Companies create dream toys but require money up front.
Strategy provides fans exclusive products
Thomas Brandt has loved the Masters of the Universe franchise since he was a child. Drawn to the sword and sorcery, he has gathered a large collection of HeMan toys over the years.
Now 41, Brandt eagerly supported a crowdfunding project for “the play set that I’ve always wanted”: Snake Mountain, the lair of He-Man’s archnemesis, Skeletor. At 36 inches high and 48 inches wide, the highly detailed purple mountain, made by Super7, a boutique toymaker based in San Francisco, dwarfs the original version, which Mattel made in 1984.
Brandt, an account manager in health care who lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife, paid $600 (plus $150 shipping) and had to wait a year for delivery. “It’s a gamble when you back a project,” he said, but Super7 had built a reputation for reliability, so he felt comfortable with the risk.
Other collectors are opening their wallets to buy exclusive
products, including a $575 Transformers action figure from Hasbro, a $350 Star Wars gunship from Lego, a $75 Magic 8 Ball from Mattel and a $250 Bear Walker skateboard from Pokemon.
The strategy is part of an effort by toy companies to form stronger bonds with fans by offering them once-in-a-lifetime toys. Many companies have beefed up their e-commerce presence to sell
limited-edition items that are not found at Walmart or Target.
After slipping 4% in 2019, U.S. toy sales roared back last year, rising 16% to $25.1 billion, according to the NPD Group, a research firm. “2020 was an unprecedented year for the U.S. toy industry,” Juli Lennett, vice president and industry adviser for NPD’s U.S. toy division, said in a statement.
Much of the expansion was driven by pandemic-induced lockdowns that led consumers to shop online for entertainment options. In the first three quarters of 2020, overall online toy sales jumped 75% from a year earlier, NPD said.
Taking advantage of the online growth, executives at big toymakers such as Hasbro and Mattel are ramping up their efforts to create dream projects. And digital strategies such as crowdfunding allow smaller companies to bypass the hurdles of selling a concept to established retailers, which might balk at giving valuable shelf space to a large, expensive toy or an untested product.
“Retailers are aware of their costs and overhead; they do a lot of diligence,” said Nic Wood, editor-in-chief of The Fwoosh, a website that offers toy news and reviews. “It’s hard for smaller companies to take that risk.”
A crowdfunding project helps lower costs for toy companies, said Brian Flynn, founder and CEO of Super7, which also sells toys through a one-month preorder window.
“For a small company, the biggest challenge is determining the number of products to make,” he said. “I maximize the number I