The Mindflex I designed while at Mattel just made it to Time's, 'All-TIME 100 Greatest Toys', 100 most influential toys from 1923 to present. Cool! I'll be honest. I am a bit shocked since there are so many amazing toys out there, but still quite an honor.
Mindfex is a levitation game which uses brain waves to steer a ball through a customizeable obstacle course. The brain waves are captured with the enclosed EEG headset, which allows the user to speed up (more concentration) or slow down (less concentration) a fan, thus lifting or lowering the blue ball.
I designed this in the short amount of time I was there. Not bad for having no toy or game design experience prior to Mattel. It was definitely a fun project and I was the sole designer. I learned alot -- probably more about people than the actual manufacturing and process of making it. I had the opportunity of working on the entire gamut of the project; including creatively directing the look and feel of the product and overseeing the progress from start to finish. My main notion was to make it, as much as cost challenged toy environment and engineering limitations would allow me to, less toyetic and more neutral. I wanted this to appeal to beyond Mattel's usual demographic (below 10 years old) and an item for 'everyone'. I guess college students like to play with this while drinking, according to Youtube.
The item has won multiple awards including Oppenheim's Best Toy Award for 2010. I'll post my drawings from my portfolio later. The top image is a page from my folio and the below pictures I credit Pocket-Lint.
Alright, back to cooking. Right now I am making homemade Gumbo soup. I took a break because the knife was getting heavy. That could end up to be a bad situation if I don't take breaks. After Jason wants to play his new video game, 'Marvel vs. Capcom' in which I have to fight him...and then beat him ;)
