Making Your Idea Toyetic: What That Means and Understanding The Four Principles

So you need to make your toy idea more sale-able and marketable? There’s an industry buzzword for that. First coined by Bernard Loomis (who introduced brands such as “Chatty Cathy,” “Barbie,” and “Hot Wheels”) in a conversation with Steven Spielberg, the term ‘toyetic’ is used to talk about a media property (i.e. TV show, movie) whose story content and/or characters are designed so perfectly that they easily translate into a sale-able and marketable toy product.

Today, media properties also include personalities, influencers, and characters. A popular media property from the past, “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers,” sets a great example of how to reach success against the four toyetic principles: distinct character personalities, scalability by theme, character-specific accessories, and surprise conflict. I'm going to break them down as they were applied in Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.

Toyetic Principle #1: Personality

The Power Rangers were differentiated by race, gender, and color. These distinct personalities made it easier for children to identify with their favorite characters.

Toyetic Principle #2: Scalability

Every season of The Power Rangers focused on a theme, allowing the entire line of product to be revamped and refreshed every year, encouraging fans to keep up with the latest outfits, vehicles, and weapons,

Toyetic Principle #3: Accessories

Each Power Ranger had specific accessories, weapons, and vehicles, providing another range of products that would draw children to the toy, even if they couldn’t relate to the race or gender of the character.

Toyetic Principle #4: Conflict

Villains. The varied “bad guys” featured from episode to episode gave toy companies a wealth of villains to choose from (including their respective backstory, weaponry, and deluxe-action packs with their hero counterpart.)

Now, you may be thinking “That’s great for Power Rangers, but how do I apply the toyetic principles to my idea?” With social media running today’s world, it’s important now more than ever to keep up the flow of new content. If you take the time to apply these principles, your pitches will improve and you will build and explore the world your toy or game invention could live in.

 The Toyetic Checklist:

✅ Can I integrate distinct personalities and/or nationalities for kids to connect with?

✅ Have I explored the BEST accessories for my toy?

✅ How could I scale this idea if I applied a different theme to it?

✅ Do I have enough elements of surprise conflict?

While the term toyetic has traditionally been used to describe media properties with toy appeal, you can apply this term, and the 4 Toyetic Principles to level up your toy inventions or game ideas. Be open to personifying your toy inventions or expanding your game ideas for the most toyetic possibilities. Taking the time to explore your concepts and expanding your ideas will make room for infinite opportunities!

Do you want more help making your ideas toyetic?

To learn more about designing toyetic toys, check out these podcast episodes.