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Big Dreams and Tiny Toys: An Interview with Super Impulse President Alan Dorfman
452 Plays4 years ago
On this episode, Dave and Erik sit down with Super Impulse President and founder Alan Dorfman to talk about the world's smallest toys and how they're changing how modern collectors collect!
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Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Focus
00:00:02
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, everyone, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting.
00:00:32
Speaker
Hello, everyone. Good morning. We are back. Yeah, we're recording bright and early. Usually, we're a bunch of night owls over here recording at night, but we're recording while the sun is still out, which is always a nice little change of pace for us, Dave. Yeah, and you could be listening to this in the morning too, so it has many, many, many, actually two implications. Yeah.
00:01:01
Speaker
Yeah, and I mean, I don't know if we've ever actually discussed what time we're normally recording, but yeah, so good morning to you early AM listeners.
Guest Introduction: Alan Dorfman
00:01:11
Speaker
Dave, we're back with another guest. We are.
00:01:16
Speaker
So, Super Impulse is known for making the world's smallest toys and providing a fun unboxing experience in both their micro toy box and wacky packages toy lines. And whether you're playing with the world's smallest Rubik's Cube, a GI Joe or He-Man figure, this week's guest is responsible for bringing them to life. Joining us on Adventures in Collecting is Alan Dorfman, founder and president of Super Impulse. Alan, welcome to Adventures in Collecting.
00:01:43
Speaker
Good morning. Thank you for having me. It's a real pleasure to be here. Before we jump into the interview itself, we always ask all of our guests, as this is a show about toys and collecting, what are you currently collecting? At this point in my career, dust mostly.
00:02:08
Speaker
There's two answers, and one is a shameless self-promotion. We do a line, which we've been doing now for, we're going into our third year, we call microfigs, which are miniature size action figures. So I've been basically collecting my own product and displaying them on our monitor, and it's run to 40 or 50 pieces now that completely surround my desktop.
00:02:39
Speaker
So that's kind of the newest collection. But my hobby, for many years I've been doing this, is collecting mechanical tin toys. So antique toys generally made between the late 1800s and the early 1900s, mostly European made, that all have wind-up functions.
Alan's Toy Collection and Fascination
00:03:03
Speaker
Really cool stuff.
00:03:05
Speaker
That's awesome. Yeah. A few years ago, I was in, uh, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, and they have a really great, um, like folk art museum there. And they had a traveling exhibition that was like the history of toys. And I had no idea that it was there, you know, when I was visiting, we just so happened to be in the museum and, you know, it was.
00:03:28
Speaker
serendipity but uh looking at all of those old uh wind-up tin toys were like that that was the best part of that that uh that exhibit was just it's fantastic um to tell you the truth is similar experience i was running through uh late for a flight uh the airport in san francisco and they had a display a museum display that was in the airport in in glass cases in the center of the uh of the hallways and um
00:03:57
Speaker
It stopped me cold. I couldn't stop looking at them, so that's where my fascination started. That's awesome. It's so cool to see how well, too, so many of them have held up with the colors and the paint. And even, honestly, the mechanical function itself, the fact that they still work is fascinating.
00:04:20
Speaker
I'll tell you the truth, stuff that was made over a hundred years ago and I'm in the industry and there's mechanisms we still more applied and we can't figure out really how they came up with them. That's the most amazing thing is just kind of like how they made things that we take for granted work because at some point that idea was brand new. And the fact that they still hold up for the most part is unbelievable.
00:04:48
Speaker
Well, every once in a while, because you're mechanical, I'll hear in the middle of the night something is now getting a little bit of that wine that's starting to run on its own. So they all carry stories and they're probably a little bit haunted.
The Birth and Growth of Super Impulse
00:05:01
Speaker
So they will come to life every once in a while on their own, which is enough to keep you up at night. And very seasonally appropriate too. Of course.
00:05:16
Speaker
So you started Super Impulse back in 2015. Tell us a little bit about your journey to starting your own toy company. Well, I've been in the toy industry for much longer than Super Impulse. We actually started in 2014. It was in 2015 when we launched the world's smallest, which became the core of the company and the product line we're best known for.
00:05:41
Speaker
Prior to Super Impulse for 20 plus years, I was the owner of another toy company, which I founded, which is called Basic Fun. Basic Fun is still alive and kicking and based in Florida. It was at Basic Fun that we came up with the concept of miniaturizing toys and putting key chains on them. To this day, whenever you see people having key chains hanging from their backpack,
00:06:10
Speaker
That kind of gets credited towards towards basic funds keychain business. I Sold the company hung around for a couple years the help to transition and then I was done and really planning to kick around and see what came my way and didn't really have a specific plan to go back in a toy business and
00:06:34
Speaker
I was fortunate that I was busy and the phone rang and the emails came in and gave me a number of projects. One of those projects was a product line called Super Impulse. And that product line was a floor display for retailers that had a video monitor built into it. And the video monitor would play a loop demonstrating the toy.
00:06:58
Speaker
So it was designed for impulse toys, which I have always been involved
The Appeal of Miniature and Impulse Toys
00:07:02
Speaker
with. And it was basically an in-store merchandiser. So I agreed to take on the project of bringing that program to the United States. And eventually they became expanded to bring into program to a worldwide basis, worldwide distribution. And eventually it, uh,
00:07:24
Speaker
gained traction and it demanded all of my time. And we decided, um, we being my, my two partners, one based, uh, in South America who brought us the program and one based in Hong Kong who runs our, our, our Hong Kong office, um, to put our resources into managing the super impulse business. Um, and as I mentioned earlier, after about a year,
00:07:48
Speaker
We realize that the miniature toy business was going away. The guys who had bought basic fun decided to pivot and change directions and were no longer doing the keychain business with miniature toys that we built the company on. So there was low hanging fruit and it was a great opportunity and we just went ahead and started acquiring licenses and deals with other toy manufacturers and a great product line was born.
00:08:18
Speaker
So, you know, super impulse and, and like you said, basic fun initially, uh, was no is known for making, you know, these kinds of smaller toys. And, and now with super impulse, especially, you know, laying claim to the world's smallest toys, going back to the, the little super soaker, um, what kind of built this fascination, uh, and, and, uh, direction.
00:08:44
Speaker
to take a toy line into the world of making the world's smallest things? That's a good question. Personally, I was always drawn to, I guess, the impulse toys, which seems to be by nature usually small toys, things that you carry out with your pocket. Silly putty, Super Bowls.
00:09:10
Speaker
A lot of the stuff that was, you know, they're classics now, but when they were first released, they were trend items, they were fads. I was doing a product at Basic Fund that was kind of an open market item, but it was a little squirt gun that
00:09:34
Speaker
At that time, people, women particularly, were wearing around their necks, and they were squirting each other in bars. It just became a little mini fad last of the few months. But I had just come from, I had worked for a period at Laramie, who was doing the Super Server. And I was down there for some reason visiting, and I was explaining what I was doing. They were showing me what they were working on, and it just became a light bulb moment while we miniaturized the Super Server.
00:10:05
Speaker
And they looked and said, nah, we don't need to do that. Yeah, that's not our thing. Super suckers are big. Super suckers have lots of capacity of squirting ability and no one wants a small one. And I kept at them and took about a year to convince them. And finally they said, okay, we'll give you a crack, see what you can do. And in order to differentiate it, they didn't want the product showing up in the water gun aisle. They didn't want to draw any sales from them. So I suggested I put a key chain on it.
00:10:34
Speaker
and keep it in the miscellaneous toys or the impulse toy section. And they agreed. And it was an instant hit. It was the appeal of the manager of something people are used to seeing big, giant, oversized. And all of a sudden, here is the same product, but pocket sized.
Engineering and Emotional Connection of Mini Toys
00:10:54
Speaker
And when you picked it up and pumped the nozzle and a stream of water squirted it out, it was a wow.
00:11:02
Speaker
It was a big deal. People just flipped out over it. And now it's concerned. It took off. And I'm thinking, OK, now what? There's no end to one-hit wonders in the toy industry. So what next? And I started looking around. I literally went to Toys R Us and started looking up and down the aisles. What can I miniaturize? What can I get the rights to miniaturize?
00:11:30
Speaker
And that second one happened to be Etch-A-Sketch. I landed on Etch-A-Sketch, another long time favorite. Bought it, took it home, took a hacksaw to it, took it apart. Yeah, I can make this. And yeah, that one worked and it became snowball. Okay. Well, you know, next one, the next one. And yeah, we went from two items to four items to 12 items and just snowballed it.
00:11:55
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it's interesting to think about it, right? Cause we've, you know, you've said it several times now, like just kind of impulse toys as, as a category, you know, as a, as a, uh, you know, uh, a category of toys and, you know, all of a sudden now I'm thinking like, Oh yeah. You know, thinking when I was a kid, whether it was those like the capsule machines, you know, where you pop in a couple quarters and you know, you get a super, you know, like a sky bounce ball or, uh, you know, some sort of little, uh,
00:12:24
Speaker
like little figurine, you know, in, in, in one of those, those capsules. And I feel like this is kind of like the natural progression of, of that, you know, where it's, uh, you know, instead of being kind of a generic brand toy, uh, in that, that kind of, uh, impulse category, you know, now it's kind of the things that you either as adults, you know, grew up with, or, you know, as a kid, maybe this is your first introduction into an etch a sketch is, you know, one that's super tiny.
00:12:54
Speaker
Think about it. Think about your favorite, I'll quote, unquote, forgotten toy. Think about when you're cleaning at your desk, get ready to go away to school, and you find something on the back of the drawer that you
00:13:09
Speaker
Couldn't put down or you took everywhere with you and your kid and haven't seen it in years and all of a sudden just laying there You know in the back of the drawer or hanging off a backpack that was stuck in the closet Or something that's been sitting in the in the kitchen drunk drawer that you you know pluck up and all of a sudden start playing with And these type of toys are the ones that are really really the favorites are really the you know The ones that that that touch you emotionally to bring back in memories That's I think the courts who
00:13:40
Speaker
The success of our product is that we we we cross over demographics. We're not a kid's toy line. We're not a collectible line. We're we're we're in people. It's pure impulse. People see it. They remember it. They have to have it. You know something that you know it becomes a keepsake. Yeah for sure. And you know part of the.
00:14:05
Speaker
the fun to it is the nomenclature of it being the world's smallest. So how do you go about determining how small something needs to be in order for it to be the world's smallest? So we have kind of two levels of review that we go through. If it was a product that we created as a key chain back at the first company,
00:14:31
Speaker
And we were automatically challenged to be at ourselves saying, OK, we already made it small. It has to be the world's smallest. So we have an objective of at least 10% smaller. The other point that we try to meet, whether we did it or it's a brand new item, is we kind of start from the engineering perspective and say, OK, how small can this really be and still function?
00:14:58
Speaker
So we want to deliver the experience of the toy that people would expect
Miniaturization Selection Process
00:15:02
Speaker
it to. So if it's a magic able, it has to be a workable, functional magic able. You turn over and it gives you a different answer every time. And we have to go kind of through the engineering perspective of how small does it have to be to have that function to really work reliably and be able to actually be built.
00:15:26
Speaker
That's the other challenges. We're mass producing these. We have to have a production method that allows them to be worked. You can make one small of anything, but it might cost you an exorbitant amount of money in order to build it.
00:15:50
Speaker
we had the opportunity to take a look at kind of a sampling of the product line. And I had seen the Etch A Sketch before, actually. At Toy Fair a few years ago, the amazing Etch Man was actually doing little portraits on the Super Impulse Etch A Sketch. So I'd seen that in person and knew that it had functioned. But I think I was most impressed by the little lava lamp
00:16:20
Speaker
because I wasn't expecting it to have a pump on the bottom to actually move the little oil mixture around in there to make it look like it was actually a lava lamp. I was expecting it to be something where I just turned it over and the beads would fall out or drift through. But yeah, the fact that it had a little functioning pump on the bottom was like, oh, this is really clever.
00:16:47
Speaker
Right, so that one was one of our challenges. So to the nature of a lava lamp, a full-size lava lamp, is that you plug it in and the electricity activates the heating element and melts the wax and causes it to float and drop through the liquid. We knew that
00:17:10
Speaker
we weren't going to pass any type of safety testing if we had a heating element and a pocket-sized product. So we had to abandon that feature and go, we came up with a pumping mechanism, which gives us a pretty good likeness. Yeah, I agree. It absolutely does. So speaking of, we've talked about the lava lamp and the etch-a-sketch and Super Soaker, and there's even a Rubik's Cube.
00:17:40
Speaker
Due to the nature of your product, do you have the opportunity to really work with some of the most famous toy brands and licenses in the industry? How do you go about choosing which one comes next? We're constantly challenged. Fortunately, we have very good relationships within the toy industry, with other toy manufacturers.
00:18:10
Speaker
For the bigger companies, Hydro's and Mattel's and Spin Masters. We essentially have developed relationships with the licensing teams and it's almost like going through a roster. We look at what we have, we look what they have. We look at past products as well as what's current. And we just try to land on brands that are trending, that are meaningful, that are classic.
00:18:37
Speaker
and pursue those. And of course we have to consider the mechanics that, you know, can we make this work and can we deliver a product in small size that will, you know, meet the standard. The other thing is we're constantly looking, you know, we're, we're looking at what's out there. We're looking at, uh, uh, you know, we're searching our own memories of what, you know, what will we remember. Um, I mean, there's, there's, there's no shortage of toys in the history of toys. Um, but sometimes
00:19:06
Speaker
You know, we'll settle into some that are too obscure or too, you know, basically they're too forgotten about to, to, you know, be successful on bringing them back. But for the most part, we look for, you know, we look for well-known brands and well-known toys that, you know, fit, you know, just kind of fit the mix. And now a word from our sponsors. And now back to the show.
00:19:36
Speaker
Now you mentioned when you're kind of going through these catalogs mentally, right? These long histories of toys from these brands. Do you ever try to go after something that's maybe, like you said, maybe like a forgotten toy? I'm thinking like, you know,
00:19:56
Speaker
Uh, battle, that'll be served rock lords or, you know, street sharks, like some of these, these toys that have kind of never really left the like collector conscious consciousness, but you know, they haven't been on the shelves in, in decades. It happens all the time. And we really have to make a decision, um, of, you know, how's it going to be viewed by our customer base? So when I present our product line to a, to a retail buyer.
00:20:26
Speaker
They're going to go for products that really are going to give them the best success off-shelf. And in many ways, we compete with ourselves. So if I have a more obscure title, it's just not going to get the support at retail than some of the higher profile brands. It's a shame because we leave a lot of really interesting stuff on the table that way. But from a practical point of view, a business point of view, we just can't make everything.
00:20:55
Speaker
So, you know, we do have to make a cut. I'll give you an example of something that's on a cusp, but it says work that pretty well for us. We do a couple of different types of Gumby and kind of awareness with kids from Gumby, you know, it's it's kind of niche. There's a lot of kids who don't know what, what, what, what, or who Gumby is or was. A lot of us grew up with it and, you know, it's a classic and it does pretty well for us usually when we mix it into other assortments.
00:21:24
Speaker
As a standalone, it's a niche product, usually in toy stores or collectible stores, but it's not something that some of the bigger retailers would pick up. We're really proud to have that brand within our mix, but it's a pretty specific type of product. We have watched unboxings on YouTube and online, and a kid
00:21:48
Speaker
we'll pick it up and open it up and say, oh, it's a little wire green mat.
Mini Toys in Photography and Blind Box Strategy
00:21:53
Speaker
No idea what it is. Oh, man, my heart. Or if I had one kid say, I bet my dad knows who this is. Well, it's a good thing you didn't include the blockheads. They would have been really confused. They've been, yeah, they sit here and they may make it one of these days.
00:22:14
Speaker
But yeah, I even see things like, you know, like, and I think this is the most amazing part, especially with the world's smallest action figures, like, you know, not only is it replicating the packaging, but like, you know, there's articulation, there's battle cat, like He-Man can go on actually go on the battle cat, like it's
00:22:33
Speaker
It's amazing kind of the level of detail and just the level of nostalgia where it's like, yeah, I can do the thing that I did with my action figure decades ago with the world's smallest figure.
00:22:49
Speaker
That's a great line. We have a lot of fun with that. And that does give us the capability of stretching the assortments beyond what we would do maybe in the typical world's smallest line. The micro figs have given us some really good opportunities. Even like we do micro, we call it micro amigo. We work with Migo on their relaunch of their action line. We've been focused mostly on horror so far.
00:23:15
Speaker
And, you know, that gives us a good retro, you know, uh, opportunity for stuff that, that isn't so mainstream. Yeah, I couldn't believe I, uh, you know, I, I popped open one of the, the micro toy box, uh, blind, blind packages. And, uh, there was a little He-Man in there and I was like, Oh, that's cool. And then I'm looking at it and I'm like, wait, does he come with a sword and the, the sword of, and the shield and can he actually, and then I'm like sitting there and I'm like, Oh my God, he can actually, the, the, the shield clips onto his arm. The sword goes in his hand. This is crazy.
00:23:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's, you know, tooling that stuff and molding that stuff is really challenging. It's really, I mean, look at how small the hands have to be in order to grip the sword. Yeah. And the fact that it actually like, like I, again, like I'm sitting there kind of incredulous, like, okay, like, yeah, I'll, I'll sure, I'll be able to get the sword in his hand. And then when I did, and like, I'm sitting there shaking them back and forth and they had the, like,
00:24:10
Speaker
The contact is actually so good that the sword's not falling out of his hand and the shield's not falling off of his arm. I was very surprised. I warn you not to shake too hard because if that sword flies out, you'll never find it in a carpet. I have a high pile carpet in the office, so yeah, it would be gone forever. Oh yeah, absolutely.
00:24:35
Speaker
So speaking of Eric mentioned the blind box, one of the trends that has been extremely popular over the past few years has been crafting a blind box and mystery unboxing experience for collectors. How do you determine which products are going to be in the blind boxes? So we started the first blind boxes and it does very well is actually a world's smallest blind box. So we've been selling all these individual
00:25:04
Speaker
items, these individual brands, um, by themselves. And, uh, one of our customers, um, a large customer who wasn't yet a customer, somebody we had been pursuing said, you know, I don't really have the space and it doesn't really fit our merchandising scheme. Why don't you give me an assortment and put them in some kind of display. And we realized that blind box would be the best way to execute that. So we put together the world's smallest blind box, um, in a counter display or a shelf display.
00:25:35
Speaker
And it continues to be our top seller. And it's proven to be not only a great seller in its own right, but it also introduces a broader base of consumers to the category world's smallest. They buy their blind box. If they're looking for the magic eightfold, then I find that they can always go back into the aisles and pick it up. So it opened our eyes to the opportunities in the blind box area.
00:26:03
Speaker
And the next one we did was wacky packages. And that was something that we went to TOPS to get a license to do miniature wacky packages, which were the old trading cards, been around for about 50 years, that were done as collectible stickers slash trading cards.
00:26:22
Speaker
And so we wanted to build them into 3D and it made sense to do them as blind box. And so you open the package and there's, there's five different, different wacky package minis inside that package. And that led us to, uh, well, we're already doing the world's smallest as a working line.
00:26:40
Speaker
We saw there was a trend in miniature collectibles and grocery items and other household type items. Let's do what we do best to make miniature toys. So this year we've launched the micro toy box, which are non-functioning but collectible mini toys. Again, you know, multiples within a package. And that's a fun business. We really liked it, but it is challenging. You have people
00:27:03
Speaker
No offense in your audience, but collectors are very passionate about that. We went through a learning curve, finding how to properly do a blind box product to satisfy the collector community. Yeah.
Upcoming Products and Innovations
00:27:20
Speaker
In a world where information travels in the blink of an eye, I was just having this conversation with somebody the other day, harkening back and remembering a time where
00:27:33
Speaker
You'd walk into a toy store, uh, you know, uh, way pre-internet and you'd see a toy on the shelf that you didn't know existed, you know, like you had no idea it was coming. Um, and you know, you were excited to be like the one to find it on the pegs, right? And then, then go back and tell your.
00:27:50
Speaker
You know, your friends, look what I found. And I feel like, you know, and Dave and I have talked about this in the past too, this kind of blind box, blind bag experience, especially for collectors, like people who have, you know, our age and even older, it gives you just kind of like a taste of that feeling and that experience that like you really can no longer have because of, you know, the internet and, you know, uh,
00:28:18
Speaker
and marketing plans and leak culture and, you know, and all that stuff. So it's, it's so interesting to see how brands kind of adopt the, the blind bag blind box experience. Um, you know, the other thing I really like about blind box is that it's, it's a multiple, um, style. Merchandiser. So, you know, you can put it, you know, it gives us opportunity to make a lot of product.
00:28:47
Speaker
and put it into one assortment. So there's a challenge there. But at the same time, it's a lot of fun. So we will get, of our collections, we'll have to get dozens and dozens to make it work as a blind box. And as a developer, that's the fun part. That's the part that we enjoy. We enjoy the variety of brands. We enjoy having to mix and match them and put them in the proper assortment.
00:29:17
Speaker
Um, our head of development daniel has to consider has to create a matrix Of how to pack these things and that's kind of one of the things that a lot of people don't realize is you know It's it's it's it's it's challenging, but it's pretty cool to have to figure out, you know, okay we're going to put you know this product with that product with that product and and you know These ones we're going to make scarce and this is where we're going to do it and make them rare or collectible Um, so it's it's a whole new, um kind of level product development
00:29:46
Speaker
Because that's always the other fun thing to consider right is is the what are the determining factors that make something a qualify as the thing that's going to be the the rare the chase in the in the in the assortment.
00:30:02
Speaker
I have to ask Daniel that question. He tells me. I mean, we do agree on, and it's usually his suggestion, whether we're going to do a gold plate at one or a chrome plate at one, we're molded in a clear plastic or make a black series. But he's the guy that actually picks the specific styles of what's going to end up as the ultra scarce one or the rarest.
00:30:28
Speaker
So, so one of the things that we, we haven't really touched on yet and I feel like has, has become
00:30:35
Speaker
At least I'm assuming an unintended side effect of the Super Impulse products is kind of like toys for toys. So as toy photographers have started using them to enhance photos, to give their toys, toy displays, or even deck out their dioramas, just using them as props. Do you ever take any of that into consideration when producing these new items?
00:31:05
Speaker
So yeah, I can tell you that I'm a genius. And we saw that coming. And we thought this was something we should play into. But the truth is, we had no idea. We were so impressed and so thrilled to see that that trend come out that was like, wow, now why don't we think of that? It's completely organic.
00:31:26
Speaker
um, people, you know, uh, creative people started seeing the opportunity and, and, and the, you know, action figures for your action figures to us just kind of blew us away. And that really reinforced the, uh, legitimacy of the product line to us. You know, we have to do more of this. I mean, the first thing I thought of when, you know, after I, I opened up, you know, a few of the packages and I have, you know, a dozen or so.
00:31:51
Speaker
you know, effectively 112 scale little figures. Um, it was like, I'm going to put Deadpool on the floor and he's going to be laying on his belly with his legs crossed behind him. And he's going to be playing with He-Man and Hello Kitty because of course he is. And, you know, like I took the picture and then started, you know, set up a little.
00:32:08
Speaker
112 couch and the table and started putting everything around to put the lava lamp on the on a side table and I was like You know this this is something else you know like if there were you know other kind of like how like general household objects in here like a phone like even if it was like a rotary phone or like a
00:32:29
Speaker
you know, like a solo cup, you know, just kind of like other fun little household items. Like I think that would be like a super cool spinoff. We do a couple of things that do fit into that category. We, we, we, uh, we have a, uh, uh, a world's smallest turntable, um, doesn't actually play music, but, uh, it looks like a pretty cool turntable and it does come with a record and it does spin and a little strobe light goes on. We also do, um, um,
00:32:59
Speaker
Polaroid, camera. Oh, awesome. Pretty popular.
Listener Q&A and Future Challenges
00:33:02
Speaker
Yeah. So, um, doesn't take pictures, but does eject a piece of film and makes that cool little electronic rolling noise as, as, as the film pops out. I got to keep my eye out for that one. So, um, as a result of that trends, kind of related, we are launching a, um, a brand new product, which will be both as a standalone
00:33:25
Speaker
and as an accessory in a combo pack with the micro figures. And this was purely inspired by a photographer's use of the products as a prop. We were looking at social media and we saw that someone had taken an image of, had set up a He-Man playing with a micro He-Man and they use as a backdrop a He-Man comic book.
00:33:55
Speaker
We looked at it and we showed it to Mattel and they looked at it and it was another aha moment and for spring of 22 we are launching a line of micro comic books or reproductions of original comic books that are about an inch and a half tall two inches tall You know, we've gotten rights the original artwork and they'll be offered along with he-man transformers Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and GI Joe and
00:34:24
Speaker
Oh, that's so cool. That's awesome. I have to say this one, this one really got us going. This one is really cool. Now my action figures can have book collections. I like this. That's right. I can't wait for Optimus Prime to be reading Transformers comic book. The gears are already turning, Alan. They're turning.
00:34:50
Speaker
So that is exclusive to you guys. That is a brand new launch, and you're the first to break that news publicly. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you. So now that brings us into our Q&A.
00:35:08
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.
00:35:24
Speaker
Visit them in person at 106 Main Street in Little Falls, New Jersey, or online at ChubsyWubsy.com. That's C-H-U-B-Z-Z-Y-W-U-B-Z-Z-Y.com. And tell them Adventures in Collecting sent you. So we posted an announcement that we were going to have you on the podcast.
00:35:46
Speaker
We collected some, some questions, uh, from our followers and, uh, family members. Well, you can confirm two of them because two of them we have, uh, we have, uh, handles for. So if, if, if you recognize them, you can, you can put them on blast, but then the, the other one is a, is a combination. Uh, we got a couple of questions that were very similar. So we just kind of turned it into one. Can't give a single person credit for it. But, uh, Dave, do you want to hit Alan with the first question?
00:36:15
Speaker
I sure can. Um, at Nico Minoru 1986 asks, I'm excited about what's in store for next year. Are you making more key chains, more blind boxes, maybe blind box key chains? Uh, yes and yes. So let me explain the key chain, uh, aspect. Um, I probably sold more key chains in my career, particularly toy key chains. I went back to the basic fund days and anybody in the world.
00:36:46
Speaker
And when we started world smallest, uh, the first mantra was no key chains. We've had enough of key chains, retired of key chains. And then of course, you know, a year later say, well, this won't be pretty cool with key chain. So we have, when we do a product that we cannot replicate the exact function, we have to modify it for practical reasons or size reasons.
00:37:09
Speaker
like the lava lamp or the Polaroid, which doesn't really take pictures, but it does have a cool function. That we title not world smallest, but world's coolest. It's the same scale, same type of packaging, same price point, same presentation. But in order to designate or differentiate, rather, a world's coolest from world's smallest, all the world's coolest have key chains.
00:37:37
Speaker
And that's kind of a single to consumers that this one works.
Alan's Unique Toy Collection and Wrap Up
00:37:43
Speaker
It just doesn't work exactly like the full size. So for next year, we have a blind box, which is not necessarily a key chain, but we're doing a blind box range based on candy brands, which is called Sugar Buzz and it's coming in really nice. That's a lot of fun to work on. And then the key chain space,
00:38:06
Speaker
We have two or three miniature items that we will be launching. It's a little bit early for me to talk about them now, but yes, there will be more coming. Cool. This question is that combination question. A bunch of people wanted to know, what was the toughest license to secure for the world's smallest line?
00:38:36
Speaker
Well, the ones, the toughest ones are the ones I haven't gotten yet. So there's a couple that we've been chasing that haven't yet come our way. Probably Dungeons and Dragons. Interesting, okay. Yeah, they don't, you know, Hasbro is very, Wizards of the Coast are very protective of the brand as they should be.
00:39:03
Speaker
And they really hadn't licensed anybody to do figure roll pieces. And by the way, they kind of came to us eventually and said, we're really happy with the work you're doing, and we'd like to give you an opportunity. That was something that had been off the table for quite a while. That's cool.
00:39:29
Speaker
Yeah, and talk about a world of endless catalog of characters and designs and colors, shapes, sizes. I mean, it's nearly endless. The first product is actually going to be hitting shelves in a few weeks. And I'll tell you the truth, that was one of the tougher ones we had to do in small scale. Band base is very loyal, and we were challenged to make sure we came up with a product that would meet their standards.
00:40:01
Speaker
All right. The next one is from a friend of the pod at creepy NJ. Um, the wacky packages line has some cool video game inspired boxes. Any chance we'll see micro console slash game carts in the future? Uh, we only, we, we, we, we produce what's been done. So if they've been created as, as wacky package stickers by tops or cards, um, then, um, it's certainly on our roster.
00:40:31
Speaker
Now I'm going to actually piggyback on his question here because it just made me think of something. Is, is, has, have you ever thought about going into doing micro, uh, you know, like actual video game consoles, like a little NES or a little Sega Genesis or N 64 with like removable carts and stuff? Uh, you guys got to get up to date. Um, we do a line called a tiny arcade.
00:40:59
Speaker
which is a line of miniature replicas of arcade video games. We have a lot of the classics, so it's a one and three-quarter by an inch and a half screen. Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Tetris. We do a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. We do a mash-up of Hello Kitty Pac-Man.
00:41:26
Speaker
So these are all full play, full function. We program these games to be exact replicas of the original arcade games. Pac-Man has 254 levels. High-resolution screens, high-definition imaging.
00:41:42
Speaker
Authentic sound so that we've been doing for a couple years. We're a little challenged now because there's a worldwide chip shortage, which I know you're aware of so that's sort of some a little bit but So we took all of our resources essentially and put them into two new items this year since we were new we would have a Supply chain shortage. We put all of the components into the two new ones, which is a miniature dance dance revolution and
00:42:12
Speaker
Which you dance with your fingertips. Very cool. And we do the Atari 2600 console game. So it is a true reproduction of a miniature console, the 1978 version of Atari. It has a TV. It's an old box style TV that your parents had in their living room, your grandparents had in their living room.
00:42:37
Speaker
It has a working joystick, which is a controller, and it has the console. There are 10 games pre-programmed into it, complete gameplay. Nine of the 10 are Atari games, and the 10th is Pac-Man. What's really cool about Pac-Man is that when we did the Tiny Arcade, the self-sanding video arcade one,
00:43:03
Speaker
we replicated those arcade graphics. When Atari came out with the original Pac-Man version, it was really dumbed down based on the available technology. So it was really clunky and the ghost would flutter and sometimes disappear. And everything was sort of boxy looking. And that's what Bandai, who owns Pac-Man, wanted us to replicate. So even though we have a much nicer version elsewhere in our line, the Pac-Man that's shown on the Atari 2600 console
00:43:32
Speaker
is that late 70s, clunky, goofy, kind of downrated version of Pac-Man. See, we knew about the arcade cabinets, but I had not seen this, and now I'm looking at actually an announcement article. The DDR and the Atari, they look absolutely fantastic. I need that DDR for my, again, for going back to, not only do I love me some DDR,
00:44:00
Speaker
You know, I gotta, I gotta have my, my action figures played DDR. It's even got more in the back for them to hold on to. This is great. Yeah, they're a lot of fun. They're both really cool products. So I hope you guys can continue with that, uh, with, with like the home home console idea. Cause like, you know, again, you know, having something like a little,
00:44:26
Speaker
You know, even if it goes back to, you know, having to throw a key chain on it, cause you can't have it play Nintendo 64 games, but like having, you know, a little N 64 game cube or Nintendo or Sega Genesis, like that would be, that would be awesome.
00:44:44
Speaker
It's been on the planning board. And when we do them, this stuff, we've got a pretty good programming team. So we've been impressed with ourselves of how accurate we've been able to reproduce these games in small size. So just keep watching. It can happen. So with that, that's the end of the Q&A section. Thank you to everybody who submitted questions. We hope you liked the answers that you got.
00:45:14
Speaker
Thank you. And with that, it leads us into our final question of the interview. So Dave, would you like to fulfill your role as this podcast's James Lipton and ask our final question? Yes. So the final question that we ask all of our guests is, what is your favorite and or strangest piece in your collection? Now, it could be one of each. It could be both. But what is your favorite and or strangest piece in your collection?
00:45:43
Speaker
All right, so I can't pick a favorite, because depending on the time of day, day of the week, there's different favorites. But I will tell you one of my strangest, and I mentioned the antique toys. So the 10 windups I focus on are my preference is toys that reflect the culture of those times. So as you can expect, I got some pretty strange toys.
00:46:13
Speaker
So there's actually two to come to mind that are really, really odd. One of them is, it's a wind-up tent toy that's a very Natalie-dressed gentleman with a suit and a hat sitting on a bench surrounded by palm trees. And next to him is what looks like, I guess was at the time, a trash receptacle, trash can with a cover. And how this works is you take the lid off the trash can and you put a lit cigarette.
00:46:41
Speaker
into it. Now, keep in mind, these are toys that were built for kids, so it really tells you how far we've come as a society. Put the lid back on with the lit cigarette, wind it up, and the man on the bench will begin smoking his pipes and blowing smoke out of the pipe. And the other one is kind of a famous toy. It was made in Germany about 1900, and it's called the chimney suite.
00:47:09
Speaker
And it's, it's this really strange toy. It's a, it's a man in a Baker suit peddling. So he's got a bicycle and to wind up pedal motion, a, uh, a cart, like, like maybe you can pick it as, as a common old time ice cream cart that you'd see. And only it has what looks like a pretzel painted on the side of it, but hanging on the back of the cart is a man dressed in all, all black. He almost looks like a ninja and he's holding a broom.
00:47:37
Speaker
And as you wind it up, the baker pedals, the bicycle pulling the car. And the man on the back who's supposed to be a chimney sweep, who looks like a ninja is whacking his broom at the baker while he's peddling. And at the same time, the baker with his other hand is whacking the chimney sweep with a spoon. You know, I had to Google that one while you were describing it and it's, it's, I found it. Yeah.
00:48:04
Speaker
That's the description. Am I pretty accurate? You could not have described that better in fewer words. You couldn't have done it. It was perfect. And yeah, that does not look like a chimney sweep. That looks like a ninja. And why he's attacking this poor baker selling pretzels from his bicycle, I've never understood, but apparently it was a common enough occurrence for a company to invest and manufacture a toy based on it.
00:48:34
Speaker
And I love that I found a picture of one that has like the original art with it. Baker and sweet. Yeah, even the art like and the Baker, the Baker and the arts turn around like hey, why are you whacking me? Yeah, that's that's funny. That is that is a great toy. Ah, well, Alan, thank you so much for again for taking the time to to join us on adventures in collecting before we let you go. Just
00:48:59
Speaker
Tell us, where can we find out the latest news about Super Impulse? Where can we find you on the interwebs, all that good stuff? We're kind of after all over. So we have social, digital posts all the time. Follow us on TikTok, on Instagram, on Facebook, on Twitter, all the usual places. You can always go to our site. We have a storefront set up on Amazon. So we're out there. Awesome.
00:49:28
Speaker
Thank you again so much for joining us, Alan. It was my pleasure. I really enjoyed talking to you guys. Thanks very much. Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes.
00:49:53
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.
00:50:16
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer Frank Kablaui. 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.