So You Think You Know Toys?

Rich Chille, the man behind Chille's Enterprise, had his life turned around after getting a DUI. He's now created a hilarious board game based on his experiences, Don't Drink & Drive.

For some, making toys is in the blood. For others, it’s a call from destiny. Then there are those who have destiny thrust upon them. TDmonthly Magazine contacted over 40 manufacturers and looked to see what is at the core of a toy maker.

The #1 reason people get into the toy business? Their kids.

Lew Rudzki, partner of Design Your Own, had young children who were active kids, and he saw a need for getting kids to do crafts in an active manner — combining two disparate categories into one.

Front Porch Classics (ToyShow) was founded by three dads who were tired of all the disposable toys and games out there. As Steve Hart, project manager, tells it: “We thought high tech tended to be isolating, we wanted stuff we could play with our kids that would make the connections between adults and kids and gender.”

Missy Cohen-Fyffe, president of Babe Ease LLC, was a public relations representative. She didn’t develop Clean Shoppers for a business, just for her son. “But I was approached by countless women who wanted one, so I considered starting a company.”

Don Stewart, president of Baby Chatterbox (Gift Guide), had a daughter. “I watched her speech development, how she interacted. Then I went out and got data and found there were things that had never been done before in a video concept.”

Michel Alvarez, founder of WonderChess, LLC, learned chess when he was 4, and after befriending a Mexican chess master, eventually became nationally ranked at a young age. But when he started to teach his own son, he realized times had changed — video games and television had become the new focus. He created WonderChess to compete with them, so his son, and other children like him, could be introduced to chess and the vast benefits it provides.

Some are driven by a creative need:

Juleen Murray Shaw, founder of Nursery Tap (ToyShow), has been a professional actress for 25 years, with a background in the theatre, television and movies. “When I became a mom, I wasn’t doing a show, I wasn’t auditioning, nothing. I used all that theatre energy when reading to my daughter, just to keep my chops up. I found out, she loved the crazy dialect and acting out of the books, so I wanted to do something with that.”

Juliette Brindak, co-founder of the Miss O and Friends Company, was only 15 when she started the website, but she needed a creative outlet. Craig Wolfe, owner of Celebriducks (ToyDirectory), was an English/Religion major who was running an extremely successful company that published and sold art from TV commercials, but “I wanted to make my own things.”

Sam Reich-Dagnen, co-founder of BrainCandy, was a director/producer, and her husband an award-winning film editor. They wanted to do things “away from the Big Boys, and see what the market could bear.”

Goldi Miller was (and still is) a fashion designer with a string of self-titled boutiques, known for $75 T-shirts and cutting edge, avant-garde style. But when her landlords asked if she would do jewelry kiosks during their mall’s busy season and she saw how fast her ideas sold, suddenly, she began funneling all her vast design sense into The Bead Shop (ToyShow) full swing.

There is often a love for toys and a need to improve on a particular type of toy, or invent something that wasn’t there before:

Kris Schantz, co-owner of Happy Worker Inc. (ToyDirectory), had no formal toy background. He broke with the IT industry. “I just love toys.”

David Wedzik, founder of Alivan’s (ToyShow), loved Harry Potter, but the merchandise was mostly “plastic replica wands. Neat, but they weren’t packaged right. I really wanted to do a collectible/role-playing piece, really catch the fantasy.”

Jonathan Zimlin, head of Baby Bumblebee (ToyShow), was an elementary school teacher who realized there weren’t any real educational videos for language.

Esther Novis’ oldest son was 5, and she was disappointed with what they did at schools in the way of science. And all the science books were merely “cute.” She wanted something better, so she started Science Camps, and The Young Scientists Club.

Len Bajork, head of Heroes & Legends, The Good Knight Company (ToyDirectory), was concerned about society’s view of today’s heroes — entertainment and athletic celebrities, often with terrible personal values. So he created a colorful knight’s horse or CHARGER © 2005, a hippity-hop pretend play toy, as a symbol to children for learning and practicing knightly virtues that begin with respect and care for others.

For some, it’s simply destiny:

Shawn MacGregor, “The Cat’s Meow” of ParlorGamez, was a designer, mostly for the computer industry. A neighbor asked him to help design a game. He said “no, that’s stupid. I pass.” Now he’s designing games full time.

Laurie Mirman’s husband passed away after a six-month battle with cancer. She was there at the nursing home every day, and was struck by the number of patients who were alone: no visitors, no family. She set up a foundation in her husband’s name and honor, and has recently launched a program with the American Cancer Society to help those patients who have no one. And from there, Oh La-Laa was born.

Rich Chille, the man behind Chille’s Enterprise, had his life turned around after getting a DUI. He’s now created a hilarious board game based on his experiences, Don’t Drink & Drive. “If it saves even just one life, it´s worth it.”

Donn Bryant, founder of Evolution Effects (Gift Guide), was a construction worker “destined for something more.”

There are “recovering attorneys” like Matt Brown, co-CEO of Big Boing (Right Brain) (ToyShow). A jet engine designer: Courtney Tudor, CEO of Mr. BigShot Inc. Art Schoendorff, co-owner of Applied Physics, LLC (ToyShow), was an engineer for General Motors. Dennis Sucilsky, co-owner of Tucker-Jones House Inc., started as an apprentice blacksmith doing village restoration. Dennis Klein, president and CEO of Karmel Games (ToyShow), degreed in physics at the Imperial College, London, and was into computers since the 1960s. Jamie Greenberg, Imaginologist of Imagine IF, had toys in his blood (his family was Shelcore Toys), but he had spent 20 years touring with his own children’s theatre that featured life-sized body puppets and lots of fun. And Barbara Jerome, “the mom who invented NAMiTS,” was a real-life full-time mom … with seven kids.

It takes all kinds to make the toy industry. No one knows where the lightning will strike next. But a love of toys, children and play seems to be at the core. Many people come to the point where they ask, as Dennis Klein did, “What am I going to do for the rest of my life?” When the answer is toys, it’s good for them and it’s good for the industry.