Ryu Asada was a former designer who worked at Matchbox from 2004 to 2012 and Hot Wheels from 2012 to 2021. Born in Osaka, Japan, he studied at the Art Center College of Design before moving to the United States. He started working for Mattel under Matchbox as a designer. He left the position in 2012 to work for Hot Wheels. His last casting for Matchbox he worked on was the Subaru SVX in 2019, who owned two of them when he was in college.
He passed away on 23 March 2021 at the age of 42 from cancer, survived by his wife. The following release of the Subaru SVX in 2021 would pay tribute to the late Asada, with a special logo with his name, the character meaning joy ('喜') in kanji and the Japanese Matchbox logo is visible on the card and on the "Power Grabs" box. The model itself features a rear license plate which reads "ASADA."
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