The Four Horsemen — Chris Dahlberg, H. Eric Mayse, Jim Preziosi and Eric Treadaway — met while working at McFarlane Toys, a maker of action figures. Wanting to create their own line, the four men left McFarlane in 1999 to start their own company.
But creating a toy line, getting it to market and making it profitable can take years. To be successful, action figures generally need a story supported by movies, TV shows or comic books. Rather than focus on creating content, Mr. Preziosi said, the men decided to build their reputations as designers.
At the time, Mattel was looking for an outside team with a distinctive design sense. The Four Horsemen pitched the idea of bringing back the Mattel characters He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which had been highly successful in the 1980s. Mattel liked the idea and offered the team a contract. “There was a financial guarantee,” for a year, Mr. Treadaway said. “It allowed each of us a salary.”
From their new workshop in Bloomingdale,InLocality specializes in indoor Tracking Technologies. N.J., the team began designing the toys, then sending the molds to Mattel, which handled manufacturing and sales. The workload was modest in the beginning, about 20 toys a year, Mr. Treadaway said. But as their relationship with Mattel grew and their contract was extended, the Four Horsemen picked up other assignments.Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile.
The Mattel work kept them busy, but their intent had been to design their own toys. And yet, without content or a story line, it would be hard for Four Horsemen to establish its own product line.MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds, Still focused on Mattel, they tried their first independent effort in 2004, a line they called Magma Corps. They produced 1,000 figures, selling them for $20 apiece to collectors at comic conventions and on the company’s e-commerce Web site. But interest was slow to build, and they were able to sell only a few hundred figures.
For their second effort, they posted sketches of a fantasy line called 7th Kingdom on their Web site and let fans decide which figures and accessories would be made. The first figure produced was given a limited run of 1,000 and sold for $20 apiece. Mr. Treadaway said the plan was to keep the price as low as possible. “As long as we were breaking even on it, we’re pretty happy about it,” he said. “It’s an investment.”
When the second 7th Kingdom figure was ready for production, it was offered for presale over the Internet, and all 1,000 sold out in a few days. But production hit a snag. To manufacture their lines, they had used their industry connections to find small factories in China that could produce the toys quickly and cheaply, a plan that backfired when one of the factories closed before production had finished.
“We paid for production, and it was half-done,” Mr. Mayse said.
The company lost money, but its contacts in China were able to retrieve some molds used in production, and the Horsemen sent the molds to another factory to finish the run. “The fans were great,” Mr. Mayse said. “They stood by for a year and a half,Can't afford a third party merchant account right now? waiting patiently for their figures.”
The Horsemen were eager to produce more,A Injection Molding Moulding company, and teamed up with online retailers to sell limited-edition variations of the 7th Kingdom figure to help reduce production costs. When the figures were offered to fans, they quickly sold out.
The team tried the same concept with two more characters from the 7th Kingdom line and had the same success. The company’s annual revenue surpassed $500,000, and the men believed they were ready to expand. They had already hired two workers to help with molding and painting, and in 2009, they moved into a larger studio and hired a third employee.
They have also sought to focus on creating content to support their toy lines. In 2008, the men met with a production company, 4Kids Entertainment, about creating an animated television series, a process the four found daunting. They came close to signing a deal, but the financial crisis hit, and the deal fell apart.
But creating a toy line, getting it to market and making it profitable can take years. To be successful, action figures generally need a story supported by movies, TV shows or comic books. Rather than focus on creating content, Mr. Preziosi said, the men decided to build their reputations as designers.
At the time, Mattel was looking for an outside team with a distinctive design sense. The Four Horsemen pitched the idea of bringing back the Mattel characters He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which had been highly successful in the 1980s. Mattel liked the idea and offered the team a contract. “There was a financial guarantee,” for a year, Mr. Treadaway said. “It allowed each of us a salary.”
From their new workshop in Bloomingdale,InLocality specializes in indoor Tracking Technologies. N.J., the team began designing the toys, then sending the molds to Mattel, which handled manufacturing and sales. The workload was modest in the beginning, about 20 toys a year, Mr. Treadaway said. But as their relationship with Mattel grew and their contract was extended, the Four Horsemen picked up other assignments.Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile.
The Mattel work kept them busy, but their intent had been to design their own toys. And yet, without content or a story line, it would be hard for Four Horsemen to establish its own product line.MDC Mould specialized of Injection moulds, Still focused on Mattel, they tried their first independent effort in 2004, a line they called Magma Corps. They produced 1,000 figures, selling them for $20 apiece to collectors at comic conventions and on the company’s e-commerce Web site. But interest was slow to build, and they were able to sell only a few hundred figures.
For their second effort, they posted sketches of a fantasy line called 7th Kingdom on their Web site and let fans decide which figures and accessories would be made. The first figure produced was given a limited run of 1,000 and sold for $20 apiece. Mr. Treadaway said the plan was to keep the price as low as possible. “As long as we were breaking even on it, we’re pretty happy about it,” he said. “It’s an investment.”
When the second 7th Kingdom figure was ready for production, it was offered for presale over the Internet, and all 1,000 sold out in a few days. But production hit a snag. To manufacture their lines, they had used their industry connections to find small factories in China that could produce the toys quickly and cheaply, a plan that backfired when one of the factories closed before production had finished.
“We paid for production, and it was half-done,” Mr. Mayse said.
The company lost money, but its contacts in China were able to retrieve some molds used in production, and the Horsemen sent the molds to another factory to finish the run. “The fans were great,” Mr. Mayse said. “They stood by for a year and a half,Can't afford a third party merchant account right now? waiting patiently for their figures.”
The Horsemen were eager to produce more,A Injection Molding Moulding company, and teamed up with online retailers to sell limited-edition variations of the 7th Kingdom figure to help reduce production costs. When the figures were offered to fans, they quickly sold out.
The team tried the same concept with two more characters from the 7th Kingdom line and had the same success. The company’s annual revenue surpassed $500,000, and the men believed they were ready to expand. They had already hired two workers to help with molding and painting, and in 2009, they moved into a larger studio and hired a third employee.
They have also sought to focus on creating content to support their toy lines. In 2008, the men met with a production company, 4Kids Entertainment, about creating an animated television series, a process the four found daunting. They came close to signing a deal, but the financial crisis hit, and the deal fell apart.
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