Editing Mastermind (board game) (section)

==History==
[[File:Toys 2013-056-072b (15593677672).jpg|thumb|Original Invicta game set]]

Mastermind was invented in 1970 by [[Mordecai Meirowitz]], an [[Israel]]i postmaster and telecommunications expert. After presenting the idea  to major toy companies and showing it at the [[Nuremberg International Toy Fair]], it was picked up by a plastics company, [[Invicta Plastics]], based near [[Leicester]], [[United Kingdom|UK]]. Invicta purchased all the rights to the game, and the founder, Edward Jones-Fenleigh, refined the game further. It was released in 1971–2.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/road/gbd76/toys.htm|title=Invicta Toys and Games|date=12 August 2007|access-date=26 December 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070812104420/http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/road/gbd76/toys.htm|archive-date=12 August 2007}}</ref>

The game is based on a paper and pencil game called [[Bulls and cows|Bulls and Cows]]. A computer adaptation was run in the 1960s on [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]]’s [[Titan (1963 computer)|Titan]] computer system, where it was called 'MOO'. This version was written by Frank King. Other versions were written for the [[TSS/8]] time sharing system by J.S. Felton, for [[Unix]] by [[Ken Thompson]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thompson |first1=K. |last2=Ritchie |first2=D. M. |title=Unix Programmer's Manual |date=November 3, 1971 |publisher=Bell Telephone Laboratories |location=Murray Hill, NJ, USA |edition=1}}</ref> and for the [[Multics]] system at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]] by Jerrold Grochow.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.jfwaf.com/Bulls%20and%20Cows.pdf |last = Francis |first = John |title=Strategies for playing MOO, or 'Bulls and Cows' |date=January 2010 |access-date=26 December 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425120039/http://www.jfwaf.com/Bulls%20and%20Cows.pdf |archive-date=25 April 2012 }}</ref>

Since 1971, the rights to ''Mastermind'' have been held by Invicta Plastics. (Invicta always called the game ''Master&nbsp;Mind''.) They originally manufactured it themselves, though they have since licensed its manufacture to [[Hasbro]] worldwide, with the exception of [[Pressman Toy Corporation|Pressman Toys]] and Orda Industries who have the manufacturing rights to the United States and Israel, respectively.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/road/gbd76/toys.htm|title=Invicta Toy History page|access-date=7 August 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070812104420/http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/road/gbd76/toys.htm|archive-date=12 August 2007}}</ref>   [[Chieftain Products]] acquired the rights to manufacture in Canada in 1972, though they went out of business in 1996.

Starting in 1973, the game box featured a photograph of a man in a suit jacket seated in the foreground, with a young woman standing behind him. The two amateur models (Bill Woodward and Cecilia Fung) reunited in June 2003 to pose for another publicity photo.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.le.ac.uk/press/press/landmarkreunion.html |title=Landmark Reunion for Mastermind Box Models |date=June 2003 |publisher=Invicta Plastics |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040629030910/http://www.le.ac.uk/press/press/landmarkreunion.html |archive-date=29 June 2004}}</ref>

In 2025, toy company Goliath entered a multi-year agreement with Hasbro to become the worldwide manufacturer and distributor of the Mastermind brand.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-05-27 |title=Goliath and Hasbro sign multi-year agreement for Mastermind |url=https://toyworldmag.co.uk/goliath-and-hasbro-sign-multi-year-agreement-for-mastermind/ |access-date=2025-05-27 |website=Toy World Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>