The Biggest Gambles In The Toy & Gadget Game
It’s always a gamble when you launch a product; you never
know quite how it’s going to turn out. It could be a success or an utter
failure – but it’s not always down to something you might expect like market
share or advertising.
Sometimes the toy and gadget market pops out something weird
and wonderful that you never would have expected. There have been numerous
examples of this over the years. From the Slinky in the 40’s to the Tamagotchi in the 90’s – you
never know what will resonate with people.
Seriously, who would have thought that the slinky would be a
good idea? If you pitched the idea to investors today they’d probably make a
funny face. But it’s estimated 250,000,000
have been sold!
So let’s take a look at some of the most unexpected payoffs
in the gadget industry.
The Pet Rock
This sounds like the mad ramblings of a man
with some incurable brain disease. It’s apparently quite important to have an
open mind when thinking about potentially successful gadgets – as was the case
for the Pet Rock’s inventor Gary Dahl.
Dahl worked as an advertising executive
in the 1970’s and apparently sat drinking in a bar one night listening to
friends complain about how their pets were misbehaving.
According to his biography “one night in 1975, an out-of-work
advertising executive named Gary Dahl was hanging out in a bar listening to his
friends complain about their pets. It gave him an idea for the perfect
"pet": a rock.”
He made a million
dollars apparently, and that’s a million in the 1970’s – which is quite a
payoff from a gamble which, let’s face it, would not have the greatest odds
going in. It was an interesting fad of the 70’s, and Dahl attempted to follow
it up with some lesser known inventions that didn’t quite grab the attention of
the public.
It was inevitable that the fad would die out. According to
an interview
with Dahl in the Milwaukee journal in 1975 he believed “No one will ever do it again” when talking about the ridiculous
pay off.
He didn’t have the greatest time after the success though,
with many people coming to him with their hands out looking for money after the
publicity that ensued. Speaking in the same interview he said “It made me too high profile. There’s a
bizarre lunatic fringe that believe I owe them a living. I don’t know if it’s
been an asset or a liability.”
Well then, it looks like the gamble didn’t entirely pay off…
 |
| Gary Dahl, and his Pet Rock. |
RC Handy Mop
Just when you thought humanity couldn’t get any lazier,
someone comes up with this. The RC handy mop has to be one of the weirdest remote control toys I’ve
ever seen. It is weird, but also a gamble that apparently was worth taking.
I suppose this gamble was a bit more well-thought out than
The Pet Rock, as nobody really likes mopping the floor. So it’s really more of
a labour saving device than a bizarre fad invention. It’s a good way to trick
kids into pitching in with the household chores too.
This particular gamble comes from Japan, with the Kyosho
Corporation making a departure from their usual lines of RC cars and other
toys into this. It could be interesting, but I don’t think it will be breaking
any records. Kyosho will probably be sticking to their guns making more
traditional remote control toys like cars and airplanes.
See the ad for the RC mop below…
Food Fighters
Some bold choices were made when coming up with these. The
range was divided into good guys and bad guys, with Kitchen Commandos being
good and the Refrigerator Rejects being bad. It never quite took off.
Mattel apparently refused to make the ‘good guy’ characters health
foods as these were thought not to resonate with children. As a result,
there were plenty of interesting characters including Private Pizza and Taco
Terror – but the whole thing was just too weird for people to swallow.
The second
hand market is a good place for these gastronomic gadget gambles though, so
there is certainly a collectible value to these. The gamble didn’t pay off for
Mattel, although it may have paid off for the keen eyed collector who thought
they were so bizarre he bought a load upon their initial release – the figures
fetch around $20 on eBay currently.
There’s an interesting trailer below. It’s in French, which
is bizarre because they’re known for their finer foods as opposed to Lieutenant
Leg (a chicken leg) who clearly is a bit more junk food oriented.
The Slinky
Well I mentioned it earlier, so it would be a little bit
unfair if I didn’t include it. Obviously, the Slinky was a hit. It’s a simple invention
that is still made today, it didn’t die out like the Pet Rock – so it’s clearly
got something of a little bit more substance to it. It clearly resonates.
It’s something about the simplicity I think. It’s a coiled
wire that just moves in an appealing way. It also takes advantage of physical
forces of motion, which makes it extra appealing to people who are interested
in such things – most notably Hooke’s Law.
It was invented by Richard James, a naval engineer, and
presented at the prestigious Gimbels department store in Philadelphia where it
sold out within ninety minutes. Part of the explanation of its popularity is
that it was always very cheap – priced at $1.
Like I mentioned in the introduction, it is estimated that
over 250,000,000 have been sold and that would suggest that the gamble of
Richard James paid off. But, life is a little bit more complicated than that –
James’ divorced his wife Betty in 1960 and allegedly joined
a cult in Bolivia. Talk about walking away from a golden opportunity.
Betty James chose to continue the business though, and made
over $1 billion dollars in her first two years according to Tim Walsh in his
book “Timeless Toys: Classic Toys And
The Playmakers Who Created Them”.
A slew of other products have followed, including the Slinky
Dog which became a character in the 1995 film ‘Toy Story’. It sold 825,000
units in the run up to Christmas that year. There is also a plastic slinky
available today.
It was probably the most amazing gamble of all time, seeing
that it continues to pay off to this day and is still entirely popular with
children and adults alike. Betty James died in
2008, and the legacy of the Slinky continues to live on.
The Greatest Gadget Gambles
Well, there you have some of the greatest gadget gambles –
along with some of the worst. It just goes to show you never quite know what
will happen when it comes to things like toys and games. Some things just
click.
Do you know of a gadget gamble that paid off big – is there
one on the horizon I should be aware of? Please feel free to comment. And don’t
forget to add me to your circles on Google+ for all
the latest.
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