1963

Reyn Guyer was Vice President of his father's design company-The Reynolds Guyer Agency of Design.

While working on an idea for a shoe polish promotion, Reyn came up with the idea of making games with people being the playing pieces on the board.

Reyn developed a game called KING'S FOOTSIE showed it to the game division of 3M. 3M turned it down.

Reyn's father agreed to underwrite a new division of the company to work on the 'people are the players' idea. Reyn hired Charles Foley and Neil Rabens and the three men worked together to develop eight new game ideas.

1964

Reyn and Mr. Foley took the games to the Milton Bradley Co. and Vice President Mel Taft chose the game with the colored circles in a row and convinced his company to make it and promote it.

When it was discovered that every ones' favorite name PRETZEL was not available, the Milton Bradley Co. chose TWISTER.

1965

When it was difficult to find a supplier for the vinyl game boards, Mr. Foley convinced a major rubber manufacturing company to take a chance on the new idea and make them.

The Sears Robuck Co. told Milton Bradley they would not put the game in their stores or catalogue. In December Mel Taft called Reyn to say that Milton Bradley was discontinuing the product.

1966

Mel Taft, knowing that a P. R. firm had already arranged for TWISTER to be played on the Tonight Show, went to watch the show. Ava Gabor convinced Johnny Carson to play the game and dozens of people were lined up at the Abercrombie and Fitch store on Manhattan where there were a few early games available.

Mel Taft called Reyn to say Milton Bradley had reconsidered.

1967

TWISTER was named the 'Game of the Year'.

Mr. Foley and Mr. Rabins chose not to run the Reynolds Guyer Agency's Toy and Game division and left to begin a new company with Mr. Charles McCarthy.

1968

Reyn, finding he loved Toy and Game development, chose to sell his share in the Reynolds Guyer Agency, and begin a new company called WINSOR CONCEPTS.

1969

WINSOR CONCEPTS licensed a new toy idea to the Parker Brothers company. It was called the NERF BALL.

2003

Milton Bradley added TWISTER MOVES to the line. With two and three CDs players are encouraged to listen to the music and occupy the colored circle that is called for in the lyrics.

2006

TWISTER DANCE was added. Players learn to dance on small TWISTER mats to forty different tunes.

1968

Reyn Guyer began a new Toy and Game Development Company which he called WINSOR CONCEPTS. He hired Martin Lundquist, Norton Cross, Ken Barnes, Will Kruse, and Barbara Griggs and created a workspace adjacent to The Reynolds Guyer Agency of Design.

While the group was working on a 'caveman' game, Will Kruse began bouncing one of the foam 'rocks' over a net. That was NERF's AAHH moment. Reyn and his team all proceeded to cut foam balls out of different weights of foam packing material.

Norton Cross found a manufacturer who cut foam with heated wire. The team created five or six game ideas using the foam balls

Reyn and Norton went to the Milton Bradley Company which had succeeded with the TWISTER game three years earlier. Milton Bradley turned the ideas down.

The ideas were next shown to Henry Simmons, the New Product Development Director for Parker Brothers. Mr. Simmons and his team, to the disappointment of the Winsor Concepts group, decided to put the foam balls in a box and sell them individually.

Parker Brothers decided to name the balls NERF after the foam padding that off-the-road enthusiasts wrapped around their roll-bars.

1969

The NERF BALLS were an instant success.

Soon Parker Brothers began to look other fun ways to use foam in toys. They urged Reyn to include all other products that were made with foam as part of the original contract and after some consideration, he decided to commit exclusively to Parker Brothers and not take new foam ideas to other toy companys. It turned out to be an excellent choice.

Since the introduction of the NERF BALL, many inventors have contributed to the product extension of toy products which have, as their main ingredient, expanded polyether and polyester materials such as:

Basketballs, Soccer balls, Baseballs, Footballs, Ping-pong balls & Pucks

Projectiles of many types including foam darts and soft round foam pellets

The marketing of the NERF products has been managed by several different toy and game companies and is in the hands of Hasbro Inc. in Pawtucket R.I.

RALLY ROLL Interactive:
Developing interactive, virtual web game to be released on Facebook and as an iPhone application

RALLY ROLL Dice Game:
Formerly known as “STREEK” launching to be licensed to a toy and game company

RALLY KATS:
Formerly know as “QUAK” launching to be licensed to a toy and game company

Their armies were lined up and ready for battle when, instead of going to war, the two powerful kings decided to settle their differences with a game of KINGSCOURT.
Each team had one kingpin, two guards, three balls and a mallet.

No one remembers which team won. But, it is said that following that historic match, Europe knew a period of peace for 23 years.

Aww...we’re just makin’ that up...

MALLETS, BALLS and PINS. How simple can you get?

But just wait until it’s your team’s turn and you have to decide if you’re going to attack or defend. That’s when you learn who your friends are.

KINGSCOURT is full of strategy but everybody in the family ‘gets it’. Even kids 5 and 6 years old.

2 teams (with 1 to 6 players on a team) face each other as they try to knock over the other team’s 3 pins or eliminate their 3 balls. Young kids are just as good as old kids playing KINGSCOURT.

View the KingsCourt Game flyer here

KingsCourt Parts

You probably heard that the ROYAL KINGSCOURT parts are made by little elves in Stillwater Minnesota on the St. Croix River. Well actually, each of the parts—the pins, the mallets and the balls—are made of specially selected northern Minnesota ash and Wisconsin birch and individually handcrafted in the exquisite woodworking shop of Bruce Stanger.
If you don’t believe in elves, the part about Stillwater MN is true.

For more information go to: www.kingscourtgame.com

Coming soon...