Video contest win lands Cavalier family five-year supply of toys

• Cyrus Lotz with toy dinosaur

Cyrus Lotz, 4, of Cavalier Air Force Station, N.D., does his best dinosaur impression. Cyrus and his siblings were featured in contest-winning video that earned them a five-year supply of toys from the company VTech and a spot in a company commercial set to air on Nickelodeon today between 6 and 7 p.m.

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Creating a video about transforming dinosaur toys landed a family from Cavalier, N.D., an early Christmas present — a five-year supply of toys.

Miranda Lotz and her three children entered VTech’s video contest and won the grand prize from the toy maker.

The toys showed up earlier this month much to the delight of the kids, Mason, 8, Miriam, 6, and Cyrus, 4.

“They saw the box and screamed ‘Mom, the toys are here!’” Lotz said.

The contest was part of the company’s promotion of its Switch & Go Dinos toys, according to spokesperson Molly Sawyer. “It was our way of engaging the consumer in a fun light.”

A group of dinosaur lovers, Lotz’s kids were smitten with Switch & Go Dinos when the toys appeared on TV.

“They saw a commercial for them, and so I looked them up on VTech’s Facebook page,” Lotz said.

That’s where she saw the advertisement for the contest.

Lotz’s video was one of 15 submitted to the contest, according to Sawyer. Viewers voted on which video they liked best.

In addition to the supply of toys, the family’s video will air on a commercial on Nickelodeon between 6 and 7 tonight.

“We’re having a viewing party at our house,” Lotz said. “We’ve invited pretty much everyone we know.”

The video features her children showing off their homemade transforming dinosaur Parly the Parasaurolophus — a duck-billed dinosaur from the Cretaceous period.

“This is our Switch & Go Dino!” Mason and Miriam shout at the camera.

Then Miriam and Cyrus supply sound effects as Mason reconfigures the cardboard Parly into a motorcycle.

Parly mimics VTech’s line of electronic learning toys consisting of dinosaurs transforming into cars.

“They did really well,” Lotz said of the video. “It only took three or four takes to get it.”

The new toys arrived just in time as the Lotz family is preparing to move to Colorado Springs, Colo., next week.

“Maybe our fame will precede us,” Lotz said with a laugh.

The family has lived in Cavalier Air Force Station for the past two years.

To see the Lotz children's video visit VTech's Facebook page.

Call Jewett at (701) 780-1108; (800) 477-6572, ext. 1108; or send email to bjewett@gfherald.com.

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