Chapter 286: Ruxpin-Hobbes I
As the phenomenon attracted the attention of interested parties, even the Worlds of Wonder and Alchemy II partnership were wondering about this situation as well.
They should have been in the spotlight and it was clear that they believed Teddy Ruxpin to be superior in many ways.
However, they found it unbelievable for a much-simpler toy to match it. Just what has made this unexpected stuffed tiger so special?
Of course, they aren't that delusional to think that they could suppress every toy in existence. They are just wondering how the this Hobbes was able to achieve as much success as them.
A simple trace into Creed Toys' history had led them to identify a lot of things but not too substantial with the market phenomenon that they seem to be intertwined in.
"What's going on here?" Mark Goldberg, a co-founder of WoW, was confused.
The other WoW founder, Don Kingsborough, was more adept in sales and marketing than his colleague, so he had a clear view of what it is. "Their toy simply filled a demand that we inadvertently created."
"What demand could they even fill? We are making animatronics into a hit. What does a stuffed toy have to do with that." Goldberg was from Atari and had always gone by the trends of gaming where shooting games breed more shooting games and so on and so forth. "Those tigers are filled with fluff but could they even fill the animatronic demand we've made."
"What we actually made is a storytelling companion and this Hobbes toy had just squeezed itself into that category." Ken Forsse was more open-minded that the other man and saw what Don saw.
Even when put that way, Goldberg was skeptical. "It doesn't even talk and it doesn't even move. How is that Hobbes toy a “storytelling” companion?"
"You must be one of those types that read the news but don't pay heed to the funny pages." Forsse assumed. "Hobbes is a physical extension of 'Calvin and Hobbes'. The comic strip is a story about a boy's humorous daily adventure with his stuffed toy. With that stuffed toy being made available, what's stopping other kids from going through the same antics as the characters they read about? Instead of listening through our pre-made stories, the children can do Calvin-esque stories themselves."
"If it is as you say it is... wouldn't things like Garfield and its stuffed cat equivalent work much better in this scenario?" Goldberg reasoned. "And yeah... I do read the funny pages."
"Garfield and a stuffed Garfield may not work as well as Hobbes. The Calvin and Hobbes could very well be the quintessential stuffed toy-revolving story and a stuffed Garfield wouldn't be replicate it." Forsse had to tip his creative hat to the people behind Hobbes. "Frankly, this is the vision I wanted Teddy Ruxpin to go for. I made a wild Illiop backstory to reinforce its identity since I've always been a fan of Disney incorporating stories into its products. The Hobbes toys just genuinely achieved that feat even without fancy engineering and an animated Disney movie behind it."
Don Kingsborough suddenly interjected. "That's not exactly what I meant... but that reasoning does have some sense to it."
"What were you trying to say then?" Goldberg asked.
"Going by Mr. Forsse's story-associating thought, the relation between Ruxpin and Hobbes is somewhat made clear." Kingsborough added with business perspective to it. "In a way, both toys become perceived as somewhat the same. However, Teddy Ruxpin is the expensive and complex option while Hobbes is the cheaper and simpler alternative."
"Ruxpin's novelty would become attractive to those that are well-off but the less financed would have a more fitting option for themselves." Kingsborough analyzed the ingenious barebones of the phenomena. "As for why Hobbes worked and other stuffed toys didn't, Mr. Forsse's stuffed toy story is a reasonable explanation but in business terms... the stuffed Hobbes toy just happened to be freshly relevant at the same time as Ruxpin.”
"Being released at around the same month and overlapping at unexpected factors... have somewhat made Ruxpin and Hobbes toys to become market-ly intertwined with each other."
Goldberg had more or less gotten a clarity of things but the question still remains. "What do we do with this then?"
"Not a lot." Kingsborough revealed and self-mocked. "Unless you're interested in blowing through our publicity budgets so that we make people aware that Creed Toys is in no way related to WoW or Alchemy."
It'd be a waste if they blow their resources on that. Goldberg understood but he can't help but feel somewhat ticked. "Isn't Creed Toys quite laidback in their own advertising while we’re pretty much doing the rest of the work?"
"If so, wouldn't that mean that they've pretty much been piggybacking on all our televised campaigns and advertising strategies?" Goldberg felt more ticked with that.
"They just have superior strategy compared to us." Even Kingsborough reeled at this genius coincidence that Creed Toys is taking advantage of. He thought of replicating it but he could only sigh at the futility of it.
If this “Ruxpin and Hobbes” thing was a coincidence, then Creed was mighty lucky and impressive.
If it wasn't and planned all along, then that was chillingly impressive!
Was it organized by fate or laid out by pure genius? This was what twirled around Kingsborough's thoughts as he pondered.
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Kudos to an up-and-coming toy company like WoW and Alchemy to have caught on.
That was impressive considering that one was birthed from the gaming industry and the other was from the vestiges of Disneyland's amusement ride management.
Granted, the senior players in the toy industry had already seen through the Hobbes piggy-backing strategy as soon as they looked closely at it.
Every company that specialized in various assortment of stuffed toys was trying it out... but not much success could be noted.
TCFC, the company behind Care Bears, was actually able to position itself in the same spot as Creed Toys and Hobbes. Their Care Bears animation show's debut was this September as well and they were doing pretty good. They may be an oldie… but they were a “stuffed” contender that is not to be trifled with.
Anyways, Creed Toys pretty much timed themselves perfectly with the strategy and actually had the perfect toy for the job.
Teddy Ruxpin was a friendly toy with accompanying stories to go with it. It may have storytelling and talk features but there are a lot of downsides to it.
It practically boils down to high price and complexity while Creed Toys just did things differently.
Instead of selling stories, there's actually a somewhat free and daily story for Hobbes to base on.
Just find the funny pages of the newspaper and you're there. No need for an extra purchase for another cassette and Teddy Ruxpin storybook.
Instead of costing extra dollars for batteries, Hobbes was the simple fluff that plush a stuffed animal.
Instead of going for mechanical companionship, it went with the imaginative “role-playing” one.
In a way, Teddy Ruxpin just felt more controlled while Hobbes seems more freeing and expansive.
In fact, Ruxpin and Hobbes were completely different toys... but some factors just seem to bind them to be compared as something similar.
At a certain junction, there are even some circulating debates on which toy was superior, which toy was overhyped, and which toy was superfluous.
The whole Ruxpin and Hobbes thing had pretty much gotten into a lot of people's attention with these unexpected connections. The phenomenon even became dubbed the ‘Ruxpin-Hobbes’ phenomenon.
Poor Care Bears wasn’t included in that naming and much to the dismay of WoW and Alchemy II, there are even news articles that covered this interesting correlation in the toy market.
Both toys did get much traction and benefited a lot from all of this, however, the people behind Teddy Ruxpin felt that they were still at a loss. The uncomfortable feeling of being in the spotlight with an otherwise low-level toy lingered amongst them.
Teddy Ruxpin's superior specs should have made its own mark but somehow a stuffed tiger had tagged along with it.
Teddy Ruxpin even had widespread commercials while Hobbes was just laidback with some silly daily syndication in the funny pages.
There was clearly an imbalance in this Ruxpin-Hobbes partnership!
It was exasperating and a certain inquiry does pop up from time to time- Was it organized by fate or laid out by pure genius?
If this really was planned by somebody, then they demand to be able to punch the mastermind behind everything!