Lollipop Park owners Louise and Nathan Elinoff inside the indoor amusemark park in 2020. (BusinessDen file)
Nathan Elinoff isn’t interested in retiring.
He and his wife, Louise, tried it out after closing their Centennial kiddie amusement park, Lollipop Park, in 2020. But they were bored.
“I can’t stand traveling anymore and being retired is stupid,” Elinoff said.
Before the pandemic shut them down, the high school sweethearts had been in the amusement park business since 1982 when they opened Nathan’s Physical Whimsical. They closed that park in the 1990s.
In 1986, they opened Funtastic Nathan’s, which evolved into Funtastic Fun and eventually Lollipop Park. When Lollipop Park closed, Elinoff said he and Louise thought they’d stay in the business and open an outdoor amusement park, but that didn’t work out.
“We’ve done a lot of really fun businesses, we’ve had a blast,” he said. “Even though COVID shut us down, I was depressed for about two minutes, and was like, well, I have to get moving on something else.”
The couple decided to try their hand in retail instead and made the Eye Candy Frame – a gumball machine inside a picture frame. The frame dispenses anything smaller than half an inch, like peanuts, candy and dog treats.
“Everybody has a candy dish in their house, but you’d be surprised how much dust and bacteria gets on food,” Elinoff said. “Let alone people putting their grubby hands in it.”
The Eye Candy Frame is a gumball machine inside a picture frame. (Courtesy Nathan Elinoff)
The idea, Elinoff said, came from an old candy dispenser they used to have. But he said that dispenser was flawed: The candy got stuck, dropped out the bottom instead of the front and couldn’t hang on the wall. So, the Elinoffs decided to make their own version.
“We did this to keep active and meet people and talk to people,” he said. “It’s such a fun, cute whimsical item.”
The couple invested roughly $55,000 out of pocket to make the initial models and on marketing, engineers and consultants before launching a Kickstarter campaign.
The Kickstarter campaign opened with a goal of $5,000 on Jan. 23, and they met their goal on the first day. As of Thursday afternoon, they’d raised $12,445 from 258 backers with 27 days to go.
After the Kickstarter orders are filled, Elinoff said he wants to sell the frames – which are made with recycled, food-safe ADA plastic – to mom-and-pop stores. He said the frames will retail for $45, but are on Kickstarter now for $29.
“I want to take care of all the brick-and-mortar stores and mom-and-pops and make sure they have a chance,” Elinoff said. “They’ve gone through a lot, with theft and employee problems, customer problems, landlord problems.”
Lollipop Park owners Louise and Nathan Elinoff inside the indoor amusemark park in 2020. (BusinessDen file)
Nathan Elinoff isn’t interested in retiring.
He and his wife, Louise, tried it out after closing their Centennial kiddie amusement park, Lollipop Park, in 2020. But they were bored.
“I can’t stand traveling anymore and being retired is stupid,” Elinoff said.
Before the pandemic shut them down, the high school sweethearts had been in the amusement park business since 1982 when they opened Nathan’s Physical Whimsical. They closed that park in the 1990s.
In 1986, they opened Funtastic Nathan’s, which evolved into Funtastic Fun and eventually Lollipop Park. When Lollipop Park closed, Elinoff said he and Louise thought they’d stay in the business and open an outdoor amusement park, but that didn’t work out.
“We’ve done a lot of really fun businesses, we’ve had a blast,” he said. “Even though COVID shut us down, I was depressed for about two minutes, and was like, well, I have to get moving on something else.”
The couple decided to try their hand in retail instead and made the Eye Candy Frame – a gumball machine inside a picture frame. The frame dispenses anything smaller than half an inch, like peanuts, candy and dog treats.
“Everybody has a candy dish in their house, but you’d be surprised how much dust and bacteria gets on food,” Elinoff said. “Let alone people putting their grubby hands in it.”
The Eye Candy Frame is a gumball machine inside a picture frame. (Courtesy Nathan Elinoff)
The idea, Elinoff said, came from an old candy dispenser they used to have. But he said that dispenser was flawed: The candy got stuck, dropped out the bottom instead of the front and couldn’t hang on the wall. So, the Elinoffs decided to make their own version.
“We did this to keep active and meet people and talk to people,” he said. “It’s such a fun, cute whimsical item.”
The couple invested roughly $55,000 out of pocket to make the initial models and on marketing, engineers and consultants before launching a Kickstarter campaign.
The Kickstarter campaign opened with a goal of $5,000 on Jan. 23, and they met their goal on the first day. As of Thursday afternoon, they’d raised $12,445 from 258 backers with 27 days to go.
After the Kickstarter orders are filled, Elinoff said he wants to sell the frames – which are made with recycled, food-safe ADA plastic – to mom-and-pop stores. He said the frames will retail for $45, but are on Kickstarter now for $29.
“I want to take care of all the brick-and-mortar stores and mom-and-pops and make sure they have a chance,” Elinoff said. “They’ve gone through a lot, with theft and employee problems, customer problems, landlord problems.”
