What are the characteristics of a product that make it a good toy, or even a GREAT toy?  How many dimensions are there? Do we include the name of the product, the packaging, perhaps the promotion, as well? While we have created and licensed many successful products over the years, and some of them were great products, others were perhaps only good.  

We have created and licensed products that our licensees, the client company, recognized as very good, even great products, but were not successful in the marketplace. We have created and been unable to license many products that I believe to be great toys and games. They sit in our vault unappreciated, uncommercialized.  

In checking the web for answers I find many lists and opinions on what makes a good or great toy. I think what makes a good toy is more easily answered than what makes a GREAT toy. But what separates good from great?

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. There are many highly subjective answers that factor out those toy forms which do not pass muster on a reviewer's politically correct spectrum. That is like asking a question to which you already have an answer, like doing a research project with a preconceived set of correct answers, as opposed to an honest search for truth. For example, some reviewers won't allow toy guns on their lists of good or great toys, while others choose to eliminate one or another product category for their own personal reasons.  

 

 

But my question is really not what makes a toy good, but what makes a toy GREAT? If it has stood the test of time, is it then great? Is there a formula, a price vs. play? Does each dollar a toy costs equate to a duration of time that a child will play with that toy? Certainly a fashion doll which costs $8.00 and can entertain a child for hours of play would be a great toy, or a Frisbee, or a Yo-Yo.  

 

Great = play hours/dollars, or G = p/d. The greater the value of G, the greater the product. Make sense?  

 

If a doll costs $8.00 and the child plays with it for 10 hours, then G is greater than 1, and it is arguably a great toy. If the toy costs $20 and the child plays with it for 2 hours, then G is .1 and it is far less likely to be a great toy. It would be very interesting to know how many hours various types of toys are played with over their lifespan in a child's life.

 

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If the question is "What makes a great toy?" the answers will certainly include:

 

A. Interaction, both physical and emotional 

 

B. Fascinating action or movement  

 

Who has not been transfixed by the flight of a Frisbee, the magic of a balancing top, or the movement of a Yo-Yo? Aside from being fun to play with, they have an essential magic, an intrinsic beauty, if you will, that draws our eye. We revel in their movements that appear to defy gravity and fascinate us. 

 

 

C. Reaction

 

“OMG!” “Oh, that is so adorable!” "Oh Wow, That is amazing!” “Ooohh!” Uninhibited laughter. Any of these reactions may indicate you've stumbled across a good toy. They may even be the key to the greatness of some classics such as Cabbage Patch Kids, Pound Puppies, or the like.

          

 

 

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Watching someone play with TMX Elmo, you'll invariably see them laugh - they can’t wait to see what he does when you tickle him again. The fact that the user is engaged to the point of laughter suggests to me that this is a truly interactive toy, even though it does not have a constant hands-on play pattern and is not physically interactive in the manner of some of the great toy categories I mentioned before. And yet there are others, for which one would push the button on the hand and watch the sequence, that arguably one might define as a watch-me toy, just as the moms of France have done. 

 

            

 

In the same way, no doubt there are hands-on play type toys that were not fun enough to stand the test of time and have come and gone.

 

Hands-on interaction does not in itself make for a good-to-great toy, and a good-to-great toy may not have a primarily hands-on play pattern. 

 

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There was once a category of toys we called airport toys. Most often a character of some sort would roll down an inclined track, be mechanically picked up at the bottom and returned to the top of the track to roll down once more. These toys had no interaction, only a switch to turn them on so that you might watch them cycle over and over. These were truly 'watch me' toys, and I don’t see them in the airports much anymore.   

            

If constant hands-on interaction makes for a great toy, are there other types of interaction with a toy that are not so manual that make that toy great? 

 

 

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Great toys, by definition, have great play value. Think: Construction toys and building blocks, slot cars, die cast vehicles, fashion dolls, balls, flying discs, mechanical drawing toys and many others. These toys involve almost constant hands-on contact by the child.

 

 

            

Many of our products over the years have been of this type highly interactive, hands-on play type toys, including our dolls; Baby Sip n Slurp by Hasbro and Little Mommy Baby Knows by Mattel. These were both highly engaging hands-on fun, and very successful.  

 

  

 

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As you may know, our Lund and Company Elves have created many interactive, animated plush toys and large feature dolls. We have licensed cartwheeling Tiggers, bouncing Tiggers, walking and rocking Poohs, ear-flapping Eeyores, dolls that somersault, dolls that fall down, dolls that stand up and walk, and even an Elmo that does everything and makes you laugh ‘til you bust a gut.

 

In most of the worldwide toy markets all of these toys and other toys of their ilk are generally very popular, but not in France. In France, animated plush in particular are considered 'Watch me' toys by moms who think the play experience is too passive and not interactive enough for their children. While popular most everywhere else, the toys where one typically squeezes the switch in the hand to activate the next play sequence, don’t sell in France. Tough crowd. 

 

            

It begs the questions, "What is a good toy?" "What is play value?" "What is interaction and interactivity in a toy?" "Which toys are truly watch-me and which are not?" "Are there different types of play value and interaction that toys may have?"  

 

Our goal is to create great toys with wonderful play value, entertainment value, and inspiration value. Any thoughts?

 

 

 

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What a party it was! My costume inspiration, having been raised on MAD magazine, was for my girlfriend and I to go as Spy vs Spy - she in white, and I in black. They were terrific costumes, if I do say so myself. She held a round bomb with a red light on the fuse to look as if the fuse was lit, and I had a toy machine gun. Perfect. For Spy vs Spy, that is. But Marvin Glass had a ban on toy weapons of any sort in the building as a result of the shooting tragedies only a few years earlier. 

 

 

            

One of the head partners came to sit by me, the top dog partner actually, and attempted to gently persuade me to get rid of the machine gun. Me, ever the hardhead, oblivious to the recent history of the company, feeling my young oats in front of my girlfriend, and witih a couple drinks under my belt would hear none of it. Dumb and dumberer, that would be me. I don’t recall perfectly whether I relinquished that toy gun. It was a proper and necessary part of my Spy vs Spy costume, of which I was so proud.  

 

I am really starting to be a better listener. A bit late, maybe, but not too late. 

 

 

 

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April is National Toy and Game Invention Month.

This just in . . . from the birthplace of modern toy and game invention . . . the greatest city on Earth . . . Chicago, celebrating the importance of toys and games in our lives, in the lives of children, and the importance of toys and games, solo and group play, fun and laughter.

            

You got a problem with that?

            

I started my career at Marvin Glass and Associates, after the death of the great man and not long after the fatal shooting that killed a handful of designers and executives and crippled others. Others who were there, partners and associates alike, were left emotionally scarred and would never be the same again.

 

My first day was September 4th, 1979. I was nearly broke, and I was excited to go to their legendary Halloween party, worthy of Hollywood special effects artists. The toy designers spent months and untold hours creating amazing costumes to astound and impress at the party. Shortly after I started there these parties were discontinued as they cost the company too much in manhours and materials to be allowed to go on. 

 

 

 

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Having bought a used Rolls Royce limo for himself, Marvin Glass liked to be squired around town in the style he aspired to. However, it occurred to Marvin that he might be mistaken for the previous owner of the vehicle - an unfortunate victim of a mob hit. Though he was now quite dead, those who made him so might have second thoughts about their success, and try again just be be sure, taking Marvin out by mistake. So Marvin used to ride around town lying flat on the back seat so that he was out of sight. Shortly thereafter he sold the car.

 

 

 

Ah, Marvin! I am sorry I never met you.  

 

One day I made a call, and after I told the person on the other end of the line where I worked, he paused and said, “I never speak ill of the dead,” and let it go at that. Marvin was not universally loved. Neither was Walt Disney, or a host of other legends in their industries. They made things happen, but did not necessarily make friends along the way. Most of the time, when I mentioned that I worked at Marvin Glass & Associates there would invariably come a pregnant pause (what other type is there?) and then the words, “Isn’t that where they had the shooting?”

 

And yes, it was.   

           

 

 

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Chicago is the nexus of modern toy and game invention.

 

 

 

Eddie Goldfarb started here. Marvin Glass started here. Many if not most of the toy industry classics you would name began here - both recent, and long ago.

            

 

The modern business of toy invention started here in Chicago, in April, long, long ago. Marvin himself helped start it all - a diminutive man with a Napoleanic complex and a paranoid of the first degree. A number of other diagnoses would have been applicable to him as well, had they existed back then. Stories of his eccentricities still abound in the industry and I invite you to share those you may know of.  

 

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My father was in the Navy, serving aboard ship in the Mediterranean in WWII and serving again in the Korean conflict. Throughout my childhood I dreamt of being a Naval officer, until a stint in the Navy as an ROTC Midshipman convinced me otherwise. But that is the subject for another series of blog posts . . . 

 

 

            

I doff my hat to the men and women of our armed services, and the ‘thin blue line’ of law enforcement personnel that stand watch 24/7 and keep us safe while we sleep in our beds at night. The work we have done on the Lund Variable Velocity Weapon System (LVVWS) is for them - a tool to help them do their job more effectively and more safely. The development of this system came about as a response to the specific needs our men and women in the field have expressed. 

            

 

 

I hope that our LVVWS will save lives and spare lives, helping to put the hurt on the bad guys without causing them serious injury, and that the job of our military, law enforcement, rangers, and others will be made easier and safer as a result of our efforts. 

 

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The LVVWS, or the Lund Variable Velocity Weapon System, essentially a paintball marker on steroids as it has been described by some, is still in development and nearly ready for commercialization. You may have seen it on Popular Science, Gizmodo, or other online magazines. It came out of many years of exploring in depth our Hydrogen-powered rocket technology. We believe it to be the world's first variable velocity projectile launching system. With the incorporation of an automatic range finder, the velocity can be automatically varied to insure efficacy and safety. 

            

 

 

I have always loved a great challenge, things that go bang, making things happen, discovering something new, the process of invention and development, from thought to reality, and bringing something new, different, and better into the world. I guess that is how I am wired. 

 

 

 

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The only problem was the Army didn’t want to use Hydrogen to fuel this less-lethal weapon system. So we went on a search for fuel alternatives, finally settling on a commercially available MAPP gas canister - the kind used in nail guns and such.

 

 

 

Based on work we had done a year earlier developing a Hydrogen-powered nail gun, we reconfigured many of the tool's components to create the world’s first variable velocity non-lethal weapons system, known now as the LVVWS, or Lund Variable Velocity Weapon System. 

            

We call it The Big Hurt because it puts the hurt on the bad guys, whether they be Al Qaeda terrorists, meth-crazed addicts, or rogue Grizzly Bears.

It's kind of like a paintball gun on steroids. It deters criminals and keeps our police, army, and park rangers safe.  

 

 

 

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The phone rang, and our friend Mr. C called, formerly of NASA and Batelle, now a Chicago based state of Illinois technology scout. He had seen a Department of Defense solicitation for a new variable velocity, non-lethal weapon system and wondered if our Hydrogen technology, already being used in our Hydrogen-powered rocket, Hydrogen-powered RC vehicle system, and other applications we had created, might be applicable to the launching of a non-lethal projectile. 

 

 

            

We thought it might. Hydrogen is a very safe combustible gas, with no combustion fumes or by-products other than pure water. Hydrogen is three times more powerful than gasoline by weight, and you can make it from water - any water; swamp water, camel urine, whatever you have on hand. H₂0, is two parts Hydrogen, and one part Oxygen. Split the molecules first by running DC voltage through the water, and then recombine them back into water, and get an instantaneous release of energy - aka an explosion - powerful enough to run your car's internal combustion engine or launch a rocket.  

 

 

 

Boy, do I love things that go Boom, Flash-Bang, etc. And I love a great challenge. This project was both in spades. 

 

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After the rocket and the lawnmowers, we worked with several tool companies to develop Hydrogen-powered commercial and consumer grade tools and equipment. This powerful, combustible fuel, which is three times more powerful than gasoline, produces only pure water as a waste byproduct of the combustion. 

            

 

 

All along the way we continued to invent and license our core toy and game products, including many award winning products recognized by the industry for their innovation and success in the marketplace. 

            

I do still intend to get the City of Chicago Park District to fund our development of a Hydrogen-powered lawnmower system for the parks of our beautiful city. I also still intend to bring the world's first Hydrogen-powered Chopper to the Sturgis bike rally, and ride it there myself.

 

 

            

Meanwhile, one day we got a call from a technology scout for the state of Illinois who wondered if our Hydrogen technology might be the perfect thing for a non-lethal weapon system the Department of Defense was seeking proposals for . . . 

 

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Our team of inventive geniuses invented the world's first Hydrogen-powered toy - a rocket marketed for years by Estes Rockets. This toy technology led us to the exploration and development of many other Hydrogen-powered toys, including a radio controlled vehicle system that won a NASA technology competition. So, I guess that does make toy inventing a rocket science.

 

 

 

Working with a major retailer we developed and patented a Hydrogen-powered lawnmower. Working with the Illinois Institute of Technology and John Deere we amped up that Hydrogen-powered lawnmower system for the City of Chicago. Sadly, this plan was never carried out for lack of funding, and the city of Chicago lost a great opportunity to show the world its leading-edge green energy commitment. 

 

 

 

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There has been a lot of media buzz lately about our work with the Department of Defense creating a non-lethal weapon system, the LVVWS (Lund Variable Velocity Weapon System). Wired, Gizmodo, Popular Science, and others have picked up the story and run with it, some stories more accurate than others.  

 

As you may recall, I have always loved things that go boom; M-80’s, rockets, etc. They just make my little heart go pitter-pat. 

 

And as a matter of clarification and accuracy, we did not create Tickle Me Elmo, but we did create TMX Elmo, the 10th anniversary version of same. 

            

The bottom line is this: Law enforcement, Border Patrol, the Military, Fish and Wildlife officers, and others have a need for a deterrant that is effective and non-lethal. Current systems are cumbersome, limited in range, or have other drawbacks. With the development of the LVVWS, we answered our country’s call to create a tool to keep our peacekeepers safe while deterring the behaviors of aggressive law breakers. 

 

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Another change afoot in the toy industry is the slow move of the toy production north, out of the Pearl River valley, where the Chinese government is more interested in higher value product manufacture; cell phones, iPods, and the like. In moving northward, the factories may no longer be required to have on-site dormitories as they all have now. Northern factories may draw workers from surrounding villages, and the result may be more comfortable, natural, living conditions for the laborers than they experience in the factory dormitories today. 

            

 

 

Again, change is good. 

 

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One of the most interesting things about being alive, walking the Earth, and partaking in this world and all it has to offer - in our toy industry as everywhere else - is change. Unending, continuous, ever surprising, irresistible change. Change is the one constant. 

            

Often what appears to be a negative turns out to be a positive. I was speaking with a scion of the industry recently about changes in toy packaging. The push to make it more environmentally friendly, as mandated by the #1 toy retailer (Kudos to them), has actually resulted in taking some cost out of the packaging, which has always been a major cost component of toys.

            

 

 

One of the largest toy companies in the US only recently used enough wire ties in packaging each year to circle the planet eight times. Multiply that by the vast number of toy manufacturers, and all the products on the market with wire ties in their packaging, and that becomes a lot of steel. As a result of the environmentally-conscious changes instituted, that waste and cost has been significantly reduced. 

            

 

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Have you ever been riding your motorcycle too fast at a t-intersection full of gravel, when a car suddenly turns in front of you causing you to swing out too wide to make the bridge that crossed the river ahead, but you manage to negotiate the passenger walkway (that's barely wide enough for your handlebars so that even Evel Knievel wouldn’t have attempted it) and made it across in one piece? Have you ever been the beneficiary of a miracle? Have you ever been arrested for attempted murder? Have you ever waived your right to a lineup at the police station and then (at last) been exonerated as a victim of mistaken identity? Whew!

            

 

Have you ever sat in the chute atop 1500lb. of angry bull and told them to open the gate? Have you been tossed off the back of a bull, flown through the air, face-planted in the mud, and then got up and done it again? Have you ever stood on the tire of a rickety old piper cub hanging onto the strut below the wing, and just let go and dropped into the blue, and then done it again? 

            

 

 

I have. 

 

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I love the idea of the  "Would you Rather . . . ?" game by Randy Horn's company Zobmondo.

            

I have my own version one might call "Have You Ever . . . ?"

            

 

 

Have YOU ever . . . been deported? Been on a (close to) sinking navy ship? Been placed under house arrest by a Mexican infantry division, or thought you were witnessing the beginning of WWIII and feared your entire family and everything you knew were about to be destroyed? 

 

 

            

Have you ever been trapped in a river’s hydraulic, sucked under and bounced on the river's bottom, spun around like you were in a washing machine of dirty water in a raging flooded river? Been trapped at the bottom of a 1700-foot-deep canyon where the sky was merely a narrow ribbon of blue far above, or ever lost all your supplies while trapped in the wilderness? Have you ever planned to eat wasps to survive if it came to that? Been rescued by rangers who had given you up for dead? Have you ever had one of them-there-near-death-experiences when you imagine the world after you are gone, your mother crying over her lost son? Have you ever tasted moonshine? Been circled by a shark while snorkeling?

 

 

 

I have.  

 

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My friend David went on to elaborate his theory that toy shops, having depleted their shelves over the Christmas holiday, would need replenishment. Leaving for Europe to scout for new stock to fill their stores, toy traders would board steam ships and make the Atlantic crossing, traveling to Europe to find and acquire toys for the following Christmas season. They would then board the ships with samples and steam back across the ocean to America, arriving back in New York once more - the entire trip lasting 6 weeks or so.

 

         

 

That would make it about the middle of February, Toy Fair time as we know it today. The traders would set up in their hotel rooms a display of what they found in Europe, and buyers from shops around the country would travel to NYC, the undisputed center of American commerce at the time, to view, choose, and place orders to fill their toy shelves for the coming year.

 

 

And to this day the show remains in Manhattan (for however long yet we do not know) in February for reasons known only to God. But this is an eminently logical and believable explanation for how this came to be. Thank you David. A very good theory. 

 

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