LOS ANGELES — Elliot Handler, a pioneering toy maker who co-founded Mattel and invented Hot Wheels, has died. He was 95.

Handler died Thursday from heart failure at his Century City home on the west side of Los Angeles, according to his daughter, Barbara Segal, after whom the iconic Barbie doll was named.

In 1945, Handler and his wife, Ruth, founded Mattel Creations out of a garage workshop in Los Angeles with their friend Harold “Matt” Matson. They called it Mattel, a name fashioned from Matson and Elliot.

The first Mattel products were picture frames, but Handler soon developed a side business making dollhouse furniture out of picture frame scraps. After the Handlers bought out Matson, they turned Mattel’s focus to toys.

Handler’s product development and design talents were complemented by his wife’s marketing savvy. Early successes were musical toys, such as the Uke-A-Doodle, a child-size ukulele, and a cap gun called the Burp gun, which the Handlers advertised on the new medium of television.

The company’s biggest hit was Ruth’s invention of Barbie, a teenage doll with a tiny waist, slender hips and impressive bust who debuted in 1959 wearing a black-and-white striped swimsuit. Ruth had been inspired by her daughter’s fascination with cutout paper dolls and named Barbie after her.

At first, Handler and male toy buyers were skeptical of the doll’s potential.

“Ruth,” Handler reportedly told his wife, “no mother is ever going to buy her daughter a doll with breasts.”

He was wrong, and Barbie became the top-selling fashion doll in the world, beloved by young girls and collectors alike. The stylish and buxom doll also prompted controversy; many critics attacked the doll for being anti-feminist and said Barbie — with her 39-21-33 proportions — promoted unattainable body expectations for young girls.

By 1965, sales topped $100 million and the company joined the Fortune 500, due largely to massive sales of Barbie. Today, Mattel is the world’s largest toy maker and is headquartered in El Segundo.

In the late 1960s, Mattel was looking for a toy that would appeal to boys as Barbie had for girls. Handler came up with an idea for miniature die-cast vehicles that would incorporate speed, power and performance, as well as cool car designs.

Introduced in 1968, Hot Wheels featured customized designs and eye-catching paint jobs and went on to become a No. 1-selling toy brand.