>>6951153>>6951113In general toys for mass production are under a lot of pressure from Walmart to stay affordable and producers are constantly cutting out features to save money. Licensed toys are even worse: companies like Disney take a huge chunk of profits for licensing, so unless a toy is guaranteed to sell (whether by being so cheap that parents buy it up or by having the minimum quality collectors desire) it won’t get produced.
On the topic of Walmart, they and Target have been THE toy retailers for a long time now. In general, unless a producer is already doing poorly (ie Mattel) the closing of TRU isn’t a huge worry. Right now the industry is doing better than ever so the future is bright.
Everything I’ve worked on so far is in NDA hell, but my work tends to be animatronics and collectables.
>>6951152On the topic of collectables, toys geared towards adult collectables are a timy fraction of the market. It’s more profitable to gear collectables towards kids who won’t mind less articulation and lower-quality paint applications than to bother with toys for adults. In general, paint is the most expensive part of toy production on a by-unit basis because it requires a skilled human to apply, while the multiple molds required for articulated figures drive up costs even further. You’re just not a priority to the industry at all, sorry.
>>6951158Industrial design, mechanical and electrical engineering, programming, snd illustration are the big majors. Product design in general is a who you know industry, I hate to say it but you may want to make the move to a school that DOES offer industrial design if only for connections.
3D modeling is huge, my company 3D prints so much. The main programs are Solidworks and Rhino, but companies like Mattel want Maya and Zbrush.
That being said, exceptional manual modelmaking skills do have their place. I got my job because of manual skill, but the 3D modeling knowhow is also important.
