Jim Huntley, a former executive at Mattel Inc. and MGA Entertainment Inc., says he got tired of rolling out toys like “throwing spaghetti on the wall and seeing what sticks.”

Instead, he recently launched his own company, Tomorrow Inc., after hundreds of hours of running focus groups on product design, features, packaging and commercials for three lines of toys.

“The vision for the company is that every brand launched must be new and different, or we won’t do it,” said Huntley, 35, the company’s co-founder and chief marketing officer.

Retailers across the U.S. will begin carrying the items July 15 and a national television advertising campaign for the three toys will launch in September. Huntley declined to identify the retailers, but said that mass shopping and toy retailers have already made their orders.

Mama Bear, a plush toy, comes with a recording device so that children can hear a parent’s voice when they squeeze the bear’s paws. There are smaller trinkets with voice-recording features on the market, but Mama Bear, for 2- to 4-year-olds, is the only one that’s huggable, Huntley says.

Jelly Beanie, which looks like an anime character and comes in seven colors, has a patent-pending “heart” that holds scent pellets. The heart is made of rubber material with micro holes. As a result, “Strawberry Bear Sammy,” “Vanilla Armadillo Hilda” and “Cinnamon Cat Cam” will smell sweet for at least 20 months. They come with unique codes to unlock corresponding online characters and games on the company Web site.

“They’re kind of like the Strawberry Shortcake Dolls, but the scent isn’t housed in what we call plastic coffins where it just evaporates,” Huntley said.

Tomorrow Inc. has another patent pending on Britepack, a backpack with a light-emitting diode strip that illuminates on impact. Comparable to light-up shoes, every time a child takes a step while wearing the backpack or rolls it on the wheels, the light strip along the edges of the backpack blinks.

The company, backed by eight private investors from toy, electronic and games sectors, is headquartered in Van Nuys and projects $15 million in sales by 2008.

Cracking the crowded $22 billion toy market won’t be easy, however. At a recent presentation of the toys for prospective retailers, at a hotel near Mattel’s headquarters in El Segundo, Huntley found himself momentarily alone, save for a reporter.

Other well-financed toy companies roll out brands every season. About the same time Mama Bear, Jelly Beanie and Britepack launch in the fall, American Greetings Corp., the creator of Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears, will resurrect the 1980s brand Poppels. One of the plush Poppels will also allow children to record personal messages to keep or share with a friend.

Huntley, a former director of marketing at Mattel, and vice president of marketing at MGA, conceded that launching a toy company takes guts.

“If you’re going to make widgets, toys are phenomenal widgets to make,” he said. “Instead of dealing with adults who’ve seen everything, there will always be new 6- and 7-years olds in the world who haven’t seen everything yet. I personally stick with toys because whenever kids get involved, there’s always magic.”