Everybody was looking for the Tool Man last week at the National Hardware Show at McCormick Place.
One guy “thought it was a hoax.” Another joked that maybe “Elvis is here” instead of the man who has become the comedy king of home improvement junkies all over the country.
“Where is he?” someone asked Richard Karn, who plays Al Borland on the Tool Man’s hit ABC series “Home Improvement” and just happened to be walking by.
“He’s looking for more power!” Karn answered.
After standing around for more than an hour, people finally got to see their grunting, power-mad, hardware-loving idol: Tim Allen.
“It seems like a natural tie-in” to have Allen at the hardware show, according to Michael Myers, 45, of L.E. Johnson Products in Elkhart, Ind., “considering his comedy act and his TV show.”
“You’ve got a wacky crowd here,” Allen said during a presentation of a line of hardware products he designed himself.
That’s right: Allen, who already has a successful TV show, two hit movies (“The Santa Clause,” “Toy Story”) and a best-selling book (“Don’t Stand Too Close to a Naked Man”), now has a line of tools with his name on them.
Allen was appearing at a booth for Ryobi, which is manufacturing Allen’s Signature Tool Line. The line includes a cordless power drill, several non-power hand tools, tool kits, first-aid kits (naturally, since Allen’s Tim Taylor character is the poster boy for Accident-Prone Syndrome) and even a tool line for kids. The stuff should be out in October.
Allen has just finished a movie, “Jungle2Jungle,” which is targeted for a spring release. He’s close to finishing a new book, which he calls “a comical guide through physics and metaphysics . . . a little jokey, a little bit real.” (Don’t laugh. Macho image aside, Allen is intelligent and a deep thinker.)
So why is this guy fooling around designing tools? Considering who Allen is, why not?
“This is me. There’s so much cool stuff here, if you like this kind of stuff,” Allen said after a rollicking presentation. (At one point, when a Ryobi spokesman said Allen would take one more question from the crowd, Allen chimed in, “And then we can all get naked!”)
“I had no idea how much I love hardware stores,” Allen added, downing a soft drink in a seating area above the Ryobi booth. “And this (exposition) is like the biggest damn hardware store.”
Anybody who knows Allen realizes his getting involved with tool design isn’t at all odd because no matter how successful he has become, the standup comic still remains a regular guy with the same passions he has had all his life.
“I’m in a position now to get deep into things I’ve always dreamt about, i.e. cars and tools. I just love this business.”
Allen, 43, studied industrial design during the last two years of college (he graduated from Western Michigan University). “This is exactly what I wanted to do, probably above making cars. Coming up with a design idea that would improve an existing (design).
“You can’t reinvent the hammer–it’s already done. You can’t reinvent the chair–it’s already done. But you can add your little tweaks to it.”
After coming up with a design for a hammer, Allen went looking for a manufacturer. But some of the companies he talked to “just wanted me to sign my name on something and that was it. Pay me some amount of money, and that’s an endorsement, I guess.” But that wasn’t enough for the Tool Man.
“I’ve taken care of my daughter’s college education, I’ve got a couple of (vintage) cars I wanted, and my house is getting close to being paid off, so I’ve got the things that most people worry about. Money wasn’t the total object.”
Allen couldn’t be more pleased with the results of his designs.
“You think it in your mind, you write it on a piece of paper, you go through the horribly long process of making it happen, and there it is. It may not be everything you wanted but, damn, you did something. You made something out of nothing. There’s no feeling like it.”
And Allen was equally pumped up about the upcoming sixth season of “Home Improvement” (8 p.m. Tuesdays, WLS-Ch. 7).
He called it “probably the best of all of them, if our first three (episodes) are any indication.”
Allen said one of the three Taylor boys will “learn about sex a little bit,” and the Tool Man himself on the opening episode will “get on an aircraft carrier with `Tool Time.’ Just imagine . . . !”
More important, the writers will have “Jill (Patricia Richardson) and Tim do what they do best: argue, then make up. Jill and Tim are back with a vengeance. All the people who watch the show (while it’s being taped) say we’re back. It’s going to be a spectacular premiere on the 17th (of September).”
And if all of that fails, Allen always has his tool line.
“My grandfather said if it cost a little more for quality, you go for the quality,” he told the crowd at the Ryobi booth. Then Allen announced his new power drill will cost “$81,000 (actually $89) . . . but it has a lifetime guarantee.”
