room clean-up

[xenicon]

This is maybe stretching what a bag can do but anyone with a toddler or child in their house will see the immediate utility of this: namely, a bag which is large enough for all the small parts of toys children seem to have and which take up alot of room and which can be stored flat until needed.
The idea is having shaped fabric, circle? oval?- which when opened spreads across the floor (provding a play area) with all the toys "in it" and when the it's time to clean up ... all the toys can be placed on this fabric and because of an elastic cord threaded through channels at the outside edges can be instantly cinched closed. The toys and bag can be put away in a minute.

Padded? why not.

Of course, a large open out bag like this could have other uses... laundry, wood, anything which is awkward to stuff into a bag. In this case, the bag wraps around the thing.

[Tom Bihn]

A couple of off-the-cuff responses:
#1 I like the idea, especially its ultimate utility.
#2 It is probably reminiscent of the very first "bag" us humans (or proto-humans) ever made.
#3 As a manufacturer, we'd shy away from any product specifically targeted to kids because our product liability insurance would increase greatly in cost.
#4 Also, in my experience it is very hard to "crack into" a whole new market like that - that's why (assuming such an idea had any merit in the market) you'd best to to try to "sell" it to a toy manufacturer.
Good luck, and keep those ideas flowing!

[xenicon]

I can see that you are seeing plenty more than I am, for instance, it never occured to me that something anti-mayhem for children's toys would necessarily involve product liability- maybe labeling might take care of that? " do not cinch bag with living thing inside" might do? or "this is not a dry cleaning bag"?
maybe it doesn't have to be marketed for children- simply as , what? an indoor leaf bag for messy adults?
Really soft luggage... why pack, when you can pile?

[webw]

My momma made one for the legos. She did a 5-foot-diameter circle of tan corduroy with cinch cords built in. Could have been mesh or anything but the idea's the same. Maybe instead of cords, the "cinch" is a 2-wide fabric strap that becomes the handle/shoulder strap. Something like that is simple enough that you could make basic models that are reversible then start adding on pockets.

[xenicon]

that's it

That's great- the same problems have the same solutions: the difference is style. She obviously got tired of picking up strays and came up with a simple useful solution- But I'm interested you remember the fabric ( chosen for strength? or because it was there) and was the bag used for anything other than lego?

[webw]

a little of both, actually

I wore through the knees of toughskins jeans, so I think she did the fabric of kings because it was durable and becoause it was soft. Denim would work too.

[Darcy]

Anyone remember that old Saturday Night Live skit where I think it was Dan Ackroyd who was the CEO of some toy company that made stuff like "Broken Glass n' Bits" and "Rusty Nail O'Fun Bag"?

This seems like something that would be useful but anything involving basically a large sack with drawstring closure and children is just asking for trouble. Like trampolines - 99% of the time they're just really fun but there is that 1% where bad stuff happens and suddenly the camera crew from Dateline NBC appears!

Originally posted by xenicon
" do not cinch bag with living thing inside" might do? or "this is not a dry cleaning bag"?
maybe it doesn't have to be marketed for children- simply as , what? an indoor leaf bag for messy adults?
Really soft luggage... why pack, when you can pile?

[webw]

That would be Mainway Industries

Also the maker of the Little Johnny Street Action Punk with SwitchBlade action in his boots and hands. This also shouldn't be confused with Happy Fun Ball, which I think was either a Flammo or a Herlihy Industries toy.

[Darcy]

Brilliant, webw!

Now imagine the following:

Stone Phillips, Dateline NBC: Today we go undercover at the Tom Bihn factory, makers of the "Hide N' Go Seek Toy Sack".

Not good. Not good at all.

[webw]

Beneath the seemingly happy staff of cutters, sewers, sales and marketing types, we did not find a hellish boiler-room filled with hobbled children stoking boilers. But is the world of high-end computer luggage all premium belt webbing and granola? Our cameras tell the story.

A cabal of bag fetishists congregate online at the company's website, under the sign of a strange red airplane, trading stories and pictures of their unseemly relationships with their bags.

And the bags themselves ... with code names like Brain Bag and Eclipse, the only thing these people seem to have in the bag are laptops full of illegal music, clove cigarettes and tofurkey sandwiches.

Are these people just buying a computer bag? Or are they supporting the live-it-up lifestyle of a reclusive owner who goes by the borderline megalomaniacal title "Presidente-et-Directeur-Generale." I'm Jo hn Stossel and we'll have this story when we come back.

[Tom Bihn]

borderline megalomaniacal ?

I'm offended only by the "borderline" part. As Howard Hughes said "I'm not a paranoid derranged millionaire. Goddamit, I'm a billionaire."

[Darcy]

Poor factory workers.

[Tom Bihn]

Take the whole day if you must, but be all the earlier the next morning!
Are there no work houses? Are there no prisons? Is there no "Welfare-to-work" program?

[Darcy]

....

[xenicon]

OK

Forget the earlier bag- you are absolutely right, it would pose a liability problem. Clearly sleeping bags had the same kind of problem which is why, as everyone knows, they must be used outdoors in temporary soft houses. To be precise- as Thompson and Thomson would say- because there is no lease hold on a tent, therefore suing isn't an issue even if absurdity is.
On the other hand, the room clean-up bag could be inflatable so should anyone get stuck inside, only a prick would get out. Plus ca change, right?