Aim to Please, Please

After decades around the Milton Bradley and Hasbro Games R&D Departments and after viewing thousands of inventor concepts, I have been convinced it is possible to make a game for any topic, for any age, and for any gender. Games can be designed for any challenge; be it skill and action, strategy, Q&A, twitch reaction video games, etc.

Now along comes games that expands that premise even farther. This introduction is apparently intended for screen obsessed, multi-tasking, physiologically properly equipped players when called to   a very necessary environment.

Check out the video to see a play platform coming to that special room near you.
World's first p-controlled video game

I never would have thought of such games since I have always seen visits to that location as a matter of necessity and not a place to seek amusement. It also begs a key question, how will this play experience be handled if it is to broaden market share to the opposite gender?

On the plus side, these games may well open sales opportunities at previously untapped retail outlets: local plumbing supply stores. Oh, by the way, don't forget to flush!

Newbie Exhibitors @ The Big Show

For anyone serious about the toy and game business, the place to be each February is New York City at the TIA sponsored International Toy Fair. For the really serious players, the Javit's event is likely the fourth fair in a lineup that has taken them to Hong Kong, London, and Nuremberg. After another annual bout with weather elements, many attendees question the wisdom of holding the fair in NYC. They would prefer some other cavernous hall in Orlando, Dallas, or Vegas. To me, weather is not that important. Battling the elements only seems to occur between the hotel exit and the entrance to a Javits bound bus. What is important in February is not outside on the streets, but what goes on inside the Center along its miles of aisles.

Rain, sleet, snow are certainly irrelevant to newbie exhibitors who come to Javits with high hopes and higher expectations. This year, the TIA reported Toy Fair included 239 first time exhibitors.

2013 newbies, Rob Appelblatt and partner Tim Crean, unveiled a spin on the timeless light strategy classic game, tic-tac-toe, with a uniquely designed version trademarked as TIC STAC TOE TM. Like other first timers, Appelblatt spent hundreds of hours on product preparation and thousands of dollars on the Javits floor space, product samples, and a booth display to confirm strong personal belief in the game. He says, "family, friends, and co-workers all loved the game, but presence at Javits was a true opportunity for genuine, outside validation".

Four weeks after the Big Show, Appelblatt is following up on what he calls, "great interest from retailers, distributors, and potential marketing licensees for TIC STAC TOE TM." He sees the positive results as payback for the amount of effort and energy put into readiness for Toy Fair. That effort included molded parts, multiple prototypes, packaging, a YouTube demo, and even an APP. Appelblatt says, "We were forewarned by many that we had gone way beyond what a typical inventor would do, but I think this is one of the reasons we had such a successful show."

TIC STAC TOE TM  @ Toy Fair

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP6vOBXmiZQ

How to Play the APP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuMNRbeIa-I

As he sorts through opportunities from Javits 2013, Rob Appelblatt offers this advice to newbies who may appear at Toy Fair 2014. "Trust and follow your gut instincts. That should lead you to the right decisions as long as you do your homework and constantly critique and challenge yourself. You will meet people who will give reasons why you won't succeed. Hear their reasoning, but don't let them get the best of you. Stay true to your vision but be malleable as you learn things from others that will greatly improve your chances for success."

Hopefully, Toy Fair was as successful for the other 238 first timers as it was for Rob Appelblatt. The play industry needs the annual infusion by start-ups making the commitment to launch their dreams in the aisles of the Javits Center. Regardless of the weather on the streets of Manhattan, they bring sunshine and smiles into hundreds of booths.

Toy Fair Inside Out

There are thousands of Toy Fair images thanks to iphones. These are just three of mine.

Toy people love New York

2 of the 3 are big toy celebrities

Famous faces in a sea of Javits Center faces.
Hope your iphotos captured fond memories of Toy Fair 2013.

The Creative Factor at Toy Fair

On Monday. February 11, Richard C. Levy and I shouted out SNL's famous line, "Live from New York City!" For the past seven years, we have hosted a TIA Creative Factor symposium for toy and game inventors. This year, we were MML (Monday Morning Live). The nor'easter notwithstanding, our room filled with intrepid men and women who traversed slushy Manhattan streets and driving rain to get to the Javits Center for the 110th Annual Toy Fair. Our attendees proved their resilience living by the old adage, ""often the hardest part of any challenge is showing up!"

This year, we did something different. Rather than a speech format followed by an audience Q and A, we started with answers to ten questions we felt inventors often find of most interest. (See our answers as recorded by attendee, David A. Miller, Executive Editor of Purple Pawn) Answers

  1) Is New York Toy Fair the best place to sell ideas?
  2) Do you need an agent to license an idea?
  3) How do you know if an idea is original and never done before?
  4) What are some reasons why companies reject ideas?
  5) Does collaborative invention improve chances of licensing an idea?
  6) What are the major points to prepare to pitch a prototype to a marketer?
  7) What can you expect if a company asks to hold your prototype?
  8) Should you produce and market the concept yourself?
  9) Should you hire an attorney for patent and trademark applications?
10) How are mobile gaming and interactive toys affecting the market?

These questions and dozens more from the audience made for a fast-moving sixty minute session. Afterwards, we continued to entertain questions in the hallway as inventors' natural curiosity and thirst for knowledge would not surrender to the clock.

Between what we imparted firsthand and the information in our just released 2nd edition of The Toy and Game Inventor's Handbook, there is a possibility that some in the audience will not attend our 2014 session. They will be too busy admiring the products they licensed to one of the more than 1000 plus Javits exhibitors.

The TIA frequently says that the Toy Fair showcases 6000 to 7000 "never seen before products". It's a good bet some of those new toys and games will come from inventor graduates of past TIA Creative Factor programs, We certainly hope so!

Curtain Up! Light the Lights!

The 2nd edition of our critically acclaimed, The Toy and Game Inventor's Handbook, is now available as an ebook for the Kindle tablet on Amazon. The price is $9.95.
CLICK HERE TO  Order Now!

    So much has changed in the industry since our original Handbook was released in 2003. We have done our best to refresh the book's content during this past year of energetic reporting. Also new in this edition is a "Websitary" of selected URLs important to independent inventors and industry followers as well as hot links to key websites imbedded throughout the book.

Thanks to several licensing attorneys and agents, we believe the advice and document templates in Chapter 9, Molding the Deal: The Gets and the Gives, have no equal in a self-help book for toy and game inventors. In fact, we can confidently say that this 2nd edition, thanks to the contributions made by the professionals we interviewed, leaves other books of this genre languishing.

The Handbook continues to profile over 80 professional inventors containing sage advice from some of the industry's best and brightest talents. In addition, there are 35 company profiles (together with contact information for submitting new concepts ) who welcome submissions from external sources.

We trust that even the most seasoned, successful inventors and industry executives will find this book a valuable resource and stimulating read about the new product process that sustains the toy and game business. Thanks in advance for your interest in our work.

Your writing team,
Richard and Ron

What Did You Do This Summer

So how did you spend the summer months in 2012? Travel to exotic locations for stimulating sightseeing? Bask at the seashore coated with lotion to protect from harmful UV rays? Or just do all business and no play in attempts to spawn ideas creating new toys and games?

I've been absent from my blog since late March and most forms of summer fun, (fall and winter, too) to concentrate with co-author Richard C. Levy in the preparation of our publication, The Toy and Game Inventor's Handbook, for release as an ebook. We were gratified with hardcopy sales since its release in 2003. However, when our publisher notified us the book had sold out and would not be reprinted, that was motivation for us to update and move our work into the realm of digital readers. So, the 2nd edition will be digital like so much of other communication around us.

By foregoing travel, beach time, gardening, raking, shoveling and other seasonal activities, I am delighted to announce, "mission accomplished"! The Handbook will be available on Amazon for Kindle readers February 1 with versions for other tablets later in the year.

Indeed, the industry has changed significantly since the original hardcover publication. Inventors today are faced with even more challenges in attempts to license toy and game ideas as playtime, like our 2nd edition, has become more digitized. With invaluable help from some new contributors, active links to useful websites, and encouraging words from industry leaders, we believe the 2nd edition will continue to be a message of hope and direction to the creative talents that have been and will continue to be the lifeline of new products for the industry.

Richard and I hope that The Toy and Game Inventor's Handbook 2nd edition, like its predecessor, will be one small steppingstone for inventors as they work to make their toy dreams reality. If we meet that goal for a few inventors, our project was well worth the collective loss of other leisurely pleasures.

Was I Missed in Blogland?

In the world of minute-to-minute news cycles, the three weeks since my last blog post seems like eons ago. But those eons have not been spent totally removed from Toyland. There was time spent huddling in Florida with co-author, Richard C. Levy, to plan a second, up-dated edition of our Toy and Game Inventors Handbook. It will be released by the end of 2012 as an Apple iBook with subsequent versions for Kindle, BN Nook, and Sony. We are starting with Apple because the iBook allows us to go beyond text to colorful images, video clips, and audio streaming via hot links.

New to our publishing team is John Michlig who will use the latest tools to make the digital Handbook as interactive as possible. John has been involved with a broad range of creative pursuits in and around the industry as readily shown on his website, www.fullyarticulated.com/. To quote John. "I'm an author/writer, editor, producer, product developer, and marketing consultant. I help tell stories of all kinds..." Just the kind of creative versatility many toy inventors apply to their own endeavors.

Since we will not have the static constraints of ink on paper, here is an invitation to you, Toyland inhabitants. As we did in the Handbook and our previous books, our reporting will again rely heavily on contributions of leading professionals like you. So e-mail me your favorite "toystory" in 3 or 4 paragraphs or descriptions of your hottest links to roweingartner@gmail.com.

We just might plug it into an appropriate section of our updated edition, citing you or honoring your anonymity as the source (in the case of juicy horror stories.)

Naturally, the writing team  reserves the right to edit and use your thoughtful, insightful, and helpful experiences under the famous NY Times motto, "All the News That's Fit to Print". With your input, we will make the new Toy and Game Inventor's Handbook bigger and better!