Reinventing the wheel -- part 2

it makes sense, thinking about it, that no one is really making any new toys. with those damn trucker hats, vintage clothes, and love for (most) everything 70's and 80's, i'm not surprised that Mattel is on their 5th talking/dancing/limboing/ymca-ing Elmo doll, and that Hasbro is resurrecting Star Wars action figures, My Little Ponies, and running a license (Lord of the Rings) into the ground while simultaneously bringing back existing games like Risk, Chess, Stratego, Monopoly, and Trivial Pursuit. in fact, i could die from so much not surprise.

but who's to say my company's any different? we make tons of Blues Clue's notebooks. every 4 months we have a new one on it's way over from Hong Kong. we make tons of those fuzzy black and white posters with SpongeBob, or spaceships, or flowers, or kittens on them. our WWE action figures are often made of arms, legs, and torsos of different wrestlers just painted differently. and ya know why we keep making this stuff? because it sells. which is probably why the other companies keep making the same stuff too. when people grow up, they want their kids playing with the same toys and the same games they played with when they were little. it's a wonder more people aren't playing with carved wooden cars and model trains.

but there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

i've spent the latter part of last week and what looks to be most of this week and next working on fabricating new products. but you're a costing engineer, you say. what business do i have doing prototypes? frankly, it's because i'm an engineer. today was spent discovering how to eliminate an overall reduction in temperature by limiting heat transfer through the use of multiple shells of varying thicknesses, transparencies, and densities. tomorrow i'm wiring up a multiple switch light display board. i have to have 4 models ready by next friday for a larger than normal sales meeting with the #2 largest vendor distributing worldwide.

so out comes the soldering gun, and the needlenose pliers, and the exacto knives, and trips to radio shack for batteries, and new ideas that may or may not make the shelves in your local WalMart or Target, but are a welcome breath of fresh air nonetheless.

- posted by yeah...about that... @ 9:59 PM