Are You a "Painter of Light?"

Eat your heart out Thomas Kinkade. Business Wire reports that Hasbro is conducting a search for the “Best and Brightest LITE-BRITE Artists” in America to compete for prizes topping $5,000. Entry forms are available at www.litebrite.com.

From the pages of The Playmakers, pictured above is the actual 1967 Toy Fair prototype of Lite-Brite. Designed by Burt Meyer of the legendary design firm Marvin Glass & Associates, Lite-Brite started off as two thick plastic panels with an identical series of holes in each. Meyer sandwiched black paper in between the panels to block out the light, which was generated from a household light bulb. When translucent-colored pegs were plugged into the holes, they perforated the paper blocking the light and appeared to magically “turn on.”

Kids have been painting with colored pegs ever since.