Како Алан Дорфман продаде милиони играчки размислувајќи за мали

In the toy industry, Alan Dorfman is master of the mini-verse.

Dorfman, first as the founder of the Basic Fun toy company, and now as president of Super Impulse, became fascinated by miniature toys long before the current TikTok-influenced craze for tiny playthings and collectibles began.

In the early 1990s, he convinced the company that was developing the first Super Soaker water guns to grant him the license to make a miniature, fully working, version, and put it on a keychain.

The mini Super Soakers (like the full-sized ones) were a hit, launching a multi-million-dollar toy category, and kicking off Dorfman’s 30-plus year obsession with miniature toys.

Since then, Dorfman has made, and sold, hundreds of millions of miniature, working versions of Etch-A-Sketch, Rubik’s Cube, Monopoly, and other classic toys, including even mini, working versions of retro Atari arcade games.

Mini toys, big growth

In recent years, a number of companies have capitalized on the mini-toy trend. The industry category that includes mini toys – exploratory and other toys – had the second highest growth rate of all toy categories in 2022, up 16%, according to market research firm Circana (formerly known as The NPD Group). The category has had a compound annual growth rate of 22% since 2019.

Trade group The Toy Association named micro toys as one of the top toy trends of 2023.

Dorfman, however, has been making minis longer than anyone currently in the game. And he is a lot better at it, according to toy experts.

“Alan basically got out in front of the entire miniature craze – to some extent you could say he practically created the genre, and now other folks are chasing it,” James Zahn, editor-in-chief of trade publication The Toy Book, said in an interview.

Dorfman, from the beginning, instinctively knew what toys and licensed properties could be rendered in miniature, and still be workable and playable, according to Jim Silver, CEO of toy review site TTPM, and TTPM Influencer Talent Management, and a veteran toy industry analyst and journalist.

Dorfman is “the foremost expert in that category,” Silver said in an interview. “He went all in, and knows more about the miniature category than anybody. And that’s the reason why he could get such hot brands and properties. There was a trust that, with Alan, he was going to be able to execute.”

“He was a little bit of a risk taker, and the risk paid off,” said Chris Byrne, an independent toy consultant and author of “Toy Time,” a history of the most-beloved classic toys.

Before the success of the mini Super Soaker, Byrne said in an interview, toy execs were skeptical of Dorfman’s idea. The attitude, Byrne said, was “why would I buy a mini Super Soaker if I’ve got a big Super Soaker?”

Toys that fit in your palm

Dorfman, Byrne said, tapped into what seems to be a core human fascination with tiny, working versions of real-life objects, and translated them into a successful toy business.

“It’s kind of like toys as bonsai,” Byrne said.

“It’s like you took the toy and zapped it with a shrink ray and now it’s sitting in the palm of your hand,” Zahn said.

Dorfman got his start as a toy entrepreneur in the 1980s, while working in sales and marketing for a company that told novelty products. His boss came to work one day and showed Dorfman a novelty toy called a Wacky Wallwalker – a sticky spider that “walked” down a wall when thrown against it. “I thought it was the greatest thing I’d ever seen,” Dorfman said. He made a deal to sell the toys, and “I became a toy guy that day.” he said in an interview.

He then started his own company, Basic Fun, which had its first big hit with the miniature Super Soaker. The mini Super Soaker benefited from a hot trend at the time of kids decorating their school backpacks with multiple figures and toys attached to key chains.

After that success, Dorfman said, “I started looking in the toy aisles for what else I could miniaturize and put on a keychain.” He got one of his favorite toys, an Etch-A-Sketch, and cut it apart with a hack saw to see if he could miniaturize it, “and I said I can do this,” Dorfman recalled.

Ohio Arts, the manufacturer of Etch-A-Sketch at the time, was skeptical that the toy could be rendered in miniature, according to Dorfman, but he convinced them by saying “I’ll send you a check [as an advance] and if it doesn’t work, you keep the check.”

Another huge hit for Basic Fun featured a licensed property that was largely unknown in the United States with Dorfman acquired it. Basic Fun was one of the first toy companies in North America to win a license for Pokemon, and it sold miniature Pokemon figures enclosed in a small Pokeball on a keychain, that became sought-after collectibles when the Pokemon craze exploded.

“At first nobody knew what Pokemon was,” Dorfman said. “Then two months later everybody was scrambling to keep up with the demand.”

Risk-return business

How did he know Pokemon would be a hit? He didn’t, at least not for sure, he said. “It’s instinct, gut, you take your chances,” he said.

For every Super Soaker and Pokemon hit, Dorfman said, there have been hundreds of misses. “We’re a risk-return business,” he said. “F0r every 500 we have one that takes off like Pokemon. You just have to be in the right place at the right time.”

Dorfman sold Basic Fun in 2011 and in 2014 started Super Impulse with a plan to continue making miniatures with a new line of “World’s Smallest” toys. With Super Impulse, Dorfman has continued his success at securing licenses for the top toy properties, and achieving wide distribution in a variety of retail channels.

It currently holds licenses for 185 brands, including deals with 24 toy companies, including industry leaders Hasbro
ИМА
, Мател
МАТ
, and Spin Master, as well as with iconic brands such as Radio Flyer.

Pop-Taters

It recently began expanding into the collectibles space in new ways, with deals with Paramount
ЗА
, Нетфликс
NFLX
and other entertainment brands to create products related to shows and movies. It also is reviving the Pop Taters brand with Hasbro, producing collectible Mr. Potato Head-style figures dressed as pop culture fan favorites such as the band Kiss or the television show Star Trek.

Super Impulse, as a private company, doesn’t reveal its revenues. A company spokesperson said Super impulse has seen sales growth of over 500% since 2014. Dorfman estimated that he had sold more than half a billion mini toys during his years in the toy business.

Most of Super Impulses toys and collectibles sell for between $5.99 and $7.99. The company sells enough of the low-priced items, and has such wide distribution, ranging from mass merchants like Walmart
WMT
and Target, to independent toy shops, as well as convenience stores, supermarkets, and even truck stops, that it is estimated to generate millions in profits, according to industry insiders.

Toy experts Silver, Zahn, and Byrne agree that the miniature category will always be popular, even if the current TikTok-driven craze for tiny toys and collectibles cools off.

Dorfman says he plans to keep looking for the next big thing to shrink down to his favorite size, and not just in the toy aisles. A World’s Smallest Pickleball set, with tiny paddles and ball, is one of his recent winning ideas.

“We look at everything around us through the lens of ‘Will that work small?,” he said.