Allison interviews Rocky Reynolds from Hoto about their line of cool and compact tool sets designed for home use. Hoto’s tool design is sleek and minimalist, resulting in tools that look good and feel good in the hand.
Hoto offers several toolbox sets aimed at different uses. Their toolbox cases are made of heavy-duty ABS plastic, and they have cutouts that lock all of the tools in place.
Rocky first shows Hoto’s Screwdriver Tool Set, containing a small hammer, crescent wrench, tape measure, needle-nose pliers, and a powered driver with various bits. The driver has a shadowless LED light at the front, and it charges through a USB port.
Next is the Electric Screwdriver Kit Pro Tool Set, containing an electric driver that provides three levels of torque. It comes with 25 durable alloy bits and a 1500 mAh battery.
Rocky also shows the Electric Precision Screwdriver Master Set with a smaller electric screwdriver that also has three torque settings. It comes with 25 precision bits and an 800 mAh battery. The driver has a smart chip that prevents over-tightening and protects delicate components.
Rocky concludes with the Hoto’s AutoCare Air Duster and Vacuum. It comes with 5 multi-accessories and two power levels for vacuuming and inflating. It’s compact and portable, perfect for small clean-up jobs in the car.
Learn more at https://www.hototools.com/
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Transcript of Interview
Allison: You know, like any girl, the first thing I’m going to go to at CES is a table full of tools, because I grew up with tools and I love pretty tools. I’m here with Rocky Reynolds from Hoto, and you’ve got some unique designs to your tools. Why don’t you tell me about the products here?
Rocky: Yes, we do. Thanks for stopping by, by the way.
Allison: Of course, it’s so good looking.
Rocky: They are. Our industrial design really is sleek and minimalist. That’s one of the things we really wanted to hit on, and we’ve done that. We felt that the consumers, the homeowners especially, really like that design, prefer that design over the more rough and tough construction type of tools.
Allison: Yeah, yeah. By the way, for pretty, this is an audio only audience in addition to being a video audience, so we’re going to describe this a lot. When I say pretty, I’m not talking about pink. I’m talking about sleek designs. Why don’t you describe this first? This is a tool set. Looks like a really nice looking toolbox. Describe this to them.
Rocky: Really nice heavy duty ABS plastic toolbox case. And then once you open it up, all the tools are locked inside and nestled in their own little compartments. And then once you feel the tools, each one of them, not only do they look good, they feel good. We really hit home with the ergonomics on this.
Allison: Oh my gosh. Yeah, Steve, you got to hold this hammer. It feels so nice. It’s got a soft textured handle. It’s really sleek. It’s a hammer, but it looks like a space age hammer. Now, what’s going on top? It looks like a magnet for the nail there on top.
Rocky: You have the magnet for the nail start if you need it.
Allison: And then what’s this in the center up at the top?
Rocky: That’s just something to make it look good.
Allison: Okay, just look cool. Hey, I’m all about looking cool.
Rocky: Makes it look good. That’s all.
Allison: Now, is this an electric driver we have here?
Rocky: This is our 3.6 volt electric driver. So, you’ll see here, it’s got the shadowless LED on the front.
Allison: So, it’s basically a donut of LED around the shaft. And all this in hand is it’s a cylinder.
Rocky: It’s a cylinder. That is it. It’s an internal 3.6 volt battery, charges by USBC port. Works great. When I received my samples, I pressure tested them. I drove two and a half inch screws into a pressure treated 4×4.
Allison: Seriously?
Rocky: Twenty-two of these on one charge. Two and a half inch. So, they’ll get it done.
Allison: So, I was looking at this and thinking, oh, this is for delicate electronics. This is for real work.
Rocky: Well, I wanted to pressure treat it because I’m like Tim the Toolman Taylor, right? Give me those industrial tools. But when I picked this up, I said, no way this is going to be useful for many things. Boy, was I wrong. I use that. I don’t go to the garage and get my impact or my drill anymore. This stays downstairs. I do everything in the house with this now.
Allison: Really?
Rocky: And the precision one that we have down there, I do everything upstairs. So, this is for normal projects.
Allison: So, let’s walk down here.
Rocky: So, we’ve also got a crescent wrench and a pair of needle nose pliers. We got a pull out rule.
Allison: Oh, you know, I love this tape measure. I got a yo-yo. That’s right.
Rocky: Yeah, absolutely.
Allison: And a USBC port.
Rocky: And it’s auto locking. Of course, you got to have the USBC port.
Allison: Right. Now, you don’t have a lot of bits in this.
Rocky: No, we do not. Not in this case.
Allison: But you sell a lot of bits.
Rocky: We sell a lot of bits in our other configurations.
Allison: Okay.
Rocky: So, this one’s more about the just general home tool set.
Allison: Yeah.
Rocky: These are more about the screw driving sets. So, we give you 25 and 32 bits in these.
Allison: So, I see what you’ve done here though is you’re going to make me buy that one and this one, because I got to have my upstairs and my downstairs one, right? Just like you said. So, it’s got a lot more bits in here.
Rocky: Absolutely. And if you have toddlers like me, have those damn toys with the little tiny screws, you have to have this one.
Allison: So, now we’ve got the cylinder that is like maybe two pencils thick. Little tiny thing.
Rocky: Absolutely. Little tiny thing. And it just works great. Again, same functionality, same design.
Allison: Shadowless LED.
Rocky: Shadowless LED works great. I mean, it works well. I’ve used it on outlets and things upstairs as well, because I was too lazy to go downstairs to get the bigger one.
Allison: Yeah.
Rocky: And it works fine.
Allison: These are beautiful designs.
Rocky: They really are.
Allison: So, if people—oh, wait, the LED’s still on.
Rocky: Oh, it’s all right. It’ll go.
Allison: It’ll turn off on its own. Oh, even better. And now, wait a minute. Now, we’ve got one more thing. I was about to be done with tools, but I think I see a vacuum down here.
Rocky: You do see a vacuum down there. That is our auto vac. It actually is a two in one. So, not only does it vac, it also serves as an inflator or blower on the other end. So, if you press the power button—
Allison: Okay.
Rocky: You’ll see that.
Allison: Wait, let’s get the mic right in there for the best audio. Oh, good. Thank you.
Rocky: Oh, yeah. There you go.
Allison: Yeah. My hair’s still looking great.
Rocky: But you also have it suck.
Allison: Oh, wow. He’s holding out his hand. So, this is a bigger cylinder, maybe three inches in diameter.
Rocky: Yes. And then it has a boost. So, my kids, they spill Cheerios, Fruit Loops in the back seat of the car. I hand them this.
Allison: Oh, you make them do it.
Rocky: I make them do it. They’re four and six. They can vacuum their stuff up. But this is great to keep in the car. Now, I don’t have to let the mess build up to pull out the wet dry vac.
Allison: Right.
Rocky: Right? I just use that for my hunting messes when I get big clumps of mud and stuff in there.
Allison: Serious stuff. So, this is the day-to-day dust, little leaves and stuff like that.
Rocky: This is the day-to-day thing.
Allison: All of these tools are just beautiful. I love the industrial design. So, if people wanted to learn more about the Hoto products, where would they go?
Rocky: Hototools.com.
Allison: And that’s h o t o tools.com.
Rocky: That is the best place to go. We also have our stores on Amazon and walmart.com, and then you’ll see our products actually in store in Costco.
Allison: Oh, very good. Very good. All right, we’ll check it out. Thank you very much, Rocky. This is fantastic. Love it.
Rocky: Thank you. Have a great show.