Flying Minds - The Defunct Cyberchase Merch Empire (part 1)
So, I fell down a bit of a rabbit hole recently. I started looking into a long-defunct company called Flying Minds that had an association with Cyberchase. It all started when I was looking at my DVD of Ecohaven CSE and found this.
Calling all Cyberchase fans... For your exclusive Cyberchase download, check out www.flyingminds.com
There were some free downloadable items available on the actual pbskids.org website back in the day. There were a few downloadable flash-based screensavers and a calculator voiced by Bianca. These have been preserved on the Flashpoint Archive. However, I have no idea what this exclusive download from flyingminds.com would have been. I would be very curious if it was still circulating today. Unfortunately, it seems very unlikely that it would have been preserved by WayBack Machine archives, since you needed to put in a promotional code to get it.
Regardless, I started looking into the archives of the flyingminds website to see what they had to do with Cyberchase. It turned out that they sold a bunch of Cyberchase-branded products back in the day. Before I get to that though, I figure I should set the scene for what Cyberchase merch looks like today. Here is the official PBS kids store.
It's mostly clothing. We can see shirts, hoodies, baseball caps, and a tote bag. We can see some stuff themed after the 20th anniversary of the show, while other stuff is more generic. I've seen the exact same catalogue on a site called merchmake, so perhaps this is who the current show-runners contracted the merch out to.
I also found some more baggage on a site called personalized planet. While this isn't the official PBS Kids store, I'm pretty sure this is legitimate.
I'm only including stuff that I believe is official. I'm not talking about Etsy here, since that tends to be unofficial fan-works. I'm also not talking about Redbubble, since its so infamous for art theft.
So, that's about it for official Cyberchase merch in the present day. There's not very much of it. However, if wind the clock back to 2005 when Flying Minds was active, things were very different. They had a partnership with Thirteen/WNET New York to bring out a much wider variety of Cyberchase merchandise. Let me show you through Wayback Machine archives. Unfortunately, much of their catalog photos were not archived, but I'll see what I can do to supplement. I think the best place to start here is with Flying Minds's own explanation as to what they were doing with Cyberchase.
What is Flying Minds? Established in October 2004, Flying Minds is a partnership between C&T Ventures and Thirteen/WNET New York working together to bring you cool, innovative products that will engage your children in a world of fun learning. Flying Minds has teamed up with Thirteen/WNET's acclaimed children's program, Cyberchase, to be your online store for Cyberchase gear, including school supplies, apparel, games and toys. As co-producer of this award-winning show, we are very proud to be a part of the Cyberchase family and will continue to work closely with the creators of the program to bring you exclusive products for many years to come.
In keeping with our mission to provide "Cool Stuff for Clever Kids" (and adults too), Flying Minds is committed to making your visit to our site an enjoyable experience. To this end, we will continue to develop and seek out quality products, activities and services (both fun and educational) that meet our demanding standards. Whether through information to help kids learn about financial literacy or a loyalty program where kids and adults can spend or save points, our goal is to grow Flying Minds into a company that provides an interactive and entertaining experience for our customers.
Most importantly, your purchases at www.flyingminds.com help to support Cyberchase and Public Television. For cool activities and to learn more about Cyberchase, visit www.pbskidsgo.org/Cyberchase/.
Most archives I have found of the site are from 2005. Unfortunately, it seems that Flying Minds didn't last very long after all. I know that some of their Cyberchase products are considered collector's items now, and they can get expensive.
Their most famous product is the sole official Cyberchase plush toy, Digit. He's my co-producer for this Tumblr blog.
Let's see what we can gather from the remnants of their site.
The first section on the list is "School Supplies" This was originally two pages, but it seems like only the first page of this section was archived at all. Even then, the pictures from the first page have not been saved.
Just to be clear, the Digit plush that I have is not a backpack. I have only ever seen one size of this plush, so the listing for a "Digit Le Boid Plush Backpack with Accessories" is a bit confusing to me. I haven't seen any vintage Cyberchase backpacks or water bottles floating around either.
I did see a Worthpoint listing for a prior eBay sale of a pencil case, mechanical pencil, and stickers. The pencil case had Flying Minds branding on the back, so it looks like we can fill in that blank. It may have been part of the prizes for either the 2004 or 2005 Cyberchase Online Contests as well.
The next section to look at is the "Toys & Games" section. Once again, only the first page has been archived at all, and all of the images are missing.
So, they talk about a clock with a stop watch, which they also refer to as a keychain. I haven't seen this exact item, but I have seen a Worthpoint listing for another vintage Cyberchase keychain.
I also found a Worthpoint listing for that collector tin with 2 packs of playing cards, so we can document that.
We've already talked about the famous Digit plush. I haven't seen any pictures of the "Super Cyber 100-Piece Floor Puzzle".
Next, we can look at the "Party Supplies" section. There are only two items in here.
I was able to source a picture from pintrest showing an eBay listing for some Cyberchase party supplies. I assume these are the same ones that were sold through Flying Minds, as it was listed as a party set for 8.
I can see napkins, stickers, plates, cups, and hats. I think I also see placemats (middle right), cards (bottom middle), wrapping paper (top right), and some sort of cardboard hanging decorations (bottom right).
Next, we can move on to the "Apparel" section. This is yet another section where only the first page was captured and the images were lost.
Once again, we have those backpacks that I wasn't able to source. photos for. However, I was able to source photos from an eBay listing for the "Cyberchase Bad Guys Baseball Cap"
Next, we get to look at the "DVDs, CDs, and VHS" section. Unfortunately, this section's original proud 4 pages have been cut down to a single page of entries with their pictures missing.
Thankfully, these four DVDs are pretty well-circulated these days, so they aren't mysterious.
The other half of site is marked as "Math and Money". However, it is a mixture of items that are branded Cyberchase and items that are not branded as Cyberchase, so I will go through them.
First, we have "Math and Money - Games".
I actually figured out what "Moneywise Kid$" is, as the website for the developer, Strom Mfg., showcases the box.
PayDay was a money-management board game that was originally released in 1974. With that in mind, I believe that Flying Minds would have been selling the 30th anniversary edition in 2004-2005.
"Buy It RIght" was probably this board game version from 2002.
This was probably what they were talking about with "Flip 4".
We can move on to "Toys & Banks". Unfrotunately, I don't think contains the amazing bank that Slider assembled for "The Snelfu Snafu"
I was able to find the Moonjar Classic Moneybox on Moonjar's website.
The other items have such generic names that I won't be able to provide a definite answer.
Continued in part 2, as I hit the image limit.
