REMEMBER ALL THE FUN you had as a child, rolling happily down hills encased in a large plastic “Gobler’s Wobblers” egg? How about those cookouts where you served hot dogs made from table scraps thanks to your “Wiener Works” kit? Or the hours of enjoyment you got from your remote-controlled, salami-scented “Senor Sandwich”?
No? Neither do we. That’s because none of these odd toys exist except in the imaginations of toy designer Steve Casino and toy marketer Steve Fink, the masterminds behind Gobler Toys, a fictional toy company immortalized online (www.goblertoys.com) since January.
“I invent toys for a living and I also collect old toys,” says Casino. “Some of the old toys are pretty bizarre, so I thought it might be neat to ‘invent’ a few vintage toys that never existed.”
Casino knew Fink through a mutual friend and together the duo fleshed out the idea that became Gobler Toys. The centerpiece of the site is the fake advertising campaigns for the nonexistent playthings, complete with catchy slogans like “Kids love toys! Kids love sandwiches! ‘Nuff said!”
Casino and Fink hope to sell the Gobler concept as a humor book. The site was created to test the waters. “I wanted to see if anyone else would think it was funny besides the two of us.” Apparently, many people do. To create a database of those folks, the site offered a postcard signed by the company’s fictitious president Ira Gobler to anyone who e-mailed their name and address. After the initial run of 5,000 postcards was distributed, the offer was moved off the home page further into the site. “Requests dwindled, but they were now obviously from people who loved the site and weren’t just there for the freebies,” says Casino.
This experiment also helped them figure out what type of people were into Gobler Toys. “The big surprise was that more women than men responded,” he says. “Also, we now know that we’re very well-liked in Italy. The results will weigh heavily on any future products we might advertise.”
In early May, the site began offering prints of the toy ads for $10 each. Within five days they had received “dozens” of requests, Casino says.
While Casino has no driving desire to turn the site into a “cash cow,” the toys’ marketing potential hasn’t escaped him. “At first we were getting tons of requests for catalogs and info on where to buy the toys. Eventually, more people got the joke and we didn’t have to write back and say ‘We’re sorry, it’s all fake.’ We’ve discussed making some of the toys, but that probably would be something that went hand in hand with the book.”-BN
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