The Phelps Toy Company was considering the advisability of adding a new product to its line. Ike Barnes was in charge of new product development. Since the founding of the company in 1974, he had seen sales grow from $150000 a year to almost $40 million in 1992. Although the firm had initially started out manufacturing toy trucks, it had diversified into such items as puzzles, stuffed animals, wall posters, miniature trains, and board games. In 1986, it developed the third most popular board game for the year, based on a popular television quiz show, but the show was canceled two years later. Nevertheless, the firm learned its lesson well and continued to produce board games related not only to quiz shows but to situation comedies and even a popular detective series.