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Rainbow Games Reaches for Its Pot of Gold ... Again Persistence Is Paying Off on Second TryAs of August 2008, Rainbow Games, Inc. no longer manufactures toys. In the game industry, some companies are overnight successes that sweep the market off its feet. Others are true labors of love that evolve slowly over time and transform setbacks into learning experiences. Rainbow Games is one of those labors, with James Muntz leading the way. In 1981, he invented and sold products to Milton Bradley, but didn’t see the results that he’d wanted. After a brief stab at creative writing that was frustrated by his “atrocious spelling,” Muntz told his wife that he was just going to invent games instead. Success Came Quickly ...  “I woke up at about three in the morning with my first idea, which was Spiromania,” he shared with TDmonthly Magazine. “It was my first game, and it just kept on. It seemed like that was my forte.”Muntz originally launched Rainbow Games in 1985, and was quite successful, selling 400,000 games to K-Mart alone between 1985 and 1989. Besides Spiromania, his titles included Halley’s Revenge, Take a Letter, Cardformers, and Guest Host. But Left Quickly, Too However, when K-Mart’s buyer retired in 1989, the bottom fell out for Muntz. “The new buyer would only purchase from Milton Bradley and Parker, so my distribution went from extremely high for one major account to nothing,” he said. “I was affiliated with a couple of wealthy individuals, and unfortunately they wanted to just dissolve the company and be done with their efforts, because they had other interests. It was like a hobby to them.” Although Muntz put his business on the back burner at that time, he continued to invent games, and finally decided to give it another shot in 2005. He included all of his original games and added Puzzle by the Numbers. But he changed his strategy. A New Game Plan Leads to Specialty Stores  “Back then, I was just trying mass market,” he told TDmonthly. “When you’re building a good product line, it’s important to have balance, and I didn’t have that initially. I shot for the moon, and I didn’t take the whole scope of the industry into play.”Today, Rainbow Games has an online presence, and is also found in specialty stores. Muntz has reps throughout most of the country. His background is in computer science, and he currently still works as a consultant for the automotive sector. However, he hopes to devote his full-time efforts to Rainbow Games by the first of the year. Filling Voids Finds Diverse Audience Muntz believes that Rainbow Games offers a good blend, including children’s games, family games, adult games, party games and card games. “I look at the line and try to find out where the voids are,” he explained. “Then I gear my mind toward filling those voids.”  He plans to debut four new products at the American International Toy Fair in 2007: Silly’ables, Blindside, Space Checkers and Computerama. His goal is to add two to four products a year while increasing his penetration in the market. His ultimate goal is to be significant in the game industry in three to five years.“I’m sure we’ll make it,” he said. “If your item has any legs at all, eventually with persistence it will pan out. I’m not one to give up.” Here are some of Rainbow Games’ popular and new offerings: Silly'ables by RAINBOW GAMES INC. Blindside by RAINBOW GAMES INC. Space Checkers by RAINBOW GAMES INC. Computerama by RAINBOW GAMES INC. Guest Host by RAINBOW GAMES INC. Cardformers by RAINBOW GAMES INC.  Writer's Bio: Brenda Ruggiero is a freelance writer from western Maryland. Read more articles by this author |
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