Grabbin' Grasshoppers

"This one little hit set me up for life.  I got the new car I always wanted, a big new house in the California Wine Country and everything I needed to build a business around developing, marketing and licensing new products.

One day I was sitting at home with my wife watching our kids playing in the yard.  It was summer and I had just mowed the grass.  There were grasshoppers jumping around everywhere, and my daughters were having such fun trying to catch them.  I thought that catching grasshoppers could be a fun game.  So I decided to invent it.

I spent a week trying to figure out a cheap way to make grasshoppers hop.  I settled on spring steel legs.  Then it hit me, I could put suction cups on the bellies of the grasshoppers and push them down to the game board.  The grasshoppers would stay suctioned to the board for a while and then the springy metal legs would overcome the suction and 'Boing!' they would jump high in the air at random.  I made little nets to catch them.  Catch the most and win!

After I finished the prototype, I presented it to Tyco Toys and they licensed it on the spot.  It was called Grabbin' Grasshoppers and I got a $50,000 advance with a commitment for a big TV launch.  It sold millions and is still considered a classic.

Not bad for a week's work." 

William Seidel, inventor of Grabbin' Grasshoppers and President and CEO of America Invents