Last week, we shared a story that was straight out of the Pet Shack. This week, we are sharing a designers’ favorite pet product, the Whack-A-Mouse, that was created in the Pet Shack! So, for the love of pets, let’s take a look at what makes this designer happy.
Every year, Inventionland employees are able to work on “yearly projects,” which are personal products of our designer’s choice that they design and build.
This week’s story features our Senior Corporate Creative Designer & Engineer Matt’s yearly project, which just so happens to be his favorite product from the Pet Shack – the Whack-A-Mouse.
The tale of Matt’s product all started when he was informed that Inventionland would be working with a pet company, which turned out to be none other than our friends at Hugs Pet Products! So, in true Pet Shack fashion, he decided at that moment that his yearly project would be – you guessed it – a pet product.
As a cat owner, Matt decided to create a cat toy!
Cats are curious creatures and this notion applied to Matt’s cats as well, as they loved to play with boxes. In the past, Matt used to cut out holes and slits in old boxes for his cats to play with and they loved it! It was this intrigue and excitement that sparked his inspiration for his project.
From this moment on, the Whack-a-Mouse™ was born. The once cardboard box was transformed into a wooden-box frame with canvas fabric to cover the holes. With no tooling involved to create this product, “This made it really easy and cheap to manufacture, which I believe is usually the best, most-profitable kind of project,” said Matt.
This idea that once started out as a personal project transformed into a product that was then sold through Hugs Pet Products.
But the excitement didn’t stop there. In fact, the Whack-A-Mouse™ has done so well that it was actually featured on ThinkGeek.com as the “Cat Whack a Mole,” which usually sold out every time! Not to mention, ThinkGeek liked the product so much that they even made a product video for the Cat Whack a Mole.
Check it out!
Matt’s creativity paired with Inventionland’s Inventing Process made this innovative pet product come to life.
“I actually get to call that one mine,” said Matt on his project, “It’s a great feeling.”
Here’s even more great footage of the Whack-A-Mouse in use:
So, for the love of pets, Matt turned his invention idea into a reality – the Whack-A-Mouse. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for even more behind-the-scenes stories of our designers’ favorite products!
Copyright Inventionland, 2015
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