ayton & company

During his seven years at Mattel, Ian Ayton was involved in the development of many toy products. After a few years he gained the reputation of being one of the companies most talented mechanism designers at a time when Mattel was recognized as being the worlds most creative toy company. During this period he developed a half dozen complex mechanical toys. Perhaps the most creative of these designs was “Sew Magic”, a child's sewing machine that joined fabric with a latex glue. There were many innovative features of this design but the daring concept of a flexible drive shaft resulted in a major simplification of the drive mechanism. This product received the “Best Toy of the Year” award the year it was introduced.

During 1992 Ian was hired by Gallob Toys to develop and prototype a mechanically complex toy helicopter to be manufactured in China. The design of this product was accomplished in less than 6 months including the fabrication of a working prototype and all the engineering drawings. The complexity of this toy was deemed by some in the industry as being impossible to accomplish in China within the time constraints defined.

Cox Toys enlisted the aid of Ian to investigate the feasibility of developing a radio controlled toy motorcycle powered by one of their model airplane piston engines. Development of this product was discontinued when it became apparent that development costs and lead time exceeded the expectations at Cox. Even though this particular product did not find it’s way through to production, the working prototype, based on production design parameters, performed to a level indicating that such an ambitious product could if fact be made to work. Many original creative insights were incorporated into this design.

A very innovative diaphragm air pump designed by Ian Ayton was one of the major reasons for the highly successful air brush toy painting product introduced in 1998 by Ohio Art. This pump was particularly interesting because it incorporated design features that reduced the product costs to levels that made it available at a very attractive price. This product was a huge success due in large part to the sales volume induced by its high apparent value.