Bringing my invention to market….Amusement Park Attraction.

[croman]

If Marvels upper management shows good interest and would like to see the concept in full,
Would you recommend having them sign a non disclosure agreement first? Is this something they would have no issue doing?
Would this be considered the norm in such situations?
Thanks in advance.

 

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[Darius]

There is nothing even remotely like this in the industry.

If this statement is true, I'd definitely license the attraction to a company that manufactures these rides if possible. Or I'd try to secure a character licensing deal with marvel and then include it with a license offer to a company that manufactures the rides (Might not even be possible)

My preference: If the potential for success if very high, I'd be willing to take a low % for lower risk while learning & networking. Especially if this was my first amusement park attraction.

The main question I would have is why isn't there something remotely like this in the industry?

I don't have much info on protecting your idea but there are some post on this forum with people successfully licensing their ideas. If I come across it, I'll post it here.

 

[croman]

If this statement is true, I'd definitely license the attraction to a company that manufactures these rides if possible. Or I'd try to secure a character licensing deal with marvel and then include it with a license offer to a company that manufactures the rides (Might not even be possible)

My preference: If the potential for success if very high, I'd be willing to take a low % for lower risk while learning & networking. Especially if this was my first amusement park attraction.

The main question I would have is why isn't there something remotely like this in the industry?

I don't have much info on protecting your idea but there are some post on this forum with people successfully licensing their ideas. If I come across it, I'll post it here.

Thanks for any and all help…much appreciated!!
@Darius ….curious,
why do you suggest to license it out to some manufacturer if i have the financial capability to have it manufactured myself and sold at the same trade shows with level playing field as the big boys?

each sales down payment covers cost of unit to produce…

thanks in advance...

 

[biophase]

My preference would to be to build one, get it at a carinval, show that it is a success and then license it to Marvel. I don't think Marvel is into building amusement park rides. My feeling is that it was too early to contact Marvel, but that's just me.

 

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[croman]

@biophase
I think you are right to get it somewhere like a midway/carnival to prove that it is a winner in order to ramp up sales at the trade shows that i will be attending. The plan is to do so and take professional edited footage to play on screens at the shows where all the big buyers attend.

You may be right about going at it too early with contacting Marvel.

In meantime, I will be doing lots of research over the weekend about licensing for this attraction.

I am looking to get the rights to use the DAREDEVIL character.

Question is, what will MARVEL be looking for in a licensing deal if interested? Is it percentage of sales per unit..end of story?…and/or will they want yearly licensing fee paid by the owner(s) of this attraction?
Would this be something i would have to negotiate into the deal with potential amusement park owners?

Heres the thing, there are MANY MANY small fish in this industry that work the midway/carnival scene or are considered small amusement parks or FEC's(family entertainment centres). I wonder if licensing with Marvel would cut them out as potential customers for financial reasons….
and if so….
a generic non licensed version of the daredevil would more suit their needs…This would be a beautifully themed/looking attraction without the actual DAREDEVIL character.

@StephenKey and others,….would u think Marvel would allow a generic version of the daredevil to be produced and sold which has a different look and no infringement issues?…if we struck a deal would they have the power or want to keep me from selling the attraction in its altered version? Some things to think about….

I see the licensing as a good thing, but then again, depending on how a possible deal was structured, could be very limiting…

Thoughts?

 

[biophase]

Personally I don't see a great boost in getting Marvel's Daredevil on board. Yes, he's popular now, but he's not that popular of a superhero. If the attraction is what you say it is, it will attract people towards it. It does not need Daredevil to tell people what it is. They will see people walking up in the air and either want to try it or not.

 

[AllenCrawley]

Personally I don't see a great boost in getting Marvel's Daredevil on board. Yes, he's popular now, but he's not that popular of a superhero. If the attraction is what you say it is, it will attract people towards it. It does not need Daredevil to tell people what it is. They will see people walking up in the air and either want to try it or not.

I agree with biophase here. BTW, I would definitely jump at the opportunity to do something like this... with or without it being branded "Daredevil".

 

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[croman]

yes., you are both right….

About 9 months ago, when i was in early stages with design, i thought long and hard on this….

@biophase is on the money that this isn't a popular character. I dismissed the idea of using that character because it is not spiderman or superman or the likes. I didn't even know who daredevil was before this project. I was not familiar with him.

But recently there was a new series on netflix that has generated a renewed interest in the character, which in turn got me thinking that it was a small window of opportunity maybe.

The customer will use the attraction whether its a character or not as @AllenCrawley suggests.

My reasoning behind revisiting the Daredevil Character is because of the buyers, the amusement parks or carnival midways etc…
Im was thinking that this would give it that extra bit of "umph" so to speak for the big purchasers…

But it may be a limiting factor too…..

 

[croman]

unreal…

after some solid recommendations on this site, i purchase the audiobook Ready, Fire, Aim.

listening to it for about 40 minutes late last night while the wife mindlessly creeping Facebook(thats a whole other story).

While listening, i came up with a solution to a problem that i was struggling with for LED placement for over 4-5 months. Just like that. The simplest solution.

We are looking to make the attraction look like its "throbbing/breathing" with use of led lighting.
This was all good but we had issue with being able to do so on the actual high wire.
Attaching led lighting and having foot traffic would be problematic.

Anyhow, problem solved. Something so simple.

My engineers are from Serbia, found them on Elance. I speak Croatian and so do they, and their english aint so bad.

It has still been long and tedious journey with this one engineer, having to tell him things twice etc.

Last 4 days i been on Skype with him 3+hrs a nighty going over every measurement with him in detail with a fine tooth comb. I am finding many many little issues. I will have paid about 6k for 2 sets of Cad drawings and a video along with the 3d pictures of sales etc. This was a steal.

I think i will have to have another engineer double check these drawings. would be wise.

Anyone have experience with this type of situation?

 

[croman]

@MJ DeMarco

Can you put this on the outside please?...

In the appropriate section where you think I'll get the most traffic?

Thanks
Croman

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Can you put this on the outside please?...

Moved.

 

[mikekob]

Damn this is really cool. I'll definitely be following along. Talk about barriers!

 

[croman]

Ok, So last night i put up a listing on alibaba for a request for hydraulic cylinders…Contacted and got responses to over 15 contacts.

For the attraction, i will need 48 hydraulic cylinders. This will help unfold the unit(think transformers movie) so that the unit unfolds into place, reducing manual labour for setup ….BIGTIME.

This would be very desirable for my one customer base….midways and carnivals. They are sometimes in one spot for as little as a weekend…. This unit outfitted with hydraulics will appeal to them.

Does anyone have experience or know of reputable manufacturers or distributers here in North America for hydraulic cylinders?

Maybe i stay local with this, maybe not.

 

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[croman]

@Vigilante and others...

dealt with asians out of china in past with wife for amazon and almost forgot how tedious it can sometimes get with communication barriers…..

I see on Fastlane Offers section, there is a company offering there services for small importers….Taobao(chinese ebay or something..)….they take 3-5 percent commission.

Has anyone used????????????????

anyone actually have their email to make contact?

@MJ DeMarco, do you have contact info for them?

Looks as though they don't log into their fast lane account and check email…
Or,
they out of biz?

anyone with knowledge of the situation? or of good similar alternatives that do this?

Thanks in advance

 

[Boswell]

AliBaBa is a similar alternative, but they do more bulk selling, B2B rather than B2C (difference between the two platforms) and it is sometimes hard to find what you need (communication barriers), but I could help you find products that you need.

 

[ZCP]

Great progress! Cannot wait to see it in action. Would probably send some of our engineers on it for training purposes....

Hit me with a PM if you end up needing US based P.E. (Professional Engineer) approval for the deal to go through. We do a lot of this crazy stuff ..... trucks on ziplines delivering bands to stages, challenge courses, fall protection, entertainment / rigging..... have also done reviews of non US based designs for domestic locations when a requirement by the end client.

 

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[croman]

Good news,

Got some pricing back for hydraulic cylinders from some China contacts on alibaba. Pricing was MUCH lower than expected.

I need 48 total hydraulic cylinders of different sizes....6 sizes in total.

These cylinders will unfold the attraction....kinda like a transformer from the movies.

Making it much easier to assemble on the fly for use by carnivals/midways.
It also helps in creating the heights for the attraction.

This is going to bring down my costs way down...

I figure that it's about a third of my original guesstimate. This is big.

I will still shortly get pricing from North American manufacturers/distributors of hydraulic cylinders to see what's what.

Wondering whether these North American distributors in the end just get them made in China anyhow??
Wondering if quality is an issue with hydraulics coming from China??
These are answers I need to get answered shortly.

 

[Hackdroot]

I would imagine a huge barrier would be insurance liability. Most amusement rides are designed to restrain the rider throughout the experience and control their movement within the environment. Putting the patron in more control must provide some serious additional challenges in regards to safety precautions and liability.

 

[Boswell]

If you are thinking of the quality of the hydraulics, try some testing yourself, would recommend building a platform with the hydraulics beneath it and put weight seeing how much it can bear. Do this over and over to see how durable the hydraulics are.
Quality of the hydraulics can be a huge issue, but having more safety barriers such as landing zones if people fall would be great. Get in contact with the supplier, find their warranties and the full manuals of the hydraulics. This way you would know the details of the hydraulics and if you sell it to a customer, you would include a manual or something similar.

 

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[croman]

I am assuming that because we are using approved harnesses and other apparatus that is similar to rock climbing or zip line attractions,...that maybe we be fine and not run into major issues with insurance.

But very good point and something I definitely need to address sooner than later.

I do have a list of insurance companies who regularly insure this amusement industry.

Will definitely have to drop them a line and see what issues, if any, that need to be addressed.

 

[croman]

Ok so away for a week with family, so progress is a little slow.

Waiting for engineer to finish sending me my drawings.

I'm having him send them in "parts". Separate emails for separate parts of the unit.

This is only done right now so that I can send different manufacturers certain "sections" of the attraction so that they do not receive the entire set of plans. This way one fabricator can give me pricing on stairs, the other on fitting platform, the other on pitchforks etc etc

Doing this I guess is more of my own kind of safety precaution to not give out entire drawings. This will avoid people knowing the entire look and how the unit functions, and in meantime get a better view of pricing. These separate parts will be sent to fabricators in China...But I will be producing here in Canada so that I keep a close eye on quality etc.

I am hoping in a few weeks to be ready to send out full drawings to capable fabricators to get pricing.

I rather not have full drawings floating around until I am on the verge of starting free prototype ....first unit.

 

[croman]

Ok so away for a week with family, so progress is a little slow.

Waiting for engineer to finish sending me my drawings.

I'm having me send them in "parts". Separate emails for separate parts of the unit.

This is only done right now so that I can send different manufacturers certain "sections" of the attraction so that they do not receive the entire set of plans. This way one fabricator can give me pricing on stairs, the other on firing platform, the other on pitchforks etc etc

Doing this I guess is more of my own kind of safety precaution to not give out entire drawings. This will avoid people knowing the entire look and how the unit functions, and in meantime get a better view of pricing.

I am hoping in a few weeks to be ready to send out full drawings to capable fabricators to get pricing.

I rather not have full drawings floating around until I am on the verge of starting first prototype/first unit.

 

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[croman]

Contacted 2 larger fabricators in my area that seem to be able to handle the scope of the job for this attraction...judging from their website(facility size etc)...

Did this on July 7th.

Touched base giving a general description of the job.

And still no reply....

Rather surprising that there is ZERO response for a job of this possible size.

I'm going to send another email in the next day or so.,.

If no reply....

 

[croman]

so,
had some major concerns about the trolley that my engineer designed/recommended.

I was concerned that it would not pass safety standards.

This trolley was what would keep the human from falling…sort of the last line of defence. If this trolley was not a solid piece of equipment then there would be trouble.

Well, after a few hours of searching, found a few companies that produce a trolley that looks a lot more solid than the one i was looking to have fabricators produce.

It is rated to hold 500lbs and has gone thru the proper channels of testing.

it well exceeded my expectations.

They retail for around $150 each…

I sent out emails last night to 3 companies that produce this, explaining that i need 40+ pieces per attraction and to send me their best bulk pricing….

 

[croman]

I'm trying to source a company to make this Devils tail out of a rubber or plastic that is flexible, because it will be attached to bottom of the attraction and laid out on the pavement and positioned this way or that way....

It's 20" diameter at the thickest part of the tail, and is a length of 13 feet long.

I'm looking to produce 12 tails per attraction.

They few companies I contacted work with more of a styrofoam hard plastic type material.

I need flexibility...almost like a garden hose.

Anyone know the best type of rubber for this or have knowledge in this industry?

Below:

 

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[Fatal Jay]

@croman do you have a patent to this invention, me and a business partner are going through the patent process and I never knew the process was so expensive but at the end of the day we can see the light.

 

[croman]

@croman do you have a patent to this invention, me and a business partner are going through the patent process and I never knew the process was so expensive but at the end of the day we can see the light.

@Fatal Jay
no, not something i can really patent…
if you think about it for a sec, you don't see someone patenting a roller coaster,…coasters are everywhere….because someone else can make another roller coaster only slightly diff….

This is more of a "first to market" situation….

this is why i am keeping most of the design low key.

Once i release the prototype and put it out…hit all the major trade shows within one year... i should have at least a year or so jump on others that may copycat…

 

[Fatal Jay]

@Fatal Jay
no, not something i can really patent…
if you think about it for a sec, you don't see someone patenting a roller coaster,…coasters are everywhere….because someone else can make another roller coaster only slightly diff….

This is more of a "first to market" situation….

this is why i am keeping most of the design low key.

Once i release the prototype and put it out…hit all the major trade shows within one year... i should have at least a year or so jump on others that may copycat…

Godspeed my friend, when I see the new daredevil roller coaster out there I will know who was behind it

 

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[croman]

Godspeed my friend, when I see the new daredevil roller coaster out there I will know who was behind it

i was saying as an example that roller coasters don't get patented….

Mine is a high wire attraction…and much more..

 

[croman]

"Thank you for the information below. Upon receiving your further information regarding the application of the hand pushed trolleys, we must respectfully rescind our previous quotation, and decline any further proposals for this application. The hand pushed trolleys are designed to handle non-human loads only and are not designed for human transportation purposes"

So got the above response from one of 3 companies who carried the trolley I desired....
I guess they worried about liability.

Waiting on 2 more replys from other companies. Maybe it's best I don't disclose the use?