We just finished watching the ABC American Inventor show from last Wednesday, June 13 (we TiVo). We were surprised to see that one of the entrants was a paper modeler, Ricky DeRennaux, teacher from Oklahoma! His invention was a radio controlled paper model kit with design software! He demonstrated a paper toy car and he pointed out to the judges that the wheels were 100% paper as well. The judges were very impressed so much that he actually won the LosAngeles leg of the contest! He won 50,000 dollars with the chance to go on to the next phase and the chance to win One Million dollars! The 50,000 is given to finalists to further develop their inventions. He was up against some good inventions: lightweight fold-able wheel chair, clamp for children's hearing aids and more. One of the criteria for the judges selections is that the invention has mass market appeal.
His idea is actually not 100% new as I seem to recall a paper model site that did have the idea of RC paper models, but the wheels were not paper. But, he may be the first to market the idea.
Regardless if he is eventually the One million dollar winner he is getting the idea of paper modeling out there to a broader audience!
American inventor is on Wednesdays 9/8 central on ABC.
Here is the clip featuring
Ricky and his RC paper toys on YouTube
