  (three sets:Tom and Jerry/The Flintstones/Animals)