So Saturday was the big Toy Design interview day, and boy was it exciting! And bit nerve-wracking, but totally exciting and fun and interesting! I met a lot of interesting people and I think my interview went pretty well. We should hear in a few weeks whether we get accepted or not.
There were about 20 students being interviewed that day...I'm assuming that there were other interview days because I heard a lot more than 20 people apply every year. A wide range of people showed up-from a guy already interning at Hasbro to a lady who worked with autistic children to losers like me!
We started with one of those awkward periods where people slowly trickle in and sit around and stare at each other and all around the room. There were a number of hard and soft toys set out for our drawing test. We had 30 minutes to draw a still life composed of one hard toy and one plush toy. After that, they gave us a time slot and we were free to roam about until our time came. My appointment was earlier, but I ended up sticking around for almost the entire time because there were so many toys to play with and a few of my friends were at the interview too.
Since the interview is over with, I can safely (I hope) post my designs up! Our mission was to design and make boards of three toys in different categories. Here are my designs, followed by the Toy Specifications from my idea book.
Child having nightmares? Afraid of monsters under the bed and things that go “Bump!” in the night? Have no fear, Sir Galen shall slay all fiends who seek to prevent sleep!
Designed to help kids fall asleep without fear, Sir Galen is the perfect bedtime buddy. A key feature of this plush toy is his sword, which is large enough to hold and doubles as a night light. A twist of the hilt activates a soft light that operates on a sleep timer to save batteries.
Sir Galen has several phrases that are activated by touching both metal studs on his gauntlet. This style of activation seeks to prevent accidental speech and to enhance the “experience;” kids will be comforted while holding Sir Galen’s hand! To increase play value, kids can take off Sir Galen’s helmet and put a crown on instead. This will change his phrase set to sayings that are exploration-oriented.
Prince and Explorer by day, Guardian by night, and best friend for years to come, Night Knight Sir Galen is an excellent companion for any child!
***
Safari Snap is a special digital camera with two primary goals:
1.To get kids outdoors
2.To educate kids about animals, particularly endangered species.
The camera, while able to operate like any normal digital camera, comes with a built in safari game and animal encyclopedia. A typical round of the game flows like this:
1. The Safari Master gives you a mission. For example, “Track and photograph a tiger! It was last spotted near some yellow flowers!”
2. The kid goes outside, finds some yellow flowers, and photographs them. Using color and shape recognition technology, the camera knows that the right object was photographed, and the Safari Master gives another clue to the tiger’s location.
3. Once the end of the trail is reached, the image of a tiger appears on the screen. The next picture taken will feature the tiger’s image overlaying it. Now the kid has a picture of a tiger in any setting he or she wants!
4. Once the tiger is photographed, the animal encyclopedia is updated with information about tigers. New missions would be unlocked as more animals get discovered.
The Safari Snap accepts an SD memory card so children can develop their photos. It also features a small solar panel on the front. If technology is advanced enough, it would ideally allow the Safari Snap to be at least partially solar powered. Otherwise, the solar panel detects sunlight and will adjust the variety of missions according to the amount of light. Nocturnal animals would only be found at sunset, for example.
Fresh and exciting, the Safari Snap is just the toy to get kids back outside and exploring!
***
“Hey, this is a cool action figure! Wait, why can’t the arm bend like this? Let’s see...”
*snap!*
“...Oops.”
How often has the above scenario played out in households across the world? I cannot count how many action figures I’ve broken (even now!) because of restricting joints. Nothing is more irritating and depressing! One of the features that sets Little Legendz apart from other actions figures is the way it addresses this problem: with the Universal Joint. Combining the motion range of a swiveling joint, the unrestricted pivoting ability of the peg-and-hole joint, and the shape and adaptability of a ball joint, the Universal Joint allows for a far more dynamic playing experience.
To compliment the Universal Joint, a system that I have dubbed the “Universal Link” allows for a completely customizable action figure. Because all of the pegs and holes are the same size, virtually any body part can fit in any location. Combined with the countless mythological creatures and legends to pull monsters from, the possibilities could be endless. Children would be able to create their own legends, limited only by their imaginations!
So, yeah. That's that. So now I'[m busy playing catch-up with all my other assignments...Expect an update about my abstract paintings and the latest figure painting sometime soon!
Happy Monday,
-J
The mission for our final Figure Painting was to take the model and place her in an environment.
Initially, I was thinking of doing something completely fantastical and crazy in the background, like aliens attacking, the apocalypse taking place, unicorns, dragons...
But then I thought about the pose (which was debated about for almost an entire class period because compromise doesn't make people happy...) and this painting from art history came to mind.
So I decided to mesh the two together: A parody of a painting from art history with surreal and fantasy elements. Oh, and a mini self-portrait, too.
We were on a pretty tight schedule and only had a few weeks to work on this one. I ended up putting in around 12 hours of work in one day to finish it in time for our final critique. Thankfully, I wasn't alone...I had some powerful backup in my homie and former roommate Marcel. He was there working on about eight of his abstract paintings at once. It's always great to have someone to bounce ideas off of, especially when he's Marcel. Check out his new website, by the way! iammarcel.com
And here's the end result. See the little mini-painting of Venus of Urbino in the background? Isn't it clever? Isn't it?
There's a little cow there, too! For all of my out-of-state homies, that's the Empire State Building in the background. And Godzilla. 
It sorta looks like me. Am I tipping my hat or is it slipping off my head? And what is that mysterious book? Marcel suggested that it be "Mein Kampf" and I thought that would be hilarious because my sense of humor has been twisted by my friends. But I left it blank. 
Ad a closeup of the model, Lauren. It took me forever to get her face ironed out...the way it connected to the neck and the shape of her face and a billion small things were throwing me off. So I added more hair so you can't see much of the neck and it was magically fixed! Cool how that happens, huh?
