BONC #7: Ollie vs. The Teratorn

Imagine a basset hound, let’s call him Ollie, older, moves pretty slowly, but still chases birds around his yard. He's probably never caught one, since the little guys fly away fast (probably laughing at him). Luckily, Ollie didn't live 6 million years ago, because back then, some birds didn't play nice.

Meet "the magnificent Argentine bird", also known as the Giant Teratorn, which lived approx 6 million years ago. This was the largest known bird to have ever existed. Check out these stunning figures:

Length - 11ft

Weight - up to 180lbs

Wingspan - up to 26ft(!!!)

Ollie probably weighs 80lbs, and would have made a great snack for this master of the skies. I'm glad that we don't live in Miocene Argentina!

The greatest kids ever

Imagine being a kid running around at a toy industry trade show. Cool, cool, awesome, and cool.

Awesome and cool for me too, when I met a few of them at ASTRA. I swear I did not bribe them or their parents, but they went nuts for the Giant Evolution Timeline. Sooooo wonderful to see.

Meet the brother-sister power team of Keller and Simone. They matched up all the Creature Cards in record time, they played Don't Squish the Creatures and Switch!, they sketched their favorite creatures, they dragged their parents back to the Timeline a hundred times, and they generally rocked the house. Keller seems to know everything there is to know about ancient creatures -- I had a very hard time stumping him!

And here's proud mom Patricia and dad Hans.











Here's Solomon and his sister, who rides a mean wheelie sneaker. They also played a great game of matching the Creature Cards, and Solomon lingered long and returned often to chat and read more on the Timeline.

Yikes

Phew. The show's already over and I haven't been able to blog until now. Such a good day!

Made a whole bunch of actual genuine sales to living, breathing toy store owners who paid with actual, unexpired credit cards (see some happy buyers, left). A whole bunch more interested retailers took my price sheet and made encouraging noises about buying later. And a parade of random kids came by and -- unprompted -- demonstrated the awesome thrill of evolution. Love that!

Most importantly, I am floating in a sea of information, advice, inside scoops, tips, ideas, and energy. Great people all around. Yee haw.

Cajoled a big-time consultant to give me an hour or two of his time tonight for free. Yee-haw again.

while I have a second...

1. It's hard to get people to walk on the Giant Timeline. They all step around or over it.
2. People who say they will come back later, don't.
3. Several other vendors and I have agreed on our collective and individual awesomeness.
4. Diet Coke is good.
5. When kids come by, life is goooooood and I get a crowd.
6. The greenwashing here is beyond all imagination.
7. The truly green products here are impressive.

Made a sale, and my feet don't even hurt yet

Lots of interest, several people milling about and chatting, several buyers asking for my price sheet. Retailers from New York, New Jersey and California in particular seem very interested, no surprise there.

Got my first "We're not interested in evolution," with a sniff.

The down times (like right now) are so very welcome. Diet Coke!

So many of the products in the other booths seem like carbon copies of each other. It all starts to look the same after a stroll down an aisle. Not the Giant Evolution Timeline of course!

How much will I sell? Place your bets!

Getting ready to go charm the socks off some toy buyers.

About 400 buyers are attending, representing some 200 stores. How many of those will make the soaring, brilliant, and powerful decision to carry Charlie's Playhouse products? I am offering them 20% off -- think of it, twenty percent off! -- if they place a wholesale order right here, right now.

Here are the predictions so far:

Caleb (age 5): "All of them! Millions!"
Izzy (age 8): "Well, don't be offended, but maybe like 10?"
Lawrence (age 38): "You'll do great, honey."
Me (age 42): "I like Caleb's vote."

My neighbors have candy

The booth is set up, people. Here's the before picture:



And a couple shots of the after. Please note the bathroom man/woman peeking over my booth. My first potential customers!



And here are my neighbors, all charming people. Some have little bowls of candy. I ate some.



Off to the shmooze session.

I'm blogging ASTRA, and nobody can stop me

Just arrived in beautiful downtown St. Paul for the American Specialty Toy Retailers Association trade show. Here are the things I have so far:

1. A hotel room
2. A nametag
3. Two boxes crammed with product, banners and brochures
4. Some hope
5. Some skepticism
6. A very nice new acquaintance whose name I've already forgotten
7. Tea

Just now heading over to the exhibit hall to set up my booth. I am mightily outclassed by the other exhibitors, but I will present that as irresistible homespun charm. Selling begins tomorrow morning at 9 am sharp.

More soon. Brought my camera, so be on the lookout for photos of the action.

Crazy Plants and Animals on isolated Socotra Island

We all know the Galapagos Islands, right? They're really far away from anything else, and their plants and animals are bizarre, not to be found anywhere else on Earth.

Well, meet Socotra Island, plopped in the Indian Ocean and cut off from the nearest land for 18 million years or so. And yup, it's got bizarre plants and animals not to be found anywhere else. Check these out!

Dragon’s Blood tree, or Dracaena Tree.

Picture courtesy of www.latimes.com 

Looks like something from a Super Mario Brothers video game, doesn't it? The name comes from a red resin that seeps from its bark when it is cut.

And here's Dorstenia gigas, which can grow to be 8 feet tall, and has exploding pods that fling its seeds several feet away.

Dorstenia gigas Photo from Flicker.com posted by jan_vandorpe

And Desert Rose, which is also called the Bottle Tree. Check out that trunk! It's used to store water in the dry climate.

Desert Rose; photo from latimes.com

Who knows what other isolated islands hold such creatures to be discovered!

Socotra Island is a recent addition to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

 

 

 

A New Game of Life

Imagine a small drop of water.  Inside that drop is a world of little critters living their lives, looking for food, and making other little critters.

Well, now you can actually see this (and take part in altering the enviroment) www.swimbots.com offers a cool little game/simulator where you can watch some virtual organisms live, reproduce and evolve right on your desktop.  

Do you feel bad for the hungry litle pink squiggly guy over there?  Well, grab a speck of food and drop it into his tiny mouth. Do you feel that there isn't enough food for all the animals?  You can adjust the settings making it a friendlier place (or tougher, depending on how you want this little world to proceed). 

The first session I opened, which I didn't manipulate too much, lasted about 2 hours before everything had died.  Everything. So, for the second try, I made food more plentiful and actually "hand" fed some of the animals.  That was 4 days ago, and although the population is a little thinner, a balance has been reached where everything is going along smoothly.  Some of the original variations have gone extinct, but that seems to be the point. Survival of the fittest.