Up Against The Wall.

Very proud of my friend Brian who never ceases to amaze me with his ideas, creativity, writing and business sense. I never knew he would let those pesky plastic wall anchors that come with just about every home or office accessory that need to be mounted on a wall get the best of him. But the way I figure it, he’s been frustrated for years. But rather than get a prescription from his local shrink to tame his anxiety, fear and depression from such things, he took his health and mindset into his own hands and assumed responsibility for his well being and did something about it. But jis tenacity and wanton now may help the rest of the population suffering from such “anchor anxiety”. You see a few years ago solved the problem by coming up with an idea that would make hanging things on the wall (or ceiling) much easier and more secure than traditional screw anchors, toggle bolts and the slew of other devices that litter the hardware store’s shelves.

For the sake of his mind and body, he set out to make a better mousetrap.

The result is the Raptor Hammer-in Wall Anchor. The key differentiator with the anchor’s you’ve painfully hassled with in the past? Simple. You hammer it into the wall. No need to scramble to find the right drill bit. Simply pull out your rusty old hammer and nail that raptor into the wall. Once your Raptor is secure in the wall you use a wide range of screws, which unlike other hollow-wall fasteners, Raptor Anchors accept various screw sizes, including numbers 6, 8, 10, 12. Or, simply choose any of a number of the handy Raptor ZIP pins available. Choose one best for your application and push it into the anchor with your thumb. Whether you’re hanging a picture frame, affixing a smoke detector to the ceiling or finally replacing those towell bars in the guest bathroom, there’s a ZIP pin that’ll work for you. Raptor anchors are more secure, easier to install and less messy.

I guess that’s why the veritable Popular Mechanics magazine named Brian’s Raptor Anchors gave them the Editor’s Choice Award at the hardware industry’s annual National Hardware Show last week in Las Vegas. So my hat is off to Brian and his brother Greg and I wish them good luck and success with Raptor Anchors. I’m sure this award and visibility will give a boost to their efforts to gain distribution or licensing deals in the future. That means perhaps you’ll soon see them at your local Ace, TrueValue or Home Depot hardware store in the future.

Photos: The Raptor Hammer-in Wall Anchor; Greg (l) and Brian (r) Brown of Raptor.