Douglas M. Gaus
www.newproductconsultant.com

Check out the great review of my licensed toy, the new for 2017, POOF® Ninja Flyer™ by Alex Brands® in the above video... The lead-in from Chicago tv station WGN called the upcoming piece "the summers' hottest travel toys" and then handed it over to Mark (didn't announce his name) who interviewed Laurie Schacht, the "chief" Toy Insider of the website, TheToyInsider. Laurie talks about the "Best Toys On-The-Go" and then goes over a table full of awesome new toys but saves the best toy for last!   My Ninja Flyer red shark-like fin makes its appearance around 3:11 of the YouTube vid...then the full toy is reviewed and then thrown in flight finishing out the piece....

WGN even threw in a cartoon-like sound byte of glass breaking after my toy was thrown, just for tv fun..but no worries, Mom's out there, this toy is made of soft and safe foam, and was engineered and produced with materials as to not break objects like house windows...Also, the toy is shown thrown by Laura and Mark with a frisbee'ish backhand type toss (maybe that's why she accidentally called it by the wrong name, Ninja Toss) which is fine...however kids, you can throw it faster, farther, higher and with cooler and louder whistling sound by throwing either overhand or sidearm, like a true Ninja! 

The Poof Ninja Flyer is currently available at these retailers:  Shopko, Amazon and the Alex Brands website

Bill Reese of TheToyInsider also does a nice write up, with information and pictures that dovetail with the toys debuting on the WGM video...check it out at http://www.thetoyinsider.com/the-best-on-the-go-toys-on-wgn-chicago/

I might be a little biased, but the Ninja Flyer would be a great combo to purchase with its awesomely flying cousin, also invented by me and licensed and sold by Alex Brands®, the POOF® Fling Flyer™ !!

Also see Laurie's other great information on fun new toys at:

http://www.thetoyinsider.com/

This company is clearly having fun at what they do...you can't help but have fun with them when you peruse through their prank line of products, especially the Prank Pack boxes. Their online tagline says that these boxes help "disguise your crappy gift in a box they'll remember."

The graphic design team at 30 Watt (Makers of Amusing) use fictional celebrities to endorse their fake products and to give them some more street cred, using Tom Buttons (Outdoorsman/Inventor) for their Fish Eye, a wearable fish camera to "let a fish do your fishin!", Cy Hennington for Connect-A-Cord, a box of 50 (qty) one foot lengths of power cord that can be strung together for the "perfect length power cord every time!" and Henri Remoulade for Turn and Churn, a travel ice cream maker that attaches to your hub cab and makes "wheel fresh ice cream!".

This company has clearly made something out of nothing...there is some definite ingenuity in spending the majority of their focus in designing and selling product packaging only...I think the packaging supplier probably gave them some weird looks when they were getting initial quotes after also including a markup to also package their product with it..and they replied "we won't be needing that."

The product ideas dance the fine line between absurd ASOTV products and real crappy products that made it to your local drug store aisles.  Reading through their line of fake products and packaging copy, especially the disclaimer for the Face Heater (product and disclaimer pictured above), reminds me of Irwin Mameway.  Dan Ackroyd played Mameway, President of Mameway Toys, in an interview on Consumer Probe, to explain that his toys weren't dangerous, in a Saturday Night Live skit back in the 70's...(see video below)

Go to 30 Watt's website (orAmazon) to buy some of their fun prank products and use them to dress up some of your substandard gifts...they also sell similarly funny  prank gift card holders @ $15 for a pack of 6..along with some more creative and drinking themed barware and more. 

The gift of a laugh or a smile from the box may be better than the actual gift inside (but you may have to spend some extra time explaining to Grandma that she can't buy a real Crib Dribbler for the newest grandchild, when she asks where she can get one).....All in all, you should know that when someone spends an extra $5-10 on you just to make you laugh from an outrageous product box...that you should be very prankful to have such a friend!

Yesterday's devastating Atlantic storm, a.k.a. Hurricane Sandy, caused the sinking of the HMS Bounty, a ship originally made for the 1962 movie "Mutiny on the Bounty"...Sadly, its sinking caused the probable passing of two of its crew members, who were not able to be rescued when they were forced to abandon ship.  The huge vessel had been sent south last week to try to beat the storm around the Florida cape...

The untimely sinking reminded me of the late infomercial king, Billy Mays, whom had shot a Mighty Putty Wood commercial, using the same ship as his infomercial "wow" prop.  The 500 ton ship was being pulled by a cable held together with two oars bonded with the product and featuring Billy hanging from the front of the ship, doing his sales spiel (see deleted takes above).   Billy passed away a little over three years ago, and at the time, there was a lot of talk about who would or could replace him as "the" pitchman for infomercial spots.

His Pitchmen tv series partner, Anthony "Sully" Sullivan, has done a fair amount of infomercials since Billy's passing.  Sully can now be seen as the main pitchman for Telebrands, Mighty Putty and the line of Oxiclean products (Church and Dwight). 

But even though Sully can be seen on your screen pitching the above products every now and then, I don't think he has filled the void left in the entire infomercial arena, by Billy Mays' passing.  There are a few no name pitchers on some running ads, and a few old pitcher "retreads", but none have risen above the fray to become a dominant force.

Anyone disagree?  I'd love to hear who you think is the resident infomercial king (or queen)...Or maybe who you think could be the replacement, if giving the pitching opportunity...


Also read my original blog post on the late Billy Mays (below) "Life's a Pitch" - July 2, 2009

http://www.newproductconsultant.com/1/post/2009/07/lifes-a-pitch.html

     

  

Buried in the back of the new May 2012 issue of Electronic Retailer Magazine, is a small blurb about Telebrands Corp. announcing that they were recently issued 3 patents for its Sticky Buddy product.  According to the short paragraph, Telebrands claims to have several more pending patents, that may be used to inhibit the sale of other similar products ("knock offs") out there.

On my original January blog of this year titled Schticky or Sticky Situation?, a person identifying themself as Tylor Ross commented to me that he was the inventor of the Sticky Buddy product and was currently working with Telebrands at bringing the Sticky Buddy to market...so, with the ER Magazine info, I did a quick search through the USPTO and found 3 newly issued design patents for hair/lint roller type products listing the inventor Tylor Ross of Edwardsburg, Michigan...thus giving some creedence to Mr. Ross' blog comments.

D654,699 Portable hair/lint roller
D654,698 Hair/lint roller
D654,697 Hair/lint roller

I also received a comment from someone named Dan@ SHove it on that same blog piece, maybe someone too close to this unfolding drama or someone trying to sway consumer sentiment, instructing me to check out a new product called The ShoveIt! at www.goshoveit.com.  At first view, I couldn't tell if this was an infomercial parody of the Schticky or a real competing product with vengeful undertones (still not sure)...Per someone's comments on the video, it looks like Lindsey Brooks may be the pitch woman for The Shove It!.

More trouble can be found if you go online to the YouTube video for The ShoveIt!, where a person named Shaun from Goldin Entertainment commented (two weeks ago, according to YouTube):  "I am the guy who produced this whole infomercial. Lindsey is refusing to pay me. This is a pirated copy of my video. Please take this off, you do NOT own this until you pay me".  You can't believe everything you read on the internet, especially YouTube comments, but a quick search online will at least find you a video production company called Goldin Entertainment, with Shaun Goldin, principal, out of Pennsylvania.

Stepping back to the beginning of this year, a timeline of events goes like this:

Lindsey Brooks, CEO of Boardwalk Brands and Ingo Van Styn of EuroShine Inc., released a press wire on January 10th of this year announcing their release of the Schticky product, along with securing Vince Offer as pitchman for the new product. Fast forward a full month later in a February 9th, 2012 article in HomeWorld Business, and Emson USA had secured a partnership with Offer's Square One Entertainment "to propel distribution" of the Schticky product...Somewhere in that month, it looks like pitchman Offer and product Schticky switched from Boardwalk Brands to Emson USA. 

And based on a copyright lawsuit filed in February 23rd of this year, it shows there are some sticky discrepancies between the following companies (Square One Entertainment Inc et al v. Lindsey Brooks et al - Plaintiffs: Offer Vince Shlomi and Square One Entertainment Inc Defendants: Boardwalk Brand Inc, Lindsey Brooks, Does, Euro Shine USA Inc, International Housewares Inc and Ingo Van Styn). 

Current trademark searches show Offer's Square One Entertainment "Schticky" word mark is registered with the USPTO as of 4/24/2012 (from an original filing in May 2011).  You also will find Boardwalk Brand Inc.'s filing request for the "Schticky" word mark in December 2011 (under different goods and services used in Offer's filing) and the latest info for that filing show the USPTO issuing a non-final office action (shown as requesting more information and/or making an initial refusal).

And in the same May issue of Electronic Retailing, Jordan Whitney lists the Top Traditional Short Form Houseware Categories for March 2012, where the two different lint roller type products faced off in real time:  The Schticky was listed as #1 and the Sticky Buddy came in at #3.

As you can see, this unfolding drama contains all three of the intellectual property mainstays:  patents, trademarks and copyrights. We'll see if Telebrand's newly issued design patents around The Sticky Buddy product are strong enough to shut down Offer's Schticky and other silicon type lint roller products currently on the market.  And a California court may settle the copyright lawsuit between Vince Offer's company and Lindsey Brooks, et al (listed above), with the winner holding some sort of Schticky copyright intellectual property.  And will the Schticky indeed Go ShoveIt?

I'm just looking at this from the outside in, but I've seen firsthand that desperate people and/or companies can do desperate things in desperate times ...If you listen closely, you may be able to hear the faints sounds of paralegals typing legal filings. 

This is just a guess, but a big sticky legal battle may be brewing...


You can find all three silicon lint roller type products below, as well as several other companies selling very similar products in the distant past on the web....let's revisit sometime in the next six months to how this sticky situation unfolds...

https://www.officialschticky.com/

http://www.stickybuddy.com/

http://www.goshoveit.com/
 

Consumer interest and possible purchase call to the waiting call center, that is...However, the tag line "Don't just grill it. Minute-grill it!" for the the new infomercial product, MinuteGriller, seems rushed, just like the one minute tv spot.

This new product intro looks like a retread of George Foreman's Lean Mean Grilling Machine, except for it's method of cooking...microwaves instead of electric heating elements.  Their website http://minutegriller.com/ refers to their " amazing intense heat diffusing technology," the same as used in satellite design, as the means for cooking quickly and evenly for various meats. 

Maybe I read it wrong off their site, but it looks like the surface used for the device is Teflon (adhered most likely to metal?)....If it is, not sure if this is the greatest thing to put in a microwave, forlongevity of the microwave element or for eating food that is safe, after being cooked by Teflon surfaces and probable heat diffused metal that has been bombarded by your microwave's ever so micro microwaves.

By use of testimonials, the product is targeted to single persons: college students, single moms and retiree's.  I'll take their word that it cooks various meats in about 3 minutes, which would be good for this demographic...but I can't see any demo finding a nice trout, salmon or chicken filet cooked to savory perfection thru the meat killing microwave oven. (maybe could have got the newly freed Casey Anthony for spokesperson...sorry couldn't resist). 

It's another BOGO, two for $29.99, but no free postage and handling....and for their money back guarantee, it appears you'll likely have to pay the return postage to get your brand newish product back on their shelves to be sold to the next unsuspecting Universal Studios employee, tot mom or retired policeman (sorry again, you can blame CNN for their media bombardment to me).   

As always, it is difficult to find the company behind the infomercial commercial, many times you won't see the company name on the ad or their website ...but my best Frank Hardy (older and wiser than Joe) detective work found the associated company Marketing Architects, Inc. out of Minneapolis, Minnesota, as the likely marketer. 

For book lovers, try Franklin W. Dixon's "The Secret Corporation Buried in the Ancient Internet Cavern" for a great summer read...

Everyday Edison's (PBS/PBS Affiliate)

• Last episode for Season 3 airing (check their website, link above, for listing in your area)
• Entire Season 2 also being re-aired

Biography - Ron Popeil (CNBC)

• Aired in August
• Check your listings for replay

Pitchmen, Season 2 (Discovery Channel) 

• Starring Anthony "Sully" Sullivan (the show must go on, even without the late great Billy Mays) 
  
• First two episodes already aired, off for a couple weeks, but then check back for rest of episode airings

Bizography - George Foreman (CNBC)

• Aired in August
• Check your listings for replay

The Ninja Master Prep is a new product offering from Euro-Pro Operating LLC, a company specializing in larger home and kitchen appliances such as vacuums, cordless vacs, and deep fryers.

This new kitchen warrior sets out to slice some share of the ultra blender and food processor market, setting its sights on smoothies and margaritas, as well as vegetables, glazes, marinades, soups and salsas.  The Ninja Master Prep comes with a healthy sized pitcher and bowl that are used for the blending that can convert to containers after the fact, through the use of press on lids (for refrigerator or microwave use).

It comes with a 400-watt Master Prep Power Head (or Pod) that allows you to move the processing power from the pitcher container to the bowl container (or vice versa), which seems kind of cool.  But does this really save much time or just a way to have the motor on the top of the appliance instead of the bottom like standard blenders/processors?  It also comes with interchangeable blades, ninja style, to attain the different levels of desired prepping or blending.

For an infomercial product, it is priced online at a reasonable $59.99, plus the standard shipping and handling add-on.  This product could fill the needs for some slushie lushes or pepper preppers desiring something other than standard offerings at your local kitchenware stores.  And it may crush ice more evenly than some regular blenders or food processors as advertised.  But is it different enough to snatch a pebble from a grasshopper's credit card for a product that may not eventually "Rule the Kitchen!" (as self-proclaimed on their website)?

Decide for yourself and watch their online video, requiring "total concentwation" at http://www.ninjakitchen.com/index.shtml