Toy With It Advice from an experienced toy inventor about coming up with and developing your ideas

Larry Schwarz started his inventing career years ago-whenhe was a kid, actually, and he had a habit of taking his toys apartand then gluing the parts back together in differentconfigurations. Even when he was in law school, Schwarzcouldn't resist doodling his toy ideas on notebook paper. Andso, in 1997, he gave up his law career and formed Rumpus Corp., nowa multimillion-dollar New York City toy company with 36employees.

Schwarz comes up with ideas all the time-in fact, hefilled 26 notebooks while in law school. So how is he constantlyable to come up with fresh ideas when most people struggle to findjust one? It all comes down to his inventing philosophy: "Ithink toys should be fun. I look for toys with an open approachthat kids can find their own way to play with. I want kids to besurprised, and I want the toys to be unpredictable."

And Schwarz's inventions are anything but predictable. Twoof Rumpus Corp.'s biggest sellers have been Gus Gutz and HarryHairball, which kids can reach into to pull out all sorts ofsurprises: spleens, livers, hearts and nine other organs from GusGutz, and goldfish, a mouse, a parakeet, hairballs and otherunexpected pleasures from Harry Hairball. Even the packaging isfun-the boxes are configured so that kids can cut them up andturn them into their own toys.

Schwarz, 31, uses this "fun" philosophy to guide himthroughout the entire idea-to-invention process. Here's how itworks: He creates the ideas and then gives them to a graphicartist, who ships the drawings off to a factory to make samples.When the samples arrive, he and his staff look at the product tosee how it could be changed. What about focus groups, producttesting and outside input? Schwarz doesn't use those tactics.Kids don't see the toys until they're ready for thecompany's interactive Web site (www.rumpus.com), where Rumpus toys areexclusively sold.

How To Think Of Ideas

"Ideas come to me all the time, just from where I am [in mylife] or what's happened to me in the past," sharesSchwarz. For instance, the Monster In My Closet toy, a"friendly" monster, was a result of Schwarz'schildhood fear of monsters. And the idea for the Gallery Gang, agroup of soft characters based on different artists, came aboutwhen Schwarz was walking through a museum one day.

The point is to look for ideas wherever and whenever you can.Schwarz, who periodically conducts inventing talks at elementaryschools, likes to tell kids "to look at objects they see everyday and [see] how they could be improved." And that'sessentially your task as an inventor. Schwarz offers theseadditional tips:

1. Believe in your ideas.Wait until you get an idea you really believe in before startingout-then you can enjoy everything you're doing withit.

2. Write down every idea youget. Sometimes a so-so idea you get today will spark abetter one later on.

3. Don't get too muchadvice. Nobody liked Schwarz's idea for Gus Gutz,but he went ahead and introduced it anyway, and the toy was a bigsuccess. Getting too much input from others results in a productthat nobody wants.

4. Know your customers. Kidshave always found Schwarz's toys to be fun and fresh, just likehe thought they would. You're in trouble if you and yourcustomers aren't on the same wavelength.

5. Have an absolute vision of what yourproduct should be, and don't lose it. Stick to yourguns.

6. Don't count on people to seeyour vision. They won't understand it until they seepeople using the product. If you're going to show a product,show it actually being used by a real person in your targetmarket.

One other rule Schwarz certainly lives by is putting hiscustomers first. The Rumpus Web site has games, movies, cartoonsand lots of activities for kids. Fun is Schwarz's top priority,even before making money. That could be why he's also attracteda cult following of college kids who love the feel of his furryanimals.

Schwarz's inventing process is similar to that of many otherinventors. They all start with a basic philosophy about theirinventions-like make it fun, make it mechanically simple ormake sure it meets a need-and they follow through with thatphilosophy by constantly searching for ideas. Inventing doesn'thave to be about creating something new; in fact, I've foundthat the most prolific inventors get ideas by looking at somethingthey already know in a different way.

Test It Out

Haystack Toys' second annual The Great American Toy Hunt ishere! Dan Lauer, founder of Haystack Toys, hopes to find up to 10new toys in this year's contest (compared to five in 1999), setto launch in September. Lauer reports that 1,200 inventors enteredThe Hunt last year, and he expects thousands more to enter thisyear. Each winning inventor will receive a 5 percent royalty, a$5,000 advance and a $50,000 commitment from Haystack to helpdevelop the idea. The Hunt will be in nine U.S. cities, includingChicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, SanFrancisco, Seattle and St. Louis. Detailed information can be foundat www.haystacktoys.com.

Lauer started The Hunt, he says, "because the toy industryhas become dominated by toy store buyers, and the emphasis is onlicensed products and low-priced toys. What's gotten lost inthe shuffle are the great, innovative toys that kids like."Lauer isn't looking for electronic toys or board games, butrather large, tactile toys that encourage imaginative play."[I want toys] that will become the child's favoritetoy-the ones that have the 'double wow' factor,meaning the kids 'wow' at least twice when they first playwith the toy."

Don Debelak is anew-business marketing consultant who has been introducing newproducts for more than 20 years. He is the author of BringingYour Product to Market (John Wiley & Sons, $19.95,800-225-5945).