Fisher-Price: Doodle Pets!

I really enjoy working on plush. I had a crash course, on the extensive Zootopia line of plush when working at Tomy International as a Design Manager.  My experience with patterns is limited but I excel at the characterizations, it's a forte' of mine. 
Among the deeply satisfying and more successful lines of which I've been a part over the years was the Doodle line for Fisher-Price.
Part of the joy then was that I remember working on Doodle Bears way back when I started freelancing at Tyco Toys, in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey.  .. It was the salad days of the Doodle line!

by this time in Doodle Bear history Fisher-Price wanted to explore and expand the Doodle line beyond the classic bear.  They also wanted to go smaller and cuter.  The first task I was approached for was in pushing into the rest of the animal kingdom, trying different doodle critters.

Here are some of those, as eventually rendered for presenation;

Once the look of the line was established, more exploration was done for soft accessories and playsets to expand the line.  The smaller scale of these pets lent themselves to slightly larger price points, with more play other than drawing on them with markers.

So I came up with some soft playsets, shown below.  They were well received enough to continue onto further definition.

..  First, a couple of additional pups beyond the dachshund.  Followed by a simple pet carrier that opened into a soft play and nap area.  Of course the bedding made a great canvas for doodling.

Then onto the themed sets, which folded or rolled up to contain everything, but expanded to become a play environment.

 

.... And here is how they turned out when produced for the toy shelves. 

.. Even the carriers with pups came out great.  Again; another instance of not to much changing in the entire process. I always consider that a job well done, in doing what I do.

more Mickey's Clubhouse

Some time back I posted the work I had done for Mickey's Motorhome Camper, as well as Mickey's Magic Choo-Choo. There was a lot more done over the course of 3 or 4 years for Mickey's Clubhouse toy line.

Some of the concepts fell into different categories, like this role-play cash register;

This was revisited and refined a bit more for a second pass;




..and here is the final;

Among the other items were a number of sets that involved vehicle and track play.  Here are the cars designed for the line;

Once the line of vehicles was established, that led to the fun track play;

Here is a concept for a large rig that opened up to become a race track and pit area.








This concept successfully went on to become a drag set.

 

Here was a fun idea for Goofy's Garage, which was in the form of a giant Goofy shoe.
I started by exploring a few different ways the garage could open, offering some track play for the cars as well as some other features;

 Some of the best elements were combined into one more pass.

Lastly, more ramp and track play was added to the top, and it was rendered up for line presentation;

Trimming costs to reach a lower price also removed some of the height,  but it turned out to become a really fun set;

JENGA! - Jenga Max and Jenga Boom

The game Jenga has become a perennial favorite over the years. At this point there have been a number of spin-offs,  even an oversized patio/yard version.
Some years back Hasbro Games called on me to help them explore a new tabletop version of Jenga that used an entirely new method of block stacking.  And instead of the tower ultimately collapsing from tipping, it relied on a magnetic hub that dropped when the imbalance went beyond its limit.

The play-pattern and basic design had been resolved by the time I was tapped, my task was in exploring the design of the base and top hub.  Aside from aesthetics, I needed to consider storage of the blocks as well as different ways they might hang off the top hub.  We also needed to have a logo or two in there.   

Here are the initial sketches exploring the base, center hub and outer ring of Jenga Max.
I started by generating a universal view of the set in play, then just swapping out a number of different designs for the rest. It saved some time while still providing scale and context;

I deliberately separated those parts in layers to allow for switching out bases and tops.
One combination they chose went on to receive a round of color studies;

They ultimately went with a more subtle color palate, the final look leaning toward an older audience;

__________

Jenga BOOM came a few years later, this time the design process focusing less on style and overall presentation and more on basic mechanics.  In this case, they wanted something at the base of a regular Jenga tower that was on a timing mechanism.  The play would be heightened by a time limit on each move, almost like the game Perfection.  If you don't finish your move in time and reset the mechanism, then BOOM; the tower 'explodes'.  Somehow.
That's where I came in.
I was asked to explore a range of possibilities from ones that resembled a cluster of standard Jenga blocks, to more obvious ones abandoning any attempt to disguise the mechanism.  The main thing to solve was that it needed to be simple, work every time, and look really cool when it blew.

Simple rough sketches, but that's all that was needed; 

They liked the TNT concept but it was small and hidden in the core of the tower.

Ultimately they came up with a combination of some of the above elements to produce Jenga BOOM!