Douglas M. Gaus
www.newproductconsultant.com

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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/

I don't have a twitter account, so a screenshot off my phone will just have to do and be posted to my blog!  Very easy for anyone to go to the Walton family's website (or download the Walmart app) and click ADD TO CART! Just follow online instructions to complete purchase...also available on Amazon  and Alex Brands website, Kohl's, as well as various toy retailers selling on the web! You are now a proud owner of an exciting and fun new toy!  In the coming months, I will be posting on YouTube some great ways to play with the empowering new toy, that applies to the young and any aged person, male or female!

Click on any of the below links below to purchase your new POOF Fling Flyer!

• Alex Brands
• Amazon
  
• Walmart
  
• Kohl's
  

I'm very proud to have one of my inventions makings its U.S. debut here at Toy Fair 2016, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center this very morning here in the Big Apple!  Come out to see the cool new outdoor toy in its native blister packaging, as well as running around in its birthday suit, at the Alex Brands booth, #2203.  Come out to see it!

Product is now available → click here to purchase!

Per the product description on the Alex Brands website:
POOF Fling Flyer lets you launch a missile from the palm of your hand! Just grip the handle of the launcher, load the foam rocket onto it, fling and release. Find a unique flinging style; overhand, underhand, or even from under your leg! The patented projectile also makes a whistling sound if it’s traveling fast enough, and the launcher has a wrist strap so it’s easy to keep with you.
Recommended for children 5 years of age and older.

Includes a foam missile, launcher handle and wrist strap
Flyer whistles as it soars long distances

Also check out the nice article published a few days ago on the online edition, Business Section of the Idaho Statesman on the link below.  A slightly streamlined version hit the print version of the Idaho Statesman, yesterday, Feb 12, and can be found on Page 4 in the Local Section!

Furby creator part of Boise inventor team behind new toy

Former professional golfer Greg Norman, a.k.a. "The Shark", on attacking life:

Interview with Fran Healy on MSG's "The Game 365", published November 24, 2014

With summertime now in full gear, here are a few hot links to make your grilla a little more thrilla!

Good Links

Comedian Tom Green is quietly and humbly doing some great interviews on his self titled show Tom Green Live airing on AXStv (formerly HDNet).  He asks some good open ended questions, and then gets out of the way to allow his guests to talk about how they made it in their respective careers. The format and look is similar to the old Tom Snyder show, except features callers Skyping live into the show with questions for his guests.  The couch dwellers of late include Stacy Keach, Dana Carvey and Buzz Aldrin (together on same show) and Adam Carolla, who came to talk about his new book "President Me", his Man Show inspired swill called Mangria and his early career days begrudgingly slogging a hammer and pencil working as a carpenter. For his comedy and take on inventing, read the cover article on Adam in the vaults of Inventor's Digest (Sept. 2010).

Guitar Center Sessions: ("featured band name here")  is another great AXStv show, with brit Nic Harcourt handling the rock star intimate style interviews.  The show features older and now wiser bands that made it, but are maybe now in their twilight years...bands such as Blondie, Social Distortion and The Cult.  The show rocks back and forth between the Q and A with band members and live performances in the Guitar Center Showroom...the format leaves the viewer wanting more, especially for bands they've religiously followed...

Inventors have a kinship with other artists such as actors, musicians and comedians...as they all must pay their dues with rejection and failure in cultivating their own body of work that will hopefully provide a lasting and sustainable career...

Sometimes the grill produces the best of food...but sometimes there can be some bad links...either something gets undercooked, it sits too long cold, or falls into the charcoal and gets burnt...here are a couple "bad" links, which I don't recommend:

Bad Links

Netflix quietly unveiled a new logo last month...They inversed their once classic red background to the red lettering of the company name, sans black border..and substituted a bland whitish background, leaving a incredibly boring and bland logo to make their brand less noticeable in a marketplace needing to be noticed...look for the classic logo to hopefully return after tepid consumer liking.

InventHelp, (aka ISC, Invention Submission Corporation, INPEX, Intromark Inc, Inventtech, Technosystems Consolidated Corp, Western Invention Submission) has enlisted former professional boxer George Foreman to be their tv spokesman. InventHelp's website proclaims that they provide "invention assistance services for inventors".  But anyone in the business knows that this company preys on people's desires to make an idea a reality, whether it has merit or not.  Successes on their webpage include the Ear Visor..a product that solves a problem for probably one person in the world, the person who invented it.  Inventhelp has learned to do a delicate dance by downplaying customer successes on print and tv advertising (they are honest here!) and actively resolving the high number of complaints by the Better Business Bureau in order to keep a respectable rating...Prudent prospective customers should Google the words "Inventhelp" and "complaints" and read what comes up to decide if it is a company they wish to do business with.  

I had a lot of respect for George, from his early boxing days, to his second career hit with the George Foreman grill. But he sadly succumbed to the evil of easy endorsement $$, I'm sure to further secure his retirement and the future of his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.  He has always been a humble man with a good heart, but now his credibility is being negatively diluted by being associated with a company that is known for providing questionable services.  Customers can pay thousands of dollars in fees for Inventhelp's self serving "Basic Information Package" report, patent referrals, and helping the inventor to find a licensee or manufacturer or marketer for their product.  Now George is acting as the inventor-predator...his ad tagline is a sure tipoff to their weak professional services "I can't guarantee a company will be interested in your idea, but every inventor deserves the opportunity to step in to the ring and take their best shot".  My advice to novice inventors out there...Step into the ring on your own!  And don't enlist the inventor-predator type services of this company!


**clicking on any links above that do not go to the respective website, i.e. bad links, may have been done on purpose by the editor  ;)

Seeing the Chicago Cubs announce today that they have a new mascot, shot me back through memory travel time to my elementary school, Happy Valley School in Lafayette, California...the year was 1973.

  

I was in fifth grade and our school had just told us we were getting a new school mascot from which we had none.  We were now going to be the Happy Valley Hornets!  Finally, we could have some school shirts or banners that had some coolness and for which we could have mean, mean pride! 

In a few short weeks to follow, the administration would show us our new school logo. In leading up to the big reveal, I imagined the coolest, mean looking hornet waspish crazy insect with an insane looking stinger poised and bent, just looking for its next kill!  And hornets didn't die, like their lame-o insect cousins the bees; word was out that hornets could sting people all day long and never die a death from injecting their victims with a combination load of venom and pain!

We had the Merriwood relays coming up, where only the finest track athletes in the area would sprint down never ending parallel lines to achieve athletic glory and attain a first place ribbon!  Our competitors from neighboring elementary schools knees would begin to wobble and sweat would pore from their hairless armpits just looking at our new mean jerseys, meant to intimidate all before us: the opposing players, their parents, their kids, even the judges!

Mr Lilley, our principal, gathered us all in the main hall outside his office, where we were all gathered around to see the new mascot.  I knew that because I went to the coolest school, that the adults running it had access to the best graphic designers and money would be no option for getting the perfect look of the mascot and its accompanying logo. There was a reason my parents toiled to live in this middle class town and I knew the property taxes they paid would have to have gone straight to the Cool Happy Valley Hornet Mascot and Logo Fund!

I just remember an art stand holding up the covered logo...a thin sheet was covering the awesomeness that was just minutes away from being viewed.  I could not stand the anticipation!  Please, pull off that dreaded sheet that separated us from the glory years to come with our new found Hornet mascot and logo!

What happened next, was stunning to my brain and almost sent me into therapy at the tender age of 11...it all was surreal and happening in Super Slow Motion...kind of like watching This Week in Pro Football, where i got to painfully revisit Franco Harris' catch, after the football rebounded off of the poor shoulder of a coiled Pittsburg Steeler receiver due to having been hit from a classic Jack Tatum stinger, but thereafter still was able to run down the sideline acting like a selfish snob with the ball cradled like a baby in his arms into the end zone to beat my beloved Raiders in the AFC Championship even with the newly annointed King Quarterback, Ken Stabler, at the helm and unduly cheat them out of winning the playoff game.  I know that was a run-on sentence, but that play was a run-on play. 

Revealed on the art board and despise to my eyes, was a cutesy font with letters spelling "Happy Valley" that were arched over the ugliest thing I have ever seen.  It was a cute Hornet!  There was no mean grimace to be found on this insect.  It was smiling at us all, almost inviting us to come over!  I looked on the next most important thing, and it was not a long mean stinger in the shape of a jagged and rusty nail.  It was short and rounded at the end, looking like the soft pedal of a flower!...and it was attached to the second ugliest thing I have ever seen...a cute insect bottom!  It had a mark above it, to show it was wiggling in the wind and saying to us all, "hey, aren't I cute!  I won't hurt you, let's play!" 

Even Mr. Rogers and the creepos in his Neighborhood had more street cred than this piece of $#@^!&...I think it was the first time I ever swore, except it was just in my head and the profanities were just the thoughts screaming inside my head and were resonating back and forth in my skull, like a brain wobbling inside the same from a concussion...

Chicago Cubs Fans:  I feel your pain!  Hey, I know your city is a tough city and you have a lot of intercity problems, including youth-aged gangs and drive-by killings, which is nothing to take lightly.  Your teams' mascot obviously doesn't have to be a proponent of guns or violence, but does it have to be marketed and cool to only people 4 years and younger? 

It says they used focus groups that wanted a family friendly mascot , but I think either 1) the focus group was not focused enough or 2) they need a focus group to come up with the correct focus group

I met Chris Hawker briefly in Spring 2010 at the Chicago Housewares show.

I read his recent article on InventorSpot and and am posting this for others to read, it is a very succinct and well written.  He covers the different types of prototypes involved in bringing a product to market... Very good article for anyone working on any new invention and covers the terminology and definition (with pictures) of each prototyping stage...

Check out Chris' InventorSpot article by clicking on the link below:

Turning Ideas Into Products: Expert Tips For Invention Prototypes - Part 1 of 3: Terminology

Stay tuned on the same internet channel to catch Parts 2 and 3, in the forthcoming weeks....

Update: 4/3/2013 - Part 2 - Prototyping Methods

Update: 5/13/2013 - Part 3 - Proof of Concept Prototypes

Ok...maybe i was a little tough on my review of co-host Garrett Lisi from Invention USA, when the show first aired a year ago on the History Channel...I gave him a hard time, as he seemed a little stiff on air, like acting wasn't his thing (thank god we can't all be reality stars). 

But now..What?? He's gone??  Season 2 just kicked off with a new co-host, Scotty Ziegler, next to original host, what's his name Von Riegsen.  So I guess I owe my first impressions of the new co-host from the first airing a couple nights ago.  He seems like a cross between Guy Fieri and Billy Idol, and has an inverted color Joe Perry hair thing going on (black skunk band down the middle of whitish shockwave hair). It looks like he was brought in to amp things up, give it a dose of testosterone with some 5 hour energy drink to compete with other reality show offerings on their own channel or their nemesis, Discovery Channel.

The bio for Ziegler on the History Channel's website, as well as his own (www.vaultsandiego.com) says he is an inventor, so I tried looking up his patents on the USPTO website.  The one and only patent filing that popped up with his name listed as inventor, was a design patent for a new license plate and he was listed with 5 other co-inventors...It has a basic license plate cover design with a heart in the middle top, which doesn't really make innovation explode off the page.  I'm guessing he did some design work on it for a company, and the company kindly added him due to his design contribution. History Channel's site says he owns "a slew of patents"...maybe I didn't find them because they fell under a different name than Scott Ziegler or Scotty Ziegler, which is all I tried searching under.

Scotty seems more of a designer/artist than inventor, and from the looks of his website, a very good artist.  I guess my beef is that the word inventor gets thrown around pretty loosely these days.  Most independent inventors bear their unique badge of honor adorned with all the knocks and scrapes of trying to protect their idea while at the same time making their vision become reality.

Riegel Von whats his name, gets a makeup makeover...with newly darker-dyed brown hair and beard and some conservative clothes every now and then to offset his cool outback-style hat.  He seems still a little stunned that his inventor buddy, Gilligan Lisi, is no longer on the show.  And History Channel decided to change one of the hosts and start season 2 (six episodes I'm guessing, probably the second half of H.C's original 12 episode commitment) with no apparent explanation?..Is Garrett ok? 

Regarding the show, it seems basically like the same setup as Season 1.  Except now, if only one of the hosts (instead of both) give approval for a new product idea, they will go forward trying to find a manufacturer to take the product to market.  Episode one features the Trong (tongs for eating messy foods like chicken and barbequed ribs) and the RESQ Pod (a self preservation, cocoon-style pod for use in tsunami's or floods)..  Again, the show seems to be featuring averagely innovative products with marketability problems. There may be a market for the product, it is just too small and not worth the initial large capital investment for a manufacturer to pursue.

Check out the new revamped show on History Channel http://www.history.com/shows/invention-usa or tune in for what they say is the Season Premiere tonight Wed, Nov. 28 at 10/9c, although the first episode just aired on Monday.

Also, check out my blog on the show from Season 1

http://www.newproductconsultant.com/1/post/2011/12/invention-usa-not-ready-for-prime-time-products.html

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