Experiment in creating a toy company

Experiment in creating a toy company
Posted in
Off TopicI'm bored so I'm creating a fake toy company in my head/on paper to see how you could do it right and make what folks want.
1) fair price
2) made in USA with American materials
3) non-union workers
4) good articulation, high QC
5) originals and rights to characters folks want.
any other ideas

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Posted by
somebody1 on Saturday, September 5, 2009
User Comments
Star Trek on eBay
and Digitek and Killpower!
200ad toys once released a limited range which was not widely available.
Characters like Nemesis the Warlock, Strontium Dog, Rogue Trooper(one of the greatest characters of all time , and THE best PS2 game!) D.R and Quich, ACE Trucking co and the ABC Warriors are BEGGING for toys to be made of them!!!
ABC Warriors:
Rogue Trooper:
D.R. and Quinch:
Strontium Dog:
Nemesis the Warlock:
ACE Trucking Co:
Besides you have to start somewhere. Do you really think a small toy company is going to get the rights to big name characters right away? Not a chance in hell. You'd have to start with lesser known properties and underground/ indie is the way to go. Of coarse you'd have to pick characters with bigger fan followings.
Just like anything you have to gain experience and pay your dues.
quote]
Who says those will sell? Remember LCBH? Great figures, but nobody really knew who they were (execpt for CB fans like us). Why would you want to buy something you don't know? They even put Marv and Conan in the series! Not a good chioce. The line was over after 2 series.
Also if you can build a badass portfolio on original creations you could get approached by companies without have to go to them.
2-made in USA with American materials...this would be a major part of your overhead expense. Lease or ownership of a factory, expensive equipment, etc...Toys are produced overseas where people are willing to work for next to nothing. We need more job opportunites in the USA, but most people would probably rather be on unemployment than to work for small wages.
3-non-union workers...possible, but they would have to be paid well which ties in with point 2.
4-good articulation, high QC...This seems to me to be one of the easiest problems to fix with a toy company. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out how to engineer good articulation, and there are plenty of talented sculptors who would love to have a chance at seeing their work immortalized in plastic. It would also help if the toy company credited the creators and artists who concieved the figure. Perhaps a little notoriety would offset a slightly lesser salary or wage for their services.
5-originals and rights to characters folks want...originals would be easy, rights to pre-existing figures are another story. Perhaps new characters would be the easiest to procure, they will not have been around long enough for lawyers and executives to have made a legal mess out of.
Anyone considering starting a toy company here in the continental United States would probably need a lot of money upfront. They would need a business education/experience or at least have assistance or partnership with someone with someone who does. Initial overhead costs would have to be researched and calculated very carefully. It would probably be a good idea to start very modestly with small production runs. If your product is good enough, people will be willing to pay a lot for it, and if it is a small production run, it could end up being highly sought after ergo generating attention and interest in future production runs. I kind of like what the 4 Horseman have done, but they have their stuff manufactured overseas and have suffered from a plethora of quality control issues. But still, producing 1 "collector's" figure a year seems (on the surface at least) to be a good idea for a way to start a toy company. I hope that they can get their qc issues resolved and are able to meet their scheduled release dates. Perhaps they will grow into a pretty big company some day. I know they are well known and do a lot of sculpting for Mattel and other companies as well, but if they get their act together, they would not need to contract out to other companies. If I could, I would make toys for a living, but then it might just become a job and not be fun anymore. But if given the chance, I would love to take a stab at it...it's not like my current job is that much fun anyways.