Mel Birnkrant's
All Original Toy Concepts, Written and Photographic content is Copyright MEL BIRNKRANT
“Puff Paint” was a minor effort, just an exercise in packaging, the sort of thing I did fifty times a year at Colorforms. But I came across these two boards and an actual Puff Paint painting, several weeks ago, and because the colors are attractive, I will include it here. I don’t remember where this idea originated. I believe Puff Paint was something my partners brought to the table, along with the suggestion that I apply it to playsets. The signature “Birnkrant KISCOM” at the bottom of each illustration, clearly indicates that this was created rather late in my association with Kiscom, and is not something I did for Colorforms.
The first board represents a quick attempt at an approach to packaging. It is reminiscent of the designs I did for Plasticine, several years before.
The first board represents a quick attempt at an approach to packaging. It is reminiscent of the designs I did for Plasticine, several years before.
The second drawing depicts the possibility of a sort of figure painting set, with who else, but Mickey Mouse as a theme. It would come with a heat proof figure, along with the necessary paint. Once the paint was applied, the whole thing had to be placed in an oven briefly, which would cause the paint to puff. A hair dryer would also do the same.
The key items in the line would be essentially paint by number sets. I made this Puff Paint painting of Mickey Mouse and Minnie to illustrate what the results could be. It was really sort of fun. The art was an illustration from one of the first Mickey Mouse coloring books. The quality of even the humblest artwork in the Golden Age of Comic Characters, the early 1930s was consistently great. When heat was applied to the finished painting it puffed up. The resulting object was somewhat weird, but interesting, not unlike a delicious looking pastry, or the icing on a birthday cake, almost good enough to eat.
Looking on the internet, today, I notice something there, called, “Puffy Paint.” I wonder if it is the same company that my partners discovered, many years ago. If so, it is gratifying to see that they managed to succeed. I notice that all they supply is the paint itself, in bottles. There is no product line of playsets or anything like that. They sell just the raw material. The user’s ingenuity and imagination must step up and do the rest .
