Toys & Games

design for play

Design for toys & games is both fun and a serious business, where new ideas are the lifeblood of the fast moving toy and games industry.

The toy designer must have empathy and insights about how children of different ages learn and play, together with the creative ability to develop toy & game concepts, that are both innovative and marketable.

The design development team also needs to specify and manage the manufacturing process with local or offshore sourcing, while meeting demanding toy safety standards and product quality.

In addition to the design of toys and games for leading brands, Frazer helped pioneer early TV games with Videomaster and the invention of the Questron electronic learning books.

 

Playskool
Magic touch
Milton Bradley
Games
Hasbro
Lite-Brite
Videomaster
Superscore
Videomaster
Starchess
Questron
Early Learning
My Talking
Computer
Pass Me
Electroplay
1995

Playskool Magic Touch

1995

Playskool’s Magic Touch Talking Books were an electronic speech toy, published with a range of licensed character titles, including Berenstein Bears, Winnie the Pooh and 101 Dalmatians.

The design combined a printed illustrated book with a touch sensitive membrane switch behind the print for page selection and interaction by the child. The moulded handgrip spine housed the electronics, on/off control, loudspeaker and batteries.

1988

Hasbro Lite-Brite

1988

Lite-Brite was a successful North American activity toy, using illuminated pegs with a mains powered lamp. Our brief was to design a safer battery operated product for the European market, which involved optimising the optical design of the pegs and internal reflection with the reduced battery powered illumination.

The injection moulded housing was designed to be portable and provide the black paper design surface, with the addition of a built-in peg storage facility. The clear segmented storage drum in the base helped to enhance the activity by emphasising the choice and selection of peg colours

1983

Milton Bradley Games

1983

Travel game design and development for Milton Bradley, included the pocket version of Shut the Box, designed for user self-assembly of the parts with snap fits and Travel Yahtzee, where the five dice can be rolled inside the hand held housing and selected with snap toggle locks.

Board game development for Milton Bradley involved the design of playing pieces for family board games, including development for the 1986 MB relaunch of the Hotel Game, which required the style identity and detail 3D design of the international hotel chain playing pieces.

1984

Questron Learning Books

1984

Questron was a highly successful learning book system developed and patented by us and licensed to Publishers Price Stern Sloan with distribution by Random House in the USA, Canada and Australia, Hachette in France, Ravensburger in Germany and Combi in Japan.

The electronic wands detected invisible codes in the printed books with infra red, enabling multiple choice selection and tracking games. The system was marketed to a wide range of ages from Little Q age 3+, original Questron ages 4-7 and the Digital Super Q ages 8-12 for more advanced games and reading, that could be programmed from the page.

1982

My Talking Computer - Electroplay

1982

My Talking Computer was an advanced early learning speech toy, with several innovative features. High-quality speech & and sound effects were used with a printed spiral bound activity book that combined words, images and numbers in an exciting learning and games compendium.

A further advanced feature was the learning clock with sophisticated teaching and quiz modes for learning the time. The toy was originally developed and manufactured in the UK, but later licensed to Coleco for sales in the USA.

1981

Pass Me - Electroplay

1981

Pass Me was a fast moving single or multiplayer electronic speech game with seven game modes, including ‘Simon Says’ game play of sequences and repetition. Game instructions were given to the players by high quality speech.

The game has six protruding grip handles that are identified by colours and numbers, which switch when squeezed. The concept involved the development of several technical innovations, including the use of injection moulded conductive rubbers and plastics for the handle switching.

1979

Videomaster Star Chess TV game

1979

Star Chess is a two player colour TV game based on a chess board layout and moves, but with the action and feel of space invaders by the addition of missiles and shields. Like chess, the game objective is ultimately to destroy or capture your opponent’s king.

We designed the housing for the game to appeal to a more sophisticated market as a coffee table unit, that is both seen and played. The unit incorporates the two player wired controls and master control panel, together with a novel concertina Command Manual, housed under a tinted acrylic lid.

1976

Videomaster Superscore TV Game

1976

Videomaster were the first European TV games company with a license from Magnavox, the video game patent holders for Pong. We designed housings for many of the Videomaster games, including the Olympic model, which used analogue TTL electronics in 1975.

The Videomaster Superscore launched in 1976 was the first model to use the GI AY-3-8500 integrated circuit, that featured six games, on screen scoring and sound effects. Superscore could be extended with a separate wired control for two player games, such as football, tennis and squash and also with the Videomaster Gun that optically detected a moving on screen target.

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Frazer Designers Limited

124 Fordwych Road
London NW2 3PB
United Kingdom

t: +44 (0)20 8208 4426
e: contact@frazerdesigners.com

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