April 10, 2024 • 29 mins
In this episode, we are joined by Mary Couzin from the Chicago Toy & Game Group known as People of Play P.O.P. as we delve into the captivating world of toy inventors. Discover the recognition that toy inventors truly deserve and gain valuable insights into what it takes to succeed in this creative industry.
------------------------------------
About Got Invention Show:
Listen to inventors' interviews sharing their invention story to the world!
Are you patent pending?
Do you have a prototype to show and demonstrate?
Are you looking to earn royalties from your invention?
Are you looking for a manufacturer?
Do you want to raise money or find an investor?
Do you want to sell your invention?
Learn from other inventors or let’s see and hear about your big invention idea!
Show & tell us about your invention, have your very own video interview to be proud of!
Your video can be used to:
Post to your social media
Add on your website
Send to bloggers & editors
Pitch to licensees or investors
Listen to inventor interviews or sign up: https://gotinventionshow.com
Your Host of Got Invention Show, Brian Fried. Brian is the host of Got Invention Radio, with interviews of high profile guests including the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, Lori Greiner from ABC's Shark Tank, & over 150 individual interviews.
Brian connects and guides inventors to earn royalties from their inventions to licensees and brand properties looking for new ideas and intellectual property to expand existing or add to new product lines.
Inventor Smart: https://inventorsmart.com
Host Inventor Expert and Invention Consultant Brian Fried: https://brianfried.com
Check out the launch of a very exciting app, finally a community for inventors!! Our very own social media, networking, events and resources to help each other with our big ideas!
The Inventor Smart Community app now available on Google Play or Apple App Store https://inventorsmart.app
- Leslie Scott - Inventor of Jenga, Anagram - The ingenious game of juggling words and more. https://www.peopleofplay.com/people/leslie-scott
- Reuben Klamer - The Game of Life, 1-2-3 Roller Skates and more. https://www.peopleofplay.com/people/reuben-klamer
- Eddy Goldfarb - Chattering Teeth, Stompers, KerPlunk and more https://www.peopleofplay.com/people/eddy-goldfarb
- Jeffrey Breslow - Fashion Polly Pocket, Ants in the Pants and more. https://www.peopleofplay.com/people/jeffrey-breslow
- Gary Gatchell - Pick Two
- Cheong Choon Ng - Rainbow Loom
- Coster Family - inventors of about 200 games and toys including Guess -Who?, Magimizer, Zingo!, and GoPop! https://www.peopleofplay.com/people/ora-coster https://www.peopleofplay.com/people/theo-coster
- Tim Walsh - Tribond, Blurt, Mega Mouth and more, https://www.peopleofplay.com/people/tim-walsh
- Peggy Brown - Q Bitz, Count Your Chickens and more, https://www.peopleofplay.com/people/peggy-brown
- Kim Vandenbroucke - Pigs on a Trampoline, Scattergories Categories and more, https://www.peopleofplay.com/people/kim-vandenbroucke
------------------------------------
About Got Invention Show:
Listen to inventors' interviews sharing their invention story to the world!
Are you patent pending?
Do you have a prototype to show and demonstrate?
Are you looking to earn royalties from your invention?
Are you looking for a manufacturer?
Do you want to raise money or find an investor?
Do you want to sell your invention?
Learn from other inventors or let’s see and hear about your big invention idea!
Show & tell us about your invention, have your very own video interview to be proud of!
Your video can be used to:
Post to your social media
Add on your website
Send to bloggers & editors
Pitch to licensees or investors
Listen to inventor interviews or sign up: https://gotinventionshow.com
Your Host of Got Invention Show, Brian Fried. Brian is the host of Got Invention Radio, with interviews of high profile guests including the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, Lori Greiner from ABC's Shark Tank, & over 150 individual interviews.
Brian connects and guides inventors to earn royalties from their inventions to licensees and brand properties looking for new ideas and intellectual property to expand existing or add to new product lines.
Inventor Smart: https://inventorsmart.com
Host Inventor Expert and Invention Consultant Brian Fried: https://brianfried.com
Check out the launch of a very exciting app, finally a community for inventors!! Our very own social media, networking, events and resources to help each other with our big ideas!
The Inventor Smart Community app now available on Google Play or Apple App Store https://inventorsmart.app
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:16):
Welcome to the Got Invention Show.I'm your host, Brian Freed, And
just thinking about it, there areso many toys that we grew up with,
not just toys, but games,so many different things that we played
with along the way. Do youknow who the inventor is? Well,
we have Mary Cousin. She's fromChicago Toy and Game group now known as
(00:40):
People of Play. She's on ourshow today. Mary, Thank you for
joining us, Thank you for invitingme. This is exciting. Well,
look, the topic here today isgetting the recognition that toy inventors deserve.
Because think about it, there areactors out there. There are musicians,
right, there's great songs that wehum along to every day. There's culinary
(01:00):
stars, right, there's all kindsof famous chefs that we know, all
these type of people that we justkind of follow. But what about the
toy inventors that we play all thosetoys growing up. We love them,
we even talk about them to ourkids. But who invented it? Right?
So maybe you can help us.Oh, I'd loved his one of
(01:21):
my favorite topics. And Tim Welsh, a fellow inventor that we know well.
Tim said it perfectly that if yousell a million albums, you're in
a cover of Rolling Stone, amillion books in the near a best seller
list. But if you've sold overone hundred million Jengas like Lovely Scott Has,
nobody knows who you are. Andand it's the same creative process,
(01:42):
right, Like, how is itdifferent. You're creating music, you're creating
a Toyer game, and you're you'regoing through all the rough things to get
it sold and get it out thereand market it. Like if we just
use Jengas to start the example out, Leslie mortgage your own home, her
mother mortgaged her home. I meanshe was like doing demos and all the
(02:06):
stores. I mean she really workedhard to get jang out there. You
wouldn't know it now. Everybody justthinks, oh, you know, maybe
has Bro invented it. But itcame from a woman fifty years ago who
worked your butt off to bring thatto the public. And Leslie is super
interesting. She lives in London andshe's involved in all sorts of charities and
(02:30):
she's writing books and super cool person. And why doesn't the average person on
the street know her? I meanshe's like Taylor Swift right, Like I
don't know one hundred millions, overone hundred million Jengas, how many?
I don't know what Taylor Swift hassold that. I think Leslie's probably sold
(02:51):
more Jengas than the Beatles have albums. Well, I know that you've been
in the toy and game world forquite a bit, but we've gotten a
chance to know each other for decadesalready, I guess at this point,
tell us a little bit about yourself, Mary and your background. Oh sure,
So I've had a couple of industryI've been doing a lot of different
(03:15):
dabbling around, if you will.I was in real estate for a long
time, but it wasn't until Iinvented a few board games that I really
fell in love with this community ofinventors. And I didn't even know they
existed. I didn't know I,like probably many consumers, didn't realize there
was this community of toy and gameinventors like there are I ensure with other
(03:37):
industries you work in. And Ijust fell in love with these people.
They were creative and fun, andI just knew I had to stay in
this business, and I've it kindof morphed over the years, evolved to
helping other inventors. So I've selfproduced, I've licensed, and now I'm
helping other inventors, and I haveevents to promote play Chicago Toy and Game
(04:00):
Fair, and then we have anInventor Conference where toy and game invenors can
pitch to all the companies you know, Hasbro, Mattel, Sinmaster. Actually
we get over like over two hundredpeople easy from twenty five countries and you
can pitch. It's the largest inthe industry. And we have the Toy
(04:20):
and Game Innovation Awards where we celebrateinnovation in the industry and we want to
encourage those kids. We have aYoung Inventor Challenge and maybe about a dozen
of our kids have been licensed andthey've had their products and targets and elsewhere,
and that's you know, for kidsto six eighteen. And then of
course everything comes to a crescendo atour Chicago Toy and Game Fair, where
(04:43):
we promote play and we introduce theinventors to the public, and the public
loves talking and learning the stories thatthese toying game invenors went through to get
their products out there, and thereare really some great stories tell us about
the Toy Chicago toy and game expoor trade show that it is. What
(05:04):
type of experience is that for thelisteners and watchers to know about. So
we have a lot of activities,So there's booths, so so companies have
booths there and they're they're promoting theirproducts to the consumers and the companies get
their feedback right directly from the consumers. It's like product testing in the wild,
(05:29):
a focus group in the wild,right, Like you know, we
usually when you have playgroups, mytesting groups, you bring them into your
office. Here, you've got atruth test, You've got all people who
want to try or games get tomeet to maybe even develop a relationship over
time with the manufacturer. It's reallytheir only opportunity to develop that kind of
(05:49):
relationship with the consumer, and theconsumer learns the stories. And of course
we have fun things that the fairlike the Young Inventor Challenge and a Star
Wars lunch and that's a lot offun. We have the Bible first and
Darth Vader and a lot of costumecharacters walking around and it's really a celebration
(06:10):
of innovation and play for everybody.We have. We even have a conference
for teachers to learn how to incorporateplay into the classroom. You know,
play makes learning so much easier,right, It's just there's a lot of
studies that have been that document that. It's been interesting because back in the
(06:30):
day when I used to attend yourChicago Toy and Game Fair, I think
I met Daryl Hannah there, JohnRatzenberger from Cheers. There's so many amazing
experiences that were going on there.But one of the main ones was that
inventors and people that had toy andgame products were able to showcase it there,
(06:53):
get feedback, get buyers, getthe public to come in and actually
interact with them. And what youand I also had an experience with was
even back then, you were doingthe Young Inventor Challenge in its own way
where you were showcasing young inventors tobe able to present their products. And
I think there were a bunch ofschools that came in groups to compete.
(07:16):
So that was great. It wasgreat. I love the kids. It's
it's been kind of a passion projectof ours over the years there. And
it's sorted because my daughter in fourthgrade invented a card game and I saw
the process she went through and howmuch she loved it, and so we
started it this year. I thinkit's really it's important. It hits all
(07:38):
the created a systemic activity, right, It really is even seem But yeah,
John Mazenberger is an inventor. Nota lot of people know that.
You know, he invented a crinklecut stuff that's in packaging, And Darryl
Hannah's invented several board games. Imean, people don't you know. I
mean their celebrities for sure, butanyone can really invent to to your game
(08:00):
if you put your head to it. I think you know. So here
we are. I mean just kindof reminiscing talking about Transformers and Gi Joe
and Cabbage Patch Kids and Othello andMonopoly and Battleship. I mean, those
are some that just come to mind. A couple of weeks ago, I
talked about Stretch Armstrong, how Iused to pull it until all the jelly
(08:24):
came out and I had to getit thrown away. I didn't know what
kind of toxic chemicals were coming outof it back then. But just really
thinking about and just if everybody justpauses for a second and think about your
favorite toy in game or games andtoys that you grew up with, and
what they look like today and whois it that invented it? What's the
(08:48):
story behind those inventors. So,Mary, if you can share with us
some of those, maybe the onesthat are not with us, and then
maybe some that are that they canget the recognition that they deserve. You
know. One of my favorite storiesis Reuben claimer He unfortunately he died two
years ago at the age of ninetynine, but he was signing he did
(09:09):
the Game of Life and at ourfair, I want to say fifteen years
ago, he was signing them andthere was a line wrapped around the Hasbro
booth, which was an enormous booththat then went down the aisle and out
the door. Like it was anincredibly long line because people wanted to meet
Ruben, the guy who invented thegame, because that think that game is
(09:31):
actually influenced people and what they didin their lives. When Rubin went in
for a triple bypass, his cardiologisttold him that the reason he became a
doctor was because that's when he wonat the Game of Life. Wow,
I know, like it's just likethese stories. I thought it would be
operation Yeah, I know, Well, there was a really great documentary on
(09:56):
that that Peggy Brown and Tim Walsh. Did you know the irony of that
story was is he only got fivehundred dollars for inventing operation right, and
so he didn't make money on it. He was a college kid and Marvin
Glass and associates bought the idea fromhim, and he, you know,
five hundred dollars I guess back inthe day was you know, it was
(10:16):
something and he was newly married witha kid on the way, but now
had his age. I think thisis maybe six seven years ago, he
couldn't afford an operation himself to fixhis teeth, and and so Peggy Brown
and Tim Walsh did this big fundraiserand they they more than made enough money
for him to pay for his operationon his teeth. They also, like
(10:39):
I think, paid off his mortgage. And then the funny part was,
or the ironic part, is thata guy who created a doctor who created
some type of instrument for thyroid operationsso that if you got too close to
some nerve it would go off,just like in operation and in John Sponello,
(11:01):
the inventor of operation, his daughterhad that operation. You know,
like there's some pretty close stories outthere. And then a good friend of
Reuben Klamer's, Eddie Goldfarp, whowas one hundred and two, he invented
cerplunk, chattering teeth, shark attack. I mean, I could go on
(11:22):
long list of things. And Eddieis still inventing at one hundred and two.
He has a girlfriend. He's workingin his garage. Like I think
inventing keeps you young, right,like it keeps you sharp, it keeps
you young. I don't know,Like these stories are great. The BMTs
which used to be Brussel, Morrisonand Jersyan now BMT Big Monster Toy.
(11:45):
So Jeff Breslo one of the founders. He invented ants in the pants and
gestures off sorts of toys and games, very well known around the world.
And he went into retirement at sixtyfive because everybody had to retire sixty five,
and he became a sculpture and sculpturesare all over the world now and
even had a big showing in theSeers Tower or whatever the Seriers Tower is
(12:05):
called now. I forget they keepchanging the name in the series Tower.
But Jeff just came out with anew game called Pickle Everything like he's in
his seventies. Like, no oneever really leaves the toy industry and they
love it, and you know thereis no reason to really retire from it.
It's very interesting and Mary, youand I have both been on kind
(12:26):
of both sides of watching successes ofmany inventors and they may not necessarily be
in the spotlight like the Jenga,but they've had some level of success.
And then we also see people thatare coming up with ideas every day and
specifically for you toy and game,and think about what they need to go
(12:50):
through and what they need to dowhen they come up with an idea.
So not to make it so simpleand simplistic at this point, but you've
been through it many times, Mary, So just for the community and for
the watchers out there and listeners,if you can just give us some step
by step of what it takes whenyou do have that idea in your head,
(13:13):
what comes next? Sure? Well, first I would refer them to
an article you wrote about different howto vet things and where to go and
checking things, so they should definitelyyou might want to reference that somewhere.
The article you wrote is excellent,but a lot of people don't do play
testing. Like, they come upwith this idea and they think they can
(13:35):
sell the idea. But when youplaytest, you learn more about your idea
and you can make it better.Very important. Playtest. A lot of
people forget that or even googling thisthe authorready exists or can't tell you how
many people have spent money to cometo our conferences and they've that idea is
already out there. Mary, whenyou're selling playtest, are you talking about
(13:56):
making a prototype and trying it yourself, getting other people almost like a focus
group exactly, and not with yourfamily, because your family will always tell
you, you know, only tellyou good things. It's got to be
people you don't know. You've gotto like put down your toy, r
game or any invention really and letthem figure it out. Very important.
(14:18):
What about protecting a toy and agame that you might come up with.
I mean, for the most part, we know that a board exists if
you're getting into a board game,and then there's the graphics and the instructions
and the pieces. So have youseen or kind of an understanding of how
(14:41):
it is to protect let's say aboard game to start with, and then
we know for example, like charactersor specific figurines. Maybe those are ornamental
for design patents. But what ifyou can just navigate us through a little
bit of how to protect a toyor a game. Sure, well,
there's different ways. There's copyrights andtrademarks and patents and you know, provisional.
(15:05):
There's lots of different ways to protectyour ideas. The thing about the
board games are the hardest to protectbecause somebody can make just some small change
right and and then just bring itout. So I usually I'm not an
attorney, I'd like to first pointthat out, so you always check with
your your own legal advice. Buta lot of I've seen a lot of
(15:28):
inventors spend a lot of money onlike board game patents when really it doesn't
help them much. And it kindof makes me unless you have some mechanism
that is so unique. But ifit's like a path game, for example,
you know just where you're rolling thedice or reading cards, there's really
(15:48):
nothing patentable about that. It hasto be a mechanism of some sort,
so you have to really I wouldactually get advice from a couple of attorneys,
not just one, to make sureyou're not just wasting your money in
some cases. The trademark. Butyou can trademark something it's the name is
really really good and unusual, andyou can run a trademark search very easily.
(16:11):
But copyright, that's nothing really right, It's very inexpensive to copyright,
So that that's something I would recommendeverybody does. One thing that really I
feel is very important, especially intoy and games, is the graphics.
Oh right, right, you haveto catch my eye to really engage my
(16:33):
emotions to say I want to beinvolved. I want to play that game
that looks so cool. You wantto create the way that it looks for
a girl or a boy to justgrab it and say I want that because
it looks amazing. Like how importantis that do you feel for people to
really catch for it to catch on? Oh, it's critical, it's to
(16:56):
your point there. I think thereare awards for gardens, and I know
the TAGG Awards we do have acategory for art and design of packaging that
I mean it is super super criticalbecause you guy had the greatest game in
the world, right and no onewill or a few people will pick it
up. I mean, actually,Gary Gatchel is a guy he invented a
(17:18):
game called Pick two, but thegraphic it was just in a little box
and it was a great game.But when Banana Grams came along, same
game, exact same game, butthey put it in a banana. They
sold millions and Gary Gary didn't eventhough I mean his game got gotten some
schools and things like that, butthey're the same game, right for the
(17:41):
most part, it's just that theyput it in a banana. And you
know, Banana Grams is huge,right. The experience of having a board
game or a physical toy in yourhand, or game to play with sports,
it can go into many different categories. There's a lot of kids out
there now that are on mobile devicesand we shift many of them have shifted
(18:06):
to apps Angry Bird and I don'tknow the ones with the bulls and the
marbles and all these different things thatare out there, even video games on
PlayStation and Xbox and all the iterationsof those. So what's been your experience,
Mary, as we've been growing upin the industry, What does it
(18:29):
look like and how do you feelabout those? I could tell you that
I've had Marty Cooper, who's theinventor of the cell phone on our show,
and he started off loving the cellphone, and I interviewed him again
many years later, and now he'sdisappointed with the way that smartphones are being
used because he feels like people aren'tcommunicating anymore. And the whole purpose was
(18:53):
for him to keep people together withcommunication and cell phones. But now look
where we are. People are sozoned into what they are they don't even
know what's going on around them.So, Mary, in your experience of
now going through this journey of toyand games, how do you feel and
what do you think about apps andmobile phone experience? You know, when
(19:18):
when all the electronic games and videogames and apps and everything were coming out,
people predicted that toys and games willgo away, right like that was
there was a lot of fear inthe industry, and of course it didn't
happen, right. I look atit like it's like sometimes you want to
McDonald's, you know, like anapp game, and sometimes you want a
(19:38):
monopoly or tribond or you know,or cubits or pigs on trampoline. You
want a full game experience. It'sjust like breakfast, lunch and dinners and
you want sometimes you want a quickoption sometimes you want the full experience,
a full dinner, full Sunday nightdinner. So I think all play is
good. Although that being said,I do it does make me sad when
(20:00):
you walk into a room and everybody'son their phone and nobody's talking to each
other, especially when I see kidsdoing it. And I've heard that in
Silicon Valley that a lot of theexecutives don't give their kids phones until they're
like going to grade school or something. So it's and there's a lot of
studies that have shown I mean,I'm talking about excessive use. I'm not
(20:25):
talking about you know, a fewplaying a few times here and there during
the week for kids. When you'regoing through the different categories of toy and
game, there's sports, there's boardgames. Maybe I'm probably missing a bunch
of them. Those are just afew. But what do you feel like
(20:47):
is the best category for an inventorto get involved with? And then on
the other side, because you you'revery into the statistics and all your your
newsletters and your outreach to the toyand game world, what do you think
is from the consumer perspective, thehottest category. That's a great question.
(21:08):
During the pandemic, it was definitelypuzzles and board games, right, huge,
huge, In fact, a lotof the companies thought that was going
to continue after the pandemic and peoplehave stocked up on it and then they
just wanted to be outside, Sothat hurt the industry after words for a
while there. But what's like thehot I know crafts are hot right now,
(21:30):
a lot of craft. But thatbeing said, if you're an inventor,
you should invent what you're passionate aboutbecause if it's a great product,
they're going to license it no matterwhat the category is, right, you
need to love what you're doing.I mean that's I think that's more important
than trying to figure out the hotcategory. When you're saying craft, what
(21:55):
brings to mind is the Gentleman fromRainbow. Oh, that was one of
June, right, that was thelatest craze back in the day where I
know people were going nuts over that. What do you think really made that
so popular? Yeah? That wasyou know he's started in his garage.
Was it was a craze, right, just like you know Poppet Is poppett
(22:19):
story is really good too. Butwhat made Tune I don't know. I
mean, it was all everything.It was like a perfect storm, Like
the colors were good. The girlgirls, you know, mostly girls bought
it right like they they loved makingtheir own jewelry and sharing it. And
of course he had that suit onJimmy Fallon right, do you remember that
(22:41):
or was it Kimmel one of theJimmy's wore this rainbow loom suit and to
raise money for cancer, and Junebought it and he wore it at our
at our play Chic events, whichwas Choice Fire Fashion, and it was
awesome, like he was, hewas, he's he's great, and he's
got new products out now and alot of fun stuff. So he's reinventing
(23:03):
himself, like reinventing, you know, kind of spin off of the original
concept. And that's a great story. I mean literally working in his garage
with his wife, with his kidsand just building that business up because he
believed in it. It's something heloved, whether whether it's the toying game
(23:23):
industry or other things that are outthere. What kind of turn viral,
What do you think it is thatmakes this opportunity happen for people, especially
from you and what you've seen inthe toying game. Because you've seen a
lot of things kind of start andtake off, and I know you follow
(23:45):
them pretty closely. What is it? Is it publicity media? Is it
social media? I know we justtalked about kind of staying away from the
phones, but is that what's helping? So maybe you can just kind of
because there's people out there that comeup with an end, They're like,
how would anybody know what I cameup with? Yeah, that's true.
I think there is a lot ofluck involved. You know, the poppet
(24:07):
crazed. It's a really funny storyabout that. So I was in Israel
some years back, so sort ofa guest of the cost family and a
very famous inventing family in Israel.They did Ellison and guess Who and Zingo
and loads of products, like crazynumber of products and Aura, who's no
(24:30):
longer with us, but at thetime, Aura the matriarch, showed me
this round poppet thing, right,and she just loved it. She said
she had a dream of a fieldof breast and then her husband created the
prototype CEO. He was a lovelytoo and no longer with us, but
so she invented this and she showedit to me, and oh gosh,
(24:53):
maybe now it's a little bit longer. It's probably closer to ten years.
But she showed it to me.She's liked, where can we get this
license? Somebody's got to buy this, like, and she's showing me how
it pops, and and it wascool. But I couldn't think of anything,
and I couldn't. I couldn't helpher. But then fox Mind saw
it, David from Fox Mind,and he fell in love with it,
(25:15):
and he did a game called Catand Mouse. And then some influencer on
TikTok fell in love with it thepopping of it, So she ordered some
products from him as a retailer,and she sold them all out in the
first week, and then she orderedlike ten times that the second week,
and then it just kept growing.It was just this random thing on TikTok,
(25:38):
like who would have guessed, right, like totally and unfortunately or wasn't
around anymore to see like how itbecame this big craze and just random like
so luck plays a big big partof this, right, it really does
you Just yeah, just like Twistare almost hasbroaed can Twister? They weren't
(26:03):
going to do it anymore? Andthen Eva Kabor or Eva or Eva,
one of the Gabor sisters, playedon the Johnny Carson Show, and then
it just became a smash it afterthat, Like that's totally random, right
that Hasro didn't know they were goingto be playing that on the Johnny Carson
Show. So yeah, there isthe element of luck is a big part
(26:26):
of this for sure. Mary.You've been in the industry for quite some
time, and I know there's alot more that you're going to see.
If you can give us some wordsof wisdom. There are inventors and just
people that are just playing with gamesand toys and have kids and they realize
that maybe there's something fun that theycan come up with. If you can
(26:47):
give us some words of wisdom,some advice on just when we have that
idea, just kind of keeping usmoving forward with it, that would be
great to share with the audience.Well, I do know as an inventor,
a lot of them are afraid someone'sgoing to steal their ideas, so
they're afraid to show it. Soif you're afraid to show it, no
one's going to find out about it. So you've got to get out there
(27:08):
and you've got to show your productsand be proud of it and talk about
Go to your local toy store askthem what they think. That's actually like
the best advice because they will know, right. I mean Target won't know
or Walmart, but your local toystore they know all the products and what's
been out. But you need toget out there and promote your product and
(27:30):
talk to people. Go to conferenceslike our conference, or go to a
fair and you just can't hide.Your idea is going to go nowhere if
you're not talking about it. That'sfantastic. Mary, thank you so much
for joining us on Got Invention Show. It's always a pleasure to get together.
We'll see each other in person againsoon. But we appreciate all the
(27:51):
work that you do for the toying, toying, game inventors and the community
out there. And keep doing whatyou're doing. How can we keep in
touch with you, Mary, Oh? Send me an email to Mary at
shy tag dot COM's d h itag dot com or you are all of
our telephone numbers and emails on ourwebsites shy tag dot com, people of
(28:15):
play dot com and play in educationdot com. Great, well, we'll
do this again on another topic today, it was interesting to learn about some
toy inventors, toy and game inventorsthat are no longer with us, but
are today and they should get therecognition that they deserve. So thank you
Mary for joining us, Thank youfor having me. Thank you. That
(28:38):
was interesting just thinking about all thosetoys that we used to play with the
games and what the kids and usare doing today. So hopefully we will
recognize those toy inventors and the gameinventors that are out there. Thank you
so much for joining us. Untilnext time, keep bringing your ideas out
there, keep moving them forward,and keep on venting. Thank you.
Welcome to the Got Invention Show.I'm your host, Brian Freed, And
just thinking about it, there areso many toys that we grew up with,
not just toys, but games,so many different things that we played
with along the way. Do youknow who the inventor is? Well,
we have Mary Cousin. She's fromChicago Toy and Game group now known as
(00:40):
People of Play. She's on ourshow today. Mary, Thank you for
joining us, Thank you for invitingme. This is exciting. Well,
look, the topic here today isgetting the recognition that toy inventors deserve.
Because think about it, there areactors out there. There are musicians,
right, there's great songs that wehum along to every day. There's culinary
(01:00):
stars, right, there's all kindsof famous chefs that we know, all
these type of people that we justkind of follow. But what about the
toy inventors that we play all thosetoys growing up. We love them,
we even talk about them to ourkids. But who invented it? Right?
So maybe you can help us.Oh, I'd loved his one of
(01:21):
my favorite topics. And Tim Welsh, a fellow inventor that we know well.
Tim said it perfectly that if yousell a million albums, you're in
a cover of Rolling Stone, amillion books in the near a best seller
list. But if you've sold overone hundred million Jengas like Lovely Scott Has,
nobody knows who you are. Andand it's the same creative process,
(01:42):
right, Like, how is itdifferent. You're creating music, you're creating
a Toyer game, and you're you'regoing through all the rough things to get
it sold and get it out thereand market it. Like if we just
use Jengas to start the example out, Leslie mortgage your own home, her
mother mortgaged her home. I meanshe was like doing demos and all the
(02:06):
stores. I mean she really workedhard to get jang out there. You
wouldn't know it now. Everybody justthinks, oh, you know, maybe
has Bro invented it. But itcame from a woman fifty years ago who
worked your butt off to bring thatto the public. And Leslie is super
interesting. She lives in London andshe's involved in all sorts of charities and
(02:30):
she's writing books and super cool person. And why doesn't the average person on
the street know her? I meanshe's like Taylor Swift right, Like I
don't know one hundred millions, overone hundred million Jengas, how many?
I don't know what Taylor Swift hassold that. I think Leslie's probably sold
(02:51):
more Jengas than the Beatles have albums. Well, I know that you've been
in the toy and game world forquite a bit, but we've gotten a
chance to know each other for decadesalready, I guess at this point,
tell us a little bit about yourself, Mary and your background. Oh sure,
So I've had a couple of industryI've been doing a lot of different
(03:15):
dabbling around, if you will.I was in real estate for a long
time, but it wasn't until Iinvented a few board games that I really
fell in love with this community ofinventors. And I didn't even know they
existed. I didn't know I,like probably many consumers, didn't realize there
was this community of toy and gameinventors like there are I ensure with other
(03:37):
industries you work in. And Ijust fell in love with these people.
They were creative and fun, andI just knew I had to stay in
this business, and I've it kindof morphed over the years, evolved to
helping other inventors. So I've selfproduced, I've licensed, and now I'm
helping other inventors, and I haveevents to promote play Chicago Toy and Game
(04:00):
Fair, and then we have anInventor Conference where toy and game invenors can
pitch to all the companies you know, Hasbro, Mattel, Sinmaster. Actually
we get over like over two hundredpeople easy from twenty five countries and you
can pitch. It's the largest inthe industry. And we have the Toy
(04:20):
and Game Innovation Awards where we celebrateinnovation in the industry and we want to
encourage those kids. We have aYoung Inventor Challenge and maybe about a dozen
of our kids have been licensed andthey've had their products and targets and elsewhere,
and that's you know, for kidsto six eighteen. And then of
course everything comes to a crescendo atour Chicago Toy and Game Fair, where
(04:43):
we promote play and we introduce theinventors to the public, and the public
loves talking and learning the stories thatthese toying game invenors went through to get
their products out there, and thereare really some great stories tell us about
the Toy Chicago toy and game expoor trade show that it is. What
(05:04):
type of experience is that for thelisteners and watchers to know about. So
we have a lot of activities,So there's booths, so so companies have
booths there and they're they're promoting theirproducts to the consumers and the companies get
their feedback right directly from the consumers. It's like product testing in the wild,
(05:29):
a focus group in the wild,right, Like you know, we
usually when you have playgroups, mytesting groups, you bring them into your
office. Here, you've got atruth test, You've got all people who
want to try or games get tomeet to maybe even develop a relationship over
time with the manufacturer. It's reallytheir only opportunity to develop that kind of
(05:49):
relationship with the consumer, and theconsumer learns the stories. And of course
we have fun things that the fairlike the Young Inventor Challenge and a Star
Wars lunch and that's a lot offun. We have the Bible first and
Darth Vader and a lot of costumecharacters walking around and it's really a celebration
(06:10):
of innovation and play for everybody.We have. We even have a conference
for teachers to learn how to incorporateplay into the classroom. You know,
play makes learning so much easier,right, It's just there's a lot of
studies that have been that document that. It's been interesting because back in the
(06:30):
day when I used to attend yourChicago Toy and Game Fair, I think
I met Daryl Hannah there, JohnRatzenberger from Cheers. There's so many amazing
experiences that were going on there.But one of the main ones was that
inventors and people that had toy andgame products were able to showcase it there,
(06:53):
get feedback, get buyers, getthe public to come in and actually
interact with them. And what youand I also had an experience with was
even back then, you were doingthe Young Inventor Challenge in its own way
where you were showcasing young inventors tobe able to present their products. And
I think there were a bunch ofschools that came in groups to compete.
(07:16):
So that was great. It wasgreat. I love the kids. It's
it's been kind of a passion projectof ours over the years there. And
it's sorted because my daughter in fourthgrade invented a card game and I saw
the process she went through and howmuch she loved it, and so we
started it this year. I thinkit's really it's important. It hits all
(07:38):
the created a systemic activity, right, It really is even seem But yeah,
John Mazenberger is an inventor. Nota lot of people know that.
You know, he invented a crinklecut stuff that's in packaging, And Darryl
Hannah's invented several board games. Imean, people don't you know. I
mean their celebrities for sure, butanyone can really invent to to your game
(08:00):
if you put your head to it. I think you know. So here
we are. I mean just kindof reminiscing talking about Transformers and Gi Joe
and Cabbage Patch Kids and Othello andMonopoly and Battleship. I mean, those
are some that just come to mind. A couple of weeks ago, I
talked about Stretch Armstrong, how Iused to pull it until all the jelly
(08:24):
came out and I had to getit thrown away. I didn't know what
kind of toxic chemicals were coming outof it back then. But just really
thinking about and just if everybody justpauses for a second and think about your
favorite toy in game or games andtoys that you grew up with, and
what they look like today and whois it that invented it? What's the
(08:48):
story behind those inventors. So,Mary, if you can share with us
some of those, maybe the onesthat are not with us, and then
maybe some that are that they canget the recognition that they deserve. You
know. One of my favorite storiesis Reuben claimer He unfortunately he died two
years ago at the age of ninetynine, but he was signing he did
(09:09):
the Game of Life and at ourfair, I want to say fifteen years
ago, he was signing them andthere was a line wrapped around the Hasbro
booth, which was an enormous booththat then went down the aisle and out
the door. Like it was anincredibly long line because people wanted to meet
Ruben, the guy who invented thegame, because that think that game is
(09:31):
actually influenced people and what they didin their lives. When Rubin went in
for a triple bypass, his cardiologisttold him that the reason he became a
doctor was because that's when he wonat the Game of Life. Wow,
I know, like it's just likethese stories. I thought it would be
operation Yeah, I know, Well, there was a really great documentary on
(09:56):
that that Peggy Brown and Tim Walsh. Did you know the irony of that
story was is he only got fivehundred dollars for inventing operation right, and
so he didn't make money on it. He was a college kid and Marvin
Glass and associates bought the idea fromhim, and he, you know,
five hundred dollars I guess back inthe day was you know, it was
(10:16):
something and he was newly married witha kid on the way, but now
had his age. I think thisis maybe six seven years ago, he
couldn't afford an operation himself to fixhis teeth, and and so Peggy Brown
and Tim Walsh did this big fundraiserand they they more than made enough money
for him to pay for his operationon his teeth. They also, like
(10:39):
I think, paid off his mortgage. And then the funny part was,
or the ironic part, is thata guy who created a doctor who created
some type of instrument for thyroid operationsso that if you got too close to
some nerve it would go off,just like in operation and in John Sponello,
(11:01):
the inventor of operation, his daughterhad that operation. You know,
like there's some pretty close stories outthere. And then a good friend of
Reuben Klamer's, Eddie Goldfarp, whowas one hundred and two, he invented
cerplunk, chattering teeth, shark attack. I mean, I could go on
(11:22):
long list of things. And Eddieis still inventing at one hundred and two.
He has a girlfriend. He's workingin his garage. Like I think
inventing keeps you young, right,like it keeps you sharp, it keeps
you young. I don't know,Like these stories are great. The BMTs
which used to be Brussel, Morrisonand Jersyan now BMT Big Monster Toy.
(11:45):
So Jeff Breslo one of the founders. He invented ants in the pants and
gestures off sorts of toys and games, very well known around the world.
And he went into retirement at sixtyfive because everybody had to retire sixty five,
and he became a sculpture and sculpturesare all over the world now and
even had a big showing in theSeers Tower or whatever the Seriers Tower is
(12:05):
called now. I forget they keepchanging the name in the series Tower.
But Jeff just came out with anew game called Pickle Everything like he's in
his seventies. Like, no oneever really leaves the toy industry and they
love it, and you know thereis no reason to really retire from it.
It's very interesting and Mary, youand I have both been on kind
(12:26):
of both sides of watching successes ofmany inventors and they may not necessarily be
in the spotlight like the Jenga,but they've had some level of success.
And then we also see people thatare coming up with ideas every day and
specifically for you toy and game,and think about what they need to go
(12:50):
through and what they need to dowhen they come up with an idea.
So not to make it so simpleand simplistic at this point, but you've
been through it many times, Mary, So just for the community and for
the watchers out there and listeners,if you can just give us some step
by step of what it takes whenyou do have that idea in your head,
(13:13):
what comes next? Sure? Well, first I would refer them to
an article you wrote about different howto vet things and where to go and
checking things, so they should definitelyyou might want to reference that somewhere.
The article you wrote is excellent,but a lot of people don't do play
testing. Like, they come upwith this idea and they think they can
(13:35):
sell the idea. But when youplaytest, you learn more about your idea
and you can make it better.Very important. Playtest. A lot of
people forget that or even googling thisthe authorready exists or can't tell you how
many people have spent money to cometo our conferences and they've that idea is
already out there. Mary, whenyou're selling playtest, are you talking about
(13:56):
making a prototype and trying it yourself, getting other people almost like a focus
group exactly, and not with yourfamily, because your family will always tell
you, you know, only tellyou good things. It's got to be
people you don't know. You've gotto like put down your toy, r
game or any invention really and letthem figure it out. Very important.
(14:18):
What about protecting a toy and agame that you might come up with.
I mean, for the most part, we know that a board exists if
you're getting into a board game,and then there's the graphics and the instructions
and the pieces. So have youseen or kind of an understanding of how
(14:41):
it is to protect let's say aboard game to start with, and then
we know for example, like charactersor specific figurines. Maybe those are ornamental
for design patents. But what ifyou can just navigate us through a little
bit of how to protect a toyor a game. Sure, well,
there's different ways. There's copyrights andtrademarks and patents and you know, provisional.
(15:05):
There's lots of different ways to protectyour ideas. The thing about the
board games are the hardest to protectbecause somebody can make just some small change
right and and then just bring itout. So I usually I'm not an
attorney, I'd like to first pointthat out, so you always check with
your your own legal advice. Buta lot of I've seen a lot of
(15:28):
inventors spend a lot of money onlike board game patents when really it doesn't
help them much. And it kindof makes me unless you have some mechanism
that is so unique. But ifit's like a path game, for example,
you know just where you're rolling thedice or reading cards, there's really
(15:48):
nothing patentable about that. It hasto be a mechanism of some sort,
so you have to really I wouldactually get advice from a couple of attorneys,
not just one, to make sureyou're not just wasting your money in
some cases. The trademark. Butyou can trademark something it's the name is
really really good and unusual, andyou can run a trademark search very easily.
(16:11):
But copyright, that's nothing really right, It's very inexpensive to copyright,
So that that's something I would recommendeverybody does. One thing that really I
feel is very important, especially intoy and games, is the graphics.
Oh right, right, you haveto catch my eye to really engage my
(16:33):
emotions to say I want to beinvolved. I want to play that game
that looks so cool. You wantto create the way that it looks for
a girl or a boy to justgrab it and say I want that because
it looks amazing. Like how importantis that do you feel for people to
really catch for it to catch on? Oh, it's critical, it's to
(16:56):
your point there. I think thereare awards for gardens, and I know
the TAGG Awards we do have acategory for art and design of packaging that
I mean it is super super criticalbecause you guy had the greatest game in
the world, right and no onewill or a few people will pick it
up. I mean, actually,Gary Gatchel is a guy he invented a
(17:18):
game called Pick two, but thegraphic it was just in a little box
and it was a great game.But when Banana Grams came along, same
game, exact same game, butthey put it in a banana. They
sold millions and Gary Gary didn't eventhough I mean his game got gotten some
schools and things like that, butthey're the same game, right for the
(17:41):
most part, it's just that theyput it in a banana. And you
know, Banana Grams is huge,right. The experience of having a board
game or a physical toy in yourhand, or game to play with sports,
it can go into many different categories. There's a lot of kids out
there now that are on mobile devicesand we shift many of them have shifted
(18:06):
to apps Angry Bird and I don'tknow the ones with the bulls and the
marbles and all these different things thatare out there, even video games on
PlayStation and Xbox and all the iterationsof those. So what's been your experience,
Mary, as we've been growing upin the industry, What does it
(18:29):
look like and how do you feelabout those? I could tell you that
I've had Marty Cooper, who's theinventor of the cell phone on our show,
and he started off loving the cellphone, and I interviewed him again
many years later, and now he'sdisappointed with the way that smartphones are being
used because he feels like people aren'tcommunicating anymore. And the whole purpose was
(18:53):
for him to keep people together withcommunication and cell phones. But now look
where we are. People are sozoned into what they are they don't even
know what's going on around them.So, Mary, in your experience of
now going through this journey of toyand games, how do you feel and
what do you think about apps andmobile phone experience? You know, when
(19:18):
when all the electronic games and videogames and apps and everything were coming out,
people predicted that toys and games willgo away, right like that was
there was a lot of fear inthe industry, and of course it didn't
happen, right. I look atit like it's like sometimes you want to
McDonald's, you know, like anapp game, and sometimes you want a
(19:38):
monopoly or tribond or you know,or cubits or pigs on trampoline. You
want a full game experience. It'sjust like breakfast, lunch and dinners and
you want sometimes you want a quickoption sometimes you want the full experience,
a full dinner, full Sunday nightdinner. So I think all play is
good. Although that being said,I do it does make me sad when
(20:00):
you walk into a room and everybody'son their phone and nobody's talking to each
other, especially when I see kidsdoing it. And I've heard that in
Silicon Valley that a lot of theexecutives don't give their kids phones until they're
like going to grade school or something. So it's and there's a lot of
studies that have shown I mean,I'm talking about excessive use. I'm not
(20:25):
talking about you know, a fewplaying a few times here and there during
the week for kids. When you'regoing through the different categories of toy and
game, there's sports, there's boardgames. Maybe I'm probably missing a bunch
of them. Those are just afew. But what do you feel like
(20:47):
is the best category for an inventorto get involved with? And then on
the other side, because you you'revery into the statistics and all your your
newsletters and your outreach to the toyand game world, what do you think
is from the consumer perspective, thehottest category. That's a great question.
(21:08):
During the pandemic, it was definitelypuzzles and board games, right, huge,
huge, In fact, a lotof the companies thought that was going
to continue after the pandemic and peoplehave stocked up on it and then they
just wanted to be outside, Sothat hurt the industry after words for a
while there. But what's like thehot I know crafts are hot right now,
(21:30):
a lot of craft. But thatbeing said, if you're an inventor,
you should invent what you're passionate aboutbecause if it's a great product,
they're going to license it no matterwhat the category is, right, you
need to love what you're doing.I mean that's I think that's more important
than trying to figure out the hotcategory. When you're saying craft, what
(21:55):
brings to mind is the Gentleman fromRainbow. Oh, that was one of
June, right, that was thelatest craze back in the day where I
know people were going nuts over that. What do you think really made that
so popular? Yeah? That wasyou know he's started in his garage.
Was it was a craze, right, just like you know Poppet Is poppett
(22:19):
story is really good too. Butwhat made Tune I don't know. I
mean, it was all everything.It was like a perfect storm, Like
the colors were good. The girlgirls, you know, mostly girls bought
it right like they they loved makingtheir own jewelry and sharing it. And
of course he had that suit onJimmy Fallon right, do you remember that
(22:41):
or was it Kimmel one of theJimmy's wore this rainbow loom suit and to
raise money for cancer, and Junebought it and he wore it at our
at our play Chic events, whichwas Choice Fire Fashion, and it was
awesome, like he was, hewas, he's he's great, and he's
got new products out now and alot of fun stuff. So he's reinventing
(23:03):
himself, like reinventing, you know, kind of spin off of the original
concept. And that's a great story. I mean literally working in his garage
with his wife, with his kidsand just building that business up because he
believed in it. It's something heloved, whether whether it's the toying game
(23:23):
industry or other things that are outthere. What kind of turn viral,
What do you think it is thatmakes this opportunity happen for people, especially
from you and what you've seen inthe toying game. Because you've seen a
lot of things kind of start andtake off, and I know you follow
(23:45):
them pretty closely. What is it? Is it publicity media? Is it
social media? I know we justtalked about kind of staying away from the
phones, but is that what's helping? So maybe you can just kind of
because there's people out there that comeup with an end, They're like,
how would anybody know what I cameup with? Yeah, that's true.
I think there is a lot ofluck involved. You know, the poppet
(24:07):
crazed. It's a really funny storyabout that. So I was in Israel
some years back, so sort ofa guest of the cost family and a
very famous inventing family in Israel.They did Ellison and guess Who and Zingo
and loads of products, like crazynumber of products and Aura, who's no
(24:30):
longer with us, but at thetime, Aura the matriarch, showed me
this round poppet thing, right,and she just loved it. She said
she had a dream of a fieldof breast and then her husband created the
prototype CEO. He was a lovelytoo and no longer with us, but
so she invented this and she showedit to me, and oh gosh,
(24:53):
maybe now it's a little bit longer. It's probably closer to ten years.
But she showed it to me.She's liked, where can we get this
license? Somebody's got to buy this, like, and she's showing me how
it pops, and and it wascool. But I couldn't think of anything,
and I couldn't. I couldn't helpher. But then fox Mind saw
it, David from Fox Mind,and he fell in love with it,
(25:15):
and he did a game called Catand Mouse. And then some influencer on
TikTok fell in love with it thepopping of it, So she ordered some
products from him as a retailer,and she sold them all out in the
first week, and then she orderedlike ten times that the second week,
and then it just kept growing.It was just this random thing on TikTok,
(25:38):
like who would have guessed, right, like totally and unfortunately or wasn't
around anymore to see like how itbecame this big craze and just random like
so luck plays a big big partof this, right, it really does
you Just yeah, just like Twistare almost hasbroaed can Twister? They weren't
(26:03):
going to do it anymore? Andthen Eva Kabor or Eva or Eva,
one of the Gabor sisters, playedon the Johnny Carson Show, and then
it just became a smash it afterthat, Like that's totally random, right
that Hasro didn't know they were goingto be playing that on the Johnny Carson
Show. So yeah, there isthe element of luck is a big part
(26:26):
of this for sure. Mary.You've been in the industry for quite some
time, and I know there's alot more that you're going to see.
If you can give us some wordsof wisdom. There are inventors and just
people that are just playing with gamesand toys and have kids and they realize
that maybe there's something fun that theycan come up with. If you can
(26:47):
give us some words of wisdom,some advice on just when we have that
idea, just kind of keeping usmoving forward with it, that would be
great to share with the audience.Well, I do know as an inventor,
a lot of them are afraid someone'sgoing to steal their ideas, so
they're afraid to show it. Soif you're afraid to show it, no
one's going to find out about it. So you've got to get out there
(27:08):
and you've got to show your productsand be proud of it and talk about
Go to your local toy store askthem what they think. That's actually like
the best advice because they will know, right. I mean Target won't know
or Walmart, but your local toystore they know all the products and what's
been out. But you need toget out there and promote your product and
(27:30):
talk to people. Go to conferenceslike our conference, or go to a
fair and you just can't hide.Your idea is going to go nowhere if
you're not talking about it. That'sfantastic. Mary, thank you so much
for joining us on Got Invention Show. It's always a pleasure to get together.
We'll see each other in person againsoon. But we appreciate all the
(27:51):
work that you do for the toying, toying, game inventors and the community
out there. And keep doing whatyou're doing. How can we keep in
touch with you, Mary, Oh? Send me an email to Mary at
shy tag dot COM's d h itag dot com or you are all of
our telephone numbers and emails on ourwebsites shy tag dot com, people of
(28:15):
play dot com and play in educationdot com. Great, well, we'll
do this again on another topic today, it was interesting to learn about some
toy inventors, toy and game inventorsthat are no longer with us, but
are today and they should get therecognition that they deserve. So thank you
Mary for joining us, Thank youfor having me. Thank you. That
(28:38):
was interesting just thinking about all thosetoys that we used to play with the
games and what the kids and usare doing today. So hopefully we will
recognize those toy inventors and the gameinventors that are out there. Thank you
so much for joining us. Untilnext time, keep bringing your ideas out
there, keep moving them forward,and keep on venting. Thank you.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.