Sep 2, 2007

Taking child’s play to another levelBy Todd NelsonStarTribune.com

He’s built cabins in the north woods, as well as custom furniture. As an architect, he has used 3-D drafting software to design cutting-edge building projects. His newest creation — a modular construction toy called Q-BA-MAZE — is in a growing number of specialty stores and museum shops across the country.

His inspiration came from a toy that marbles bounced and rolled through that he played with as a boy, a gizmo his grandfather in St. Paul had built, possibly in the 1930s. Comfort’s modern version is made up of interconnecting cubes that players use to build maze-like structures, forming pathways through which a marble — now a stainless steel ball — travels in unpredictable ways.

While he was in his element designing the product, Comfort, 41, found himself in unfamiliar territory as he built, from scratch, a company to manufacture and sell the toy. Comfort, who began working full time on developing the product in December 2004, appears to be succeeding on both fronts.

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