Tooting its horn: hoosier game company knows success when it smells it.

• Author: Kaelble, Steve
• Position: AROUND INDIANA

WHAT IS IT ABOUT GAS and the Indiana economy? Natural gas fueled prosperity in east-central Indiana in the late 1800s, the gasoline pump was invented in Fort Wayne, the state produces a wide array of dry and canned beans--and now comes Gassy Gus, ready to bring new notoriety to Indiana through bathroom humor.

Gassy Gus is the latest toy from Fundex Games, an innovative central Indiana toy company that recently christened new Plainfield headquarters. Its latest product is described as a "gut-busting game," part of the company's popular Rule Breakers collection of children's games. As director of marketing Dan Sabato observes, this product resides right on the line between socially acceptable and gross.

Game play is simple. Gus is a three-dimensional character, designed with a head that players use as a pump. As Gus sits in his easy chair, players "feed" him the foods described on cards--each food card tells the player how many times to pump Gus' head. His belly grows larger with each pump, and at some unpredictable point, the character loudly passes gas (needless to say, that's what players are trying to avoid).

Does Gus have what it takes to become next holiday season's Wii or Tickle Me Extreme Elmo? Only time will tell, but Sabato's crack marketing team is already working to generate some downright flatulent buzz, beginning with this month's American International Toy Fair in New York.

There, Sabato says, the company is employing a careful mix of good promotion and bad taste to lure toy buyers to the Fundex booth where they can meet a giant Gus. Fundex bought advertising space--where else?--in some 16 restrooms at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. In case that doesn't get sufficient...