Apr 9, 2011

Toy StoryBy Beau DentonBiz941.com

Jon Capriola’s creation, Laser Pegs, a toy now sold in 1,100 stores in every state in the U.S. and in several other countries, has been heralded as one of the top new toys in the country this year by ABC News, Long Island Newsday and The Sacramento Bee. AOL’s ParentDish website says it’s the sixth-best toy for grade school kids, and Woot.com calls it “the world’s coolest nightlight.” All this in the last two months—and Laser Pegs is just getting started.

It began 10 years ago with a headache. Capriola’s wife, Tanya, used to suffer frequent migraines, so Capriola—who was working as a software consultant in Sarasota—devised a makeshift solution of fabric and Velcro that wraps pressure around the head to reduce the pain. The invention worked. “If you could mass produce this,” his wife told him then, “you’d be a millionaire.”

“That’s what got me into inventing,” says Capriola, 36. The Headache Relief Band didn’t make him a millionaire, but it earned enough money that he could quit his job and stay at home developing other ideas—like hats with light-up brims, battery-operated shoelaces he called Laser Laces, and the Desk Hand, a moldable, hand-shaped object for displaying keys, business cards and other desktop items.

Capriola was not always an inventor. He describes his younger self as “a giant ball of energy,” misguided and self-destructive. He dropped out of school in 10th grade and moved from his hometown in Illinois to San Francisco, where he worked unsuccessfully on potential screenplays.

But with the success of the Headache Relief Band and inspired by his other inventions, in 2002 Capriola began formulating the idea for Laser Pegs, a construction set toy that builds like Legos and lights up like Lite-Brights, Hasbro’s popular toy from 1967. Every Laser Pegs set includes 72 individual pieces, each with its own colored LED light, that snap together to create tractors, dune buggies, trucks or anything a child is inspired to build. The light comes from the power supply at the base of the set and is then passed through electronic circuitry in each individual piece.

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