TOY ILLUMINATES SUCCESS.

Byline: RETAIL NOTEBOOK by Edward Russo The Register-Guard

Matt Anderson and Tom Hughes are under no illusion about getting rich from their optical-illusion-making toy. Five years after inventing it, they are happy enough just to see it in stores.

The inventors, Ph.D.s from the University of Oregon, created a toy with a pulsating multicolored light that weaves fanciful patterns when waved in a dark room.

Called Strobe F/X, the wand-shaped toy is for sale at Wal-Mart, Target, Toys R Us and other major retailers. Suggested for youngsters age 5 or older, the glow-stick-like toy is manufactured by Toronto-based Spinmaster Ltd.

Wave the wand, and it appears to make a steady stream of red, blue, green, yellow, purple and other colors - in circles or shapes you choose. Shake the toy back and forth, and see brightly colored spots.

Hughes, a Eugene resident, and Anderson, who lives in San Diego, are trying to keep their expectations in check, waiting to see if consumers like the toy enough to buy it in large quantities.

Other than kids, who else might like it? Anderson figures that it may be popular with the rave crowd - teen-agers and young adults who gather for large dances - and at events such as the Oregon Country Fair.

"We figure we will make hundreds and hundreds of dollars," quipped Anderson, now an assistant professor of physics at San Diego State University.

Unlike many physicists, who tend to be introverted, Anderson, 36, "is a sociable, friendly guy," said Hughes, who is himself soft-spoken and rumpled.

The 33-year-old Hughes says he is an inventor who is working on other projects, including toys. His immediate preoccupation, however, is renovating an old house in Eugene's Whiteaker neighborhood.

Anderson and Hughes first thought of the toy in 1997, when they were graduate students in the UO's physics department.

Anderson was doing research with lasers and noticed that a single, rapidly pulsating light would appear to be a streak when he looked at the light and moved his eyes side to side. The streak effect was caused by the motion of his eyes and the inability of the human eye to separate lights that are flashed more than 20 times a second. He and Hughes then reasoned that two pulsating light sources of different colors would create even more interesting patterns.

Hughes helped created the simple prototype, a circuit board that he made over his kitchen sink, connected to a light-emitting diode, or LED.

Hughes and Anderson spent the next four years developing the toy in on-again, off-again fashion. Eventually they created a wandlike device with a flexible rod and a light source on the end, which for a time was enclosed in a pingpong ball. The inventors spent a few thousand dollars along the way, including $2,000 for a patent.

In February 2002, they attended a toy show in New York City hoping to find a company to market their invention. On the third and last day of the show they met representatives from Spinmaster, who liked what they saw.

"We thought it was unique and there was nothing else like it on the market," said Harold Chizick, Spinmaster's director of marketing. "It combines imagination play with the excitement of a light-up toy. And traditionally, light-up features are a big seller, something that kids enjoy."

Hughes and Anderson consulted a Philadelphia attorney whose advice came in handy in their licensing negotiations with Spinmaster. They agreed to let Spinmaster produce and market their toy in exchange for about 5 percent of the wholesale price of each item.

Spinmaster has a track record of producing offbeat but popular toys, including the Air Hog - a model airplane powered by compressed air - and Shrinky Dinks - charms that kids make out of sheets of shrunken plastic.

Spinmaster's research and development offices in Toronto and Hong Kong put the finishing touches on the Strobe F/X, which uses a microprocessor in the handle that controls a dozen colors and different speed pulses to create 96 patterns.

"Sometimes manufacturers cut corners to cut costs, which means a product can fall short of the inventors' original vision," Anderson said. "But we feel the toy is very true to our original vision."

Strobe F/X began appearing in stores in January. The battery-powered toy is made in China with a retail price of about $10, which "lends itself to an impulse buy," Chizick said.

Spinmaster typically spends about $400,000 to bring a toy like Strobe F/X to market, he said, including the cost of a television commercial. A TV ad for Strobe F/X has been shown on Nickelodeon and Fox, Chizick said, with other ads scheduled for later this spring.

It's too soon too tell if the toy will be a hit, but Chizick said Spinmaster has shipped more than 200,000 to stores. "As is the case with all novelty products, it can be hit or miss," he said. "But so far we are very pleased."

The inventors, meanwhile, don't expect to retire from the royalties.

"We don't know of anybody who has gotten rich from a single licensing deal," Hughes said. "But we do know people who have come up with toys that sell very well and their licensing deals have helped them pay the bills. And that's enough to keep inventors coming back for another shot."

Retail Notebook runs Thursdays.

CAPTION(S):

Tom Hughes demonstrates the Strobe F/X he and business partner Matt Anderson invented when they were University of Oregon graduate students. Toy: Major store chains are now carrying the Eugene invention Continued from Page B1 Please turn to TOY, Page B2 The Strobe F/X works on battery power and sells for about $10.