Industry leaders, retailers, and manufacturers weigh in on toy trends, changes, and more in The Toy Book’s annual State of the Industry Q&A.
MICHAEL RINZLER, Co-President & Founding Partner, Wicked Cool Toys
What are the differences in creating proprietary product lines versus licensed products?
The creation of proprietary product lines tends to be more all-encompassing as you are essentially starting from scratch and “birthing a baby,” while managing licensed brands and caretaking for someone else’s intellectual property tends to be more like “babysitting someone else’s child.” Both of them require passion, strategy, line planning, marketing efforts, and more. Furthermore, the creation of proprietary product lines has a much faster timeline as you eliminate the time that is taken for licensor approval. From a retail perspective, it is easier to place well-known licensed brands than proprietary product lines in which you have to convince retail that you will make the investment spend and truly get behind what you are launching.
What business strategies worked in the past that will no longer work in 2019?
It definitely hurts not to have Toys “R” Us as a launching pad for new products that are challenging to get placed broadly in the mass market. When I started Wicked Cool Toys in 2012, I knew that Toys “R” Us would be supportive from the outset and I could place my products there. They were always willing to work with new companies and entrepreneurs. I also think the licensing business will be quite different without Toys “R” Us. In the past, smaller brands had a place to live at retail. In today’s toy business, a licensed brand is typically an “A” or an “F,” in which they will either get placed with one or more of a few remaining mass-market retailers, or likely not at all.
How would you feel about the return of Toys “R” Us?
Toys “R” Us is a meaningful brand to consumers and offered an experience that kids truly enjoyed! If Toys “R” Us returned with a store presence and backed by a strong financial partner, Wicked Cool Toys would happily support them.
