Rudell Design LLC is a new product invention, development and licensing company. 99.9% of our time, over decades, has been centered around toys and games.
Some genius, or some genius algorithm at FB suggests our category should be "medical". Really? After working 5 years at Mattel Inc., Elliot Rudell left, in 1975, to start Rudell Design. Since that time, the company has become one of the preeminent invention and licensing companies in the international toy industry. Hundreds of millions of dollars in retail sales have been generated by Rudell Desig
n inventions and developments over the decades, worldwide. Some of our kid-centric products include (please consider all these registered trademarks TM): UPWORDS, GEOTRAX, JUMP DANCER, SPLASH OUT, WETHEAD, WORD RUMMY, MONSTER ROCKET, etc. For decades we were the developers and licensors of WEEBLES to Hasbro. Pretty much all of the water-emitting game mats that kids have played with over the past 20+ years (like SUPER SOAKER TWISTER and WATER HOP SCOTCH) have been licensed from Rudell Design. Others should have been licensed from us, but that's another story. We've invented and developed products for third party licensed properties, from (remember, there are all TM'ed): Sesame Street (CTW) and Veggie Tales to products for movies (HOOK, KING KONG, etc.) Outside the toy industry, Rudell Design has developed and licensed a voice activated travel alarm clock, a talking fly swatter, and most recently CURL A DOG - a rather wild and crazy food preparation product that is meeting with some excellent success. We're branching out. The creative and business skill sets within the company include conceptualization, model prototyping, mechanism design, graphics and product illustration, video presentation, all that kind of stuff. What we don't do in-house we get accomplished out-house via a trustworthy and tight-knit network of superb engineers, programmers, etc. Our licensing experience has proven excellent, to the point where we're sometimes even (shhh, don't tell anyone) called upon by licensees when they have questions or issues with other licensors. Go figure. We're honored to get involved. We believe that doing unto others must apply, in spades, to the workplace ethic - so we strive for our business contracts and licensing agreements to be mutually beneficial. We're also quite experienced in patent law and trademark matters, although we're happily not attorneys, and don't pretend to be attorneys.
40 years in anything has always been a good amount of time for experiential seasoning. Just ask the children of Israel.
07/08/2025
This is a great video from a toy-pro-friend who:
(a.) puts forth a polite, straightforward and most reasonable plea to our President; AND
(b.) just so happens to have UPWORDS (early packaging) in the background.
HOT DOG! Spiral cutting (all the rage) the "Legendary Tube Steak" (W.C.Fields) needn't be a pain in the bun. Our patented and tm'd CURL A DOG is Safe, Simple, Fun.
"BBQ
01/15/2024
Happy 2024! We're loving that the high tech big boys have monstrously huge plans for AR and VR in 2024 and beyond. Apple, Samsung, Google, Meta - wonderful! And we all know that right now GAMING is the biggest category for Augmented and Virtual Reality. Our 10,950,059 patent is all about AR and VR gaming - and we have the already-proven - in its simple form - that everyone wants to experience, see and online post gamers getting a bit or even a lot wet when they lose a game. WETHEAD TECH would be us. Meanwhile this nice CNET vid-article mentions folks with great tech, searching for FUNCTION. We provide the FUN in FUNCTION. Enjoy those great new headsets. Our recipe for gaming success: Just add water. Wethead (circle R, folks).
Gotta love it when your 40-year award winning word game gets named Best Word Game. 1983-2023. Happy Anniversary, UPWORDS. Link to the whole article: https://www.thespruce.com/best-word-games-4164632
06/02/2023
It's 2023: (classic) UPWORDS celebrates its 40th year THIS YEAR!!, winning awards, selling 10,000,000 units, offering a SPECTACULAR app for mobile devices.
Along comes HURRY UPWORDS (available at the App Store, AT LAST playable on the Skillz site), invented for a 3-minute (hurry-up) game where players each get their own gameboard, the exact same letter mix order, and meet at the scoreboard. Fair? You can bet on it...
04/20/2023
This interview was in the fall of 2022. It's a nice, concise recap of what I've been up to - starting before 1975, and then with Rudell Design (since 1975) when the company was founded after my 5 year stint at Mattel Toys.
Scrolling a ways down on this Rudell Design page there's one video "40 years in 3 minutes". It too is concise, although the years are now closer to 50 for Rudell Design, and lots of products are not covered in that recap.
Product invention, development and licensing is not for the faint of heart - but wow what an amazing ride! I am blessed. I am truly thankful to God, the ultimate Creator. Product continues to fire my rockets. The talented team that has come along with me on this ride has been spectacular, and we've gotten to meet and work with amazing folks, too. BTW - the tux was rented for two days.....
Years back, these two influencers - older bro Ollie and younger bro James - sort of exploded the 350MM youtube views of WETHEAD on the internet, followed by oh so many others. Here's their original (stay tuned).
07/08/2025
01/15/2024
08/22/2023
06/02/2023
04/20/2023
04/03/2023