People of Play! I am posting some anecdotal Toy Stories about a number of my favorite toys I've worked on in my career.
Toy Stories Chapter 2: Farting Ren & Stimpy
The challenge with a property like Ren & Stimpy is how do you capture its essence while maintaining traditional decorum in toys. The answer is to say “screw it” and make toys that fart and say “you fat bloated eediot!” There were also executional challenges in our farting line, however. Stimpy wasn’t a problem. He farted in nice round tones. Ren’s early prototypes, on the other hand, sounded more like a duck’s quacking, because the only place for the bladder flap (the fart-sounding whoopee rubber device) was in his head. After several attempts, our engineer (now Mattel Bigwig) Scott Goodman suggested we insert the bladder in the tail, provided Marketing was OK with the variance from the style guide, as it would results in a flat tail. I was.
With that, Scott then pointed out afterwards that there would be an added effect in that Ren’s tail would flap as he broke wind. A wind-win! (see what I did there?)
Stylistically, we sculpted Ren’s face to look like he was pinching one off, and designed the package to look like a toilet. Ren’s package was supposed to be a litter box, but the Ren approach was much more clear. Interestingly, we got more pushback from Ren’s chosen sayings in the talking toys than we did from these farting toys, because, you know, the price-point was more attractive.
Game Review: NERF
Azhelle Wade, The Toy Coach - AI and the Future of Toy Invention
PLAYMONSTER ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF NEW CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER - Brian Fitzharris
Game Review: Ticket to Ride by Alan R. Moon
Book Review: Zapwired by Hal Ross
Game Review: NERF
Azhelle Wade, The Toy Coach - AI and the Future of Toy Invention
PLAYMONSTER ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF NEW CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER - Brian Fitzharris
Game Review: Ticket to Ride by Alan R. Moon
Book Review: Zapwired by Hal Ross
Randy Klimpert Shares his Ukulele Collection
Steve Casino Peanut Art
Everyone's Talking about POP!
Princess Etch - a Multi-Talented Etch A Sketch Artist
Joseph Herscher of Joseph' s Machines.
Tom Dusenberry... Bought Atari, Wizards of the Coast, and Avalon Hill!
Matt Leacock created Pandemic... the game!
Scott Brown and Tim Swindle... are Launching a New Sport!
Daryl Andrews says... "GO TO CONVENTIONS!"
Ed Gartin is... the Evel Knievel of Inventor Relations!
POPDuo: Richard Dickson, Mattel’s President & COO, and Kedar Narayan, Young Inventor Challenge AMB
POPDuo: Will Shortz and Josh Wardle
POP Duo: Elan Lee, Co-Founder, Exploding Kittens.and Jeff Probst, Host and Exec Producer, Survivor
POP Duo: David Fuhrer, MNG Director, Blue Sq Innovations & Shawn Green, past Dodgers & Mets MLB Star
POP Duo: Bob Fuhrer, Founder, Nextoy and Tom Fazio, Golf Course Designer