Phedon J. Tsiknopoulos was an engineer who worked at Mattel from 1979 to 2006. Most notable as one of Hot Wheels's master modelmakers, he joined the Hot Wheels team in 1985; he is known for having some patent information with relation to the Crashers. After leaving Mattel he worked at Spin Master for some time before branching out to woodworking. He died on 6 July 2014, aged 73, due to a house fire.