Over the Big Pond

When we wrote The Toy and Game Inventor's Handbook, Richard and I knew that toy invention was certainly a global enterprise. In fact, we had relationships with creators of some of the best selling toys and games in the USA that had originated in design studios in Europe, Japan, and Israel. But our schedule and publisher specs lead to a book that clearly was focused on professional inventors housed on the left side of the Atlantic and the right side of the Pacific. Though geographically specific, the publication did achieve our intentions to shine a light on the creators and creative process of new toys and games. In addition to profiling toy and game inventions of some eighty U.S. professionals, it gave a bit of industry history and many helpful how-to do and what-to-do tips to license ideas.

Today, thanks to Al Gore's invention and the Google internet highways, our Handbook can now be digitally updated, complemented, and expanded to a more global perspective of toy and game invention. An interesting site from "over the pond" I recently found can be accessed by going to http://ideasuploaded.com . Ideas Uploaded is written by Tara Roskell, a freelance graphic designer and aspiring inventor based in the UK. Ideas Uploaded is a blog where Tara shares everything she's learned about the invention process through her own journey as an inventor. The blog also contains interviews and podcasts with successful inventors from disparate locales.

Who knows? Perhaps some savvy author team will search the internet using key "invention" words and produce a hard copy publication entitled The Global Toy and Game Inventor's Handbook. Good luck with the challenge of doing such a new publication!