How much money would it cost to start and operate a toy company

4H are artists so they can design and sculpt in house, but this is probably the cheapest aspect of creating figures so even if you are completely talentless you can get a figure designed and prototyped for a few thousand dollars. The real money is the production costs, which depending on complexity of the toys which depending on the complexity of what you're making would run somewhere between 20k-40k. A relatively small toyline creatively reusing molds could be made for around 50k-75k. These are all under the assumption of original properties or public domain things. Licensing fees will vary but basically anything well known or with a significant fan base will be significant costs. I'd say starting anything, even an original toyline with 4-5 figures only, with less than 100k is foolish.

A successful kickstarter of pretty much anything can be made assuming you have well designed toys with a clear production path with a trusted factory. The key is variety- no one wants a single figure of something with an upfront cost of 45k. Set your goal for 100k and include 25 figures like 4H, Boss fight, or something slick like the Legends of Cthulhu people.

Honestly wouldn't waste money on a license. Make something original or come up with a fresh take on something old enough to be free.

>>6450146
Thanks, bro. Is there any information out there about how much companies have paid for licenses in the recent past?

>>6450120
>How much money would it cost to start and operate a toy company like Four Horsemen Studios or SOTA(before they sucked)?
Assume each employee would be paid $50k+, plus all state and federal taxes associated with having employees. Then you add in materials, equipment, rent, utilities, insurance, all associated taxes, travel expenses, legal expenses, advertising expenses, website expenses, foreign factory space, foreign factory employee costs, tooling costs, local foreign agent/intermediary costs, dock costs, loading costs, storage costs, foreign taxes, shipping costs, inspection and unloading costs, import tariffs (if any), transportation, fulfillment, and taxes on all earnings. Plus a bajillion more unseen costs.

I would say at minimum you're looking at $500k with a 4 man operation.

>How much do licenses generally cost for shit like Street Fighter?
I worked for a company that made licensed goods from a whole slew of different IPs. Basic types of licenses that gain access to the use of logos and stock graphic assets can be well beyond $10k, for a set duration of time. Some companies (like Disney/Marvel, as I found out while working) separate out their IPs piecemeal unless you pay for the master license, which would get into the $100k+ mark and beyond.

>>6450189
Yeah, licensing is a huge hassle, and generally why companies like four horsemen do their own thing instead.

Plus you can still get subject to oversight by the ip holder in some cases, and that can be frustrating.

>>6450232
There's almost always oversight. All major IPs that I have dealt with had us forward every product to their legal department. They have complex forms for every aspect of its production. Legal then passes it to the company's product management division, who provide input and force changes.

But I wasn't working with toys, so it's probably a different set up. I imagine they nail down the key aspects (character selection, costume, accessories) and get it all approved before the sculptor even begins, and then unless something outrageously obvious sticks out in the final sculpt they just pass it through without many hurdles.

If a toy company does digital "sculpting" instead of actual sculpting do they have a digital artist and some sort of engineer to design the articulation or do they just wing it and have the artist design the articulation?

>>6450290
>engineers designing articulation
Well memed

>>6450305
Is that a Jojo reference?

>>6450290
The joints themselves are just subtools in a digital sculpt. There's nothing complex about it.

>>6450369
>subtools
Do what now?

>>6450371
A subtool is an object in a digital sculpting application. I guess you could think of it like a layer in Photoshop. You can just paste it in and insert it into an existing digital sculpt file.

For example, you're building up a figure in Zbrush. You're going to start sculpting the arms. You take an existing shoulder disk joint subtool which is a standardized sculpt appearing across every other figure in the line (to save money on mold tooling) and you insert it into your sculpt file. You now shape the arm around the shoulder disk joint subtool to make sure it fits fine with proper clearance. So the digital sculptor can take care of all aspects of articulation by themselves.

>>6450394
Thank you. /toy/ is such an informative and useful place. Why can't /g/ or /v/ be more like this?

I'm currently in trade school to become a machinist and I have a passion for miniatures and figurines, so this was actually pretty informative for startup costs and ideas for beginning a business. Kind of wondering what the tooling startup cost would be if I end up doing all moldmaking myself, but I'd imagine labor and storage cost would be more expensive domestically (US) than foreign outsourcing.

You have to be rich already. The machines cost too much for you to buy for small projects and the dunces financing them as a company won't even talk to you with less than a million units paid upfront. They won't even tell you that, you have to bluff them with an imaginary production number to see what triggers a response. Then, after ignoring hundreds or thousands of potential customers for not being international corporations, they cry to trade organizations and government about how there's no work out there to do.

>>6456036
This is absolute gibberish.

>>6456012
In your case the numbers might be low enough to mostly do it yourself if you have all that know how.

>>6456353
Even the simplest text is gibberish to an illiterate.

>>6456486
It's gibberish when it's coming from someone pretending to know things and then communicating his lies in an incoherent way.

>>6456353
>I've n-n-never tried to g-g-get anything m-m-made.

>>6456486
>>6456495
>the samefag is also a newfag
Hoo boy

>>6456494
I don't see you offering any specifics on how to accomplish this or successful products you've launched. Just because you watch Shark Tank doesn't mean you know dick either.

>>6456501
>hey, just because I'm pulling shit out of my ass doesn't mean you made toys before!
The fuck? Are you really this stupid? You just decided to make shit up and pretend to know what you're talking about. I called you out on it. That I'm not Jerry Mattel is in no way proof that you're not a useless shitter.

>>6456518
>I c-c-can't counterargue but I'm r-r-right!

>>6456518
>Jerry Mattel
Oops, missed this nugget in your river of stupid. Man you must think there's a Johnny Bandai too.

>>6456522
You are truly pathetic. You literally know nothing about making toys. No toy company is making toys by the millions, fuckwit. No factory in the world could handle that volume.

>>6456527
Holy fuck you're stupid. How could such a simple joke go so far over your head?

>>6456528
Lol anon on 4chins thinks he's winning a pissing contest on the interwebs

>>6450409
The mods here crack down on any shitposting or posts that deviate from toy discussion.

>>6458290
Are you really such a pathetic piece of shit that you have to get in the last word even after you were thoroughly discredited?
Your post was bullshit because you know nothing. Every post you make is utterly useless because you pretend to be an authority. And you're not even clever or funny. You're just a raging newfag with the mind of a child. Pls kys.

>>6458358
>anon says "nuh-uh!" and provides no proof
>discredited
Jesus. Are you for real?

How many foreign manufacturers have you even tried to contact, let alone gotten far enough to produce a product through? Oh, that's right, zero. You don't know anything so shut up.

I wish OP the best of luck but people like you are really not helping him.

>>6450244
My friend works for a company that makes DC merchandise, and they have to get approval of the concept, in progress, and then the final product has to pass another approval level.

They've gotten approval before, during, and then just got denied at the final even though it was blatantly what they were gonna be making upfront.

It sucks.

>>6458368
>makes up bullshit
>demands others go to elaborate heights to disprove said bullshit
Shut the fuck up already, fuckwit. You pulled numbers and advice out of your ass and got called out on it. Period.
Should I break it down bit by bit?
>>6456036
>You have to be rich already.
Bullshit. Guys like Jerry Macaluso did with hardly any money.
>The machines cost too much for you to buy for small projects
Who in the fuck would have ever thought one would need to buy their own factory of machinery to make toys?
>and the dunces financing them as a company
This is where you're really showing how fucking retarded you are. Toy companies don't get backed by financiers like on Silicon Valley, dipshit. They take out loans from banks or other financial institutions.
>won't even talk to you with less than a million units paid upfront.
Full retard. Not even the biggest toy companies make toys by the millions so it would be moronic for anyone to expect a new company to pay for production of 1,000,000 units up front. That would be so many years worth of units for a new company that it's hard to believe you can even remember to breathe.
>They won't even tell you that, you have to bluff them with an imaginary production number to see what triggers a response.
Who the fuck is "they"? Is this more of your delusion that fledgling toy companies make pitches to billionaires in the Three Commas Club to finance their tech(toy) company?
>Then, after ignoring hundreds or thousands of potential customers for not being international corporations, they cry to trade organizations and government about how there's no work out there to do.
This is utter nonsense that has zero relevance to the topic at hand and doesn't even make sense within your retarded post as a whole.

I think the cheapest simple molds I've seen (in the US) are around 3000-5000. The high temp plastic 3D printed kind that only work like 200-300 times. That's to have the mold made and a small number of the items produced. Check out protomold, they were a small start up a while back that's grown into a decent business from the looks of it.

Or you could try to buy your own injection molding machine, cnc mill, and try to do everything yourself. But it'd probably be too much work for one person and city would probably give you trouble unless you're a licensed business and what not.

>>6458387
This guy is a good poster.

>>6458368
This guy is retarded.