#234 Avoid These 3 Common Mistakes When Working with a Toy Factory
Time for a little tough love toy-coaching: If you're struggling to develop a pre-production sample of your toy that you're proud of, the problem might be you! This week on the podcast, you'll learn 3 common mistakes that new toy creators make when working with overseas factories. This episode includes insights from my full time work in the toy industry and my 1:1 client work. When applied correctly, the 3 lessons taught in this episode will save you time and money in the toy development process.
Why You Should Be Pantone Obsessed
Being Pantone-obsessed can make or break your toy design. In this episode, I’ll break down the magic of Pantone color matching and why having a Pantone booklet in your toolkit is non-negotiable.
Get Specific or Get Ready to Pay Another Sample Fee
Vague instructions are the kryptonite of successful toy production. I’m sharing a personal story of how such nonspecific language led to a production disaster.
Slow Down On Pre-Production Approvals
Pre-production samples should be approved SLOWLY and with care. In this episode, I’ll tell you why. This episode will transform your view of pre-production samples to avoid production mistakes.
After this episode you'll be aware of the top 3 mistakes most new creators make when working with a factory and how to avoid them.
Episode Cliff Notes
Discover how a universal color standard can save you time and money in your toy production. [00:01:44]
The major pitfall of using vague language in your product development requests. Learn how to be specific and clear to ensure your toy comes out exactly as you envisioned, without unnecessary delays. [00:14:09]
Why it’s crucial to always review a physical pre-production sample, rather than relying on photos or videos, to catch any overlooked issues and ensure your final product is flawless. [00:21:24]
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This episode is brought to you by www.thetoycoach.com
PANTONE BOOK with tear-away chips: SOLID CHIPS | COATED & UNCOATEDPANTONE Fan Books: FORMULA GUIDE | COATED & UNCOATED
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You are listening to making it in the toy 📍 industry episode number 234.
Hey there toy people, Azhelle Wade here. And welcome back to another episode of making it in the toy industry. This is a weekly podcast brought to you by the toy coach.com.
This week is a pretty special week toy people because it's my birthday week. And because it's my birthday week, I'm taking a little time off from this podcast. instead of releasing brand new episodes, we're actually going back in time and releasing extended versions of a few of our popular episodes that have never before been aired on this public podcast.
Our topic for today is going to focus on the three biggest mistakes you want to avoid when working with a factory. If you're in the process of sourcing with a factory overseas or you're in the middle of working with a factory to produce your product, this episode is going to be extremely valuable for you. This episode was first aired, June 30th, 2021.
But this version has never been aired on this podcast before. and I will be mentioning links and resources in today's episode to grab the links, Make sure to head over to the toy coach. coach.com forward slash 2, 3, 4. Well, without further ado, let's start the episode.
For today's episode, we'll focus on three main mistakes that most new toy people make the first time that they work with a factory.
And by the end of this episode, you will walk away with the knowledge on how to avoid these mistakes. Knowledge that will make your communications easier, save you money in sample making, and help you show up like a pro. So let's not waste any time. any more time and dive right in. So mistake number one today is going to be not using Pantone colors.
We've got to start this conversation with a lesson on the importance of utilizing Pantone colors when communicating with an overseas factory. The importance of having a Pantone booklet by your side has grown exponentially in the past year since we're spending more and more time working with one another virtually.
Globally, Pantone colors aren't only for communicating with your factories, but they're also a must when communicating with freelance designers that aren't with you in person. Okay, but you may be wondering right now, what in the world is a Pantone and why on earth is Azhelle so excited about it? Well, Pantone is the worldwide standard for choosing and matching colors, and it's used across the world.
Many industries fashion home and of course the toy industry now a Pantone book can include over 2, 000 colors all named with Pantone or pan Followed by a series of three to four numbers and ending with a letter either C or D A to represent coated, U to represent uncoated, or M to represent matte. And all of those end letters represent finishes of those colors.
So coated could be glossy, and uncoated is not glossy, and matte is even more unglossy. I guess uncoated is a little bit like satin, and matte is completely uncoated, like someone just printed on a piece of. Uh, plain printer paper. That's kind of what matte Pantone looks like. Now, an example of a Pantone color that you might find in the Pantone book is Pantone 114C, which that color, that code actually represents a bright, sunny yellow color that reminds me of a favorite dress I had while growing up and I have forever been trying to replace in my adulthood.
Now, if I wanted to create A toy doll wearing an outfit of that same yellow color. I would tell a factory or even a freelancer that I'm working with. Make that dress Pantone 114 C or Pan 1 1 4 C, and the factory or designer that I'm communicating with would know exactly what that means because they would cross reference check it with their own Pantone book.
Now Pantone sells Pantone paper fan books. They sell Pantone paper swatch books, there are cotton swatch cards, and Pantone chips. All of these different things that you can buy for all of your color matching needs. Now the cotton swatch cards are actually designed for textiles. So in the example I'm giving of a dress, if it's a fabric dress, you might use the actual cotton swatch cards to choose a Pantone color.
The Pantone swatch books can be used for plastic matching and textile matching. Honestly, sometimes in the toy industry, we don't use the exact right book that you're supposed to use for textiles. So we might just use a regular Pantone book for everything. But the Pantone plastic chips, now that's something different.
And those are little plastic chips that are colored the different Pantone colors. And I'm telling you. Those are the gold standard for plastic matching in the toy industry. In all of my jobs that I've had, those chips were treated like they were just, you know, heavenly gold. Because they are extremely expensive to purchase.
So no one ever wants to lose them or misplace them. And they are the best way to make sure you know exactly what color a plastic piece is going to come back as from a factory. Now, aside from the materials and formats that you can get Pantone books in, there are actually also different color categories as well.
I know it's a lot, but there are metallic Pantone books, there are pastel Pantone books, there are neon Pantone books, and there's There's even, as I said before, Pantone books that are, uh, designed for textiles with a completely different letters other than P A N or Pantone. But we're not going to get into that in this episode.
Like I said, the toy industry usually just uses Pantones for everything. And that means there are some slight variations in the color when you get it back, but it works pretty well. So we're going to stick talking Pantone for this episode. Now, a little known fact, Pantone books actually wear and lose color over time.
So if you're working with a factory who hasn't replaced their Pantone books in some time, or if they're working in a poorly lit space, they could very well misinterpret the Pantone colors that you give to them. And you could get back a sample that doesn't look quite like the color that you chose. But that is where the importance of pre production sample approvals comes in.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. That is one of the mistakes we will cover today. So we will get to that a bit later, my friends. Now, some Pantone books Also include CMYK values of each of the colors right next to the Pantone color. And CMYK is an acronym for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, and it represents printer color values.
So having the CMYK color equivalents when you're designing something and you're choosing a specific Pantone color can come in really handy when you, Let's say when you want to match the skirt of a doll's dress to, let's say, a color that's going to be printed on the packaging. Having the CMYK values of that Pantone color allows you to create that digital equivalent really quickly without too much guesswork.
The CMYK values built into the Pantone book can help you get that head start on your design. On that matching process, and the longer you work in the toy industry and you continue to work with Pantone colors and CMYK values, you'll likely start to gain familiarity with these colors and values. And you could even get to the point where if someone says they want a fire engine red, your mind automatically thinks 185 C.
Or you could see a blue graphic and say, that's 185 C. That just looks like there is just 10 percent too much yellow in it. I'm serious. I know it sounds crazy and you think I could never, I'm not that visual, but it happens. It's really cool. It's like developing a superpower. If you work with Pantone colors and CMYK values enough, this will happen to you.
Now talking so much about Pantone colors and CMYK values actually reminds me of a fun story. One time I was at a job interview where the owner of the company pointed at a bright orange wall they'd actually painted in their office. And the orange was the company's brand color. So that's why it was filling this wall.
And the owner asked me in my interview, as part of my interview questioning, to name the CMYK values of that wall. That was the scariest moment of my life for, if you're wondering, I did not get it right. But um, Um, Scariest moment of my life, most absurd question, if you're interviewing for any job out there and you're a designer, toy designer or not, do not expect to be asked that question.
It was a bizarre experience and I don't believe my wrong answer was held against me because I did still get the internship. It was an internship at the time. At the end of this episode, I'm going to get into what Pantone books you should get for your plastic and paper goods and give you a couple of resource links.
Let's get into mistake number two when it comes to mistakes that most toy people make when working with factories. And that mistake is using non specific language when requesting changes in product samples.
Now when you're developing a product with an overseas factory, getting back that first sample of your idea is. It's really exciting at first, like when you first see it, you first see this idea that you had in your head come to life in full 3D tangible form. You can't help but get excited and think, Oh, it's perfect.
I'm a genius. It's done. It's going to sell millions. But once that initial excitement and a euphoria wears off. You are bound to see the flaws, and you'll start analyzing your product and noticing mistakes in the samples. You might notice things like parting lines in the plastic where they shouldn't be, or embossed text that's too small to read, or you might notice a paint color that's too dark, a little bit darker than it's supposed to be.
And I just want you guys to know that seeing those small problems with your initial samples is 100 percent okay. It's okay to request changes to them. Changes are expected from the factory. Honestly, you'd be foolish to approve the first or even second sample that you receive, but When you are working with a factory, you might find yourself in a situation where you're getting back samples and you're rushing to give responses and you might ask for your changes in non specific language.
So you might say something like, Make that change. embossed text just a little bit larger. Or you might type an email that says, make the color a little bit brighter. Or you might say something, if you're talking about a doll, make the hair just a little bit shorter. But all of that non specific language is absolutely no good when working with a factory overseas.
The, the factory that you're working with typically is going to want to keep you happy, right? So they're going to say yes, no problem to all of the requests that you send in. But in reality, they can't I actually read your mind, and they don't know what's going on in your head. They don't have your eye that you have for this product.
So while it's natural for you to start to feel like they're a partner in your business, like they, they really are. are a partner in your product just because they produced a first sample, you have to understand that they really aren't. They don't really know what you want. They don't really know what's best for your product.
They aren't you. They don't have your eye and they don't know what you want. So you've got to be specific in all of your change requests as reviewing samples. You've got to use measurements, preferably centimeters, whenever you're talking about changing sizing. You've got to use pantone colors if you are talking about changing colors.
Even if you feel like the change is so subtle, they could just add a little pink or make it a little bit brighter and be done with it. No, you can't. You've got to pick a new Pantone color. And if you want a piece of plastic to potentially be more or less flexible, you've got to explain what you want that piece to be flexible enough to achieve.
So that might mean making an illustration showing a doll or a fidget toy bending a certain way. Even if it's a faked Photoshop illustration, you want to show what end goal is so they can come up with a solution to meet that end goal for you. Now, there was a time in my toy career when I was working on a stationary set and that set was just filled with over a dozen.
A dozen separate little decorative pieces so you could create a journal and decorate it and put pictures of yourself in it. And all of those pieces were really strategically organized under a blister, which is the clear part of a packaging that kind of goes over, uh, your product to hold it in place. So all of the product was organized underneath this blister so that all of it could be showcased and look beautiful and the product window and show high value after receiving sample after sample.
And after I was running out of time and I became so overworked with several projects, I. It gave an email comment back to a factory saying something to the effect of just move the pen and scissors down a little bit, please. They're overlapping. And when the next sample came back, they were moved way too far down.
And they actually misplaced all of the other pieces that had previously been below it. So the entire layout of the product completely changed. When all I wanted was really, I think it was like a half an inch move of one or two pieces. Now needless to say, that sample created on that non specific comment that I gave was a waste.
And I had to go back to the previous sample and give more specific comments with specific measurements and specific instructions on how and where to move each piece. Sometimes it helps to throw in the why, but in this particular situation, it was more about how, where, what measurement is Where did things need to be?
And I needed to be super clear on that. My lesson was learned on that day, years and years ago. And I hope with this story and this advice from this episode, that you can avoid needing to learn that lesson the hard way entirely. And that you can just learn from what I'm teaching you today. And never give a factory an unspecific comment in regards to reviewing a sample.
Now, the third mistake that I want to cover today, the third biggest mistake I see new toy people making with factories is not reviewing a pre production sample after any change before approving an item for production. Now, I have to be honest with you here. There are times when toy companies will rush and do this and trust their factory partner to approve A small change that shouldn't affect the item greatly, but half the time when that happens, the toy company ends up making an adjustment to the produced items to either fix the packaging or change something that was missed because a pre production sample was never prepared.
Now the product development process is It's very time consuming and expensive. Typically, it takes about a year to develop a new item, six months if you're going to rush it. And the absolute biggest mistake that you can make in the entire process is, uh, Rushing the approval. Approving an item for production when you haven't actually seen the pre production of the item in your hands is a really risky move.
Pre production samples should be the closest to the real material that your product will be made of. Sometimes you won't be able to get exactly the same material before going to production, but you should get as close as possible. And you can always get reference samples for the correct material from another toy.
Now, when you start working with a factory and you start making change after change on your items, They might start sending you pictures or video of your product and request your approval based on the pictures and the video. But I really have to go. encourage you to not approve anything via video or picture if you can avoid it in any way.
You are almost guaranteed to miss something and when you miss it, you will have to fix it in production and it will cost you so much more. In my toy career, I have distinctly early memories of reviewing photos of products and videos of products that I was working on and thinking, Oh, this looks perfect.
We should go right to production. But luckily I had a mentor who would just insist much like I'm telling you right now that I wait for the sample to come in before I make any decisions. Any comments at all, and 10 times out of 10, getting that sample would reveal something that you just simply could not evaluate by looking at images and video.
And sometimes that thing is just the feel of the product. Sometimes it's the finish of the material. If it's a harder material, sometimes it's the weight. Sometimes the weight of a product could be. It's actually cost prohibitive and you might not realize that by looking at pictures and videos. Other times it's actually a problem with the function.
You may believe that your product will work because the factory created it and it looks just like your drawings or your 3d models. But when you get that sample in your hand and when you attempt to play with it, you might discover flaws. costs are usually lower in other websites. Well, you have the option to review, evaluate, construct meaningful or collectible data based on data similar to your own case.
You can check for visually indicator parameters, such as space, placeholder's exact location logic or The process of developing your sample with your factory, learning about their processes, explaining your product time and time again, that process actually helps you see your product from a brand new perspective.
And every sample that you get in your hands, You'll start problem solving them. You might notice features or details that could be removed from your toy product that would not affect the overall play pattern, but would reduce the overall cost. You should make sure to build into your product development process time to review pre production samples.
Yes, there will come a time when you must. Just rush an approval to make a shipment date that was moved up a few weeks. Be aware of the risk of doing that. A poorly designed product could fail testing, suffer a recall, or simply receive really poor reviews on public marketplaces like Amazon. So before I jump into my summary of today's episode, I'd like to take a quick break and give a shout out to Salso88, who I am guessing is a salsa dancer like myself.
Salso88 says, Can't wait for more. I had so much fun listening to the toy coach. Ajelle has an incredible wealth of knowledge about the toy industry, and she presents the information in such an approachable way. I'm looking forward to more episodes, and what else is to come from the toy coach? Bravo. Well, thank you, Salso.
I really appreciate that review. Thank you so much for that wonderful review, Salso88, and maybe I'll see you on the dance floor sometime. Who knows? Now, if you love this podcast and you haven't already left a review, what are you waiting for? I love seeing new reviews come in. It puts a huge smile on my face and keeps me motivated to keep putting out great toy advice each and every week.
To wrap up today's episode, we are going to recap the three Biggest mistakes you must avoid when working with a factory overseas Mistake number one not using Pantone colors You should be always using Pantone colors to select the colors of your toy products and even your packaging Pantone colors take a lot of the guesswork out of color selection and can save you a lot of money on If you don't already have a Pantone book, get yourself one.
If you want to get a Pantone Solid Coded and a Pantone Solid Uncoded book, you can actually get both of them as a set at the time of this recording of the podcast. Now, those two books are a pretty good general starting guide that you can use even if you're designing some fabrics to go along with your toy as well.
Yes, there are specific books for fabrics, but when you're just starting out, you don't need to invest in all the different types of Pantone books. Not even every factory has all the different types of Pantone books. Now, at the time this episode is being recorded, the Pantone solid and Solid, uncoded books are available as a set on the Pantone website. Mistake number two that you should avoid when working with factories that we covered in today's episode is avoid using vague language when requesting changes in factory samples.
This means use measurements, percentages, Pantone colors, whatever specific information you have to describe your desired changes with clarity that leaves little room for error. And finally, mistake number three that you want to avoid when working with factories is you want to be careful and not approve your product for production based on photos and videos.
You want a pre production sample of your product in your hand before you approve it for mass production. It can be tempting to rush the process and approve from a picture or a video when all you have made were small changes. But keep in mind the ripple effect that a small change could have on your product as a whole.
Trust me, request another sample before you approve for production. Production approval is huge and the bigger the toy company, the more layers of people you have to go through to get that approval. So take your time with it, even as a sample. Solo entrepreneur. Okay, toy people, your action item for this week is super simple.
I want you to listen to this episode one more time. Yep, that's it. There is a lot of information here that I want to make sure you really absorb. So even if you're not ready to develop a toy idea just yet, these are concepts that I want you to. to be sitting in the back of your mind so you can avoid the three mistakes that I outlined in today's episode at all costs.
Once you've given this episode a second listen, post it as a story on your Instagram and tag me to let me know. I hang out on Instagram a lot and I will respond to you and cheer you on.
Well
there, you have it towed people.
I hope you enjoyed this extended podcast episode Thank you so much for being here with me today. I know your time is valuable and that there are a ton of podcasts out there.
So it truly means the world to me that you tune into this one. Until next week. 📍 I'll see you later. Toy people.
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