If you're the parent of a seven-to-12 year-old boy, get ready for the Nanovor. What's a Nanovor?

They are silicon-based nanoscopic dust mites that live inside your computer. At least that's the story behind the fictional world created by Jordan Weisman, a Seattle area gaming executive who has been known to strike gold with his past creations.

After nearly two years of secrecy, Weisman and his team of game and toy designers at Bellevue-based Smith & Tinker are unveiling the free online monster battle game today.

But Nanovor is much more than just another online strategy game or virtual world. It's a physical toy. It's a cartoon series. It's a comic book. And -- most importantly -- it's a new type of entertainment product that allows kids to participate in both online and offline play.  

Quite simply, Nanovor represents one very large bet. And the folks at Smith & Tinker are spending some big bucks to get the word out.

Backed with an undisclosed amount of funding from the likes of Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures, Foundry Group, Alsop Louie Ventures and others, Smith & Tinker plans to spend $4 million between now and the end of the year on TV ads, newspaper circulars and other marketing efforts, said Smith & Tinker co-founder and president Joe Lawandus.

Nanoscopes

That's a hefty sum, especially for a startup that's just emerging on the scene. But the company believes it has developed something unique: creating the first game that "connects the dots" between physical toys and online game play.

"We have built a company that does one thing -- and that is the convergence of digital and analog play," said Lawandus, a former executive at Cranium and Disney. "So we have hired a team that comes from all of those various industries, and we've stuck ourselves in a blender and we are trying to do what is a seamless product."

As part of that, the 45-person company has lined up retail partnerships with Target, Toys 'R' Us, Best Buy and others who this October will begin selling the "Nanoscope" --  a $49.99 mobile device that allows kids to take the Nanovor battle game to the playground, sleepovers or wherever else they want to engage in head-to-head virtual combat.

It's Smith & Tinker's equivalent to the iPod -- a single purpose device designed to get kids playing Nanovor "offline."

Up to four Nanoscopes can be attached via a magnet built into the device, allowing kids to send their Nanovor characters into battle against one another. If there's no one around to play with, Smith & Tinker also is selling a separate $7.99 cartridge pre-loaded with Nanovor so that kids can play by themselves.

After they are done playing with the Nanoscope -- either solo or against others -- kids can connect it via a USB cable to the PC  (no Mac version at this time) so points accrued offline also register in the online version of the game.

Not everyone who plays Nanovor will buy the Nanoscope, but Lawandus said it allows serious game players to enhance their characters. The group play element also becomes a walking advertisement of sorts, spreading virally as more kids adopt the device.

In fact, Smith & Tinker is not planning to make as much money on the device as traditional toy companies usually do.

Smith & Tinker's Charles Merrin and Joe Lawandus

The company's big bet is to cash in online, a twist from concepts such as Webkinz and UB Funkeys which make most of their money from retail sales of connected toys.

Smith & Tinker, on the other hand, plans to make most of its money by selling $1.75 online "booster packs" -- which essentially give kids a new Nanovor. (You can collect more than 100). It is also creating a token-based trading system so kids can trade more powerful characters to one another, with Smith & Tinker taking a small "transaction" fee each time a trade is conducted.

Trading systems. Cartoons. Nanoscopes. Online battles. Retail channels. TV ad campaigns.

There's a lot going on from a business and a game play standpoint, which raised the question in a recent interview whether Smith & Tinker is simply trying to do too much.

Lawandus -- who describes Smith & Tinker as "part entertainment company, part toy company and part video game company all built into one" -- admits that they are tackling a lot. But that also speaks to the opportunity.

"There's a reason why people haven't done this," said Lawandus. "We've had to raise a bunch of money.... And our partners that have invested in it, get it."

Smith & Tinker closed its second round of funding in early July, though Lawandus declined to disclose the amount or the new investors.

However, the company's Web site does now list Steve Arnold of Polaris Ventures as a board member. 

Here's part of the new marketing campaign that Smith & Tinker is rolling out. It is certainly tough to gauge what pre-teen boys will gravitate towards, so what do you think?