My question would be: assuming you want to, how do you scale it? There's such an individual toy-by-toy creative aspect to it.
Also, the potential for building brands seems pretty spectacular. Stuffed toy is just one step, you could add stories, games, episodes...this could be to disney what 99designs is to graphic designers :)
I hope we're not far off being able to sit your child in front of a webcam, sample their voice, click a button and stream the latest Pixar film with them as a protagonist.
In the meantime, a 99designs for people with time, knitting needles and sewing machines seems like a lovely idea, and easy to achieve.
> I hope we're not far off being able to sit your child in front of a webcam, sample their voice, click a button and stream the latest Pixar film with them as a protagonist.
The little brats (well, my own), are already the center of enough attention. If they want to make their own stories, they should go outside, play and invent them themselves.
The only way to "scale" is to form a company of similarly-skilled artists. Even if this happens, it is unlikely that they'd ever be able to keep up with demand.
It's obviously not something you can send off to China and press the button on an assembly line. Some things just can't be mass produced, and we should be grateful for that.
I don't think that's the only way to scale it. There would be compromises involved, of course, but I can immediately think of another way to scale this idea - I'm sure others can too.
> My question would be: assuming you want to, how do you scale it?
Franchising perhaps? Quality control would be an issue once you start farming the job out like that, but it would be a good way to better cover international markets. They could keep the designing local to the current HQ, hiring designer types there to supply demand and farm out the physical work.
Though I suspect a project like this might be a personal one, they they don't particularly want to scale massively.
Franchise might have been the wrong word to use - maybe it would work better as a "co-operative" with the original people in general control rather than a directly paid franchise.
That way customers from any country go to the same place (saving each member of the co-op on advertising budget/time) but get the work done by someone more local to them so hopefully pay less due to local delivery and lack of customs charges.
You migth find many peopel who are capable of making something like that from a pattern but maybe no capable/comfortable making a good pattern from the kids' designs - there would be a value add" there having that stage done for you. I know a few people who make things (and make them well) as a hobby but who do not make their own designs - I could imagine one or two of them being interested in getting involved at that level just to make the hobby pay for some of itself.
Obviously any controlling company would have to give some quality assurance to the customer, which would be part of how they justify their cut (as well as providing the design stage if they are) though could be a bit of a nightmare. This assurance might be why people go to this hypothetical cooperative rather than one of the smaller groups (or individuals) that try under-cutting them.
Partner with an established greeting card company to sell greeting cards that double as gifts: consumer pays $20 for the greeting card, the recipient child draws on the card then drops it in the mailbox, gets their stuffed toy sent back in the mail.
;) yes, you are right, and It hurts, Internet can scale it, in some cases, if not - then can be spread, modified and parallelized (or even better, if it is copy-left...)
The work is done on an individual basis by an artist who not only takes great pains to interpret what the child has drawn, but also above and beyond to transform it into a personalized, and near perfect, piece of art.
Just ask any offshore worker to reinterpret a set of well-documented requirements and you'll see what I mean.
Also, the potential for building brands seems pretty spectacular. Stuffed toy is just one step, you could add stories, games, episodes...this could be to disney what 99designs is to graphic designers :)