Shrinky Dinks - Classic Toy Series Multi-Cache

This cache is part of a series on classic toys that originated no later than the 1970's. Most will have originated earlier, much earlier. I wanted to bring a little history behind these toys in the cache page and a little fun in the cache.

In 1973, Betty Morris was a Cub Scout leader in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Her coleader, Katie Bloomberg and herself, saw an article in a craft magazine that said if you took a lid from a container, drew on it with a permanent ink marker and put it into the oven, it would shrink and make a small charm. It worked and they were amazed.

Betty took it a step further. She thought it would be great if they could get larger sheets of this shrinkable plastic so that the boys could create Christmas Ornaments large enough for their family Christmas Trees. She called everywhere, with no luck. She ultimately contacted a Plastic Consultant who provided her with the name of the plastic had so persistently been looking for. Betty located the plastic supplier, but was told that she had to order 1,000 pounds. She readily agreed but requested twelve, 8" x 10" sample sheets to confirm that the plastic was truly what she wanted. In reality, Betty admitted that the twelve sheets would provide enough plastic for her boys to make Christmas Ornaments. When the Cub Scouts were making their ornaments, the boys became so excited that they were fighting over the scraps.

Katie and Betty, caught up in the "magic of the shrinking" decided to convince their husbands to invest in the 1,000 pounds of plastic...$600.00 each. Betty's husband, however, would not agree to investing $600.00 in this venture unless they could show him how and where they were going to sell the product...thus, Brookfield Square Mall in Brookfield Wisconsin. Betty met with Jim Patterson, Manager of Brookfield Square Mall, and set up the dates to sell product in the Mall (October 19-24, 1973). Brookfield Square was to receive 20% of sales. Betty burned out their home oven while discovering all of the different things that could be created with the shrinkable plastic.

The original pack had five sheets of Instructions and Ideas, 20- 8" x 10" sheets of Shrinky Dinks plastic and one Black Sanford Permanent Ink Pen. Sales were so outstanding that they asked Katie and Betty to return in November for ten days. Within four months, they were selling their Shrinky Dinks pack in 26 stores and had mail orders of well over $100.00 a day. They had sales of $50,000 over those four months. The ladies named their company K & B Innovations.

Various companies contacted K & B Innovations in an effort to secure Licensing rights...one of those companies was MW Kaasch Company....the largest Toy Distributor in the Midwest at that time. Mr. Ben Fagen saw a write up in the local newspaper and convinced MW Kaasch Company to become involved...they formed a subsidiary called Skyline Toys.

K & B Innovations was to do everything up to marketing - concepts, costing, design etc. and Skyline would sell or market. Shrinky Dinks was presented at the Toy Fair in New York in February of 1974...three kits and a refill. Katie and Betty demonstrated the concept with a Toaster Oven and the Buyers were amazed and the rest is history!

The Geocache Notification Form has been submitted to of the Wisconsin DNR. Geocaches placed on Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource managed lands require permission by means of a notification form. Please print out a paper copy of the notification form, fill in all required information, then submit it to the land manager. The DNR Notification form and land manager information can be obtained at: www.wi-geocaching.com

This cache placed by a member of: (click to visit our website)