In a way, doesn't the toy and game industry already do this by utilizing the inventory community? Inventors come up with product all the time that doesn't fit any mandate by a particular company's R&D department. They create new technologies to use in toys, new product forms, new product categories, etc. and then the toy/game companies act as the "coordinator" to bring the new product from the inventor(s) to the masses. So in a way, we've been doing it since the days of Marvin Glass & Associates.

There's that, and then there's kicking it old school.
As reported on this site, Hasbro is re-releasing all of the original Jurassic Park toys at Toys R Us.
Take a look at the line up, then google the first wave of movie toys from 1993.
Same!
Electronic T-Rex with Dino Damage and all.

Some say toys were better back in the day so why not bring it all back.
When you can't innovate... repaint!

I agree with Kim. Think of a major toy or game brand and it probably originated with an outside inventor and most mid to large toy and game companies have Inventor Relations people to work with outside inventors as their only function. Outside inventors invented Transformers, GI Joe, Lego, Ants in the Pants, Raggety Ann, Apples to Apples, Teddy Bear, Crayola, Monopoly, Twister, Nerf, Bakugan, Lincoln Logs, Erector Sets, Pictureka, Cranium, Mr. Potato Head, Pictionary, Trivial Pursuit, Uno, Shrinky Dinks, Slinky, Play-Doh, Scrabble, Scene-It, Tonka, Baby-Alive, Clue, Candy Land, Cootie, View-Master, Ant Farm, Wiffle Ball, Yahtzee, Sea Monkeys, Silly Putty, Magic 8 Ball, Pez, Matchbox, Slip-n-Slide, Super-Ball, Hula-Hoop, Blokus, TriBond, Imaginiff, Mad-Gab, 1-2-3 Roller Skates, Frisbee, Beanie Babies, MoonSand, American Girl, Mystery Date, Operation, Mouse Trap, Rock-em Sock'sm Robots, Magic - the Gathering, Lite-Brite, Toss Across, Simon, Game of Life, Spirograph, Trolls, Etch-A-Sketch, KerPlunk, Big Wheel, Crayola 3-D, Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, Battling Tops, Big Wheel, Rubik's Cube, Cabbage Patch Dolls, Super Soaker, Jenga.... and the list goes on and on and on! If this were a book or movie list, people would know who wrote it or starred in it. Many of these products outsold top movies and books.

One 'outsider' inventor product, TMX Elmo, holds the record as the fastest selling toy of all time in Guinness. The inventor, Bruce Lund, talks about the process of innovating as well as the importance of play on his website lundandcompany.com Great stuff, great guy!

Hey Mary - thanks for backing up my response with such an amazing list!

My pleasure. What I didn't know off the top of my head, I pulled from Tim Walsh's book, The Playmakers/Timeless Toys. An amazing book recounting the inventor's stories! theplaymakers.com

Change is good. While the toy industry has long used outside inventors, I think it is time for the toy industry to try new ways of sourcing innovation. I think you are right on the Money, Richard. And toy inventors like Lund and Company Invention and others, should be looking to innovate their own innovation processes.

Bruce i agree that toy inventors need to be more innovative than ever to be successful in the toy business but i do not agree with the notion that a corporate strategy for obtaining innovation is to rely on anybody and everybody. First of all the task of wading through a literal mountain of information would require more manpower than all the remaining functions of the corporation and certainly would be the same as looking for a needle in a haystack. In fact a few years ago a banker that got lucky with his first toy invention created a company called Haystack that literally scoured our nation of individuals with ideas (much like American Idol looks for singers) with the media in tow and the result of that massive effort was nothing significant. I personally participated in a similar endeavor when Amazon.com sponsored a toy inventing contest and I along with a few others looked at thousands of toy idea submissions from kids and again nothing significant emerged.

The best way for marketing corporatations of any size to obtain innovation to make and market is to utilize the budgets, time and efforts of full time professional inventors that walk the walk and talk the talk and live eat and breathe creativity and innovation and prototyping and presenting with the same focus and financing and persistance and professionalism that is required of any other creative carreer. This is the most efficient path and most other strategies if sucessful would be just "getting lucky".