My Passion Project Goes Viral
Back in 2012, when my son was four years old, he and his toy train were inseparable. Like Calvin and Hobbes, Jayden and Stanley did everything together. During that time, I was itching for a passion project, something creative outside of work. My world revolved around my two young children, so I combined the two passions into one.
I posted the video to YouTube, and to my surprise, it went viral. Scroll down to check out our crazy adventure.
The Katie Couric Show
A week after I posted the video on YouTube, it started showing up everywhere. It was in news feeds and even being tweeted by celebrities. On Sept 28, 2012, The Katie Couric Show invited my family to fly to New York for a live interview.
Japanese TV
Of the many TV appearances we did over a few weeks (mostly via Skype), the most unique was for Fuji Television in Tokyo, Japan. They sent a film crew to our home, and we spent a couple of hours discussing the video and how it was created. To our surprise, when the TV show aired, our voices were overdubbed in Japanese. They used a low male voice for me and a high-pitched woman's voice for my son. We still laugh about this today.
Stanley in Space, The Toy
In 2014, Fisher-Price® created a toy inspired by our video, Take-n-Play™ Stanley in Space. They sent us a whole box to share with Jayden’s first-grade class. We also had the pleasure of flying to Mattel headquarters in NY to meet the toy designer.
“Inspired by Ron Fugelseth's video 'A Toy Train in Space', this special Thomas & Friends Take-n-Play Stanley comes with a removable space helmet so you can relive Stanley's space-bound adventure!”
— Press Release, Fisher-Price®
We had the pleasure of flying to Mattel headquarters in NY to meet the toy designer, who showed us his process.
Parenting Magazine
For obvious reasons, I like to remind my now teenaged children that I was in Parenting Magazine.
