The official story peddled about this toy’s genesis is that four Japanese engineers were trying to solve the problem of creating a dustless chalkboard. Oh yeah? It’s called a pen and paper, lads. Or is that just too simple for you? Such a story is obviously an elaborate smokescreen for Tyco’s real motivation, which can be neatly summed up in the phrase “let’s get one up on those Etch-A-Sketch bastards”.