What is the name and manufacturer of the synthetic white mats sold as a
toy for children's painting, that turns blue on contact with water and
dries again within few minutes. It trades under the brand name Aqua
Doodle.

Hi julius6300,

Aqua Doodle is made by SpinMaster, and the North American location is 
in  Toronto, Canada.

Spin Master Ltd
Head Office
450 Front Street West
Toronto, Ontario
M5V 1B6
Canada
e-mail toys@spinmaster.com
Phone  1.800.622.8339
Monday - Friday
9:00 am - 5:00pm EST
Fax  416.364.8005

In Hong Kong
Spin Master Toys Far East Ltd.
Room # 1013A
10th Floor
Chinachem Golden Plaza
77 Mody Rd.
Tsimshatsui E., Kowloon
Hong Kong
Phone 852.2301.3822
Fax  852.2301.1820

http://www.spinmaster.com/company/

Aqua Doodle, the toy
http://www.spinmaster.com/products/toy.jsp?ID=1086

There have been some allegations about SpinMaster toy safety, but it
seems Aqua Doodle has had no such allegations made.
http://www.spinmaster.com/media/pressRelease.jsp?ID=1053
and
Recalled toys (again, no mention of AquaDoodle)
http://www.spinmaster.com/02170.doc

Spin Master supports charitable organizations, including the Leukemia
Research Fund of Canada!
http://www.spinmaster.com/media/pressRelease.jsp?ID=1036

Hope this provides the answer you were seeking! If any part of this
answer is unclear, please request an Answer Clarification, before
rating. This will allow me to assist you further, if possible. Thank
you for bringing this toy to my attention-it looks like a great gift
for some small people I know!

Regards,
crabcakes

Search Terms
Aqua Doodle
Spine Master Toys

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Request for Answer Clarification by julius6300-ga on 18 Mar 2004 08:04 PST

I was hoping that I would get the technical name of the material used
for the mats. Identifying the distributor is the easy part because
Spinmaster is the only distributor of Aqua Doodle in North America and
I can get that by typing into any search engine. I can see you have
tried to be helpful here but I am none the wiser.
The safety side is not what I was interested in - I am looking for
somewhere I can buy larger pieces of this material because Spinmaster
and Ravensburger (the European distributor) won't sell anything larger
than their standard one size mat. Also they don't reveal where I can
buy the material in larger pieces.

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Clarification of Answer by crabcakes-ga on 18 Mar 2004 09:37 PST

Hi julius6300,

Thank you julius6300, for your clarification, and thank you for noting
I was trying to be helpful by answering your question. (The safety
information I provided was just additional information, and not
intended to be the answer)

With all due respect, your question was worded as such:
 
"What is the name and manufacturer of the synthetic white mats sold as a
toy for children's painting, that turns blue on contact with water and
dries again within few minutes."

This is what I provided you. It now sounds like you already had that information. 

In your clarification you say "I am looking for
somewhere I can buy larger pieces of this material because Spinmaster
and Ravensburger (the European distributor) won't sell anything larger
than their standard one size mat. Also they don't reveal where I can
buy the material in larger pieces." It sounds as if you had already
contacted the company yourself.

Again, respectfully, I'm wondering why you asked for the "name and
manufacturer of the synthetic white mats ..."

I did check, but was unable find anything, am an unable to assist you
in your second request.

I will ask that the editors remove my answer.

You might consider cancelling this question and asking another, worded
so researchers may better know what you want:

For example:
Spin Master Toys makes a product called Aqua Doodle, consisting of a
white mat that turns blue on contact with water. The mat turns white
again, within a few minutes of being removed from the water and dried.
I'm interested in knowing what the mat material is made of, and where
I might purchase some of this matting, in a size larger than the mat
that is sold as Aqua Doodle.
I already have the manufacturer's contact information, and I've
already contacted them. They will not sell me any of this material,
nor will they reveal the composition of the mat. I'd really like to
purchase a piece of this matting material, in a size much larger than
the Aqua Doodle mat.
Can you find where I can purchase this matting and what it is made of?

Sincerely,
crabcakes

---

Request for Answer Clarification by julius6300-ga on 19 Mar 2004 01:52 PST

Thank you for your excellent example - I guess I did not phrase the
question clearly. It is the first time I use this service, and I must
say that the question is probably tougher than I suspected. Would you
care to estimate the effort required to get the name of the answer and
I may take it further.
Best 
- Joel

---

Clarification of Answer by crabcakes-ga on 19 Mar 2004 08:12 PST

Hi julius6300,

No problem! All of the researchers here want to give you the best
answer possible. Sometimes we misread a question, and sometimes a
question is not worded to exactly reflect what the asker really wants!

This answer will be removed, and you will not be charged. You can post
the new question, if you like,and perhaps another researhcr will have
better luck.

However, I imagine that the composition of the mats is a trade secret,
one that is patented and highly guarded, much like the recipe for Coca
Cola!

Good Luck! 
Regards,
crabcakes

Absolutely spot on. Thank you very much for getting back to me after such a while.

The material used in the Aqua Doodle is patented by The Pilot Ink Co.,
Ltd. (Aichi, JP) and was filed on January 7, 1999

You can get the full description at
http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/search-bool.html  just type in the
patent number (below).

When you pull up the patent page be sure to click on "referenced by"
as this will lead you to other, possilby similiar patents.  In
particular patent  6,730,190 might be interesting to you - it was
filed in May 2004 by two guys in Texas.

Below is from the USPTO relating to the material used in the AquaDoodle

United States Patent  	 6,416,853
Nakashima ,   et al. 	July 9, 2002
Color-change laminates and toy sets with the use thereof

Abstract

A color-change laminate comprising a substrate and formed thereon a
porous layer which comprises a low-refractive-index pigment dispersed
in a binder resin and tenaciously adherent thereto is disclosed. The
porous layer becomes transparent or translucent upon absorption of a
liquid medium, e.g., water to give a variety of visual changes. The
low-refractive-index pigment contains at least a finely particulate
silicic acid produced by the wet process. Toy sets consisting of the
above color-change laminates with dolls or toy animals and toy sets
consisting of the above color-change laminates with a means of water
adhesion are also provided.

Absolutely spot on. And thanks for getting back to me after what
seemed like an impossibly difficult request.