Can I Borrow Your Toy for My Prototype?

I love to think of new product ideas and tinker around with different concepts. This new idea came to me while on a beach trip with my extended family. I watched as full beers cans were placed in front of their beach chairs and they started taking turns throwing metal tipped darts at each other.

I had never seen this game before, Beer Darts. The rules are pretty straightforward, stick the can with a dart and your opponent drinks!

I thought it was hilarious, but also made me nervous of a missed throw. You better hope your opponent has good aim and hasn’t had one too many! Also, if you have young kids running around, it could be a little dangerous.

My idea is to make the game a little safer but also open it up to other players. So you can play with a regular can or a glass bottle. Also, you can play inside or outside since the darts won’t damage anything or hurt anyone. I am calling this game, “Drinky Darts.”

So, to make the initial prototype, I “borrowed” a couple toys from my kids playroom.

Luckily, the toys had been sitting untouched for a long time, so I don’t think they even noticed 😉

Please take a look at the initial prototype for Drinky Darts!

I used the velcro dartboard that had a halloween-themed print on it. After “dissecting” the board, I applied the material to another beer coozie I had at the house. I found some velcro darts and bam! I had the first working Drinky Darts prototype 🙂

It is pretty rough looking as you can see, but that’s what they are supposed to be like. Not perfect, just good enough to get the concept across to people.

Now, I just need to figure out how to turn this into a real product.

Stay tuned for updates!