About Us

HandsonToys

HandsOnToys was founded by Andrew Farrar, Rustam Booz, and Arthur Ganson in 1993. The company was started after Arthur Ganson, a renowned kintetic sculptor and former Artist-in-residence at MIT, thought he saw a child playing with a bendable foam tube. While it turned out to just be a balloon, Ganson was inspired, and went to work creating HandsOnToys' first product Toobers & Zots®. The product was so revolutionary that the HandsOnToy team had to invent their own machinery and invest in their own factory in order to produce the product. Despite all these challenges, Toobers & Zots® achieved significant success, earning revenue of almost 4 million in its first fiscal year on the market and exceeded 10 million in sales during it's second year on the market. Toobers & Zots® has won over 30 awards and was a Toy of the Year Finalist. Since then HandsOnToys has gone on to develop and market various other children's toys and additionally expanded into the pet toy market. Some of their more notable products include: Nobbly Wobbly Ball®, the Wiggly Giggly Ball®, Wiggley Giggler®, Crunch Art®, Cat-A-Pult®, and Floam®.

Handsonconsulting

HandsOnConsulting was created in 2006 after the world-wide Direct Response Television (DRTV) success of their product Floam®. This shifted the HandsOn orientation away from the physical production and manufacturing of toys, to consulting with other toy and consumer product companies. Now, HandsOnConsulting utilizes Integrated Direct Response as an essential and cost effective brand development, product marketing, and consumer research tool.

Founders

Andrew Farrar — 25 years experience in Sales, Marketing, Business and Product Development

President, HandsOnToys
Vice President Sales and Marketing, Competence Assurance Systems

Rustam Booz — 25 years experience in Marketing Communications, Product Development and Manufacturing

C.O.O. HandsOnToys
Director of Marketing, Philip Johnson Associates