It occurs to me that the essence of a blog such as this, and likely most of them, is commentary on changes observed. The toy industry, like all industries, is in flux. There is near constant change, though the pace of change is always changing.

            

Large retailers such as Walmart and Target continue to shed vendors, preferring to work with larger companies that have a known product with known performance. Instead of dedicating four feet of shelf space for Hot Wheels and another foot of miscellaneous small vehicles that may not sell as well and may have to be closed out and marked down, why not make your life as a buyer simpler and just add one foot of retail to Hot Wheels, with a guaranteed 25% margin, and eliminate all the others?

 

 

            

This makes things easier for the retailer and harder for the smaller toy companies. However, it is becoming easier for these small companies to sell to other, non-Big-Box retail venues. More and more we are seeing book stores, auto parts stores, and other channels of distribution carrying toys. One of the companies we work with lists Kohl's as a major customer. I didn’t even know Kohl's sold toys. I'd never even been in a Kohl's until I heard this.

            

Crisis and change is merely opportunity riding the dangerous wind. Like riding a bull, enduring current times may be rough, but there are opportunities for those who can ride this bucking bull of change. I wish us all luck.

 

 

 

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Yesterday I had the extreme pleasure once again, as I do every year, to talk about my career as an entrepreneur, independent businessman, inventor and specifically a creator of toys and games at a local school's Career Day. Through stories about Fireball Island, VacMan, TMX Elmo, Baby Go Boom, Tumble Time Tigger, and our Talking Electronic Microscope, I was able to share with those students my enthusiasm and passion for the process of invention.

            

Fireball Island was inspired by a 3D, distortion printed, vacuum-formed map that I envisioned as a great new type of game board surface, and it was. VacMan was inspired by a photo in a book on pneumatic structures, showing an example of a vacuumatic arch that was soft like a giant beanbag until the air was evacuated, and then could be formed into an arch on which a person could sit.

            

Tumble Time Tigger started life as a doll, and the original cartwheeling doll started life as a question: "Can we make a motorized cartwheeling doll?" It turned out, after many months of work, that we could indeed.

            

At the end of my presentation the 8th graders swarmed over VacMan, pumping, stretching, and marveling at a little bit of magic they had never seen before. A group of girls took up playing with TMX Elmo, giggling, laughing, and having a wonderful time. Good toys excite and delight. It is too bad they have such a short life in the stores.

            

My fellow presenter that morning, the CEO of a local maker of municipal equipment, told me that TMX Elmo should be reintroduced every decade or so. He considered it a timeless toy that would never go out of style - that kids would still love that toy fifty years from now. From his mouth to God’s ears.

 

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The cost of manufacturing toys in China is up as much as 20% in the last year alone, and that is on top of the increases of recent years. Labor costs are the main reason for the most recent increases, as well as new requirements for safety testing, material costs, and shipping.

 

 

            

A toy with a single motor mechanism, of which we have created and sold many, will now retail for $30, when only a few years ago it would have been $19.95. A two motor, TV promoted mechanism is now $50 at retail, where a few years ago it would have been $29.95 - $34.95. 

            

Meanwhile, consumers are not making more money, the economy is not up, and people are not better off. What will this mean for the kind of toys that we create so many of, and what will it mean for the toy industry as a whole that all toys have become more expensive? I have always been of the mind that ‘cream rises to the top’ and that doing great work will yield success in even a shrinking pond. But it makes you think. 

 

 

            

P.S. A big thank you to Cesar and Mike for sharing some of your toy industry perspectives in recent guest blog posts. 

 

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We need to adapt, to get better at what we do, to evolve or else wither away. When I first got into the toy industry, Sears was the world’s #1 retailer and #1 toy retailer. All the toy companies came to Chicago on a regular basis to meet with the Sears buyers and sell their wares. 

            

 

 

I sold my first product as a young designer at Marvin Glass & Associates to the Galoob brothers. They visited Glass to look at new concepts while on one of their visits to Sears. This proximity made Chicago a very good location for Marvin Glass, and may well be the reason that Chicago has become the world's epicenter for toy and game invention. 

            

 

 

At the time when Sears was #1 and Kmart was #2, there was a lively toy wholesaler segment of the industry, and few had heard of Walmart. Hard to believe. Fast forward 30 years, and things are quite different. 

 

 

            

What will the retail and toy landscape look like 30 years from now?

 

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