“When was the last time we had a Furby moment?” Bigshot Toyworks’ Klim Kozinevich talks mass market toys – and the launch of Here There Bear

Klim, it’s great to catch up. For anyone new to Bigshot Toyworks, what’s keeping you busy these days?
Our primary business is service work for independent IP creators, entertainment studios, game companies and small film brands developing IP for the future – outside of the studio system primarily. We also work with high-end collectible companies and toy studios creator collector-level stuff. Essentially, if I get excited about something, I make time in the schedule to work on it!

What comes to mind as good examples of thing you’ve loved working on?
Early on, it was working with Ashley Wood on his very first Bertie the Robot – the precursor to what became 3A Toys. Back then, nobody thought you could sell a $350 articulated robot figure, but we made 1,000 and they sold out. It was direct to consumer based on the power of Ashley’s creativity and designs, and then our development skillset.

We also worked with Sideshow Collectibles on a one-sixth scale fully articulated Starcraft Marine. It was the most complicated thing you could ever see, but fortunately over the years I’ve collected some great people to work with, and we were able to execute it. Seeing fans react to that in such a passionate, positive way was fantastic and a real highlight.

Very cool. And folks can see of your work over at: https://bigshottoyworks.my.canva.site/agency-deck. I wanted to ask you about the designer toys scene – what do you feel are some ingredients that make something successful in this space?
It changes often – and right now is very different than it was 20 years ago – but the secret sauce is authenticity. It’s about the artist that’s creating the thing… It’s not about ‘the thing’. Right now, you can create dozens of variations of whatever is popular, like another character with big sneakers and a hoodie. There’s like 50,000 of them right now, but there’s only two or three artists who are recognised – and celebrated – for that particular design. So it’s all about the artist.

There’s a lot of talk about the success of POP MART at the moment. Are there lessons there for the mass market toy space?
The thing that POP MART did right – and are still doing right – is that they do their research and work with the right people; people that care about character brands. Their social media game is incredible and they spend a lot of time and money on physical retail space, which is where the magic happens. That’s where you see lines outside the door or people camping out. And POP MART own the entire pipeline, from the creative where they work with artists, to the IP – and they probably own their own factories at a certain level.

They’re working at a level nobody can compete with. There’s certainly no western company that compete with them, primarily because there’s no western company that’s willing to put in the hard work and develop something from the ground up like that.

Have you seen POP MART influence the mass market toy space?
Absolutely – because it’s kicking the mass market’s ass. And there’s a few companies like POP MART that are getting things right – like 52 Toys, or Mondo, or Rokimoto. They’re all doing incredible stuff, chipping away at mass market. Because what the mass market produces is not about collecting – that’s just consuming. It’s the difference between surrounding yourself with inspiring product that you really connect too, or just being a hoarder.

There are a few mass market toy companies that wear those influences in the right way. Look at Moose Toys or Spin Master. They feel like the last of the toy companies, because they actually make fun shit, right? Because when was the last time anybody in the industry got genuinely excited about a new toy line? When was the last time we had a Cabbage Patch Kid moment? Or a Furby moment? Or a Tickle Me Elmo moment? I haven’t seen that happen in a long time in the mass market.

What do you put that down to?
Sadly, I feel there’s very little respect for seniority or experience in the industry. The people coming in don’t know enough about the history of toy design. The tools of today and the high-paced environment of the industry means they’re forced to work at a certain pace and produce a certain type of product for a certain price – because it needs to sit at Walmart… It feels like most people in the industry aren’t designing things for the fun of it. Everybody’s on the clock, right?

And in the toy company structure, the only way to move up in salary is to move into management. No matter how great you are and how passionate you are as a designer, you’re just going to move up to manage other designers… Some people love that and thrive on that, but others get bitter and kind of lonely because they don’t get to create. And these days, you don’t need to be a corporation to make great toys. I can make better toys than most of the biggest toy companies in the world – just me and a couple of partners in Asia could make some of the coolest stuff. I could ship it to my warehouse, set up a Shopify store and go direct to consumer. That’s a big change and a big deal.

Speaking of, you’ve recently launched a Kickstarter project for Here There Bear. For anyone new to the project, talk me through it.
Here There Bear is essentially a very low-fi, low-tech, totally huggable, super cute, really soft friend, right? My entire purpose as a designer was to make a toy or a character that a kid – not necessarily millions or thousands – felt a strong connection to. Something they carried around everywhere, couldn’t fall asleep without it, had memories attached to it… A toy that stuck with them throughout their entire lives – and that they were then able to pass on to their kid.

I was born in Russia and I have this Cheburashka toy that was given to me by my grandma when I was eight, right before she passed away. I have it to this day and when I look at it, I think about her and my time with her. I have memories attached to these things and I want people to feel that way with something I’ve created.

So Here There Bear is fully articulated and has a little bag that you can put stuff in – and the idea is that you tell stories with this bear. It’s expressionless, but it’s very expressive – like Hello Kitty.

Looks great. And beyond the Kickstarter, what are your plans for Here There Bear?
I try to think about everything I do as brands and where they can go in the future. Some things are very short lived, but this bear is different… I think it could be a lifestyle brand because it encourages creativity. It encourages community. It encourages sharing. It’s the ultimate tool for user-generated content.

We can do different sized plush, we’ve got accessories, we’ve got apparel – for the bear and for humans! We have an idea for a blind box minifigure collection at two different price points. We’re just building an audience.

Well, good luck with it Klim, it looks terrific. And folks can check out the Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bigshot-toyworks/here-there-bear. Thanks again for taking time out to chat.

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