TORRANCE, CA, November 15, 2010 - Torrance has joined three South Bay neighbors on Kickstarter.com, a New York based 'crowdsourcing' platform. jumpSHOT, a Torrance start-up toy company, is using Kickstarter to raise funds for the initial order of its table basketball with patented jump-shooting figurines. In the South Bay, only three other cities have current projects on Kickstarter: Long Beach leads with eight, while Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach have one each. Kickstarter helps creative projects find initial financing.

It all started with an unsuccessful search for that old table basketball game with a plastic catapult shooting ping pong balls. When Vlad Mitvalsky, the founder of jumpSHOT, could not find his childhood favorite game for his son, he invented a better one: one day a bump on a freeway led to an idea of putting a basketball player figurine on that catapult to score.

"I tried to license my new patent to most of the remaining U.S. toy companies for over five years. Many of them didn't even bother to reply" says Mr. Mitvalsky. Visits of several European and Southeast Asian manufacturers led to more disappoinments as most of them were "so afraid of the chinese competition that we've sold them our best machinery" in the words of one of the factory owners.

"With the vision of worldwide licenses for playable action figurines of NBA stars like Kobe, Pau and Yao, I just couldn't give up" says Mr. Mitvalsky. He is selecting manufacturers to produce a basic table basketball for his new venture. He also turned to Kickstarter.com for additional funding.

Kickstarter is a year old web site helping to find financing for creative projects using so-called 'crowdsourcing' similar to micro loans used mostly to support local development in the third world. A project creator offers various rewards in exchange for pre-set 'pledges'. Depending on the dollar amount pledged, the reward may be just an inclusion on a list of benefactors, or a copy of the project's result, like a musical DVD or other product.

"We are offering our table basketball game as the main reward, basically turning a pledge into a discounted pre-order. It should help us to make a bigger initial order without depleting our finances" says Vlad Mitvalsky.

jumpSHOT is a start-up company located in Torrance. Its first product, a table basketball game with two paintable jump-shooting action figurines, will be sold on Amazon.com starting next year. jumpSHOT will promote the game with a 'Paint your favorite player' contest with a winner to be selected during the NBA playoffs. The company also plans to release licensed NBA and NCAA player figurines for use with the basic game and multisport tables. The figurines are likely to become popular collectibles. Other jumpSHOT™ branded toys, some including popular character licenses, will follow.