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An Interview with Jada Toys' VP of Marketing, Mike Jimenez
491 Plays1 year ago
Our first interview of 2024 welcomes a first-time guest to the show! For over two decades, Jada Toys has been a die-cast leader in collectibles, but over the past couple of years they've entered the 1:12 scale action figure game: and they've done it with a SPLASH. Hear from Jada Toys' VP of Marketing Mike Jimenez about the evolution of products from Jada Toys as well as his history with toys and the company!
Follow Jada Toys on Instragam @jadatoys for all the latest news and updates from the brand!
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Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
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Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox, and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast. I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture, and halls, along with our journeys as collectors. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting.
00:00:33
Speaker
Happy New Year. Although, wasn't it Happy New Year last time too? I don't know. Well, we're still airing in January, and I think that's like the respectable, we can wish people a Happy New Year up until the end of January, and then it gets
Guest Introduction
00:00:47
Speaker
weird. Like, we could do it for the month. Yeah, so we're back, and of course, Dave, is there something I shouldn't be doing this episode?
00:01:01
Speaker
Oh, I mean, there's something you shouldn't be doing most episodes and that's burying the lead. Yeah, that's right. So of course, you know, we're back. We have a guest. Um, it's, it's been a little while now since we've had a new guest to the pod. We've had a lot of revisiting, um, guests, you know, the past couple of guests slots, but we are, we are super excited to welcome, uh, today's guests. Uh, but let's, let's, let's do our normal little primer here. Let's, let's set the stage.
Jada Toys Overview
00:01:29
Speaker
For 25 years, Jada Toys has brought high-quality die-cast collectibles to the market, from classic cars and trucks to famous vehicles from film, television, and pop culture. They've become a proper go-to for automotive enthusiasts. In the past couple of years, though, they've entered the 112 scale action figure market, bringing classic food mascots, the universal monsters, and most recently, characters from the classic Capcom game Street Fighter and Mega Man.
00:01:59
Speaker
Joining us today to talk about Jatatoy's latest action figure efforts is their vice president of marketing, Mike Jimenez. Mike, welcome. How you guys doing? Hello, hello. Thank you for having me. It is an absolute pleasure. We're going to dive into it later on.
00:02:18
Speaker
You know, it's, it's really, really exciting to have a representative from our, our second place finisher, our runner up in our, uh, in our toy of the year. Awesome. You know, a fan poll. That's, that's great. I love to hear it because, you know, we are the newcomers into the scene and, and it's, it just shows how much effort we've been putting into our action figures. So thank you very much. I appreciate that. And I appreciate all your fans for voting us in.
00:02:45
Speaker
Well, before we, we hop into the, uh, into the toys, uh, the first, well, before we hop into specifically Jada toys, the first question we ask all of our guests, what are you currently collecting and what are some of your recent pickups? So my, my thing is.
00:03:03
Speaker
giant robots. So I'm into Mazinger Z, Voltron, all that kind of stuff that came out in the early 80s from Japanese anime. So Macross and Robotech are my big
Mike's Collecting Passion
00:03:17
Speaker
thing. My latest pickups are probably some Godzilla figures, actually.
00:03:24
Speaker
Um, um, you know, because the movie minus one. Oh yeah. Yeah. GXK. Uh, I'm all about that kind of stuff. So, uh, yeah, I'm picking up a couple of those things. Yeah. We're, we're huge, uh, kaiju fans as well over here. So especially minus one, I mean, minus one.
00:03:44
Speaker
I'm probably going to go back once the black and white once my yes, I know that's so rad. It's I love that they're doing that and and you know, those people are legendary. They're they're awesome to work with because we actually do have their license as well. So we're lucky enough to be able to do some stuff with them as well. Yeah, I actually that's that's a great point. I I just saw the the RC atomic breath Godzilla in the other day. Yeah. Yeah.
00:04:10
Speaker
I would love to be able to do a black and white version of that, or even do some variations of the different Godzillas. I think that would be so fun.
00:04:21
Speaker
Especially at that for my I forget who I saw on I want to say it was it was James at the rock father on on Instagram the from Toy insider insider. Thank you He was playing with it with his with his kids and you know seeing kind of the like strobing light up of the Flares on the back and the steam coming out. Yeah, good. Yeah That was really fun to work on definitely
00:04:49
Speaker
So, yeah, I mean, big robots, gotta love some big robots. Yep. Oh, absolutely.
Career at Jada Toys
00:04:58
Speaker
Mike, so you've been with Jada Toys for nearly 20 years. Yes. Tell us about your journey through the company. So I started at Jada Toys as a packaging designer. That's how I was hired on.
00:05:11
Speaker
packaging design. I never really did one lick of packaging because as soon as I came in, the people who were in the position of doing some of the collateral material and a lot of the creative services were
00:05:24
Speaker
I just left. So I started doing that. I started doing the collateral material, like PowerPoint presentations, sell sheets. Then I started doing the website. And I started doing a lot of different design work for the whole company, whether it was for sales, for licensing, for PD. And then the first recession happened back in what was it, 2010 or something, or 2009 or something. I forget what it was. Yeah, 2008, 2008.
00:05:52
Speaker
And, um, you know, and it went, our company kind of dwindled down to a very skeleton crew. Um, and I was, because I was so versatile, I was, I kind of had to work at the product development team as well. Um, and this was still when it was all just diecast vehicles. So I was doing the diecast vehicle stuff. I was still doing the web. I was still doing the graphic design for all the marketing material.
00:06:16
Speaker
My background is in marketing, so as I was moving my way around the company, I kind of got stuck in the PD development part of it. And then I got promoted to director of the product development team for the vehicle side. And I ran that department for a good while.
00:06:36
Speaker
And after a while, our department grew, our company grew, and they needed someone in the marketing department. And they remember that I had marketing background. So they moved me over to that department. Now I'm the head of the marketing department.
00:06:50
Speaker
That's awesome. There's nothing like being a jack of all trades. It's job security. It helps. The thing is, I am fortunate because they could have easily let me go at any time. I was even told by one of my general managers that, hey,
00:07:07
Speaker
we're doing a lot of cuts. So you may want to start looking. And, you know, I never took anything for granted. I never felt comfortable. I always try to keep working hard and feel as if I'm still working to keep my job. And that's how I work to this day. And I think that's where it makes me successful in this industry because, you know, I never feel complacent. So, you know, with all of that movement and, and the amount of time that you've spent with a single company,
00:07:33
Speaker
The toy industry itself and the collector market has changed drastically.
Industry Changes
00:07:39
Speaker
What are some of the key things that you've seen change in the industry over the last two decades? Let me start off maybe with in the vehicle side of things.
00:07:50
Speaker
When you have a custom vehicle, especially race cars, they have all these sponsors and stuff that are on the side of the cars. Back when I started, we can approach any one of these aftermarket companies and say, hey, we're doing some die casts. Would you like your sticker or your logo to be on all these? And they'll do it for free. Yeah, we'd love to be on your cars because we distribute worldwide.
00:08:15
Speaker
Now, because diecast and collectibles are so hot, everyone wants money. It's hard to find a company that'll give us their logo for free to put on their cars, which is marketing worldwide for their brand.
00:08:32
Speaker
little bit of royalty for it. So it's getting more and more difficult to do licensing because things are starting to get more and more expensive for us to produce. And Jada's big thing is to produce a product that has good quality but at a very affordable price. So it's harder and harder for us to do that when all these little companies want a little piece of the pie. But we're working on it. We still have our ways to be able to
00:08:58
Speaker
give the consumer the deal, make sure that they are feeling that what we give them is a quality product but at a very good price. We're trying our best to keep those prices low. Yeah, to your point, something that we saw back at Toy Fair, along the same lines of that, recreating what's happening in reality with cars is that whole pink slips line. The idea of not just a sticker or a logo, but
00:09:28
Speaker
a custom paint job of an automobile influencer. It's a fascinating twist on that kind of classic tag culture. Yeah. Yeah. And it's what the industry is doing in the real car culture. So we aren't just, in our action figure stuff, we're fans of action figures, we're fans of pop culture, but we're also car people in the company.
00:09:53
Speaker
and we all love to follow that scene and we're doing our best to make sure that we're bringing everything that we see on the streets into our toy line. The hard part is it doesn't directly translate right away. So for example, this pink slip scene, this whole thing with all these crazy colors and paint schemes, it started a few years ago. If we started it back then in a toy line, it wouldn't work because people aren't
00:10:20
Speaker
People haven't been surrounded by it long enough for them to want to buy the toy for it. And we kind of make sure that we keep that in the back of our minds when we see new trends. Oh, man. That's got to be so challenging. Because it's a fine line, right? You don't want to miss the popularity cycle of a trend. But at the same time, you don't want to get in too early. Yeah. It's really tough. It's really tough.
00:10:48
Speaker
And especially like accuracy, like you were saying is something Jada does very well. So, you know, putting that extra like deco into everything is definitely going to, you know, kind of balance out that price and the, the accuracy part, but exactly exactly. It's, you know, it's that the attractiveness of that shrunken down.
00:11:13
Speaker
kind of version, that scale version of what you can actually see out on the street. Yeah, exactly. I mean, one of the big things that we had an issue with for many years maybe started coming back to become better maybe about four or five years ago is the car shows
00:11:32
Speaker
around here, at least, or where all the car shows that really made waves in the industry, they turned into nightclubs. So kids weren't able to go out to these shows. It was only adults. And the adults at the time weren't collecting vehicles. They were just going out to enjoy the presence of car people and a bunch of scantily clad women. And it's not like that anymore. And now all these car shows are starting to come back to becoming family-oriented events.
00:12:00
Speaker
that you can take to your, your kids with you on the weekend. They even have jumpers out there. Um, there's a time when kids like would go to our booth and say, Oh, that's bumblebee. I'm like, okay, that's cool. Now kids are coming out. Oh, that's the Camaro Z 28. And I'm like, yes, that's what I want to hear. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I can remember vividly, you know, going back to like the mid mid to late nineties, like at the Javits center here in New York city, going to the car show and you know,
00:12:30
Speaker
being kind of blown away by like the concept cars and you know and then you know going and looking for them in the toy aisle and stuff like I can vividly remember those moments and then it just kind of seemed to like vanish for a while so it's nice it's nice to see that it's uh it's it's coming back oh yeah we and yeah we're excited about it and we're really especially when those little kids come up that's on har 34 like you know like yeah cool like these kids know what they're talking about nowadays which is nice to see
00:13:00
Speaker
So that being generationally established in that die cast and RC world has been something that Jada is very much well known for.
Expansion into Action Figures
00:13:12
Speaker
So what led to the jump to take that big step in action figures? So Jada Toys has always been working to diversify our portfolio. We always wanted to, die cast vehicles is our foundation.
00:13:31
Speaker
But at the core of Jada Toys, we always have wanted to be a true toy company. So we always dabbled in girls toys, dolls, preschools, products. Action Figures was actually something that we wanted to do for a long time. And we dabbled it in a little bit. But we never really got the OK to really do it the way we wanted to do it. And after we got purchased by this new company that
00:14:01
Speaker
owns us now. We were owned by a private owner, and now we are under the umbrella of Simba Dickey Group, which is a German company who has a lot of other companies underneath their umbrella. Since then, we have gotten the freedom to be able to do what we want with our own vision, like the designer's vision.
00:14:24
Speaker
And the thing is, is, you know, the old owners were great. They had their vision. We realized it for them and we were very, very successful. Um, and then he decided to sell the company and now we are able to take that, that foundation that he built and expand on that because now we're able to go into different categories of toys. Oh, it's interesting. Yeah. I didn't realize that the, uh, I knew that the, the, the owner had sold the company, but I didn't realize that the, the kind of,
00:14:51
Speaker
The green light came from the new ownership. That's interesting. The new CEO was actually the VP of sales with the old ownership. He was the one that helped facilitate the whole purchase of data toys.
00:15:09
Speaker
And as part of the deal, he became the CEO of Jada Toys after the sale. So he worked really closely with the whole design team as we were under the old ownership. So he knew how we wanted to work. He knew what we wanted to do. And as soon as he took over, he was open to what we wanted to do because he knew that we had great ideas and he knew that we knew the culture of Jada Toys and kind of what we stood for.
00:15:39
Speaker
And he allowed us to try to make that happen. So the door is open. We're headed into the world of action figures. And the first thing that Jada Toys puts out is the monster cereal mascots for action figures. So how is it determined that you guys are going to start with those? I actually think the first ones that came up were the universal monsters, I believe.
00:16:02
Speaker
Oh, actually, yes, you're right. I'm sorry. I have the wrong thing in my notes there. It was the Universal Monsters and then the Serial Monsters. Yes. So Universal Monsters came about because there was an opportunity to get the license for Universal Monsters. And we knew we wanted to do live action figures. Being a new guy, asking all these companies, what can we get? No one wanted to give us anything because who's Jay DeToy? You guys do diecast vehicles. They wouldn't give us the time of day.
00:16:33
Speaker
Universal and General Mills. I think they actually gave us the license about the same time. Okay, so General Mills was also the the license that we got because Who else was gonna give us a license? We couldn't get no no, you know big name like cart comic book licenses you know, none of those companies would give us the time of day because we had to prove ourselves first and Luckily universal. Thank you for allowing us to do universal monsters. We were able to do it
00:17:01
Speaker
Um, and then also general mills, general mills, we knew was going to be a harder thing to do because they have such thin limbs. Yep. Right. So we just, and that one took a little bit longer to come out because we wanted to make sure we got it all correct. Um,
00:17:17
Speaker
and then Universal Monsters was our first foray into it. And we started doing all kinds of fun stuff with it. And we, you know, like, even with the Legosi Dracula, we put the wire cape, you know, we did a lot of stuff that we knew collectors wanted.
00:17:35
Speaker
But we didn't want it in the end this is the same playbook that we had with our die cast we wanted to come out with a quality die cast and affordable price. And get no we were tending to the inner city kids when we came out with our first die cast vehicles no one was paying attention to these kids that were doing their custom cars in the inner city. In the urban areas and we paid attention and that's where we blow up that's where we got our niche and that's how we were able to build upon our art that foundation.
00:18:01
Speaker
So we took that same kind of mentality. We know people want good quality, but we knew that we wanted to give it to them at an affordable price. And that's how Universal Monsters started. When we got that, and we were working on it with a factory that really doesn't do a lot of action figures. So we were learning a lot as we were going.
Licensing Achievements
00:18:22
Speaker
Yeah, so now we're in a place where our factory is that we have that what's working on our action figures are
00:18:31
Speaker
know what they're doing, are familiar with everything that we want to do. So we're very comfortable with now what's going to be coming out here in the future. Now, did any of those license opportunities like, you know, because I know you guys have done those kind of pop culture cars that are have, you know, some sort of die-cast vehicle with like a slug of a figure, you know, for, you know, for those specific brands. Was there any previous work, you know, from either Universal or from
00:19:01
Speaker
from General Mills with any of those kind of tie-ins that you were able to fall back on and be like, hey, look, we know the brand, we're well-versed, we could do these types of things. Or has there been anything, even with that, where they've been now like, okay, we've seen what you've done now? So what it is, is when we got the Universal Monsters and the General Mills license, they knew we were doing these Hollywood rides things.
00:19:29
Speaker
So when we got the license, like, Hey, we want to do action figures, but, um, we'll also do these vehicles with these, these figures, these diecast figures as well. Um, otherwise, because, you know, we need to put some more meat on the bone for them to be able to really want to give us that license. So that's how we jumped into it. So we'll do it. We'll do both of those set categories for them. And they, and they turned out really well. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, honestly, one of my favorite, you know,
00:19:57
Speaker
Stepping back to vehicles again for a moment before we continue with with action figures one of my favorite releases that you guys have literally ever done was that I guess it's a one tenth no Yeah No smaller than that 113 scale Batman Batmobile with like the light up Batmobile and you know that the
00:20:21
Speaker
That from from the Batman from the newer one. Yeah, I just it's it's insane and like to me You know consumer I would think that you know a company with a license like you know like a DC or you know or anyone really would see the quality of that and like the amount of detail that you packed into the vehicle the amount of detail that's in that little
00:20:43
Speaker
you know, uh, that, that little tiny diecast figure and go like, I mean, how can we not give these guys a shot? Like it just seems like a no brainer to me. The, the hard part is, um, they, these licensing or these licensores, these companies, they don't want to give one company six Jackson figures and then give us another company, six, six action figures that'll be in the same market.
00:21:08
Speaker
We have to figure out a way like sometimes we'll get licenses like, okay, this company has it for United States, so we'll settle for EMEA or Japan only or whatever. So those are the things they don't want to over license their product and have too much on the market. Because they just flood themselves out and make people have to figure out what they want. And it's just bad for business for all the companies involved.
00:21:32
Speaker
Yeah I mean that was another reason why I think a lot of people were surprised to see you guys doing the Universal Monsters figures because you know just an inch larger you know granted it's different scale but you know at the same time seeing like the you know the competitors figures come out along with yours and you have this kind of like comparison situation happening and
00:21:53
Speaker
But they are two different scales. So one appeases one type of collector and the other another. So it did work out well that way. We were very lucky to say that much. We were very lucky to be able to get that. And I'm glad we did because now that allowed us to get the Capcom license because without after they saw what we can do with Universal Monsters, then that's when they gave us the opportunity to do Capcom. Yeah, so
00:22:21
Speaker
transitioning over to Capcom, and primarily, like we said before, the 2023 runner-up for the Archie Award for the best toy line of the year, we have Street Fighter. So how did Jada begin that? I know you kind of planted the seeds in that last answer, but how did that Capcom relationship really get running? So with our Universal Monsters,
00:22:46
Speaker
line, you know, we pitched it to them. And I think the biggest thing that they were interested in is us completing the roster. That's what we told them to do, that we want what we wanted to do. We really wanted to complete the roster of the whole because we know no one really, a lot of people promised it maybe, but no one's really gone out and done it.
00:23:07
Speaker
And we're making strides to make sure that happens. And not only that, you guys, the consumers, the collectors, you guys are helping us make that happen because without your support, we won't be able to do that because we need you guys to be supportive of the brand so we can continue making it. And that's one of the main things that we
00:23:28
Speaker
were confident in because we knew what we can do with our action figures. We knew how we wanted to level up the Capcom stuff. And we knew that there was a want for Street Fighter 2. And again, timing. Everything was lucky for us. All the ducks were in a row for us.
00:23:47
Speaker
As soon as the Capcom license for Street Fighter 2 was available, we were right there waiting for us and coming off the tails of Universal Monsters success, we were able to use that as our segue into it. And it helped so much and we're really excited to be able to do it. And right now they're loving us because we are making good on our promise.
00:24:10
Speaker
Yeah. And I mean, it just needs to be said again. So our, you know, for those listening and Mike, for you as well, if you're not familiar with the tournament, we, we pick 64 of what we feel are the most popular toylines in a given year. And we, we pit them against each other kind of NCAA style. So single round elimination voting only in our, in our stories. And I mean, just some, some, something of note, right? In the, in the semi-finals.
00:24:41
Speaker
It was, it was jada toy street fighter line, a line that in 2023 produced a grand total of four figures available at retail. You guys, you guys beat the DC DC multiverse from McFarland. And I mean, it's like literally the two.
00:24:56
Speaker
stark opposites in terms of like offering, right? Four figures versus like God 400, you know, like they crank out. It seems like every week there's, you know, a new line every week. And you know, you guys beat them by a considerable amount. Like, I mean, the sentiment behind these street fighter figures and I'm getting at my reuse standing right here in front of me.
00:25:21
Speaker
Um, the sentiment behind these figures is just, is just wild. And I mean, it is, and it's, it's, you know, for good reason. I mean, there are, there are damn good action figures. And I mean, it's, it's like, you know, before Dave actually got a chance to get hands on, I had it first. And I was like, when you pick this thing up,
00:25:43
Speaker
You're going to think that this is a company that has been making action figures for decades. Yeah. Like it's one thing for us to look at them and go, Oh, these are really cool or these rule or what have you. But when you start to see like, you know, round after round, when we started to see that, that rolling, we were like, Oh, something's, yeah, something's being done very right here. And 1000% like they are.
00:26:12
Speaker
I always talk about wrestling figures and the ones I appreciate the most are the ones who look like it's just that person shrunken down. Yeah. It looks like like I just reached into my TV and here's, here's Ryu. Love that. It's the little details too. Like it's like the texturing that you guys did on the gi. It's the,
00:26:35
Speaker
You know, the way that the, the hands are embedded in the, the Hadouken floating there in the translucent plastic. It's all those little tiny, like nuanced details that like you don't necessarily notice at first, but once you have it in your hand and you start playing with it and moving them around, you're like, geez, these are just like, they're so good. But it still has that video game shading. Like it's great. It's so good.
00:27:02
Speaker
Well, we thank you very much for that. And it's all I attribute that all to our PD guy, June, who's our head of our action figure department. And he's a hardcore action figure guy. And a little bit history here, actually, our first action figure, true action figure, wasn't very good at all, was actually way back in 2014. Okay. It was the Robocop movie.
00:27:27
Speaker
Oh, yeah. So we did some basic action figure. It was very stiff, not a lot of articulation. That was our first foray. We actually also had the Halo license where we did miniature action figures to fit into our 124 scale die cast, which was really cool. And there is one
00:27:53
Speaker
I don't know if it's where it is, but it was floating around, but we had a one die cast master chief action figure with articulation elbows, head, everything. It was, it's floating around our office somewhere, but that was like the coolest thing I've ever seen. Um, but yeah, that's, that's how far back we, this guy goes. He was, he spearheaded that originally, but he didn't, wasn't able to do it the way he really wanted to, um, because of costing, but now.
00:28:20
Speaker
with our new ownership of being able to do what we really wanna do and really talk to our factories about how we want it done. We were able to get our Street Fighter line to the point that he's really happy and he's still spining things that we can improve on. So the more and more we do it, the better our products are gonna be. And now a word from our sponsors.
00:28:48
Speaker
This segment is brought to you by our friends at Chubsy Wubsy Toys. A traditional mom and pop toy store in Little Falls, New Jersey, Chubsy Wubsy Toys brings you the best new toys from the brands you love without the hassle of pounding the pavement searching for them at larger retail stores.
00:29:04
Speaker
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00:29:31
Speaker
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00:29:37
Speaker
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00:31:06
Speaker
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00:31:32
Speaker
One of the things about Street Fighter, especially Street Fighter 2, there have been so many, you know, modern iterations of Street Fighter 2 figures. What did you guys want to do differently, like functionally with the line?
00:31:46
Speaker
So functionally, I think the main thing was just taking what all the high-end action figure guys are doing and putting it into a more affordable product. And figuring out how to make that happen is the biggest issue. It's really difficult to get that to work. But because Jun is such a hardcore action figure person, he's a hardcore action figure collector. He has all the greatest figures.
00:32:14
Speaker
His collection is ridiculous. He's also a hardcore Street Fighter fan. Street Fighter 2 specifically because since and he wanted to make sure that everything was going to be true to game as much as possible.
00:32:27
Speaker
And I think that shows, I think a lot of that comes through in our product. We're car guys, all of our car products that we put out. The car people appreciate the details that go into it because they know that, you know, they understand that we know what we're doing because we're part of that community as well. And the same thing with Action Figure. June and his team, they're all Action Figure nuts and they're all Street Fighter nuts and they're all like everything they do is because it's, they have a passion for it. And I think that comes through in our product.
00:32:56
Speaker
So real quick to plug June, if you want to hear specifically from him, he was actually very recently on friends of ours, the toy Migos. Um, he was on the chat Migos and toy Migos show. So, uh, you know, we'll actually put a link in the description of this podcast to that show too. So that way you can get your, your one, two, your one, two punch of, uh, of Jada toys here. Yeah, he does. He he's on there quite a bit and, uh, um, he reveals a lot of stuff on there. So that that's a good watch.
00:33:27
Speaker
So at LA Comic Con, a whole host of Street Fighter figures were shown off. When can we expect to see pre-orders for the future waves with Vega and Blanca and everybody else that was kind of shown there? When are those looking to hit?
00:33:44
Speaker
We're, so we're looking at, hopefully we're looking at this wall, but because right now we're in the process of transferring our, you know, a couple of things over to factories, different factories and making sure things are tight and doing, you know, production wise are good.
00:34:02
Speaker
It's it's hard to tell with action figures. There's no real like we don't have a Hard deadline when it comes to getting on shelf at retail. It doesn't follow the the fall spring timelines so When we do these action figures, we want to make sure that they're done right and also there's like a lot of back and forth between us and the the licensors for approvals,
Future Plans for Jada Toys
00:34:24
Speaker
so
00:34:25
Speaker
Our goal is in the fall time frame for many of those new ones that you saw, but a lot of them will be also pushed to 25 spring because it's just, you know, we don't want to come out with too many too fast. We want to be able to, you know, kind of stagger it out a little, but that's that's just also the nature of the production process. You know, that's it's just going to happen that way anyway. And can we expect that similar cadence of like two to three to a wave or is it going to kind of be more random?
00:34:54
Speaker
Three typically three to a wave is kind of what we're planning on doing. Okay. So the first two villain robots alongside Mega Man switching over to Mega Man. Yes.
00:35:12
Speaker
I love that line. That one's so cool. That's another one where it's just like I reached if I reached into my 8-bit Nintendo and like, here's this, here's Fireman. So Fireman and Iceman. Is the plan to complete the first game's roster before moving on to other games or is everybody kind of in play?
00:35:35
Speaker
So this one's a little different. I think we're trying to complete the roster, but we kind of will probably jump around a little bit. But I believe we're, you know, if I'm not mistaken, I believe we're trying to complete that roster. But it all is dependent on the support that we get from the consumers. You know, Street Fighters has tremendous support, you know, so it's easy for us to try to complete that. And it's going to be the same thing with
00:36:03
Speaker
Mega Man, Mega Man, if we have that support, then for sure. But the thing is, is we also, we're very good about listening to our fan base.
00:36:11
Speaker
We want to hear what you guys have to say. A lot of our product that we come out with is based on your feedback. So we do hear you guys. We may not always reply to all your comments on our social media feeds, but we are listening and we kind of use that to gauge what is the next thing that we should work on. So yeah, if there's the support.
00:36:34
Speaker
We'll do our best to complete that roster and maybe move on to other ones. I'm not sure I have to go back to our license department. I'm not sure if our license is specific just to the original Mega Man or if it can go through different iterations.
00:36:50
Speaker
Got it. Yeah. And I mean, Mega Man going back to toy fair and Dave can attest to this. Um, when, uh, when we were getting the booth tour, uh, and, and I saw the, the, the final production Mega Man, like out of pack, I was like, can I, can I,
00:37:06
Speaker
gonna play like he was like he was kind of posed a little funny cuz I guess whoever in the booth was you know before us was you know had kind of just left them like awkwardly tonight can I fix this yeah I have him doing like the slide and all and and it's one of those things where
00:37:24
Speaker
Like alright so you know the street fighter has like an obvious built in audience especially street fighter to me it's like so especially in that scale thinking about the other toy lines that are out there that are other one twelve scale figures that work really well in a blank versus cap com you know capacity.
00:37:43
Speaker
It's one of those things where it's like, you know, as long as you hit the mark that those are gonna fly. But I feel like Mega Man is one of those ones where people need to really see this thing to understand like, oh no, you're gonna want this. Like, real bad.
00:38:00
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, yeah. And that's almost exactly the same thing that happened with Chester Cheetah. Like no one, like no one really knew that we were coming out with that. But then they, everyone that came was like, you know what, I never knew I wanted a Chester Cheetah action figure. And, and
00:38:16
Speaker
That you guys showed me that I do. Yep. We have we have a funny saying on on this show I don't know if it's a funny saying but it's something that we say all the time. We have a whole category of toys We should put this on a shirt. Um, you know, I I didn't know I needed this It's you know, it is great because I remember seeing the initial like teases that the Instagram account put out of like a
00:38:41
Speaker
you know, the glove and like the holding the Cheeto and I was like, wait a second. This has got to be an April Fool's joke. And man, you guys can't keep in stock anywhere.
00:38:56
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's it's and it's we were blown away at how the reaction was to it. And again, this is attributed to all the fans and the support. It's crazy because our you know, die cast fans are one thing, but the action figure fans. Oh my gosh, if they're if they're on board with you, they're they're on board and they they're awesome. And we love it. And we love all you guys that that that help us because that's that's what keeps us
00:39:22
Speaker
excited to make new products because, you know, we want to do it for you. We are someone, someone posted on one of our social media pages, um, that Jada toys is the manufacturer for the people. And that kind of kind of hit home. I was like, yeah, you know what? That's kind of cool. I mean, if you guys see us like that, then I think we're doing the right thing. But, but it's funny when you think about it really, because, you know, uh, a character like Chester Cheetah and, and, and again, like, you know,
00:39:51
Speaker
Looking at the kind of paper trail, you know, getting everybody's buying with the universal monsters and then, you know, kind of dabbling in those serial mascots, right? You now have this, you know, fan base that is like, I know these figures are well built. They look good. They pose well. They have great balance. Like,
00:40:11
Speaker
I guess I'm getting Chester Cheeto now. What else do you have up your sleeve? Those random one-off figures. It can be hit or miss, but if you're making a quality product, you're much more likely to get people to be like,
00:40:34
Speaker
It's almost like we found a niche for ourselves in this action figure world. It's almost like we're venturing out into places that some action figure companies didn't want to touch because either that or they just didn't think about touching it. That's what's the hard part because now that we're doing it,
00:40:53
Speaker
You know, it's it's on other companies' radars and it'll be harder for us to even get some more of those type of licenses. So we'll see, you know, we'll see how it goes. And there's a lot of things that are already in the pipeline that we're excited to show you. And, um, you know, I, I would, I can't wait for you guys to see it when we release, not release someone, we debut them at the next cons that we have come. Yeah. And it's, it's like this right kind of intersection of like,
00:41:20
Speaker
Here's this cool modern toy of this nostalgic thing. Universal monsters, of course. The serial icons, like serial monsters, absolutely. That's one of those things Halloween time comes around. You're buying a box of something, right? You're going to the Target and getting one of those boxes. But now like Mega Man, of course, that was a game a lot of people on their Nintendo, like an early Nintendo,
00:41:50
Speaker
Nintendo game, but then Street Fighter two, like that was ever, there were always arcade games that were coming on a console, but like here's one of the more anticipated ones. Like I think everybody, whether you're at a Genesis or super Nintendo, you had Street Fighter two. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So, so you mentioned it kind of before your alluded to it with, with the kind of the scope of the license, but one of the questions that, you know, I think a lot of people have, and yeah, we certainly have about the Capcom license.
00:42:19
Speaker
Do you have access to more material from Capcom? Maybe say Mega Man X or a certain survival horror classic that involves zombies in a mansion in the middle of the woods? A master of unlocking? We are exploring all the opportunities we have with Capcom.
00:42:52
Speaker
Mike, I like that answer. I like that answer. It's a tough one. And I know people want to hear some good stuff and some bad stuff, but you know what?
00:43:03
Speaker
I think you'll be pleasantly surprised here in the future. Awesome. Yeah, I mean, like you said, I really, really hope Capcom is happy with what you guys have delivered so far. And they're willing to open the vault and open the gates for you. Because like you just said, there's so many opportunities for Capcom. There is a lot. There's an ocean.
00:43:27
Speaker
Yep. Yeah. Oh, definitely. And, and, you know, we're, we're right there with you guys and we want those kinds of things to happen. And we're, we're very bullish on that kind of stuff. All right. So with that, we're, we're about to head into our Q and a section here.
00:43:42
Speaker
Uh, so every time we have a guest on, we, we fully understand that, you know, our, our guests don't have the ability to answer every question that's out there. And, you know, we're, we're, we're very fortunate to have access. So we like to open up, uh, this section of the show to our listeners and our followers. That way they can get some of their questions in Dave, uh, for those that might be listening for the first time or, uh, you know, maybe haven't heard this part of the pod.
00:44:08
Speaker
How can they get their questions into future episodes of Adventures in Collecting? I would love to let them know. Hello, friends. Maybe you're a first time listener. Maybe you've been with us for a while. What you should do is go follow at AIC underscore podcast on all your favorite social medias and specifically on Instagram, because when we have a new guest, we're going to announce that guest.
00:44:36
Speaker
We're going to put up a story that says, do you have a question for that guest? And inside that story is a little box that you can tap on and type in that question. And then we get to see it and we get to read it just like we're about to. And if you want to hear your question, get asked. You can download Adventures in Collecting on all your favorite podcast locations.
00:45:02
Speaker
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, all those different places, even YouTube, where we can be found at AIC underscore podcast. Smash that like, smash that subscribe, hit the bell, click on the other videos that we point to in those videos. Watch everything, leave comments, let us know what you wanna see. Yeah, that's it. You've got this down to a science now, I love it. I figured it out, it needs music. Oh.
00:45:31
Speaker
Yep, it has music now. It used to be like me not knowing what any of those words meant. And then I figured it out over time. Yeah, it started as a joke, me putting him on the spot to try to be like savvy social media guy. And now, I literally look forward to that speech every episode. That's one of my favorite things. So Dave, would you like to give Mike our first question here?
00:46:01
Speaker
I would. My apologies in advance if I read any of your handles incorrectly. Um, this looks like at Alex Michael 1996. Um, Alex Michael 1996 asks, any chance you guys go back to the serial monsters for a yummy mummy and or fruit brood? So, huh, interesting. So,
00:46:27
Speaker
Serial monsters, we weren't going to move past the two, what's it called, the first ones that we did, the Count Chocula and Franklin Berry. But there was such a big request for Boo Berry that we had to do it.
00:46:44
Speaker
So we typically, like I said, we listen to the fans. We listen to all you guys. If there's enough noise behind it, we definitely will do it. Are we working on it now? Maybe. But I can't say anything just yet. But it is a possibility. But if there is anything you guys want us to do, please make your voices heard. Go to our social medias and tell us.
00:47:12
Speaker
and let us know because we are listening. We are taking note because we want to make product that you guys want. All right. So there you have it, folks. Campaign for your serial monsters. Sean to the max asks, what does Jada Toys consider to be the next big evolution or step forward in toy design?
Toy Design Innovations
00:47:38
Speaker
Next evolution in toy design, huh?
00:47:44
Speaker
Wow. So I think there's a, right now we're going through a phase and I'm taking this mostly from RC where people are just not kind of, uh, they're kind of bored with just typical driving RCs. They need some kind of feature, some kind of innovation, which is how we came up with the Godzilla heat ray breath. Um, they need something more. Um, and I don't know if that's going to be kind of,
00:48:13
Speaker
evolved into the action figure world. But man, that one's tough. And we're seeing a little bit in the diecast world where people are kind of almost demanding more unique paint jobs, unique styles, unique things that they haven't seen on diecast before, which is how we came up with the pink slips line. And we are kind of trying to do some cool stuff with the cyberpunk, with the
00:48:42
Speaker
the soft goods that are going along with those. So yeah, we're constantly evolving in that way, trying to figure out what works. We're also trying to play with seeing where people, what their threshold is with the cost, because we want to make sure that we still give you all the things you guys want, but at an affordable price. Where's that ceiling?
00:49:05
Speaker
The Cyberpunk stuff, when we come out with that, that's gonna be really interesting, because they are gonna be a little bit more expensive from our Street Fighter stuff because of the soft goods. But I think they look amazing, man. They look really, really good. And I know the hardcore collectors will pick them up. We just don't know how popular it will be. So it's always kind of a scary thing to do, go into areas that aren't the norm, but we think it's also needed at the same time.
00:49:37
Speaker
All right. At Johnny underscore C underscore dagger asks, how would you feel about the opportunity to work on action figures in the DreamWorks animation world? Love it.
00:49:53
Speaker
We, we are, our, our licensing department is working like crazy trying to find, get our, like the newest or anything available for us. And that is one of the companies that we're looking heavily at with some of their licenses. Yeah. When, when, when Johnny, uh, he's, he's given questions for this, uh, for the show several times. So Johnny, thank you for constantly submitting these.
00:50:21
Speaker
But when he posted this one, I almost wanted to message him back and be like, you got an in for them or something? But it made me start thinking though, because it's been a long time since there's been a line of DreamWorks action figures. I honestly forget who even made them last, but I started thinking how cool a fully articulated toothless dragon would be, or any of the Kung Fu Panda figures, fully articulated,
00:50:51
Speaker
so many opportunities there. Shrek was the first one I thought of. A good like 112 Shrek that like, yeah. Yeah. That'd be cool. I just know that that is definitely something we have talked about quite a bit. I'll leave it at that. Cool. All right. Next one comes from at
00:51:16
Speaker
Okay, I got this there's a little play on words at rip roaring asks is the universal monsters line Continuing will we ever get to see a mummy figure? This is now two different mummy figures that have been requested So the the universal monsters line
00:51:40
Speaker
we currently are selling through what we currently have produced. I believe we have, I know we had the mummy pretty much done. So I'm, I'm gonna have to find out whether or not and I'll, and I'll have to let you guys know later after I, June is actually in China right now working with the factory. Once he comes back, I can find out a little bit more about that, but I, I am not,
00:52:10
Speaker
Educated enough on that property to let you guys know more about it. So I'm sorry about that. Stay tuned. Stay tuned. Yeah, please. Stay tuned on your breakfast mummy and your nighttime mummy. At these wonderful toys asks, how is Jada able to produce such high quality figures at such reasonable price points?
Maintaining Quality and Price
00:52:39
Speaker
Man so There's a lot of things that we we do like so you can Kind of fake shading with certain shit cuts inside of you know on shapes of the the mold, right? we used to do that a lot in in ready control with plastic with windows if you want the window or the vehicle to look more matte you put a little bit of a texture on it if you want it to be shiny and
00:53:06
Speaker
You make it flat. Certain things like that. So where we can use those type of tricks, we'll do that instead of using paint ops. But you know what? It's just working with our factories, having a great relationship with our factories to be able to get the press price available to us. And I attribute this to our previous owners.
00:53:34
Speaker
He was really good at making relationships with the factories in China. And luckily enough, they still honor the great pricing he was getting with this new management here. So we're very fortunate to be able to work with some great people over there.
00:53:52
Speaker
And Mike, with that, you have survived your first ever Adventures in Collecting fan Q&A. We did it. We appreciate it. There you go. It was fun. It was a good time, man. Thank you guys for this. And again, I want to thank you guys and all your friends for all the support, because it really, really means a lot to us, and it helps us to keep going.
00:54:14
Speaker
Well, we're always here to support and thanks to our, again, to our listeners and followers for submitting those questions. It's always important to make sure your voices get heard. Now, it is time for our final question. Dave, would you like to fulfill your role as this podcast's James Lipton and ask our final question? Why, yes, I would.
00:54:44
Speaker
Mike, the final question that we ask to all of our guests, what is your favorite and or strangest piece in your collection?
Mike's Favorite Collections
00:54:52
Speaker
It can be one of each, or it can be both. Well, okay, my favorite piece is... Actually, my favorite piece is kind of selfishly, I don't have one here in my office, it's downstairs, is a Robotech
00:55:13
Speaker
Supra that I made of my car. Very cool. The Roy Fokker Toyota Supra anime Hollywood rides that we made in 124 scale is actually the car that I own. I showed it at Anime Expo. So yeah, that's probably my favorite. But my most interesting one that I have, I think it's, you know what I love is bootleg toys.
00:55:41
Speaker
No, not the bootleg toys that you get that are like they look exactly the same but they're slightly off and they're just trying to make money and trying to trick people. I know I'm talking about the ones that like are blatantly wrong. Yeah, like like there's a trap. I have a transformer bumblebee and it's instead of robots in disguise. It says robots in the squeeze.
00:56:06
Speaker
You know, rack toys. I love rack toys. It's so cool. I think there's, you know, it's not like.
00:56:17
Speaker
They're doing anything wrong because no one's going to be trading down to that just because it's more affordable. You're not going to get that because it looks like a bumble. You're going to get it only because it's such a bad fake that you want that because of that. It's one of my things that I really like. I don't know. It's like when you get the bootleg like Batman or the bootleg like
00:56:38
Speaker
John Cena and it's like, yeah, superhero. Yeah. Like, I literally not, not, not just the other day posted, we were in the dollar store and they had this amazing, um, it's, this is on our Instagram feed. It's called the interest toy series. So I'm holding up to that way. You guys can see it here.
00:57:02
Speaker
It's called the Interest Toy Series, and it has these two very anime-looking characters on it, and it's a doctor set. It's just like a doctor set for toddlers, but the packaging is unbelievable. Wow, so funny.
00:57:16
Speaker
Fun family toy series. Accompany your child's childhood good times. That's the stuff I love. Yeah. I wanted it. I almost bought it just for the package. Like just so that way I could take that little like, you know, open up the bag and my kids, the doctor's toys and hang that little hanger tag just forever. So I can always look at it and smile. Like I love rack toys. The packaging is always great. Like I always go back to wrestling, but it was like,
00:57:50
Speaker
And you can tell that they're trying to, you know, mimic some famous character or some famous wrestler. It's, but it's just off enough where you know that it's not. And it's just, I don't know. It's just, it's just, I just love that kind of stuff. It's a game of telephone. Yeah, exactly. Where what we started with was certainly not where we ended, but it's not, it's, it's about the journey. Yeah, exactly.
00:58:11
Speaker
you know, pro wrestlers in outer space, like.
00:58:17
Speaker
who definitely remotely looks like Superman absolutely bought this, fought this guy who remotely looks like Spider-Man once. Yeah. What's that one? There was a really famous one that was circulating on the web where it was like the Avengers and it was like Batman, Shrek, Spider-Man and like Triple H. And me, like my brain isn't like,
00:58:46
Speaker
Those aren't the Avengers. It's like, huh, I think I'd watch that. I thought it was absolutely, I want to see that. Exactly. That's exactly it. And when you buy, you have to keep it in the package. You can't open them up, because you have to see everything in its whole glory, because that's what makes the product. Well, chances are, if you open it anyway, they're just going to fall apart. They might as well. Or they're not. Or they're made out of lead, and they actually hurt somebody.
00:59:17
Speaker
Well, Mike, thank you so much for hanging out with us tonight. Before we let you go, please let our listeners, let our followers know where can they keep up to date on the latest Jeta Toys news on the internet. So follow our Instagrams, Facebook. We're going to be ramping up our TikTok pretty soon if you guys are into that.
00:59:40
Speaker
But our website is in the development right now. It's been a while, but we're very close to having that launched hopefully this February. But the main place, if you guys want to hear the latest, greatest news, sign up for our newsletter on JadaNextLevel.com. That's the best place to go.
00:59:57
Speaker
We send out an email maybe monthly. We don't spam you guys. We'll just send out information that gives you the latest and greatest that's happening in Jada Toys when pre-orders are going to be opened up. Sometimes you get early pre-orders, you know, links if that's something that we're going to be doing. So yeah, Jada Toys, JadaNextLevel.com. That's where you want to go.
01:00:21
Speaker
Awesome. Mike, thank you again so much for hanging out with us tonight. It's been an absolute joy talking to you. Can't wait to see what's coming next from you guys. And of course, we'll put links in our description, in this episode's description, to all the things that Mike just mentioned, so that way you can click, you can subscribe, you can follow, you can like all of those great things. Much appreciated, guys. Thank you very much. Yeah, no problem. Dave, send us home.
01:00:50
Speaker
Everybody, have a great 2024.
01:01:12
Speaker
Follow us on social media at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter. Stop by and say hi. Show us your toy hauls and share your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it in a future episode.
01:01:36
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Franca Blaui. This program and many others like it on the non-productive network is distributed under a Creative Commons attribution non-commercial no derivatives license. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.