Dom, it’s always lovely to catch up – and we’re doing so shortly after you’ve retired! Congratulations on a remarkable career. When you look back, do you think toys have proven a good fit for your ‘design sensibilities’?
It’s funny because I mentioned in one of our other interviews that I’m more a product designer than a toy designer. But looking back, I may end being the toy designer in the world with the widest spectrum since I designed dog toys, kids’ toy and adult toys – and adult toys as in sex toys, not kidult!

Oh! What was that for?
Back when I had my design consultancy, we met a guy who had a company that made small appliances and stuff like that. He played hockey with a sex therapist, and the sex therapist had an idea for a sex toy – or a ‘therapeutic tool’ as it was called because at that time, sex toys were very pornographic. So that was one early project!

I like how you saved this for the retirement chat! And did having that design consultancy shape how you approached being an in-house designer?
Certainly, but looking back, I should have done the reverse! We were four barely graduated partners at the consultancy – and we were quite naive about how difficult it would be. I did that for 12 years and worked on fascinating projects like transportation projects, medical projects, scientific projects, dog toys… I learned a lot. And I’m sure if I worked in-house first instead, I would have learned in a less difficult way!

And where did you go from the consultancy?
Mega Bloks. I joined the company as a design manager, but the company was growing very fast and we needed a better structure for how new product development was managed. The company put in place a gate process and they asked me to be a project manager. At the time, I felt I had to mourn the design aspect, but maybe six months into it I realised that I was now involved with marketing, manufacturing, graphic design… You name it! It provided me with a very holistic vision of product development, which was invaluable.

The other key thing with Mega Bloks was that we were manufacturing productson-site here in Montreal, with only a door separating the design department and the factory. I could sit for half an hour looking at people and machines assembling stuff. That was really enlightening in terms of how things are done and where a portion of the money is going.

Before joining Mega Bloks, did you have any pre-conceived ideas about what the toy industry would be like?
Yes – all smoke and mirrors! And there’s a lot of smoke and mirrors in the toy industry. For good or bad, we’re all targeting for that TV moment – which may not last a long time. And for me, it was difficult when I made the transition between Mega Bloks and Spin Master. At Mega Bloks, a good product was a product that sold by itself; that doesn’t need TV. You look at the box, you get it. For a very long time, the strategy at Mega was basically: ‘Let LEGO make TV ads to bring people to the aisle, and we’ll catch them while they’re there.’ But after a year at Spin Master, I realised the importance of the TV moment.

I remember one project that we proposed in our team – it was some sort of suitcase for Kinetic Sand. But when we presented the thing, people were saying: “This is such a boring product!” But sometimes you need staples… Something that is perhaps not that inventive or spectacular – there’s no wow moment – but people need them. And activity products are different – there’s a need for such product. And when I walk the aisle, 10 years later, it’s still on the shelf.

And that process helped you adjust to life at Spin?
Yes, and so did a training session we had about leadership. Before you joined the training, you needed to define the reason why you wake up in the morning. For me, my goal every morning was to design products that generate instant emotion and everlasting memories. That always grounded me and was really helpful.

A great north star. Let’s talk about some key products you’ve worked on across your career. The first you wanted to discuss was iCoaster back at Mega Bloks.
Yes, this was a big bet for us. There was a lot of money involved in tooling because we started from scratch… I recall a meeting where the design department was looking at the prototype – and the CFO was there… Everybody was nervous about the price point! But it really aligned with our Magnext brand. We had the ball climbing up the side of the elevator… It was quite ahead of its time.

One of the principles here was ‘If you can’t put it on the front of the box, don’t put inside the box’. It has been super important to me because most of the time, you don’t have access to TV or a huge marketing campaign – people need to look at the box and understand what’s inside. Another guy at Mega said: “If it doesn’t scream value, it’s worth nothing.” So if it’s a $20 item, you have at least $20 of fun packed into that box. This one was a good example because we got that box to fit a certain size, but the product itself was twice the size in reality. And the product was $90.

Amazing. And you want to credit the entire team behind this one – so there’s Ans Beaulieu, Guillaume Guyader, Jonathan Jaget and Patrick Latour. Good work team! And was there a big push marketing-wise for this?
We didn’t spend a lot of money on TV. It was very rare. But we did shoot a TV ad and we did a market test in Denver. We put the product only in Toys ‘R’ Us in Denver. We aired the TV ad and the lift was 10 times compared to the market where there was no TV ad. That told us we needed TV.

Did it do well?
It did very well, especially for a $90 toy.

From iCoaster to i-loom. This came from Wooky Entertainment and a team spanning yourself and Samuel Beaupré, Alfredo Chavez and Dominique Fleurant. What made this a special project?
I actually left the company before it hit shelves, but was there throughout its development. I don’t think it was a huge commercial success and Wooky had some difficulties and vanished a couple of years after that. But with i-loom, the concept calls for a non-complete play experience in a box – which may explain the results.

And this sees you place your iPad into the device and it tells you how to create complex knotted bracelets.
Yes, and we looked at the penetration of iPads in US and it was already quite high, like 60% to 70% of households had an iPad at that time. We took a proven play patten with the friendship bracelet, but wanted to allow people to create more patterns and make it way more open-ended than just doing candy stripes. So we came up with that idea of using an iPad to deliver real-time CGI video instructions.

Basically, you select a pattern, design your bracelet and the iPad delivers fully customized step-by-step instructions on how to knot it. It was a very powerful idea and very well executed, but it didn’t sell as much as we invested in terms of energy into it.

Did that experience inform anything about how you approached the KumiKreator from Spin Master?
I’m sure it did – and I will say, the KumiKreator is probably the best invention I’ve ever been pitched. It came from Fuse and you see their video and say: “Oh my God, that’s it – we need to do this!” And our job was to not spoil it. The main contribution we made was to get to the fun faster – so eventually we came to a machine that loaded the spool at factory level. It was just fantastic.

Absolutely. And as you say, this came from Fuse, while the team at Spin included Arta Alagheband, Mollie Jameson and Audrey Tam. Was it a hit immediately?
No, when we launched, the first month was not that great – and people started getting nervous. So a decision was made to lower the price point by $5… And it totally exploded. The number of units we sold were just incredible. I’m very proud to have been involved in this one.

Did that reinforce the value of working with inventors?
I learned about the existence of toy inventors while at Spin. We had an inventor relations department, and I was inspired by how Spin managed inventor relations – they are great at it. One of our successes at Make It Real is that we went from being showed items by inventors that had already been turned down by several companies, to having inventors come direct to us with concepts designed for us. I think that’s because the Make It Real is great at executing inventor concepts – and hopefully we improve the product in the process.

Absolutely. I know you also wanted to mention a recent Make It Real launch as a career highlight – the Mini Pottery Studio. This came from you and Friday Fu, Josiane Geoffrion, Marie-Michèle Girard-Rheault and Jonathan Jaget. Talk me through this one.
Yes. Vic Bertrand – one of the two brothers behind Mega Bloks – used to say: “Toys are always about refried beans”, which referred to there being a lot of reinvention in toys. And there is, especially in the activity category, where you always try to use existing play patterns and innovate on them. But as we discussed with the i-Loom, there’s always a risk of over innovating. Another saying I remember is “Know your shit” from Spin Master’s Ben Verardi. Both sayings come into play with the Mini Pottery Wheel.

I knew the play pattern and I did a lot of testing in my basement – testing existing products. I also knew this space as we did a Pottery Wheel project at Spin. And if you go to Amazon and look at ‘Pottery wheels for kids’, you’ll see that there’s a lot of them – that’s a great indication that it’s still relevant. When we presented this one internally, one of the first things I heard was: ‘Kids don’t want to do pottery anymore’ – but pottery is universal. It’s just about finding the right twist to make it new.

And this ended up being the product I’ve been involved with that has been copied the most. And copied very fast! The first copies came from Asia and they were pretty close – different from a styling standpoint, but the colour scheme was the same. Since then, we’ve seen close to 10 copies of this product. They were all infringing the patent and once the patent was issued and public, then their strategy changed. They changed the process in order to go around the patent. It’s kind of the holy grail for an inventor to have a patent, and we don’t regret it, but I’m very cautious about it in that sense that the patent process is not designed for toys. Between filing and getting the patent issued, it’s a two- or three-year process, which is sometimes the life expectancy of a toy from a mass market standpoint.

Good point. And how do you reflect on what makes a product a success? Or a failure?
Well, my rate of success is not great. Like most of the people in the industry, we talk a lot about the successes but I have a bunch of products that didn’t succeed at all – even if I believed they were fun. In order to make a success, you need an incredible alignment of the planets – marketing, manufacturing, positioning… So many things that need to happen, it’s just insane.

One thing I do very frequently is go to a chain of stores here called Winners. They sell end of line – products that probably never sold well somewhere else. And I see toys there that look quite good and fun to me. Many are great ideas, but clearly, for whatever reason, have not succeeded. It makes me very humble about how many things need to happen – and how many talented people need be involved – in order to create a success.

I’m at the end of my career now, so it’s the short window where I can give advice – because after that, I don’t want to be that uncle that gives advice.

Ha! Go for it!
I would say that failure is very important. I gained a lot of knowledge because I failed a lot. As they say, you either win or learn. And I learned the very hard way. But I would invite any inventor or toy designer to be curious about literally everything – marketing, sales, other industries, manufacturing, engineering, costing, pricing, branding, positioning, culture, photography, museums… At some point it will percolate in your product and bonify it. I’m convinced of that.

Great advice.
And when it comes to success, I feel that innovation needs to be at the core of a company to succeed. If a company aims to be innovative, innovation needs to be linked directly to the individual who drives the company’s vision. Otherwise, innovation becomes random. If you just look at the top and bottom line of any toy company, there’s many ways to succeed. There are companies that are known just to copy stuff and they do very decent numbers. And let’s be honest, we’re here to sell products and this is the ultimate way to assess the success of a product. As an example, at Mega, we were very successful with the Dragons line. At some point, we saturated, so we created a line called King Arthur – and the castle we did for the King Arthur line was the best we ever did from a design standpoint… But the line was a failure.

On the flipside, I won’t name the product, but I worked on something where both the designer and I said: “That’s not great…” there was a license attached product and although it wasn’t a good product per se from a design standpoint, the things sold like crazy. So the reverse exists, too. But even though you design something once, the injection machine will pop one unit every 30 seconds. When you consider a 24/7 production schedule, you end up shipping a lot of units that can/will end up in a landfill somewhere, that’s a serious responsibility. Add-in the fact that we’re making toys, and that’s an extra layer of responsibility. We need to take it seriously.

Before we wrap up, is there a toy out there that you wish you’d designed?
There’s a bunch! Hatchimals is a huge commercial success, the spark of that idea is pure magic too. I didn’t work on that but when I was interviewed at Spin, they were about to launch it and everyone there was excited. That’s one of the things I admire most about Spin Master – they believe they can do it. Look at Hatchimals, there’s lots going on there, but they believed they could do it and absolutely nailed the unboxing process.

It’s also very elegant from a mechanical standpoint, which I think is the essence of this innovation – it’s why innovation needs to exist within a special, protected environment in a company. And Spin (and Mega at a time used to) do it very well. Vic Bertrand used to say – and this sounds terrible but is full of wisdom – ‘Kill the puppy’. When we have an idea, it’s a very sentimental thing. We’re attached to it and will fight for it. But at some point, you need to say: ‘The planets aren’t aligning here. Let’s kill it’. And I’ve seen Spin kill similar projects. But Hatchimals made it to the shelf and is a historical success.

Last question! Now you’re retired, what are planning to do with your time?
I will be building a house. I will be an IKEA cabinet hacker. Lots of woodworking and architectural photography when I have the opportunity. I will ski, I will mountain bike, I will do nothing, I will read, I will swim. And I hope I will be in a position to still get involved with inventing products – but that will happen when it’s raining.

Ha! Here’s hoping for many rainy days so we see you pitching inventions soon! Dom, this has been a joy. Huge congrats on an incredible career and happy retirement! Do stay in touch.

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Inventors will be able to pitch concepts to Make It Real at this year’s Mojo Pitch.

Forming part of Mojo Nation’s annual Play Creators Festival, the live Mojo Pitch event will take place on Thursday, June 25th 2026 at London’s Stamford Bridge Stadium.

Make It Real will also be involved in the Virtual Mojo Pitch event, taking place digitally across July 14th, 15th and 16th 2026.

Both the live and virtual events will welcome inventors, invention studios and design agencies as they pitch new toy and game concepts to a range of companies, each on the lookout for new products.

“Mojo’s Play Creators Festival is always a favourite stop – it’s so inspiring to see such imagination and energy in one place,” said Tanya Holland, Innovation Coordinator and Senior Product Designer at Make It Real.

“Over the years, the relationships we’ve built through Mojo have been invaluable – growing into strong, lasting connections that continue to make a meaningful impact.”

If you’re an inventor, invention house or design agency that would like book in a meeting with Make It Real at this year’s Mojo Pitch, email Mojo’s Billy Langsworthy on billy@mojo-nation.com.

Or, if you’re a company that would like to join Make It Real in meeting with inventors at the event, please reach out to Mojo’s Adam Butler at adam@mojo-nation.com.

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Dom, it’s always great to catch up. Tell us about Make It Real’s new Spin Art Studio.
Well, spin art is quite cool, but you tend to get quite random results. And even though the results of spin art are technically different, they generally all have the same look. So after doing that four or five times, what can you do apart from pretend you need more similar-looking bookmarks? I’ve been thinking about this challenge for maybe four years!

Wow! So how have you cracked it with this Spin Art Studio?
Central to it is this ‘spiral hub’. Essentially, it manipulates the ink into a spiral pattern. I always want our products to provide kids with variable control regarding the end result. Now, they can still use the Spin Art Studio as a more standard spin art toy… I wanted to be respectful to that play pattern because it’s an enduring one, but we obviously have to bring innovation to it.

So we also have these discs that have a protective spot varnish printed on them in different patterns so we can create artwork that’s themed. And the kid might not even see the pattern until they start doing the spin art and it reveals itself. So that adds levels of magic and storytelling to the process that isn’t usually there… The wheels stop spinning and suddenly you see the reveal.

And this uses ink, not paint?
Exactly – and that’s key because of the viscosity and, forgive the nerd in me, surface tension… And you can mix and match different colours easily this way, using different spiral patterns. Kids can experiment and try different things. You can also use the foam paintbrush to spread the ink, which creates some cool results, but is also super engaging and oddly satisfying…

That actually brings me to how we structure the play pattern here. We always had ‘Beginner’, ‘Maker’ and ‘Master’ levels, then we added ‘Explorer’ with the Polish and Shine Bead Tumbler. We’re doing the same here, with the ‘Master’ level being when you use the foam paintbrush.

Lovely – and you’re launching this as a solo item, but also as a Combo with the pottery wheel?
Yes, you may recall that the RPM on our Mini Pottery Studio is unusually high for a pottery wheel. We saw that as an opportunity to use the base of the pottery wheel to make spin art too. So the first product we’re launching is the Combo – a two-in-one that uses the pottery-wheel base but comes with a mess-free adapter that also lets you do spin art with it.

You mention that kids can experiment with this – how important is it for these craft items to be ‘open-ended’? Can things become too prescribed?
I’m all for open play and we’re pushing for that as much as possible. It’s an important filter to use when we assess a concept’s value, either for us or from outside inventors. Obviously, some play patterns don’t offer it as much. Look at our Swift Clicks bracelet maker – it’s more about mixing and matching colours… That can be good because some kids find great comfort being in full control. We always strive to offer a spectrum – from that to other products that are 100% open-ended, like the Mini Pottery Studio. The ‘Beginner’, ‘Maker’, ‘Master’ segmentation is pretty much a measure of the open-endness of our take on play patterns.

Absolutely. Moving onto another new launch – Swift Twist. Talk me through the origins of this bracelet maker.
This one came to us from Cheeky Donkey in Montreal – Sabrina Gareau. It’s super simple, but insanely efficient! She came to our booth and demonstrated the idea using her prototype – essentially a reworked handheld fan! But she showed us what it did and it was magic and so demonstratable. We were immediately in love with it. It felt like Sabrina had designed it with us in mind.

And how does it work?
You have a weight attached to two loops of thread. The tension is equal so that – when the pieces start to twist – it makes a very well- controlled spiral effect. It’s very simple and has that portable nature which is fantastic… You can make a bracelet while on the bus! Also, we’re in a tariff world now, and from a cost perspective this is a great item. It’s great that this is an inventor collaboration – we believe in that community and items like this showcase that.

Terrific. Thanks again Dom.

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Dominique, we’re discussing two exciting launches for Make It Real. Let’s start with your Polish & Shine Tumbler. How did this come about?
We’re always interested in inventor proposals and creating products that are inspired by well-proven play patterns, but ones that have not been innovated for years. That’s what led us to tumblers… There are many rock tumblers out there – and they haven’t changed for years. It’s a simple process to explain, but one that’s often long and fruitless.

Do your best for us, Dominique!
Normally, you put rocks into a barrel, along with a polishing agent and a bit of water. You let it spin for days, weeks or – in some rare cases – months. If you are apparently lucky, you get smooth, polished rocks. Now, people may presume that this mostly attracts dads and uncles, but we felt there was an opportunity to make this play pattern aspirational again, for boys and girls as well. If the outcome is cool, any budding jewellers could be interested in it.

So with this, you’re more quickly transforming unpolished pieces of natural stone into beautiful beads that you can then use as jewellery?
Right! Rock tumbling can take a long time, so we’ve made it a faster, more predictable process. That said, we have an option that requires three weeks of tumbling to get the desired result!

The play experience divides in four levels: Beginner, Maker, Master and Explorer. Explorer, the most advanced level, invites kids to ‘find rocks in their backyard’ and tumble them – using the tumbler in the classic way. It was important that even if a child has used all the supplied beads, there’s still a use for the Tumbler.

There are strong links between the traditional experience and the types of jeweller-crafting products Make It Real specialises in: anticipation, transformation and a sense of pride in a finished item…

Exactly. And there’s some striking parallels with the toy space. Every kid on the planet has, at some stage, collected rocks. It’s universal wherever you are in the world because rocks are available. And to your point – yes, the processes are the same. You take the ultimate commodity and, with some patience and anticipation, transform it into something precious.

Dolly Parton once said: “It takes a lot of money to look this cheap”. Did it take a lot of hard work to craft the simple-looking ‘rough’ beads? The ones that transform in the Tumbler?
Ha! She’s a bright woman and the analogy makes sense – but with a slight difference… We worked hard to keep it cheap but look great! Natural stones like agate, marble and amazonite are expensive when compared to plastics. We worked hard to keep our proposal sound from a cost standpoint. That’s important to me because I’m a product designer that happened to create toys…

This means I have a lot of respect for the people who play with our products. I feel like surrendering when someone says “This is just a toy!” to justify sub-quality functionality. We had to get this right – and wanted to control how much time you need to tumble in order to get a predictable end result. We did a load of experimentation before getting rewarding results. Among these tests, we played around with the level of polish on the supplied beads and came up with a custom formulation for the polish agent.

Great. Let’s move into your Swift Clicks Heishi Bracelet Maker. Where did the idea for this come from?
We’re doing great with Heishi beads; they’re still trending. We wanted to provide kids with a different way to make a bracelet – a faster way that’s more fun! So what used to take 15 minutes now takes five. The designer’s original idea was inspired by those multi-coloured clicker pens, which you can see in the architecture of the product.

I can absolutely see that now!
It was a huge technical challenge for the team. To get the precision right, so that every time you press the button, one bead will thread onto the threading stem. It had to be perfectly aligned; the designer needed seven prototypes in order to get to that final version… And all using normal toy manufacturing technology and, inevitably, financials – we’re not NASA!

Ha! So it has to perform well and looks beautiful. Did those two aspects align organically?
It’s a very good question. I can’t take credit for the design of this, but I fully endorse what the team came up with… As mentioned earlier, I’m first and foremost a product designer. Kids are now surrounded by iPhones, electronic goods and products that look very good. In this case, it’s more about form following function than smoke and mirrors. Kids aged eight and older appreciate a more mature design these days, as opposed to a ‘toyish aesthetic’.

Also, we can capture an older audience because our product is not, say, shaped like a unicorn! I believe that approach to aesthetics can be the difference between a triple and a homerun. It’s ultimately a bet and I’m hoping a larger audience will adopt this product because of that.

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Always a pleasure to tie in, Dominique. I was delighted when you suggested we discuss this subject… When should inventors give up an idea? Why is it on your mind?
It wasn’t my idea. I surveyed a couple of inventors to know what subject they’d like to read about. It was one of the proposed topics, and I felt it’s one that’s easily overlooked.

It’s inspired!
I’m pleased you like it. We all love a good comeback story, don’t we? This subject is pretty much the opposite, but I do wonder about the missed opportunities when ‘dreams’ are followed too blindly.

So what’s the main reason, do you think, that some people keep pushing an idea that isn’t likely to go anywhere?
We naturally promote our own ideas with a disproportionate level of faith. I do it myself – and I think it’s a beneficial thing for the survival of my good and not- so-good ideas. It’s a bit like babies for their parents. Humans have an inherent predisposition to believe their babies are beautiful… Now, for the record – and to help prove my point – my own babies were ridiculously beautiful!

Yes, of course!
But more seriously, it may have to do with a lack of knowledge about the toy industry and more specifically the commercial aspects of it. We’ve all played with toys, so we have a good idea of what a fun one should be. To predict if a toy will sell, however, is a way more delicate exercise. I’ll also add to that… I think we may give too much weight to the originality of an idea.

“Too much weight to the originality of an idea…” That’s interesting. How so?
If you look at the market, you’ll see some very successful toys aren’t really that innovative, but they humbly fill an authentic need. Others are simply very well designed! Obviously, if a company is willing to spend millions to launch a product, it’s better to be inventive to the point of being patentable.

It’s very interesting to me because some new inventors – completely new, I mean – will say to me: “I’ve looked around the shops and there’s absolutely nothing like my idea in stores…” As soon as I hear that, I know they’re going to show me something mind-blowingly original… Or something quite ghastly; something no store would ever touch. Either way, their belief in it is usually unshakeable. So how would an inventor know if they’re too attached to an idea? What are the signs that an idea isn’t going to make it?
That’s a difficult question to answer, but the simplest answer is once you get enough rejection…

At pitches?
Yes, at pitches to professionals. I presume each time an idea is presented, inventors get comments that they then try to integrate in an improved version. At some point, though, you should feel the idea isn’t evolving anymore, or you’ve started to pitch to companies that are really not a good fit. At that point, it may be time to let it go. More positively, it may be a question of timing – and it would be wise to give it a rest. You also need to put things in perspective: the vast majority of ideas won’t make it. So, once an idea steals too much of your attention without any payoff, move to next one.

That’s good advice. In terms of the feedback, though, might part of the problem be that inventor relations execs can be – understandably – somewhat reticent in a meeting? By which I mean very few of them are going to say: “This is awful! Just drop it in a bin.”
Ha! You’re right, it requires quite a large dose of nerve to say that to anyone! I don’t have the guts to say that – not only due to compassion… My own judgment is imperfect… My lack of faith for an idea may come from me not looking at it from the right angle. Very rarely an idea is perfectly aligned with a company’s needs, but the vast majority of them include at a least a kernel that has some merit and can be leveraged.

So you’re saying your own judgement can be flawed? But that you can usually see whether or not the essence of an idea could be made to work for you?
Exactly. And when I intuitively know an idea is – to use a euphemism – “not for us”, I try to give constructive feedback to the inventor. I hope it will help them improve the idea and ultimately find a place for it, even at the risk of ending in the competition’s hands. I believe the payback may come later, and they may think about Make it Real first when they may have a great idea.

In your experience, then, what’s the best way to take your ego out of a project, but still care enough about it to feel passionate?
Hmmm, very good question. I do try to assess my own ideas as coldly as possible by removing most of the emotional aspects from the equation. I apply some filters, each with different weight, to help determine if an idea has potential or – more often – highlight a weakness.

Can you give us an example of that? Of these filters?
To name a few, we search for ideas that bring some true benefits to the user. As product designers, we have a responsibility to create honest products and not abuse from the material resource the so called ‘smoke-and-mirror effect’.

Do you mean – with a craft toy – not overpromise? By which I mean: you want to create products that really do help your customers craft something worthwhile?
Yes. So I always ask myself if a product would truly be useful… Will it really help to craft end results better or faster? Or help you make something that would be impossible to create otherwise?

This is at the core of Make it Real’s brand promises. We also favour concepts based on proven play patterns so it’s marketable without massive marketing support. Oh! And since we’re selling activity-based toys, we give special attention to cool and trendy end results. Both the destination and the journey, from a play experience point of view, need to be appealing for kids.

Fantastic. It’s also worth saying, Dominique, that you’ve spoken with us before – so people can find out more about the way you think here. To round things off, what other questions could I have asked you about this today?
I think we’ve covered everything… But since I talked about my kids in the interview, you may be wondering if they were a good idea…

Ha! I wouldn’t presume to! But go on…
Well, I can tell you: they’re both in their twenties now – and I can proudly say YES – because they became superb human beings!

Oh, wow. What a lovely note to end on. Thank you, Dominique.

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Inventors will be able to pitch concepts to Make It Real at this year’s Mojo Pitch.

Forming part of this year’s Play Creators Festival, the live Mojo Pitch event will take place on Thursday, June 27th at London’s Stamford Bridge Stadium.

Make It Real will also be involved in the Virtual Mojo Pitch event, taking place digitally across July 9th, 10th and 11th.

Both the live and virtual Mojo Pitch events will welcome inventors, invention studios and design agencies as they pitch new toy and game concepts to a range of companies, each on the lookout for new products.

“The Play Creators Festival, as its name says, is that joyful and super well organised event for inventors to show up their latest concepts,” said Dominique Roy, Vice President of Advanced and Industrial Design at Make It Real.

“It is great to meet face-to-face with that diverse crowd of passionate individuals and to promote Make it Real’s desire to launch exciting, innovative and well-designed new products.”

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In Nuremberg, Dominique, you showed us an extraordinary Make It Real pottery wheel… That was better than a pottery wheel! Tell me: how did that idea come about?
I was watching reels on Instagram and saw a video of someone throwing a mini vase on a normal-size pottery wheel. Initially, I thought it was some sort of a stunt… Someone having fun doing tiny things on a huge wheel. Then I started to make some competitive research about pottery wheels for kids and realised that mini-pottery was a thing – at least for adults. As a result, I bought one mini-wheel and start playing with it.

Successfully?
Oh, no. My first end result was just terrible… And barely looked like an ashtray.

Ha! Well, my experience of pottery is limited, but – as I recall – it’s quite difficult to do. Which is why this invention interests me, because there are a couple of things that make this very toyetic. First, kids had much more control over the clay than they would with a pottery wheel. How come?
I was lucky enough that the first clay I bought was terracotta, which is quite hard compared to the usual clay. Soon, I realised that I was getting better results at high speed and when carving instead of modelling, like traditional pottery.

From there, we designed it with the goal of allowing kids to get good end results out of the gate, but also providing the opportunity to master pottery and be able to make totally freeform things. I did also realise that centring your piece at the beginning of the process was very time consuming and difficult. In fact even adults taking lessons would have a hard time to perfectly centre their pieces.

Right – because if the clay isn’t right in the middle of the wheel, it’s almost impossible to make something recognisable!
Right! So we then came up with the design of our centring tool… It allows kids to easily centre the clay and – most importantly – get to the fun fast.

Yes, very good – that’s exactly it; isn’t it? The kids feel they’re making progress quicker. Also, the motor on this thing is whisper quiet… Very wise, I think, given how infuriating parents might otherwise find it! How important was that to the design?
We design products so kids have fun and a rewarding experience, but keeping in mind that they should not be an annoyance for the people around… And especially the parents who usually pay for it. The goal is to design a product that will be used and reused for a long period of time. Personally, what drives me is to design toys that would generate instant emotions and everlasting memories…

Instant emotions and everlasting memories…
For that, the play experience needs to be interesting on the long run too, it can’t be solely designed around getting a TV moment. If using it become an annoyance, because of noise as an example, it will certainly miss the target.

Great. And how did you – I’m really curious – did you get that Motor so quiet?
There is a bit of luck here too! Because we’re doing mini-pottery, and we operate at a quite high RPM, we need more speed and less torque than normal pottery wheels. This allowed us to get rid of the usual gearbox that gives more torque and is a prerequisite for a normal size pottery wheel. The motor’s attached directly to the wheel, and this is how we get a quite silent experience… And allows us to reassign some of that budget in the product.

And I thought talk was cheap. Tell me, Dominique, what else is worth mentioning in the execution of the idea?
Maybe the styling of the device… Which is not too toyish. We knew quite soon that this product would appeal to a very large audience. The first time we showed it to a retailer, they immediately asked to see a boy on the front of the box. The focus groups we did confirmed the need to be gender inclusive. Furthermore, many adults told us “I want one for myself!”.

Do you know, I was just wondering about that!
We often talk about the ‘age compression’ phenomena in the toy industry. I feel the same way… Nowadays, kids better appreciate good design. They’re surrounded by exquisitely designed smartphones and computers… What they aspire to at an impressively young age is less and less products adopting a toyish aesthetic.

Great insight! Love that. What else is new, Dominique?
Oh! This coming fall, we’re launching Party Nails!

Ah, yes! Tell us about that! What are the design features that make it unique?
It’s such an easy product to demo… Live, I can do it without saying a word and people get it! It’s a motorised device that allows you to magically apply glitter on fingernails. It’s designed in such way that there’s barely any waste and the process… Well, it’s quite magical.

Yes, I’m sympathetic here: our words may not do this justice! Because it is like a magic trick in a way…
Yes! So with Party Nails, you apply a sticky base on your nail and immediately put your finger in a specially designed capsule. You press on the base button and a cloud of swirling glitter allows you get a thin layer of evenly distributed glitter in seconds.

Right; it creates a little whirlwind of glitter – but it only goes only on the fingernail!
Exactly. And because glitter can be very messy, we integrated a membrane to the porthole so the glitter pieces don’t escape while flying around inside the capsule. Furthermore, the very initial design commanded the user to reload the capsule when they wanted to change colour… We realised this was very messy, so we added one turbine in each one of the five capsules. The turbine is the part that creates the glitter vortex… So the glitter manipulation is reduced to a minimum! This is really instrumental to get a mess-free play experience.

Brilliant. Very, very clever, Dominique; I absolutely love it. Alrighty…Let’s finish off with a question I neglected to ask you the first time we spoke… What toys and games did you play with when you were growing up?
I will betray my age here. I had that toy called Billy Blastoff when I was three years old.

Billy Blastoff? You’ve got me, there; I’m not familiar with it…
It was an astronaut action figure with some kind of a wheeled vehicle. This was in the 60s; right in the middle of the race to the moon between the Americans and the Russians. I’m French Canadian and, at the time, was unable to read advanced English. So in my mind the character’s name was Billy Bastroff… which sounds much more Russian and exotic. It was only many years later, while trying to find info about the toy, that I ‘discovered’ the real name. It was almost a disappointment!

Wow! That’s one of life’s small, quiet tragedies! Thanks for sharing your pain with us, Dominique; much appreciated.

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Inventors will be able to pitch concepts to Make It Real at this year’s Virtual Mojo Pitch, taking place digitally across July 11th, 12th and 13th.

Both the live and virtual Mojo Pitch events will welcome inventors, invention studios and design agencies as they pitch exciting new toy and game concepts to a range of companies, each on the lookout for new products.

“We at Make It Real are again super excited to participate in the Virtual Mojo Pitch,” said Dominique Roy, Vice President of Advanced and Industrial Design at Make It Real.

“We can’t wait to see the results of super creative work from toy inventors from around the globe!”

If you’re a solo inventor, invention house or design agency that would like book in a meeting with Make It Real at this year’s Mojo Pitch, email Mojo’s Billy Langsworthy on billy@mojo-nation.com.

If you’re a company that would like to join Make It Real in meeting with inventors at the Mojo Pitch, email Mojo’s Adam Butler at adam@mojo-nation.com.

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What a delight to see you! Thanks for making time, Isaac. So… You’re the entrepreneur that founded Make It Real. But how did you come to do that?

May I just check… When was this? And did you say it was called Wooky?
W-O-O-K-Y. Yes, like the space bear but with a Y.

Oh, “like the space bear”! I’ve not heard it called that, but I like it.
And as to when this was… Well, Wooky went out of business in 2016, and my wife Sarah and I started Make It Real in 2017. We’ve been in business now for… Well, we count in Christmas years so this is our sixth Christmas.

Only six? You’re growing well and growing fast…
Thank you. We’re also having fun doing it!

I don’t think I saw anything by Wooky… Did they work in much the same areas as you do now?
Yes, similar type product, but when we founded Make It Real, we did it with a bit of a mission…

Well, I wanted to ask about that. The company says it’s on a mission to celebrate play, ignite creativity, and inspire imagination!
Exactly. In the toy business, we have a unique opportunity. We get to put millions of toys into the hands of kids around the world. And almost any girl who grows up and becomes a creative in whatever field can point to a toy that that inspired them as a kid – whether it was their favourite toy, a doll or some sort of fashion something or other.

Right…
So, as companies, we’re in a unique position: we get to have a hand in inspiring the next creative generation. When we created Make It Real, it was really with that ethos in mind. We asked ourselves: “How can we create beautiful, meaningful products that also have a story behind them?” You know? We wanted products that would give girls a world of inspiration.

And you focus exclusively on girls, don’t you?
We do. And when we started, we actually took on a number of women who had jobs in creative fields, and they did interviews. You can still find those on our website, and we included them in our packaging. Just to give girls that connection, like: “You’re doing a fashion sketchbook now, but guess what? There are 30 and 35-year-old women who are also using fashion sketchbooks –they’re designers for Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom, and major clothing companies.

The girls of today can connect their play to the real world?
Exactly. Here’s yours… Here’s what theirs look like… And here’s the difference between yours and theirs. That was the dream.

So nearly six Christmases on, Make It Real has a great reputation in the industry, but – for people that don’t know your products – what kind of things do you make?
We design and manufacture activities, accessories and lifestyle products for tween girls. Our design ethos is to try and do everything beautifully… The components are beautiful, the product is beautiful – because, by doing that, it’s really aspirational; it gives kids that amazing feeling: they build something, they want to use it or wear it. It’s not just 50,000 plastic beads in a tub which they’re never going to look at again.

Ha! 50,000 plastic beads in a tub! And how do you do it? How do you make sure it’s also beautiful?
We have an amazing innovation team. We’re trying to design unique products. We’re trying to design things that are going to inspire, and wow… Creating that magic moment for girls is literally what we live for. That’s our DNA.

And this might be a thorny issue, but I’m curious: how do you feel about the notion that there should be no distinction between toys for girls and toys for boys?
I don’t have any issues… If there was a demand – a real demand – for our product among boys, I’d love to be able to make it. I’d even make our product unisex in as much as we possibly could.

But that demand isn’t there?
I think activities in general find significantly more demand in the girl’s space and fundamentally, I think, the first rule of any business is that you have to survive… So we have to accept that products these days have less and less space on shelf, and that business is more and more competitive…

Right. Which is maybe why some online sellers and real-world boutiques feel confident that the demand is there… Their success in a niche creates the illusion of a huge market… But that’s not your experience?
No. And having spoken to a lot of other merchants in our space – by which I mean activity product: jewellery-making, cosmetics, things like that – there is no actual real demand from boys for our products; not in a meaningful way. Boys don’t go to that aisle to look for those products. If we were designing products for that demographic, we’d ultimately be designing products for a demographic that isn’t interested in purchasing them.

I think your response is very pragmatic. But if I can prove to you there’s a real demand for the product…
If you can show me there’s a demand for the product, or there’s a meaningful demand for unisex packaging on the type of jewellery that we make, or if there’s somehow a demand for male cosmetic items, for eight- and nine-year-old boys, then God bless!

That’s a very reasonable answer actually. If you thought there really was money there, why would you ignore that market?!
Right!

That’s really interesting; I’m glad I asked. And going back to your mission, does having that – and having your values – make it easier to develop a product? Or make it harder?
It makes it harder! Much harder, because we rank all of our products based on, I would say, a set of probably 15 different criteria. But ultimately, in order for a product to go forward it has to be viable commercially, from a sales perspective. It can’t JUST be a brilliant idea and a beautiful design. It has to be something that girls are going to love, and want to buy more of; or more of something similar.

Absolutely.
And if you look at the way we develop our product – even with Disney – we’ve often created our own imagery, our own designs and our own style guides to suit. With Juicy Couture, we created our own style guide. Same with Hello Kitty: we’ve created our own style guide because we’re so passionate about being unique and special; being different and not brandslapping. Our ethos really informs how we do all our development.

And that also informs how you choose which licenses to work with, presumably?
Correct.

But what’s the criteria there? How would you know a good license from a bad license?
That’s a really, really good question. There are some licenses which are evergreen, which on some level you have a baseline confidence that you’ll be able to do something… Things like Disney and Sanrio. Other times, the biggest wins in licensing are the ones that nobody saw coming. But those you have to bet on!

Can you give an example of that?
We just came back from Vegas. We met with a lot of people and saw a lot of things that nobody’s seen yet. You just have to bet on what’s going to take – and often, you have no idea. So for example, nobody knew that the first Frozen was going to be what it was. Nobody knew that Encanto was going to be what it was… That’s why there was so little product out there when those movies launched.

And are there examples of it the other way round? It not paying off so well?
Licensing is one of these really, really challenging, knotty spaces. You have to make bets, and you want to be unique, and you want to be different. You want to be in a space where not everybody is, but you also have to hope that the property really takes off.

Wow. Good answer. It sounds to me like there’s a knack to it – that you sort of say, “Well, I could be completely wrong, but I feel this would work.” But after that knackiness – and I may have just invented that word – after the knackiness, you’ve got a bit of a gamble. You’ve got both – it’s a treacherous industry!
100%. You’ve got it!

Are there any opportunities in licensing, then, that you’d like to explore but haven’t got round to yet?
I’d say we’re very blessed. As you said before, we’re lucky in that we have a good reputation in the industry. When it comes to working with inventors, and licensors, we have a lot of opportunities. For us, it’s really just – in this industry – a case of understanding that the real cost of doing something is not actually doing it…

Meaning what?
Meaning that developing an idea, or paying a minimum guarantee, isn’t the real cost of doing a product. The real cost is the ‘opportunity cost’ of not doing something else.

Oh, I see! It’s what’s hidden in the negative space…
Right. Sometimes it’s in your own brand, sometimes it’s in a license. But from our perspective, we’re blessed with a lot of opportunity. The biggest challenge is how to narrow it down to ensure we’re maintaining the right balance as a brand: not overdoing one thing and – by definition – underdoing something else.

Great answer! I love that; that was great. And you mentioned inventors there… If I were an external inventor, and I was pitching to your team for the first time, what advice do you think I should keep at the back of my mind?
I think the first thing that’s really important is identifying products that are unique. One very frustrating thing is that we’ll often get decks from inventors with products that are dramatically similar to other things that are on the market. They really look just like them with very, very minor changes… And of course, the inventor’s asking for minimum guarantees and royalties on a product which is, essentially, out there already. So innovation and differentiation are important.

Innovation and differentiation… Anything else?
I think, also, I’d say that if you’ve taken the time and gone far enough along that you’ve already built a working prototype, it gives us a lot of confidence that you’re serious and that it’s something which is actionable. As opposed to spending $250 on somebody to draw something, then effectively saying, “All right, you guys go spend the money and and actualise this…” That’s where we struggle, even if we love the idea. We don’t know if it’s going to work, but we do know it’s going to take us three months to determine whether or not it’s viable. Then we’re going to have to pay an inventor for the privilege of determining whether or not it works.

Ideally, then, inventors will bring you something much more substantial?
Yes. Fi Murray’s a great example of that. Whenever she comes to us with something, she’s already got a breadboard. She’s got something, she knows how it works; she’s got a video made. She knows and we know that it’s a prototype – it’s not perfect and it’s not the end result, and that we’re not going to manufacture exactly that… But we’re always confident her ideas are going to work because she’s already proved it.

She’s – yes, she’s done the legwork; she’s proved it with a working example…
Right. And if we like the idea, she’ll send us the example three days later. That just gives us so much confidence that – whenever we meet with her – we’re going to be getting things which are different, practical, workable, actionable, and on time. That is huge for us.

Wonderful! I’m going to repeat that because that’s the world on a string… Inventors need to show your team that they can produce different, practical, workable, actionable ideas – and on time… It also sounds to me like you’re saying the worst proof of concept is better than the best drawing…
Exactly. Exactly that.

Well, Isaac… This is been a real pleasure. We do need to wrap it up, but I also want to speak with you about The Make It Real Foundation… It sounds extraordinary. If we wrap this up now, will you come back and talk to us about that?
I’d love to!

In which case, let’s finish this up with one final question… Actually, looking behind you… This may not be relevant. Are you in – is that your office?
Yes…

It’s not a meeting room?
No, this is my office.

But there’s nothing there, Isaac! It’s the sparsest office I’ve ever seen!
Yes, I do keep it pretty sparse!

Well, I was going to ask: “What’s the most interesting object in your office or on your desk?” but…
There’s nothing here!

There’s literally nothing! I see only the desk. You, a chair and one desk…
Well, you can’t see this, look… Let me show you. I’m going to say this is the most interesting thing…

It’s the only thing!
It’s the only thing, which makes it the most interesting!

Well, I can’t argue with that! Let me change the question: Isaac, what’s the only object in your office?
The only object in my office is my new podcast mike. I’ve just started doing podcasts!

Okay! That’s the answer! Thank you, Isaac; let’s tie in again soon.

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The post Why the worst proof of concept is better than the best drawing: Make It Real’s Isaac Wolman explains all appeared first on Mojo Nation.

Inventors will be able to pitch concepts to Make It Real at this year’s Mojo Pitch event.

Forming part of this year’s Play Creators Festival, the live Mojo Pitch event will take place on Wednesday, September 7th, 2022 at London’s Twickenham Stadium. Make It Real will also be involved in the Virtual Mojo Pitch event, taking place digitally across October 12th and 13th.

Both the live and virtual Mojo Pitch events will welcome inventors, invention studios and design agencies as they pitch exciting new toy and game concepts to a range of companies, each on the lookout for new products.

“This is, for us at Make it Real, a maiden experience and we are really excited to meet at last with the Mojo Nation inventor community!” said Dominique Roy, Vice President of Advanced and Industrial Design at Make It Real.

If you’re an inventor, invention house or design agency that would like book in a meeting with Make It Real at this year’s Mojo Pitch, email Mojo’s Billy Langsworthy on billy@mojo-nation.com.

If you’re a company that would like to join Make It Real in meeting with inventors at this year’s Mojo Pitch, email Mojo’s Adam Butler at adam@mojo-nation.com.

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The post Make It Real to meet inventors at Mojo Pitch 2022 appeared first on Mojo Nation.