What is theCRICKETtoy™? and what were you thinking? Chirp. Chirp.
Friday, March 27th, 2009So…who am I? What do I do? Where did this silly toy idea come from?
My name is Jeff Anderson. I’m the inventor/creator of theCRICKETtoy™. I am producer/arranger/songwriter living in Nashville, TN. I’ve written and produced 11 children’s CDs. I’ve got a publishing company that sells music to schools and churches (brass quintet and big band mostly). I do free lance arranging/orchestrating. I love to play golf and poker. I’m married to my sweetheart Dana (10 years this April). I have 2 precious little girls, Karis (6) and Dakota (3 1/2). We discovered just recently, that we have another little one in the ‘oven’. It’s what I’ve been calling the ultimate ‘pregnant pause’.
Sigh….Moan…ugh… Chirp. Chirp. (That’s the appropriate response)
As for theCRICKETtoy™, my usual answer is that I tell people I am 30% successful with my jokes. That leaves 70% for awkward moments. Enter the toy.
Over 5 years ago, I had the idea of creating something that could make the ‘chirp. chirp.’ sound when there were awkward pauses. My friends and I would say that during those ‘doh’ moments. About 3 years ago now, I had a lunch meeting with a friend of mine who is an importer from China. I told him “I’d like you to make a little toy cricket that when you push the button, you’ll hear “Chirp. Chirp.”" I’ve told him and so many others that I actually needed theCRICKETtoy™ for that lunch conversation with him. He just stared at me like I was crazy (not debating that). I told him to call his teenage daughter. He explains “awkward pause in a conversation and someone says ‘Chirp. Chirp.’” She says “yeah..crickets” He hangs up the phone and says “OK..I guess I’m getting old. What do you need?”
So he’s checking out options in China and figuring out the best way to make this for me when American Idol does it on TV. Mark Hayes is one of the contestants who can make the cricket sound. He unfortunately does a not good job and they chirp him with his own sound. The next day I call my “China Connection” and he says, “Yep..Saw it..prototype in 2 weeks”
I had already recorded the cricket sound here by David Hobbs (local trumpet session player). The fact that American Idol acknowledged the use of the cricket sound gave a little more credibility that I wasn’t completely crazy.
Backing up, I have an AMAZING WIFE! I told her about the idea. We talked about it. Honestly, prayed about it. And we both decided that it was a risk we wanted to take. So..we went forward. If you’re entrepreneurial, you really need support from your spouse. I just can’t say that enough. Because there are certainly times when no one else will support you. Just part of the journey.
Fast forwarding, I get photos of clay molds from China. We make corrections, approve corrections. I then get a PVC plastic mold sent to me for approval. When we gave them the original dimensions, they said it would have to be ’slightly’ bigger. We assumed that meant 1 cm or so. However, every time we saw pictures
of the clay molds, they did not actually include a Giant Mastadon next to it for a size reference. The first PVC mold came in and it was 2 1/2 times to big. They redo the clay mold. We approve. They send us the PVC mold and this time it is the right size.
In the mean time, we sent them wav files of David Hobb’s chirping, they digitize it and send us back sound chips with the chirping for us to approve (we do).
The time has come, and we get the first samples of theCRICKETtoy in the mail from China. Except, they weren’t able to embed the cricket sound on the sound chip for the sample, so the first sample we got actually was a bird chirping. I still have it on my desk. Push the button and you hear a bird chirping (funny and awkward in itself)
Under the premise that I am NOT approving bird chirping crickets, we give the go ahead and I have 15,000 of theCRICKETtoy manufactured. 2,000 of them were in retail blister packs for samples and small stores sales. The remaining 12,000 are in poly-seal bags.
I launch the website. I launch some awkward videos. theCRICKETtoy is used during The Nashville Symphony concert series with Yo Yo Ma (see blog entry). I go buy a PT Cruiser and have it wrapped like a GIANT CRICKETtoy. I create theCRICKETtoy iPhone app (available on iTunes). I do my first radio interview here in Spring Hill. We’re in The Tennessean (Williamson A.M.) as well as the Spring Hill paper. I go to Toy Fair in New York. I meet a LOT of great people. We are (about to be ) featured in a Top 10 Toys of Toy Fair Magazine article. We get mentioned by the great folks at Woot.com on their blog (you know who you are..You guys Rock!). Some stores around the US start selling theCRICKETtoy. We’re now in talks with some companies that we all know and love (and shop at) and having some discussion in regards to licensing. We’re going to probably do a trial run in Chile. We have been now featured on Radio Shows and Podcasts as well as TONS of Twitters and Facebook pages. We’re having the time of our lives.
We STILL have not sold all of the original crickets we made (not close yet), but word of mouth is growing on this fun little toy. I can’t wait to make announcements on partnerships and deals, but I’m just waiting for ‘official’ word before we make any grand announcements.
I’ll post some photos here a little later of the journey. This has been a fun process so far. I’m certainly not in the black yet, but we’re getting closer. I’ve been overwhelmed by the response. My fellow ‘geeks’ have loved this toy and I think we’re getting close to The Tipping Point for this fun little gadget. If you don’t have one already, please pick one. I could REALLY stand to get rid of some of the bugs in the house.
Chirp. Chirp.
Jeff