GOODBYE2012/HELLO2013: Benny Kline (of Tenacious Toys)
TOYSREVIL: Share with us your most triumphant moment in 2012.
BENNY KLINE: The whole NYCC time in October was great for us: we put on a big show at NYCC and we made the finals in the DTAs to boot! Our collective-style NYCC booth gave attendees a wide variety of toys and customs to check out and purchase, and a ton of artists to meet! Definitely the way we'd like to do NYCC moving forward. Got some positive feedback from industry big shots, so we were definitely feeling the toy love in October.
I should also mention that we successfully put on a local show (the Candy-Coated Custom Show) and successfully completed a Kickstarter campaign to fund Scott Tolleson's Uncle Argh Noir Mini Qee. Lots of work and organization involved in both of those, so basically just completing each one was a triumph!
TOYSREVIL: What is your most favorite toy, or piece of art you've seen in 2012?
BENNY KLINE: I see a ton of toys each year so actually trying to recall all of them is very difficult. So my answer to this is a bit of a cop-out… but I really enjoy watching my artist friends ascend the ladder of recognition. One of the notches on everyone's belt is when a company contacts them to design a toy- our friends Chauskoskis and Rsin each got sweet Dunnys this year, Jon-Paul Kaiser had a ton of Mini Qees like Captain Sturnbrau, and VISEone managed to get his own Tube Monster design produced.
As production toys, none of those are the most complex pieces of art I've ever seen, but the triumph behind them is what excites me. I anticipate more of our friends getting tapped to design production toys in 2013! As you know, it is my undying mission to push all my artists forward by hosting exclusive colorways, custom series, and special events with artists.
TOYSREVIL: What are you most looking forward to in 2013?
BENNY KLINE: I'm actually not sure what's going to be released in 2013, or what shows will happen. I try to keep up with all the gossip and plans but so many people and companies make so many products that it's almost futile. It's better for my brain to only pay attention to stuff that's ready to ship to me RIGHT NOW. As we all know, toys are endlessly delayed during production so paying attention to what these companies are PLANNING on making is almost pointless.
In 2013 I am looking forward to streamlining my business. And by that I mean: clearing out old inventory, only buying stuff that's going to turn a profit quickly, and turning over more of the day-to-day operations to others. I freed up some time in 2012 by putting Apex in charge of some of my fulfillment… I'll be sending more product to their CA warehouse in 2013 to decrease my own work load. I'll be opting for drop-shipping whenever a manufacturer offers that service.
I now have 8 other bloggers writing for our blog, so that frees up my own time to deal with back end stuff. I even have a local friend opening my blind boxes for me, which is a time-saver. So basically I'm looking forward to working smarter in 2013. I really hit a wall in 2012 in terms of time and space and money- I got to the end of my abilities in all 3 of those things. So I began to try to think of ways I could make life easier on myself. I am trying to avoid burning out!
- http://www.tenacioustoys.com
- http://www.facebook.com/TenaciousToysNYC
- http://twitter.com/tenacioustoys
- http://tenacious-toys.blogspot.com
BENNY KLINE: The whole NYCC time in October was great for us: we put on a big show at NYCC and we made the finals in the DTAs to boot! Our collective-style NYCC booth gave attendees a wide variety of toys and customs to check out and purchase, and a ton of artists to meet! Definitely the way we'd like to do NYCC moving forward. Got some positive feedback from industry big shots, so we were definitely feeling the toy love in October.
I should also mention that we successfully put on a local show (the Candy-Coated Custom Show) and successfully completed a Kickstarter campaign to fund Scott Tolleson's Uncle Argh Noir Mini Qee. Lots of work and organization involved in both of those, so basically just completing each one was a triumph!
TOYSREVIL: What is your most favorite toy, or piece of art you've seen in 2012?
BENNY KLINE: I see a ton of toys each year so actually trying to recall all of them is very difficult. So my answer to this is a bit of a cop-out… but I really enjoy watching my artist friends ascend the ladder of recognition. One of the notches on everyone's belt is when a company contacts them to design a toy- our friends Chauskoskis and Rsin each got sweet Dunnys this year, Jon-Paul Kaiser had a ton of Mini Qees like Captain Sturnbrau, and VISEone managed to get his own Tube Monster design produced.
As production toys, none of those are the most complex pieces of art I've ever seen, but the triumph behind them is what excites me. I anticipate more of our friends getting tapped to design production toys in 2013! As you know, it is my undying mission to push all my artists forward by hosting exclusive colorways, custom series, and special events with artists.
TOYSREVIL: What are you most looking forward to in 2013?
In 2013 I am looking forward to streamlining my business. And by that I mean: clearing out old inventory, only buying stuff that's going to turn a profit quickly, and turning over more of the day-to-day operations to others. I freed up some time in 2012 by putting Apex in charge of some of my fulfillment… I'll be sending more product to their CA warehouse in 2013 to decrease my own work load. I'll be opting for drop-shipping whenever a manufacturer offers that service.
I now have 8 other bloggers writing for our blog, so that frees up my own time to deal with back end stuff. I even have a local friend opening my blind boxes for me, which is a time-saver. So basically I'm looking forward to working smarter in 2013. I really hit a wall in 2012 in terms of time and space and money- I got to the end of my abilities in all 3 of those things. So I began to try to think of ways I could make life easier on myself. I am trying to avoid burning out!
- http://www.tenacioustoys.com
- http://www.facebook.com/TenaciousToysNYC
- http://twitter.com/tenacioustoys
- http://tenacious-toys.blogspot.com
