Who ya gonna call? It’s Ghostbusters Day.
I wanted to be an inventor from the time I was a kid. My path there was anything but direct. I studied botany and zoology at Duke University, became an apprentice leatherworker, ran a leather shop in North Carolina, sold my work at craft shows across Texas, and eventually studied industrial design at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.
A recession in the late 1970s made finding design work difficult, but it also led me in an unexpected direction. I landed a job at Marvin Glass and Associates, the legendary toy invention firm behind toys such as Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, Operation, Mousetrap, Chatty Cathy, Simon, SSP Vehicles, and many others. They invented new toys and games every day. It was the perfect place for me, and I learned about the toy industry while I worked there.
Eventually, I founded my own design company, Lund and Company Invention, LLC, and spent the next several decades inventing and licensing toys and games, including Fireball Island, TMX Elmo, and hundreds of other products.
DISCOVERING VACUUMATICS
As a scientist by training, I was always searching for new ideas and technologies, reading books, magazines, and always searching. One day, I came across a book on pneumatic structures. Buried within it was a short section on something called Vacuumatics. The example showed how a flat bag filled with beads could have the air removed, allowing it to be molded into a shape that would hold until the air was let back in.
Hmmmm. Never had I seen that before.
The idea stuck with me.
BRINGING VACMAN TO LIFE
Years passed before we found a practical use for the technology. Eventually, Cap Toys was developing a new version of Stretch Armstrong, and our vacuumatic character became Stretch’s arch enemy. The company named him VacMan.
The concept sounded simple enough, but making VacMan durable and affordable proved challenging. Sand crystals were too jagged and quickly damaged the latex skin. Plastic particles worked better but were too expensive. We experimented with different materials until someone suggested something that was, as they put it, “cheaper than dirt” — ground-up corncob.
In the Midwest, we have plenty of corn and corncobs.
The skin presented another challenge. We traveled to Akron, Ohio, long known as a center of rubber manufacturing, and worked with latex specialists to develop the right material for Vacman’s skin. Watching the molds being dipped repeatedly into liquid latex was fascinating. Layer by layer, the skin was built up until we had a durable, highly stretchable material that could withstand repeated use.
FROM PROTOTYPE TO PRODUCTION
Cap Toys eventually developed a production process that could fill the skins with corncob efficiently. Once the air was removed, the latex tightened around the particles inside, creating a dramatically textured appearance. VacMan could be stretched, flattened, rolled, twisted, and contorted into all sorts of shapes. He would hold those positions until air was allowed back in. Then the skin would relax, the texture would disappear, and he would gradually return to normal. He was a huge amount of fun over and over again.
Great TV ads helped introduce VacMan to a new generation of children, and the toy quickly found an audience. The original retailed for $19.95 and, while a good value, it was a bit high for many consumers. Smaller VacPack characters followed, making the concept more accessible. We do hope some child later became a pneumatic expert inspired by playing with this toy.
Sometimes a toy begins with a sketch. Sometimes it begins with a problem to solve. VacMan began with a single page in a book.