Playground Comes From Within Inventor’s Mind, Yard Filled With Prototypes Of Children’s Toys
Tom Brunner says he has a fertile mind that just “spills things out.” A look in his yard, cluttered with welded steel contraptions, confirms that.
Brunner, 30, has dabbled with sculpture, welding and laws of motion for several years.
What’s emerged are unique human-powered toys and a dream to create an entirely human-powered amusement park.
“I wouldn’t charge people to ride them,” says Brunner, an admitted combustion engine hater. “I want to remove the element of money from fun and get people back outdoors and physically active.”
Brunner, whose jobs have ranged from assistant chef to cobbler and now logger, spends his spare time designing unusual toys and scavenging parts to build them.
He’s most proud of his merry totter - half teeter-totter and half merry-go-round. It rises seven feet off the ground and goes in a circle with a little teamwork from those seated on carved wooden saddles.
The gadget, which rotates on two old pistons Brunner welded together, is a prototype of a ride he wants to market.
There are 12 different patents for rides that combine teeter-totters and merry-go-rounds, but Brunner said none like his.
“Playground rides have become boring and don’t move so kids don’t use them,” he said.
The merry-totter took a year to design and three days to build. He hauled home scrap metal on his bike, which he fitted with a handlebar-mounted basket that holds 200 pounds.
The merry-totter is now a bit worn and weathered from sitting in his yard and having seen more than 2,000 riders. But Brunner says it’s the idea, not the looks of the merrytotter, that counts.
“When kids leave my yard they are excited and exhausted. They don’t know they have been exercising,” he said. “Most rides now you just flip a switch and you don’t have to do anything. I’ve had tons of people tell me to put a motor on the merry-totter but that would defeat the point.”
Brunner has a book and a head full of ideas, such as a hand-powered Ferris wheel and a 2-ton cement tricycle that a child could actually pedal. He calls the creations interactive art.
“I have an artistic approach to most things, but there is also a practical application too.”
The cement tricycle would move an inch or two with pedaling but it also teaches people about leverage, he said. “Kids would learn you don’t have to be real strong to move something.”
One of his impractical designs has drawn a lot of attention. It’s a 180-pound, steel bicycle he calls Mad Maxx. Even the tires are made of coiled steel. Brunner has ridden it but it’s a struggle.
He also made and rides a 7-foot, off-road skateboard and is working on a new type of ski boot.
“I’m just compelled to make things, and I like to have fun. I guess I qualify as a starving artist,” said Brunner, who is working on a degree in sculpture and physics.
For now Brunner keeps his rideable creations locked up in his yard. He is having trouble getting liability insurance. Insurance companies don’t want anything to do with rides because of possible injuries and lawsuits, Brunner said.
He is trying to buy land so he has room to build larger rides and demonstrate them.
“My ideas aren’t going away and I’ve already filled up my yard,” he said. “What drives me is the look on people’s faces when they use the rides. This isn’t about money, it’s about reminding people there is something more to life.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo