Kid Stuff Marketing creates happy meal-style toys and games for restaurants. They hired me to illustrate a “flashlight find” game with a haunted mansion theme. It’s a simple but very clever toy. Here’s how it works:

The artwork is printed on transparent plastic, then glued into a cardboard sleeve over a black background. When the transparent image is laid over the black it’s almost impossible to make out anything. (I was asked not to make the colors too bright to aid this effect.)

On the back of the frame is a punch-out “flashlight” with a white circle at the end. You slide the white circle into the frame, between the art and the black background, and boom! You can see the image.

I made this TikTok video to show it in action:

On the back of the cardboard sleeve are several questions (“How many cobwebs are there?”, “What is popping out from behind the couch?” etc.). It’s a simple but super fun gimmick! My kids loved it and said it blew their minds. They couldn’t figure out how it worked without any lights or batteries.

Kid Stuff Marketing does a lot of fun work and I’m honored to help them out. Here’s a few details from the illustration I submitted:

Happy Halloween!