Sound Bites More Than Candy; Call Them Interactive Treats

If there’s a sucker born every minute, you can bet it’s nothing like Andy Filo’s. His rocks ‘n’ rolls, and then some.

Filo, a 1974 graduate of Revere High School and former B.F. Goodrich engineer, has developed what the toy industry is calling the hottest thing of 1998. It’s called Sound Bites, and it’s a toy-candy treat that plays music in your head when you eat it.

Rock. Drums. Space sounds. Guitar. Saxophone. Wacky tunes and voices. Just push some buttons and your pop plays the weasel. Or whatever you want.

Sound Bites is being introduced to the Akron and Cleveland markets first but won’t be available nationwide until the end of the summer.

When Sound Bites hit shelves in test markets at FAO Schwarz and Toys R Us in San Francisco and New York City, it became the No. 1 selling candy within hours at both stores.

“It’s one of the most innovative and exciting products to be introduced in a long time,” said Bob Weinberg, senior vice president of Toys R Us.

The candy toy, which is a lollipop on top of a battery holder, sends sound vibrations into the eater’s mouth; the vibrations are conducted through the teeth into the inner ear. It works from a computer chip. Filo calls it “Dentamandibular Sound Transduction Through A Consumable Line.”

“Basically, when you eat it and push the buttons on the holder, you make music through the lollipop into your head,” he said.

You can stick in a new lollipop when you’re done, and it won’t blast out your fillings. In fact, the sound is barely audible outside the consumer’s mouth. The holder takes any standard lollipop, including sugar-free ones, Filo said. It comes with batteries and two lollipops.

“All that’s missing is your head,” the package reads. The product retails for about $10.

Filo developed the toy with partner David Capper, the development and advertising force behind Micro Machines and Koosh Balls.

Capper is the marketing guy, Filo the electronic nerd. As a student at Revere, Filo swept all the science fairs.

His favorite hobby as a kid was visiting the Radio Shack in Fairlawn and Olson Electronics, he said. By sixth grade he had built a model of a satellite from margarine cups and a transmitter chassis.

“I was always taking things apart,” Filo said. “My mom (Katherine Filo) says that I’ve wanted to build toys since I was little.”

But Filo was so advanced that by 10th grade, he went to study at the University of Akron with biomedical professor Karen Mudry. He began to write professional papers, and by age 20 was hired by Goodrich to develop a de-icing system for helicopters.

Then Silicon Valley called. Filo worked for a variety of companies, including Atari, where he developed a robotic cat called Petster that racked up $23 million in sales and was featured in the Sharper Image catalog.

He also worked for the military, developing aircraft navigation systems.

But toys are his first love.

“The best part of this job is watching people’s eyes light up when they see it and hear it. Even adults go crazy,” he said. “We wanted to astound people.”

Filo and Capper had no trouble selling the concept to toy giant Hasbro Inc., which created Sound Bites, LLC, its own subsidiary.

Sound Bites is an example of the fastest-growing segment of the candy industry: interactive treats. It’s not enough to chew gum and blow bubbles anymore; kids want candy that does something besides taste good, said Jeff Rubin of FAO Schwarz.