I was thinking about this earlier, maybe you guys who post the Baidu links to 3P news have some insight.
In the past year or so, I've started listening to Aaron Archer's podcast as well as reading interviews with the current designers at Hasbro, and I've learned a lot about the toy business from them. It seems to me that it's such a niche industry to begin with, then when considering that these figures really only cater to a smaller faction within that already (assumably) small collector market, it's just sort of fascinating to me from a business perspective how pervasive and successful 3Ps are.
My question is, do we have any insight into how 3P companies start and operate? Some of this may just come down to Chinese business practice, which I am wholly unfamiliar with, but I'd be interested in knowing the whole process. To me, a self admitted layman, the jump from say, designing a figure, to having molds made, figures assembled, packaging designed and produced, and having products shipped worldwide is massive. The costs involved have to be huge, and sure, that's obviously reflected in the price of these figures, but there has to be some serious talent involved in getting it all together.
So are there any companies that we have a good picture of how they operate? What kind of staffing and background they have?
It does occur to me that maybe some of this isn't as open and outward due to copyright concerns, but then again, this kind of information may be out there and it simply doesn't make it towards the West due to a cultural and lingual divide. Don't forget to hit me with a tldr, call me a fag, or some combination of the two.
