Dani Kollin

Battle Kings - Toy soldiers, only with military vehicles to boot! How much fun is that? I created a series of two “Offense” and “Defense” scenarios; Island and Mountain and then gave the kid his mission. Irresistible!

How to Train Your Dragon - Flying dragons, oh my! What an assignment. Basically take the various dragons from the best selling book and make them come alive with little dragon bios.

Junkyard Giants - “So,” says my manager, “we’ve got all this footage of big trucks doing all sorts of big truck-like things. And um...no voice-overs...just music. Make it exciting.” So I put on my hard hat and came up with the “Watch, Learn and Play” refrain that informs the complete line of DVDs.

N.S.E.C.T. - N.S.E.C.T (New Science of Experimental Combat Technology). Before I wrote a single word, uttered a callout, or even read the creative brief, I took one look at the test model and came up with the phrase, “Mechanized For Mayhem” (and to my utter surprise found out that no one had bothered to file a copyright!) Well, not only did I copyright that sucker, I used the line to drive the rest of N.S.E.C.T’s copy.

Haunted House - There’s so much magic in this line of toys it’s scary. What starts out as a closed up, carrying case opens up into a house full of surprises. The trick with any Pop Up Adventure is to not only show the amazing amount of stuff inside but to also let the kids know how much fun can be had by diving right in.

Pro Power Series - Mattel was looking for a line of R/C cars that screamed, “These are better than your average R/C.” I came up with the Pro Power Series moniker, named all the cars and then proceeded to grill the engineers on any cool sounding specs I could find.

Sky Force - The idea was simple: Take a basic slide-in-the-parts airplane and attach an engine. Then fling and ultimately fly it with an R/C controller. The problem was we needed to get not only that basic concept across but also the fact that you could apply the same dynamic across a multitude of planes (the ole “collect ‘em all” approach). The visual/verbal system to the left was finally what flew.

Easy Riders - So one day Matchbox decides it too wants to get into the R/C space. The only problem - the brand’s been a traditional push and play toy for like, forever. We needed a key phrase to remind parents why they loved matchbox so I came up with, “R/C Made Easy” and then we needed to insure that those same parents understood that this was not your father’s Matchbox. Hence, the literal number one call out, “Switch it on!”

Shell Shocker - Buyers weren’t buying, marketers couldn’t market and designers were dumbfounded as to what to do. At that point one of the Directors stopped by my desk. “Aren't you the SciFi writer?” He asked. I nodded. “Well,” he said, tossing me a picture of the gizmo, “make this thing come alive.” And so I did. Shell Shocker went on to win the 2006 TOTY award (Toy of the Year) for best boy toy and was Tyco R/C's best selling vehicle two years running.