Toy manufacturers: the best options in 2020

Toys are everywhere, they play a crucial role in the childhood of a lot of people around the world. Once thought of as leisure objects for small children, toy industry leaders have been focusing lately on youngsters and adults in an effort to diversify their targets and encourage their market growth.

You’ve probably found out what a profitable industry they form. Just in 2018, the world toy market had a 90.4 billion U.S. dollars revenue, the largest in more than a decade. This number alone shows how big and stable this industry is, even after the dawn of video games and interactive toys and games.

Toy manufacturing, as many other processes, involves different steps and a lot of effort and planning depending on what is your goal. You might be thinking about little toys intended to promote your brand and make it attractive, or focusing your enterprise, right from the start, on toys. No matter which is the project you have in mind, at Martin’s, we are sure that we can be of help.

So let’s find out what toy manufacturing involves, which toy companies are the largest, and the real toy manufacturers out there. Throughout this post, we’ll mention a whole list of options, and why Martin’s is amongst them for your project.

Toy manufacturing

There are all kinds of toys. That diversity points out how different toy manufacturing can be. Traditional toys have been around since the beginning of humanity. What has changed, of course, is their fabrication.

They’ve been made of bone, stone, wood, metal, etc. Nowadays, wood and metal toys survive to a very little extent. Half of the world’s wooden toys are fabricated in Yunhe, east China, where more than 700 toy manufacturers are based. This toy manufacturing center makes sure its business is eco-friendly in order to make the least impact on the rainforests.

However, in the present the vast majority of toys are fabricated with plastic, the cheapest option in the market. This means that if toys are to be produced, then the plastic industry will be involved.

Toy manufacturing requires processes that shape plastic, amongst them, there is the plastic injection molding, which includes two major stages: the injection, where a special machine injects liquid plastic material into a customized mold that will make the final product, and assembly, where different pieces are joined to create a more complex product.

Decoration and packaging will be, obviously, other very important steps for toy manufacturers, as toys rely much on their attractiveness.

So up to here we’ve talked about toys, their value in the global market and how they’re  present in our daily lives, besides we’ve pointed out the relation between them and the plastic industry. But what about the toy industry, which are some of the most important toy manufacturers? Which toy companies are the most powerful? Keep reading and you’ll find some fascinating facts and useful information.

Toy companies around the world

We’ve said that toys are everywhere, that means that a bunch of people and some organizations are behind all of that. When it comes to toy companies, the American Hasbro and Mattel must be two of the most world-recognized brands.

Everyone has stumbled upon their publicity and products, they’re on TV, magazines, billboards, internet, social media. Although these are a pair of the most famous toy companies in the world, there are surely hundreds of thousands of toy companies from other places.

From big international companies, like the Japanese Bandai Namco and Mobile Suit Gundam, the Italian Giochi Preziosi or the German Simba Dickie Group, to more domestic companies like the Mexican Distroller, which has outmatched American brands in Mexico [1], or the Brazilian Candide, which is the leading local manufacturer in the South American country [2], all these firms dedicate to manufacture, by themselves or on request, the toys that millions of users in the world play with.

It’d be impossible to halt before every toy company in the world, a great number of them are small organizations that find a way, through creativeness and hard work, to sell their products amongst all the competition. And a lot of them began as a little dream of a restless mind wanting to bring joy to people, and, at the same time, earn some good money and enjoy life with a steady prosperous business.

So, in order to make some deals, toy companies and manufacturers from all over the world need to interact. Toy fairs are the ideal place to do that, the industry representatives meet and negotiate, as well as they present their novelties.

For example, the American International Toy Fair or the Toy Fair in the UK are two major toy fairs, but undoubtedly the Nuremberg International Toy Fair (Spielwarenmesse) in Germany is the largest international toy fair. Held since 1949, the Spielwarenmesse is an annual event of which Martin’s Plastics feels proud to have participated [3], as it does with other plastic-related fairs like the K Düsseldorf Fair.

So we’ve been discussing about all these big, international, and domestic companies, now we’re going to explain a fundamental distinction, before continuing with the largest toy companies in the world.

The real toy manufacturers

A confusion can be made when talking about toy manufacturing, so an important matter is to talk about who the real toy manufacturers are. There’s a distinction between toy companies, toy manufacturers and toy brands. Toy brands refer to the companies that produce and commercialize toys, these can be subsidiaries, like Barbie from Mattel.

One company may handle one or more toy brands, but if the company focuses exclusively on toys, then we have a toy company. A toy company, in turn, may manufacture its toys by itself or it may search for toy manufacturers. For example, Martin’s Toys manufactures toys for toy companies but it’s not a toy brand nor a toy company.

A lot of toy manufacturing all over the world happens in China and in the USA. Nevertheless, many companies in the United States, being the huge market they are, have opted for sending production overseas. In 2010, this country imported 21 billion and a half dollars worth of toys with China covering the 88 percent of this production, followed by Japan, Mexico, Denmark, and Canada. [4]

As for the toy manufacturers, some of the most important in the United States are:

• Creative Engineering, specialized on toy robots and electronics accessories.

• Rodon Group, which produces billions of plastic toy parts for all the world.

• Green Toys, a company that produces a lot of playsets.

• Duncan, with a more than 80 years of experience so they experienced the metal-to-plastic transition.

• Quality Custom Molding (QCM), a Missouri based company that manufacture sporting figures and action heroes.

• Omico, experts on blow-molded plastic toys.

• Pioneer Plastics, producing a variety of dolls.

• American Plastic Toys, a big toy manufacturer with a wide rank of options, such as garden, sand, and snow toys, wagons, dolls, etc.

Most of all these toy manufacturers also produce other products, like we do here at Martin’s. Speaking of which, as you could have seen, Mexico is the third country from where the American industry imports the majority of its toy manufacturing. There are many Mexican toy companies that manufacture their own toys, probably one of the most famous is Algara S. A. de C. V. which produces Juguetes Mi Alegría. Others are Casa Didáctica, Fabricación de Juguetes Juárez, Glasfirma, Prinsel, and Promeyco.

Of course, when it comes to toy manufacturing, there are transnational companies in Mexico like Surge Innovations, which conceive branded promotional items for Kellogg’s, McDonald’s or Burger King, or Wing Mau Products Development, specialized on small toys.

Additionally, some media agencies offer now sourcing and purchase services for other companies, in this case, Insight Promotions and The Marketing Store get or do promotional items –a lot of times they are toys– for food companies, such as cereals or fast food chains, something at which Martin’s has experience too.

As you can see, the market is very diverse and a lot of companies do a lot of things, some of them have even specialized their work to the point of taking over just one phase of production; this means one company may do the designing, other the actual manufacturing, and other one the packaging.

It is important to emphasize that not all the manufacturers have the whole set of processes. That’s one of the reasons why Martin’s is one of the most complete plastic manufacturers, since we assist you all over the complete process. With us, you’ll have the services you’re looking for with all the steps covered: the budget planning, toys designing, financial assistance, plastic injection manufacturing, packaging, storage and international distribution.

We have a lot of experience on this and we have worked with a variety of clients, including big ones like Hasbro, so we’re very confident that if you contact us, we are going to help you to concrete your ideas. In the meantime, let’s discover which are the world’s largest toy companies.

Which are the major toy companies?

Small, medium-sized and big toy companies may manufacture themselves their products or they could delegate the toy manufacturing to other companies. Nevertheless, as for 2018, the 5 companies that held the largest worldwide revenues were Namco Bandai, Lego, Hasbro, Mattel and JAKKS Pacific [5].

With respect to Hasbro and Mattel, a lot of their brands, like Nerf or My Little Pony in the case of the former and Barbie and Hot Wheels in the case of the latter, are very valuable for themselves and these are taken into account when world rankings are made.

2019 toy brands ranking

The top 10 of toy brands in 2019 are [6]:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Lego

Bandai Namco

Fisher-Price

Nerf

Barbie

Hasbro

My Little Pony

Mobile Suit Gundam

Hot Wheels

Mattel

Denmark

Japan

USA

USA

USA

USA

USA

Japan

USA

USA

$6.8 billion

$1.6 billion

$655 million

$411 million

$372 million

$293 million

$251 million

$249 million

$234 million

$198 million

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Lego

Bandai Namco

Fisher-Price

Nerf

Barbie

Hasbro

My Little Pony

Mobile Suit Gundam

Hot Wheels

Mattel

Denmark

Japan

USA

USA

USA

USA

USA

Japan

USA

USA

$6.8 billion

$1.6 billion

$655 million

$411 million

$372 million

$293 million

$251 million

$249 million

$234 million

$198 million

The biggest toy manufacturer

Now you might have thought why we hadn’t mentioned at all Lego, being the toy empire it is, before the ranking. So, in case you’ve been wondering, the answer was that we’ve reserved a special section for it since, as you’ve seen in the table, it’s the world’s largest toy manufacturer.

As many big toy companies, Lego has benefited from licensing, for example, Disney –which includes powerful brands like Star Wars and Marvel– and DC Comics are broadly responsible for their increased sales in the last years [8]. Another reason for the company’s growth is its expansion to new cities in large markets like China and its presence on ecommerce and digital platforms, which have been attracting the customers’ attention, more than toy physical stores.

Finally, Lego relies on its history and position, two factors that make it a trusted brand. The Danish toy manufacturer evokes nostalgia for adults, who, on the one hand, perceive Lego bricks as educational and a preferred toy for children over screen time, and on the other hand, buy toys for themselves as a way to return to objects from their own childhood or to begin a beloved collection.

How to become a toy manufacturer

We’re sure that all these big toy companies can be either a motivation or discouraging for your own project. Let’s focus on the first aspect. While we don’t expect that a new company or a new company branch gets to the top in a year or so, we’re confident that you can successfully develop your project and make a good entrance into toy manufacturing.

After all, you’ll have to dare to take the first step and then, you know the saying, the sky’s the limit. Of course, there are no strict formulas to success, but you need to have an idea of what you want and the effort and resources you’re willing to spend. Here are some tips that might come in handy.

The first thing to do is research. A lot of research. In order to do this, you have to focus mainly on current trends, the market, the children’s needs and how are they spending their time. You need to have in mind that, as children are an important toy company’s target, making something fun is a key element for success in toy manufacturing.

If you want to succeed financially, creative ideas will be useful here to find a new twist on something already formulaic. The idea of fabricating something that the world has never seen before as a company’s first step tends to go wrong commercially.

After all this research, you should have a clear idea of what you want to sell and how are you going to manufacture it. Here some assistance will be useful. So now you’ll be able to develop a concept. and then it comes the designing and a prototype. Then, before engaging in mass production, you need to hunt for clients, selling is THE crucial step in order to triumph, and what you need to sell is the concept you’re developing, with the design and prototype combined you must get some customers.

Toys at Martin’s

Hopefully, after reading this, you’re now looking forward to starting as soon as possible your toy manufacturing project. We’ve offered you some data and tips that might be of use in order to begin with this venture, but, needless to say, this is more like just an introduction than a complete guideline.

Possibly you’re thinking that it could be too difficult, too risky, and probably you’re full of doubts and concerns, but don’t let that overshadow your ideas. Every success comes after a great risk and if you’ve already found this, that means you’re really interested on making your project alive.

So, by picking us, Martin’s, you’re doing one of the best investments not only business-related, but in your life.

You’ll find out that we’re committed to achieve our clients’ goals, taking care of every aspect of their project, our now 40 years of experience in the market and a list of satisfied clients are our best advertising. One of our greatest advantages is you won’t need to deal with a lot of companies in order to accomplish whatever you’re planning to do, because we take care of every step, every action that is needed to accomplish your goal.

At Martin’s, we’re glad to act as your consultant. As we’ve said, one of our edges is our years of experience, this has turned us, after some years of hard work, into one of the most solid plastic companies in Mexico, which, in turn, let us achieve our international presence since 2000, having around 500 collaborators and offices in Europe and South America. As a Mexican company, we offer you very competitive prices and that’s one of our strengths.

And of course, our clients speak for us. Currently, speaking of toy manufacturing, we make toys for some diverse companies, for example, the Italian Artsana, through its brand Chicco, the Canadian Spin Master, and Sunny Toys.

We must insist that we’re convinced that you can make your project come true with our help. At Martin’s, we have the tools, the will and the abilities to make your ideas flourish, step by step, so you can bring joy to your potential clients with your products and, at the same time, own a thriving business. Contact us and we’ll be happy to reach you and work with you until the very end of the process.

REFERENCES

[1] The Mexican toy brand that beat big US companies (in Spanish)

[2] Toy market Brazil: domestic toys brave the economic recession

[3] Mexican toy companies seek to internationalize in Germany (in Spanish)

[4] 2012 Toy Outlook

[5] Worldwide revenue of major toy companies in 2018

[6] Toys 25 2019 Ranking

[7] Toys 25 2019 Report

[8] Lego is world's largest toy manufacturer for the first time