Some inventions are designed to save people's lives. Some improve the way we live, while others make things easier or more convenient for us. And some inventions cause revolutions that forever change the course of human history - electricity, automobiles and space travel are examples of this.
Others, however, play Al Green songs out of the mouth of a dancing plastic fish mounted on a wall.
But that doesn't mean this last kind of invention can be any less lucrative than the first ones. Sometimes, people invent things that seem completely out of left field, and then they go on to make millions of dollars off of their unique creation. They're the kind of odd yet simple ideas that make us go, "Why didn't I think of that?" (Years later, however, many of us may be asking ourselves, "Why the heck did I buy that?" instead.)
Many of the people who have profited from off-kilter inventions aren't genius mathematicians or brilliant engineers. They're just ordinary, creative people who saw an opportunity or came up with a unique product that happened to sell well. But while some of these inventions were big hits at the time, many of them haven't aged so well.
In this article, we'll explore the more unusual and spectacular products of human creativity, the kind that (surprisingly) can also make a ton of money -- fast. We'll examine how they capitalized on novelty or then-usefulness, and see just how profitable they became.
Who knows? Maybe an item on this list will cause you to have your next big flash of genius.
5: The Singing Fish
By all appearances, these devices looked like normal fishing trophies -- a bass or trout mounted onto a wooden plaque that was then nailed to the wall. But with the push of a button, a motion sensor could be activated, causing the fish to turn its head and tail while a recording of "Don't Worry, Be Happy" or "Take Me to the River" would play when an unsuspecting person passed by.
The device was originally created by a novelty toy company in Texas in the late 1990s. By some stroke of fate, or perhaps as a monument to buyers' questionable taste and willingness to annoy their family members, it became a massive success.
By the start of the 2000s, the "singing fish" had become a hugely popular gag gift, novelty item and holiday stocking stuffer. Stores sold hundreds of singing fish each hour and struggled to keep them in stock. Sales of the fish topped 1 million in that year alone [source: Schuessler].
The fish spawned a slew of imitators, including other fish, lobsters and even Christmas trees that sung holiday music. But, like all novelty items, the freshness eventually wore off, as did being constantly surprised by the fish and hearing the same song over and over again. Their popularity eventually tapered off, and while the fish can still be found in stores across the country, it's not nearly as in-demand as it once was.
A New York Times article from the year 2000 tells the story of how a man took a Billy Bass to work early in the morning and had it surprise his co-workers. The man said it was "hysterical" [source: Schuessler].
Today, more than a decade later, bringing a singing fish to your workplace probably wouldn't go over so well.
4: The Snuggie
Imagine you're sitting on your couch reading a book on a cold December day. It's chilly in your home, so rather than turn your heater up, you decide to use a blanket. But wait! The blanket starts to limit the use of your hands. What are you to do? If you're willing to risk a little embarrassment, you can solve this problem by becoming one of the millions of owners of sleeved blankets like the Snuggie or its less-popular competitor the Slanket.
Perhaps what makes the Snuggie and similar blankets a weird invention is its lack of complexity. It's merely a blanket with sleeves that keeps you warm and allows your hands to stay free while you read a book, enjoy a beverage or use a TV remote. Of course, you could simply wear a robe or a sweater when you get cold, but where's the fun in that?
Still, you can't deny the Snuggie's appeal. More than 20 million Americans purchased a Snuggie between fall 2008 and Christmas 2009, at between $10 and $20 per blanket [source: Heher].
It doesn't take a math wizard to find out that the inventor of sleeved blankets is probably very wealthy today.
Sales continue to be strong, and Snuggies for kids and pets (yes, pets) have made waves as gift items. They're a common sight on airplanes and at sporting events, and have even inspired "Snuggie pub crawls" where wearers trot from bar to bar while staying warm and keeping their hands free in ways a normal blanket could never begin to offer. You may risk public embarrassment, but at least you'll stay warm.
3: Furby
Quick! What has two feet, two eyes, rabbit ears, a bird-like-beak and can supposedly learn to speak English over time? If you didn't guess the Furby -- well, odds are no one would hold it against you. The Furby was the hottest toy on the market in the late 1990s, but its popularity faded just as quickly as it came.
The original Furby came out in 1998. Released by Tiger Electronics, it was 6 inches (15.2 centimeters) tall, covered in colorful fur, and would wiggle and move its various body parts when it was played with. The main appeal of the Furby was that it was marketed as one of the first "artificial intelligence" toys to go on sale in large numbers.
The toys would speak in a language called "Furbish." Over time, the Furby was programmed to speak less of its gibberish language and more of English, though it was billed as being able to "learn" to speak a new language [source: Shop4ElectronicPets.co.uk]. There were also games you could play with your Furby, and different scenarios would happen when you put two Furbys together.
They cost around $40 originally, but like many popular holiday toys, demand caused their prices to skyrocket -- to hundreds of dollars in some cases. In just three years, more than 40 million Furbies were sold, making the little devices a lucrative business for a time. They came in all shapes, sizes, and themes, including a Christmas Furby, Halloween Furby and even a 2000 Presidential Election Furby [source:AdoptAFurby.com].
Despite consumers having access to a Furby for all seasons, the creatures' popularity began to fade as the years passed. Maybe it was the limited amount of things they were capable of -- or maybe their novelty just wore off.
Furbys can still be found on the Internet, but are largely no longer for sale in stores. If you happen to have a Furby lying around in your closet somewhere, maybe you should dig it out sometime. Who knows? It may have something interesting to say.
2: Tamagotchi
Like the Furby, this next entry is another relic from the 1990s designed to simulate the experience of owning a pet. However, this pet was more prone to dying than just about any other being on the planet.
If you've ever dreamed of cleaning up the virtual excrement of a chirping, battery-powered egg that goes on your keychain, then the Tamagotchi was for you. It was probably the best selling of all the electronic "virtual pets" that were popular at the end of the 20th century. It seemed like just about everyone owned one of the small, egg-shaped devices with a black-and-white LCD screen and a bouncing, beeping animal contained inside.
The Tamagotchi name is a portmanteau of the Japanese word for "egg" and the English word "watch." Japanese toymaker Bandai first unveiled the tiny devices in 1996. It worked like this: You turned the Tamagotchi on, gave it a name and then used the buttons on the device to feed it, play games with it, put it to sleep when it was tired and you even cleaned up its waste. It was designed to simulate the experience of owning a real pet, like a cat or a dog. The creature would even grow and change into different versions if you took good enough care of it.
For a few years, Bandai estimated they were selling one Tamagotchi per second. Over 70 million have been sold since then, and they were popular (and simple) enough to have spawned a slew of imitators [source:Takahashi].
However, the earliest Tamagotchi pets required near constant attention or they would "die," mandating a reset of the device so the process could be started over. This made them quite unpopular with parents and teachers who noticed their kids would take care of the toys at the expense of everything else.
Believe it or not, Tamagotchis are still on sale. Elementary school kids today can still be seen toting them on their backpacks, though probably not in the huge numbers they once did.
1: Pet Rock
What is arguably the weirdest invention of all time to make millions of dollars wasn't really an invention at all. The Pet Rock spawned a huge fad in the 1970s and made its creator a millionaire almost overnight.
It's tough to call the Pet Rock an invention, because after all, how can you invent a rock? But Gary Dahl, an advertising executive from California, figured out a way to decorate and market rocks in way that caught on like wildfire.
Dahl purchased ordinary gray pebbles from a construction supplier and sold them as pets, with some models having faces painted on or glued-on googly eyes.
It was the marketing, not the product that was truly the brilliant part of the Pet Rock. Dahl billed it as the perfect pet, one that never needed to be fed or cleaned up after. Owners could talk to it, name it, or teach it to do simple tricks, much of which was outlined in a humorous manual included with the pet. Many owners painted them or found other ways to personalize their rocks.
The Pet Rock originally sold for $3.95 when they went on sale in 1975 -- about $16 in today's dollars. Maybe it was the rocks' quirkiness, or maybe people in the 1970s were simply desperate for companionship, but Dahl sold more than 5 million of them in just six months. In today's dollars, he would have made over $56 million in that time period. The reason Dahl made such a huge profit was that there was very little overhead involved -- buying the rocks and delivering them only cost him 95 cents per rock, leaving the other $3 as pure profit [source: PetsDo].
Pet Rocks have made something of a comeback on the Internet in recent years. They can still be bought online, though many are fancier and have more features than Dahl's original design. It just goes to show that you can't keep a good idea down, no matter how offbeat it seems.
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