#183: How To Pitch A Show Idea To Hasbro in 2023 with Brandon Braswell

He created an entire TV show and he did a really incredible pitch that he pitched at the Toy Creators Academy virtual pitch event .

And because so many TCAers and so many people that listen to my podcast are asking about IP pitches and it is not my specialty I thought let's bring Brandon on to share his incredible pitch that really had everybody you know excited about his line . So , brandon , welcome to the show .

The magic of the Saturday morning cartoon era is creating toys that re , spark imagination and make you want to build with your hands or like , just get fully immersed and create your own adventures .

Honestly , how many amazing toy lines that are still today being released and still today making an impact in like the new generation and mostly our people are age or now accounting for like one out of every four toys .

I boiled it down to story and to me story was everything . It's what creates , you know the difference between a toy is and a toys . That made us and I wanted to start there with when I created a toy because I had , as I showed to you before joining the toy , joining the TCA , I had no idea how to make a toy , but I quickly Google what I could do .

Yeah , it looked incredible , overwhelming and complicated . So I started with what I knew and that's story storytelling . So my essence is really like , yeah , just re-sparking imagination , getting people excited about it , and that starts , started with me , the story .

At that point , like I had my toys as a kid and I'm a grown up , I didn't think twice about it . But walking into that store a vintage toy shop I was like smacked with nostalgia and like waves of memories came to me and I was just like hit with so much joy and like rush of memories that I totally forgot and I was like what is that ?

Like that sensation and , as I alluded to , like , my background is storytelling . I'm a video and professionally my job is to invoke some sort of emotion through video and I was getting that emotion evoked by a physical product and I never had that before . So that to me was just like how do I recreate that ?

How do I capture that magic that I just experienced ? And I wanted to create a toy from that exact moment . I was just like I want to do that for someone else , I want to do that for the generation growing up .

So if you're listening to this episode and you're actually watching it , live with us on YouTube hello , I saw you there , carla , and I saw somebody else with the name starts with an M . She's new to our community . If you have questions as we go through the pitch that we're going to play soon , please throw them into the chat .

I can see what you guys are commenting and I will ask Brandon your question slide . So the next step after you , you had this idea and you thought , okay , I'm going to make the toy . And then that's too complicated , I'm going to make the IP . And then eventually you found me and you joined TCA and you came to the TCA virtual pitch event .

Now this pitch video I hope this is the right video because of what I'm going to describe right now . But this okay , this pitch video is actually the result of you having just being on vacation and you were like I'm going to be on vacation and I can't . I'm afraid the wifi won't be strong enough for me to pitch and show my idea .

So you cut together footage you already had of your brand and created like a prerecorded pitch , and when I saw it . I was like , oh my gosh , this is better than if you just pitched it live and you even got that feedback from people at Hasbro like , oh wow , this is the who's the best pitch I've ever seen , right .

So I did everything in one take , as if I was pitching and showing the zoom , as I had planned , or my presentation , as I had planned , and when I just put it together like yeah , I mean at the end of the day , I think it captured my hopefully my passion and the idea at the end of the day and it did resonate with them , I believe .

So you kind of alluded to like how did I jump into it and I took the longer route . Well , unfortunately , like TCA wasn't around back then .

Brandon Braswell had invented this toy show and toy line called nine to five warriors , and this was his pitch deck that he used at the TCA virtual pitch event when he was pitching to Hasbro . So let's hit , play so we can learn from Brandon . Is it going to ?

To me as a kid , there's nothing better than diving into a bowl of cereal and watching my favorite cartoons . To see what the characters got themselves into or how they eventually saved the day was a great experience . But to me , the real magic happened when the shows ended and I took the adventures off-screen and into my own hands with the toys .

To me , story is everything . It's what brings the characters to life , it's what sparks imagination . It's what creates the unbreakable bond that last generations . To me , is what sets the difference between a toy and the toys that made us so . When I went out to create my own toy , I started there . This is how nine to five warrior story begins .

So meet Alan McMillan . He's your typical Toys R Us kid that never quite did grow up . He's stuck in the uncreative office in a cubicle working that nine to five grind . You might know the feeling , but you know it's based in the 90s , so there is no Instagram to keep him distracted .

In the interim , he actually spends most of his time creating his own action figures made out of office supplies and leftover food . He wages his imaginary battle between the water cooler commandos and the break room bandits . It was all fun and games until one freak accident involving his Japanese energy jink , jensei , sparked him all to life .

Now Alan is calling the middle of a real world battle for total office domination . It'd be a miracle if he gets any work done , basically . So now that you know a little bit about the backstory , I'd love to introduce you to the toys .

In the battle , alongside major eraser and the water cooler commandos as they keep the peace or wreak havoc with Colonel Custard and the break room bandits , choose your side as these two forces clash over total office domination . Warning do not leave unattended . Each figure sold separately . When you punch out , they come punching in .

So he and the ragtag group of office supplies maintain the office peace and keep their existence a secret . It'd be an easy day's work if it wasn't for the evil mastermind , colonel Custard . He and the break room bandits scour the office , searching for Jensei and creating new minions along the way .

They're hell bent on total office domination and seeking revenge against the wasteful humans that once tossed them away . So , going back to the 90s nostalgia all 10 of these characters are sculpted by Scott Hensley , the man behind 90% of the toys I grew up with .

He hand sculpted them and brought that unique , special feel that is not only new but has that familiar feel to them , which was important to me to go into the target demographic , that nostalgia chasing millennial that now counts for one out of every four toys being sold a $9 billion marketplace .

So this was all done strategically to combat the difficulties of launching a new brand . I grounded it in familiar setting and filled it with nostalgia that they're searching for . This project started 10 years ago where I focused on story , with comic books and trading cards and a bunch of other fun products .

This is all self finance and I currently have the initial 10 prototypes and I'm working with Big Bad Toy Store to take pre-orders . I believe this is just the start of what's possible with this concept from the comics to video games , to TV series and movies . I'm now at a critical point where I can continue down the path .

As an indie toy maker or with the help of a partner like Hasbro , I can ensure that Nine of Five Warriors is a catalyst to the next generation of Saturday morning cartoon cartoons for the kids growing up today , and I'd love the opportunity now to answer any questions you might have or discuss further .

But okay , amazing pitch it was . So it was interactive . You called out the company . I mean I always teach you guys like put the company name , like in the presentation , but like you were like I did one better and I'm just going to call out their name . What was the feedback ? As soon as you have that , you finished that part of the pitch .

You know , they mentioned things that are not in the presentation , like oh , this reminds me of that specific toy , like Ninja Turtles , this is Hasbro and it's . I thought that was really cool . He's like I get this sensation of that , this , this and that , and he also said like I could see the Potential of the story going this way and that way .

You know , like all I wanted to do is kind of provide like Kind of guide rails of like this is where I'm headed , or at least the potential , what it could be , but For me it was . I don't want to overload you with everything , but yeah .

The possibilities could be endless and I like the feedback that , like I saw a light in his eye , that like saw that , oh , this could be that , this could be this , you know I that was my , my , my , feedback .

It's been years since I picked it up again and I'd always keep thinking like I should start it again , I should do something , I should . Let me look at the prices again . Maybe they're not expensive . Wrong , it was actually more expensive , but I was like , let's try it . Like whatever , let me at least do one . So I chose .

I discovered Skinsley , who I talked about in a pitch , and he's the sculptor behind Ninja Turtles . He did like all the bad guys he's did you know Star Trek Exo squad , like practically street sharks , like so many toys that I literally grew up with . And and when I discovered I'm like he's perfect , like it's already nostalgia , it's already 90s based .

I wanted it to be hand sculpted and To quickly also answer . I did attempt in the past and I made a lot of expensive mistakes Hiring the wrong freelancers , going a different route , not receiving my product after paying for it , like there's a lot of trial and tribulations that like you do , which like wait , say that last part again .

It was expensive and I decided to do one figure . That process takes a couple of weeks , months Maybe , and I received that figure like I gotta do another one that was an amazing .

To have it in your hands , to have it come to life , you know yeah so yeah , dancers , like , what made me decide is , since I already had the animations , I already did the wax facts , I already did the comic book , I did all these things besides actually attempt to make the toys .

It was to me just Let me try to go fully out and actually make a toy and follow the procedures .

And when I started my product-based business , which was costumize me , I worked full-time and I very intentionally set aside a budget of money every month so that I could invest that into my business . And then , when I did the toy coach , it was a budget of money that I set aside and once I had a certain amount , I was like okay , I can do this .

Is that how you manage to To afford your prototypes ? Or did you do grants ? Did you do any Kickstarter's or anything like that ?

I wanted to , but Everything else I funded previously to that with the wax paper products , we still cost a lot of money to do . That was all you know , putting away money and just like , okay , if I'm gonna make the initial step , let me just try . Okay , it's $800 here , okay , $1200 there . Like it adds up very quickly and it was very overwhelming .

And again , without the guidelines , I kind of kept on spending money and wasting money . But truthfully , even when I made all , 10 eventually I got smarter , I got better , I found better prices , I understood more ways to save money in the long run , but ultimately , I did spend a very pretty penny on creating all these prototypes .

It's kind of no way of all , but I did 10 , not one Give us some tips around that .

So one of the first things I use was , like freelancercom . This was before Fiverr . Fiverrcom is as well , you know . Like yeah , but this is a caveat to like , as you warned in your your courses like sometimes you find the wrong freelancer and it kind of Waste more money .

You have to do your due diligence and like look at prior examples , make sure that they're really and actually know what they're doing , see if they deliver . They're over promising and you know the virtue is always like if it's too good to be true , it's usually because it's not gonna happen . That's not true .

I had a team that you know promised me to make all 10 for $800 . What , which is insane , like let's just be realistic and they handed 10 products at the end , like 10 miles , they're not 30 printable , they were not toys , they were not nothing , but that was like a way to make dollars . Of course , I was just anxious to make .

But , um , so To save money , I mean , honestly , try to scrap together . Like what are you naturally good at ? Like for me , video comes into my wheelhouse of power . Like I know video and I know I can create something . I can create something that conveys . Maybe I can use it to barter . You know people need video .

Maybe , like I , honestly , I'm a hustler so I try to work my way around every situation To avoid spending so much money . So I offered barter situations at time . I offered , you know , or just saving or doing extra freelance work on the side so I could pay for it . Like yeah , there's , like not lying , like there's so many different opportunities .

So even if you see one path and it's very expensive , like just keep searching , keep Utilize fiber , utilize freelancers , utilize different community networks there's always someone willing to do it for cheap or free . Or like there's partnerships you can come up with . Like that's what I honestly can say just try everything as soon as Brandon gets his .

I Really thank you so much for sharing that and and the the other tip that I know I've mentioned in TCA is well , one in TCA I do have a the kind of a breakdown of what these things normally cost so you can compare and then , but then I also always say , like get Three prices , like get prices from three people so you can kind of gauge , like , alright ,

if this person's done this before and this person's done this before and they're charging this much , maybe this person charging eight hundred dollars for ten figures is out of their mind , you know there are just a yes , to get the quick money you know , and .

There's a mixture in prices and the time frames and the technology allows , but once $5,000 alone , the other one could be . One is like I think I only spend around $800 . And the quality of the thing that was digital but there's like so many things , but also because of the pandemic , $5,000 is the initial , let's say .

People , also freelancers , their artists themselves . They're willing to negotiate , especially if you're trying to do more than one , and also for work too , as I was , I did get three prices . I always try to just find the best solution , but again , if it's too good to be true , just avoid that one .

So it's like sometimes it's like it's actually easier if we develop another thing together , because I understand you and I know what you're looking for . I know the vibe of the character , whereas if I get a new client , it's kind of starting over and sometimes don't you think in the toy industry it's also .

If they really just want to work on your project , they're like , all right , I'll give you a break . I'll give you a break because it's really cool .

Or even if this is the higher , I'm going to pay that extra dollar because they are genuinely taking the excitement . Oh , I could do this . I could see the firing off , and to me that's a guarantee to be a better output , Like versus taking someone like . Yeah , this is my charge , here's this , here's my invoice .

And I saw his brain going off with the imagination just working on how could this be a cool thing ? And the same way in the digital . And I saw him light up with certain characters and it was like that's the energy you kind of want to stay in when you're creating something fun .

So those four we ordered through Big Bad Toy Store and that was another gamble I took was like you can go the Kickstarter route and again being kind of doing this for a little bit , like I know the benefits of going the Kickstarter route is like hey , you get the majority of the money , but the caveat is you're going to get a shipment from China eventually , a

really large shipment from China , a palette You're going to need to put that palette somewhere or , sorry , that's warehouse space You're going to break . You're going to have to have packaging . You're going to have to break those down . That's , that's man hours and stuff that , like I just knew I didn't want to take away from a , my , my main job or things .

What that meant is a smaller amount of money actually goes towards me , like they're buying it at a wholesale price . Yeah , that was , I don't want to say another mistake , but I probably will go the Kickstarter out for the remaining six , because I still want to make the remaining six .

So I'm praying , you know , before just November or even October , like , and I can actually have these done , but we'll see Everything's reliable in China .

But I really admire the fact that you're able to focus and say , okay , I have these retail sales , I'm going to focus on getting that done and then we'll make a plan for Kickstarter and not overdo over stretching yourself to make sure you can deliver high quality .

The show open , basically so catchy theme song , show , how they were made , some action shots , and I focused on that . I said let me get that through the line because to me that's important when I'm going to actually go to producing it , which was the next thing was to produce the wax packs to trading cards , Another element to expand upon the story .

I want to then the comic book to expand upon the story yet again .

Like you people don't really realize .

Like okay , you're selling to , as you put it , like here's your four to 5% of a sale to wholesale Back to this amount of 50% and the retailer is making this percent Like it's kind of you're like trickling down , but it's never been about money , it's like just getting the idea out Because , like , my mission is out there , like the story is out there , hopefully

it's invoking and hopefully it is the catalyst to the next generation of Saturday morning cartoons . As I started this saying , it's like our generation had that luxury of so many different shows and I truly believe that the toy industry is in the state that it currently is because no one's taking the risk and investment and creating new IPs .

Like we keep doubling . Because , again , when you really think about like in my pitch I say one out of four , every adults are contributing to the sales of toys 9 billion dollars , yeah , when you're asking why ? like , that's because the marketing and stories and everything was established over 20 years ago .

And good , it's story matters because the show and it was not Netflix back then , so it didn't just suck you in and series after series after series , you had time to Maybe and play with your toy .

From that point on , you took what you saw on TV Characters and storylines but you created your whole new ones and that's what resonated and that's what keeps them buying it today . That's what kept me . That's what created that spark when I picked up the toy in the toy shop .

So if toy companies really pay attention to that and stop trying to go on like a fad or something , like a widget , some sort of magical thing or an app pairing device and things that you know are just Passive , like focus on story , because everything's about Itself was a whole .

You know Clearly a change in infrastructure or whatnot . Like the guy that I pitched to , yes , did ask entertainment . But yeah , mark . Yeah but unfortunately then that person got changed out and I Should maybe follow up like yeah , I was literally about you ?

Is there someone new you could put me in touch with so that I can pitch this to them ?

What I found is that as soon as I started investing you know $500 , you suppose of course it engages and I got massive amounts of followers . I got great comments . As soon as I stopped paying , the engagement fell through .

So the following is there . It's scattered , you know , tick tock , facebook groups , all that stuff . Thankfully , I Did my due diligence of launching a while ago and embedding myself in the toy community , which at the time was a lot of art toys and definitely toys that were just literally created by artists . They didn't , they were the vinyl community , etc .

So my following is within there and I do well anytime I do post on Reddit , let's say like I see the post and engagement and keeps me going . But yeah , I don't know what a significant amount of following is . I remember you even you might have said that in the TCA or something and the past yeah .

People with hundreds of thousands of followers still not , Don't know , it's still not enough for an IP . You know like oh yeah , yeah , I did have .

So yeah , and I would say , if you're not gathering emails from those Con , those , those followers of yours , you should I would invest money in retargeting ads that lead them to a landing page to sign up for the Next drop of characters that are gonna be available to , say , for sale , so that you can own those contacts , get email , get phone number so you can

text and email . I would definitely use the money to Collect what you already should own , and you're totally right like it's not . It's not safe to build a business on Instagram .

The past couple months I really didn't use Instagram as much and I'm I'm really trying to move away from like relying on that platform for visibility and instead like Building the email list , building the podcast , but like you got to take people , yeah , away from the platforms you don't own .

And , yeah , the beautiful thing is is that , like right now , like again with the focus , I want to focus on getting them through the finish line , because I think once they're in people's hands , then I get you know the Natural marketing being done . You know like people are gonna do unboxings or reviews , or just like you know yeah , hopefully .

I Like die-hard that I get DMs like hey , what's going on , like this is a new character . Those people hopefully will be my champions and champion the brand . I'm just trying to get to that point .

So , meeting like 2d to animation , from 3d image to 3d , my like , every single time , shifting from artists or medium , it's always a design iteration , like there's always something that comes up like , for instance , major Like arm wasn't long enough to bypass his thigh because the bow like it's little things like that .

Or even just , oh , scotchies beard was just a little too long so to interrupt it with the tape thing . Or this is a different expression that we could try , because it actually conveys , you know , the Like how do you make a toy out of a can ? And His facial expression is his whole thing and the , the nuts inside are you know the wow factor , I guess .

And it was one of those characters that was the biggest challenge of making how do you make a toy out of a can .

But that Because we did the work and the do you listen the thinking behind it expression , he became a popular character when I I personally was like he's the last character I'm Gonna do , like I , I was a like I I don't say interested in making it , so I just didn't know how to make a toy , so that that was a really cool experience to see , you know ,

artist interpretations , me learning and then my Interpretations . Once I had a physical thing and me being the creator like okay , I think this expression can work because this leads to his personality , etc .

Like in hindsight now looking , I kind of want to drill that in more and focus on About like story , like people need to take , invest the chance in creating story right now , because that's what's gonna like build that connection and that pushes out those Toys today still to those adults that are Brainwashed from night of 20 years ago you know , as I talked about

how licensing is such a time-based thing , since you pitched , more and more toy companies have leaned into wanting to be entertainment companies .

As well as things like the Barbie movie , I think there's a Rubik's Cube movie coming out , I know Hasbro has a movie I can't remember they , but the the Hot Wheels TV show .

More and more toy companies are looking at a way to turn their brands Into IPs , so I think that is a great opportunity for someone who has Developed a full brand with a solid story that makes sense and is interesting and design the toys with it . I mean it , you know , for a company looking for something new , this seems like a no-brainer .

Like they sell I mean energy drinks , but at the end of the day they have like a red bull channel . Dirt bikes skydiving , all these things are jumping off Plains and like there's so much content behind that because it's fuels , the brand , is more commercials , basically its real estate , like its content , that's just being generated .

Then people are tagging themselves in red bull . It becomes a movement . So to go back , like Hasbro I did listen to podcast as well as Mattel they were both Transitioning into moving their company into more of a content driven . They want it .

Specifically , they said , like I want to do what Disney plus or Disney's done with the Star Wars franchise or Disney's done with the Marvel franchise .

That's the reason to do because you can make billions on toys , but you can also make billions just on IP , making the movies , the TV shows , like in a perfect world . I need to do a medium article . Remind me to mm-hmm . The streaming and the toys companies need to come together like .

That's supposedly number one On the week instantly , yeah , clearly gonna get high , high that with the toy and you got a million Billion-dollar success , you know how do you afford to make all these videos though Like that , like the like where ? That's me , that's just me doing it .

I feel like you can't okay like , like I am pretty good yeah you're doing it really .

I can't see the future , but I do believe if you had this product ready to be at a specialty show there , a lot of people would be drawn to it and you might get a few orders , which I feel then you'll be on the shelf and you'll have that feeling like , oh my gosh , I did it , you know it's done and I , just as we close , aaron had one comment for you

. I want you to see it . She said she feels you as someone trying to promote their own IP without paying Facebook for ads . It's rough out here .

They're always struggling with the same thing on Instagram everyone's playing on it Like there's not a isn't ? There's no need for everyone to be on the same space .

So you have to kind of create your own space and that looks smaller , that looks more like Gorilla warfare , that's getting clever with it , that's like , for instance , like you just did the Um trade show at Astra and you had like really great takeaways . That is the style I would do it to create little take away city bags . Like for me , hold on you're .

Just really think outside the box , because if you only are thinking about social media in the next post Like that's where I was and the lack of feedback Whether it's a like or a share , like that gets to you , you think it's not good enough .

Like is this something I should be spending my time and money on ? Because it's not like , it's not a profit driver . But if we looked at Instagram and Facebook like that , we would never we never look at Instagram . We will spend all day on it and we'll be like it's fine .

It's fine it's getting likes , but you're right , something like this that brings people together in a small , intimate way but also creates Like a photo booth opportunity or an Instagram , honestly opportunity , yeah , photos and feel fun and cool in that is how you create that sense of community and that interest in your brand .

And , like this , dude their sketches and they're like it's just , I'm like , yes , I'm doing it like something's working whatever I'm doing , and it's making sure that I appreciate those moments . I'm saying this out loud so I can yeah , appreciate those moments . It's actually happening . It's not like I have to wait for the toy to be out there already .

It's not out there no one's touched it but there it's already , invoking that energy that I put out there . I can't wait for the TV show . This looks like something I would have watched with my dad .

My last question for you is what toy or game blew your mind as a kid ?

So I'll lean towards things like maybe they were forgotten . Like Krippy crawlers I just remember good memories with that of like being in the room making little creations and waiting for the light bulb to die off and somehow burning yourself on it . Like those are the silly things . That's to me , is again kind of what's missing in today .

Like there were such creative toys back then that it's just like let's see what happens . There was no data . They're not waiting for Instagram trends and all this other stuff . Like who would have said this would have been a hit ? People just took chances and got made and if it had the good intentions that it was a cool toy , then obviously it stuck .

Next slide you know , yeah , you know direction , slide . This is how you'd like . This is where I'm at , Like everything was just a progression and a natural flow . And because I trust me , I've looked a million times . That's how I discovered you . Uh-huh , googling , pitch a toy and I found your site and all that stuff Like there's .

You're going to find a million different answers , just like anything . It's just like what's the right way . Just tell a good story and no matter what , you'll be fine .

I mean , I know you learn this because you're in video editing , but there must be a book or a site that you reference when you're like is this story told right ?

They're going to remember whatever bit of it that lit them up . They're going to retell it , hopefully . So yeah , there's a million resources , there's a book literally called Story that tells you how to dive into character development , all these things . I read it . I took some takeaways , but the things that matter the most is is it a good story ?

You'll light up and then you'll feel passionate about making it , passions everything , just like a toy . You want a toy because you think it's going to be a hit and you have no amount of it . Just because it lights up and it uses a thing , it's going to fail because there's no core connection to it from you . So how's the next person ? You know ?

That is the summary of the episode . So your job today , if you're listening to this podcast , is to download . No mad sculpt . No , I'm kidding . No , it's to work on the story behind your toy brand or your IP brand that you're working on , and maybe say it again to yourself and say am I really lit up about this ? Does this really excite me ?

And if it doesn't feel free to change it , don't be afraid to change things . Thank you , brandon , it was a pleasure interviewing you .

There is an entire playlist for this podcast where you can find the full video of the episode you just listened to , so make sure to check that out . Also , if you want to grab any of the links mentioned in this episode , head over to the toycoachcom . Forward slash 183 . And , of course , I want you to support nine to five warriors .

You can go to nine to five warriorscom or go to the Big Bad Toy Store and search for nine to five warriors . Purchase this product . Let's support our fellow toy people who are taking chances and developing product that they know people want and they know people will love . We've got to support each other out here .

Before I wrap up , I've got to ask you if you're listening to this podcast . You love this podcast . You haven't let and you haven't yet left a review . What are you waiting for ? Your reviews keep me motivated to keep coming back week after week , but , more importantly , they help this podcast reach other people like you .

So please , wherever you're listening to this podcast , go over and leave that review , as always . Thank you so much for spending this time with me today . I know your time is valuable and that there are a ton of podcasts out there , so it truly means the world to me that you tune into this one Until next week . I'll see you later . Toy people .