Case Study: Toying with Terror: How Wayward Ghouls Came to Life

December 9, 2024 Khazeema Choudhary

From a young age, Michael Harring’s love for monster movies and horror legends like Rick Baker and Stan Winston fueled his imagination and creative ambitions. His early experiments in creature-making may have started with DIY garage kits, but his journey was far from traditional. Michael explored filmmaking, advertising, and even collaborated with icons like Disney and Star Wars, but his heart never left the world of monsters. With encouragement from family and friends, Michael finally returned to his roots, launching Wayward Ghouls—a unique line of collectible, nostalgia-filled monster toys for fans who share his passion for the strange and supernatural. Now, Michael’s creations capture that same childhood thrill, making Wayward Ghouls a must-have for any monster-loving collector.

Meet Michael Harring, Creator of Wayward Ghouls

Michael had grown up with a love and fascination for monster movies and toys due to their wild and outsider-like nature, something that led him to idolize classic horror makeup artists such as Rick Baker and Stan Winston. While he was younger, he experimented with various makeup techniques, though there was not much to learn online at the time, and so, while he had a chance to build and paint creatures for fun through the thriving garage kit scene, he didn't have much offered to him as a career path. This cyclical experience followed him throughout his university experiences until he finally found his true calling in creating monsters- but not for the screen. Instead, Michael created incredible, tangible ghouls for monster lovers and toy collectors.

Professional Experience

Originally, Michael explored a bachelor's degree in Business at the University of Washington before pivoting over to Cinema Studies. He had an interest in independent filmmaking, something he explored for a few years before realizing his passion, indie filmmaking, wasn't enough to pay the bills whereas event videography which did, wasn't as lucrative or creative enough to justify continuing.

"Art Direction and Copywriting taught me to understand the important relationship between art, business, and audience. I've seen artists act like the audience doesn't matter, and businesses not understand the importance of context and presentation." - Michael Harring

Thus, after a few years of soul searching and advice from his friends, Michael returned to the School of Visual Concepts to study advertising, taking classes in graphic design, branding, art direction, copyrighting, and user experience. During this time, he worked as a freelance assistant to an art director while building his portfolio and finding his footing in the world. This eventually led him to be able to transition into a career in graphic design where he had the chance to work with both small startups in need of a brand identity to well-known brands such as Disney, Star Wars, and Willie Nelson.

Regardless of this, Michael couldn't shake off that something was missing: his love for monsters. Over the years, he had built Halloween creations for his neighborhood and had even illustrated a children's book, "Magoo and His Magic Poo." He ventured towards creating an art book of vintage toys and licensing some of his favorite dormant IPs.

Thus, eventually, through the encouragement of family and friends, he decided to focus on creating his own toys, which is where Wayward Ghouls comes in.

Why He Created Wayward Ghouls

The motivation behind Wayward Ghouls is both nostalgic and deeply personal. As Michael puts it, “I'm a lifelong toy addict and monster kid. There is so much amazing work done in the designer and mainstream toy industries, but none of them quite hit the sweet spot of the monsters I wanted to see and collect." Inspired by collectible classics like My Pet Monster and Boglins, Michael envisioned a toy line that brought these iconic creature toys to life for adult collectors who shared this love. Wayward Ghouls aims to capture that sense of wonder and playfulness in a contemporary way, offering a unique experience for today’s monster enthusiasts. Currently, Wayward Ghouls are only sold on Michael's personal online website linked here.

Michael's Toy Marketing Strategies

Michael has a few strategies that have helped him get his footing in the toy industry, allowing Wayward Ghouls to have a revenue of around 50k in 2023.

1) Social Media: Initially, his reels on Instagram received the most interactions by consumers and are his most successful form of social media marketing. The Wayward Ghouls official Instagram is linked here. A notable second is his YouTube, while the Wayward Ghouls TikTok account has gotten the most plays but little to no audience interaction.

2) Paid Meta Ads: Michael believes the most success he has had for audience building was the paid Meta ads pointing consumers to his Backerkit campaign. Unfortunately, he has had to push the Backerkit launch to 2025 due to a missing prototype but plans on swiftly finding something that works.

3) Toy Trade Shows: Michael plans on attending DesignerCon from November 15-17th of this year, his first in-person event and the first time people will have the chance to see "Squeaks," the first of the Wayward Ghouls in person. He has mentioned that while expenses are going up, he does expect the total for this event to cost him around three thousand dollars.

4) Email List: Michael currently has an email list of 1-500 people, and he plans to email them quarterly. He hopes to kick-start his email list closer to the launch of his crowd-funding campaign.

Michael's Favorite Toy Industry Resources

Michael states that one of his favorite resources is the Making it in the Toy Industry podcast as well as the The Toy Book and Licensing Group where he gets a lot of overview regarding the toy industry.

When it comes to collectibles specifically, he has a few resources he likes to turn to on Instagram:

@toyshiz for mainstream collectibles
@dinosaurdracula for posts about food tie-ins, unconventional releases, and some vintage toys

Michael also mentions in-person events such as DesignerCon and MonsterPalooza being great ways to discover exciting new talent and see some of his favorite creators.

His Greatest Challenge

The biggest obstacle Michael has encountered is entering a nostalgic collector market saturated with well-established brands. Without the support of friends and family, especially his partner Kirsten, Michael says he might never have taken the leap. Seeing his prototype come to life and holding the physical product in his hands was a breakthrough, solidifying Wayward Ghouls as a brand that monster lovers could connect with.

His Greatest Achievement

One of Michael's proudest achievements is hiring Kreature Kid to sculpt Squeaks, Wayward Ghouls’ first creature prototype. This step made the brand feel real and helped convey the vision to others in a tangible way, turning a long-held dream into a product people can experience firsthand.

Advice for Aspiring Toy Entrepreneurs

"I feel really fortunate that everything came together for me to pursue Wayward Ghouls at this time in my life. It was only at this time that we're lucky to have Azhelle showing the path to aspiring toy creators, and it's only at this time that I've had the bandwidth and inspiration to attempt a go at it." - Michael Harring

Michael mentions the importance of Azhelle's, aka The Toy Coach, help towards navigating himself and Wayward Ghouls through the toy industry. He also states that aspiring toy creators should know that going through the process of creating a toy is something you're going to love for years and that it isn't just a destination.

On a more practical note, he mentions the importance of using reliable shipping services when dealing with international vendors, which can save both time and resources. Specifically, he wishes he knew to only use UPS to ship to China!

Start Your Toy Journey Today

Michael Harring shows us how embracing a lifelong passion and putting in the work can bring imaginative creations like Wayward Ghouls to life for fans around the world. If you're inspired by Michael's journey and ready to bring your unique toy ideas to the market, check out Toy Creators Academy by clicking here!