Business & Tech

Local Startup Lets You Design Your Own Toys

Happy Toy Machine, which launched in Milpitas in August, lets children and their parents log on to their website, design their own stuffed toy, and have it made for them.

One of the greatest things about toys is how they can bring out the imagination in a child.

At the brand new, Milpitas-based Happy Toy Machine, they believe nothing brings out the imagination more than being able to design the toy. That’s why, their motto is not “mass-produced,” but rather, “mass-customized.”

Scott Schube, founder and CEO of Happy Toy Machine, said he dreamt up the idea for the company after watching the two eldest of his four children spend countless hours on the computer designing the characters they played in video games.

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“When I looked at what they do online as far as creating characters and customizing them, I thought, what if we could suck that character out of the computer and give it to you as a toy?” he explained.

It wasn't long before Schube was leaving his career as an engineer and manager at Intel to start Happy Toy Machine.

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At HappyToyMachine.com, children and their parents log on and choose from a number of customizing options to design the perfect stuffed toy, just the way they want it. You can keep your designs private, or make them public and share them with others online. You can even save as many custom designs in your user account as you want, and access them anytime.

“When you have one you think you'd like as a toy, we make it to order and send it to you as a stuffed animal or toy,” Schube described.

Customers can choose the color of every single part on their stuffed toy, and choose the style of all features such as eyes, nose and mouth. They also get to choose from a number of body types such as a robot, alien, puppy or bear, and can give their creature any number of special features as well.

“You can even mix and match,” Schube said. “Such as, you can make a bear with wings, if you want.”

Custom embroidered designs and text are also available.

“So, you can choose to have your name or any other text on the front, or a decoration such as a rainbow or butterfly or star, and so forth,” said Schube.

Schube added, one of the service’s best features is, absolutely everything is included in one flat fee, no matter how many customizations you choose, or how many letters in your name. A 10- to 15-inch toy is $29.99, and a 20- to 26-inch toy is $49.99.

In the future, Schube said Happy Toy Machine plans to add even more toy customization options.

“We're going to be offering clothes so you can also choose different outfits for the toy, and different materials for the toys such as a fuzzy material as well,” he explained.

Schube said, companies have also been eyeing Happy Toy Machines products and inquiring about branded toys that feature logos.

“We've been talking with a couple of companies that have expressed interest in toys, so that's an area we're exploring right now.”

Business has been good for the Milpitas start-up, which just launched its website for ordering in August. The company has already filled several hundred orders, and the numbers have continued to climb since the holiday shopping season hit.

The company now has eight employees in total.

“Some do sewing, others help in the factory with other things like embroidery and patterns,” he said. “So most of us are in the factory, but we also have a few folks in marketing.”

Schube said, though the work has been crazy, it’s still great to see his dream company succeed.

“Being a small company is always interesting, because you want more orders, until you have too many orders,” he said with a laugh. “But it's going great.”

For that reason, Happy Toy Machine has set a holiday order deadline of this Sunday, Dec. 11—as long as your order is placed by then, you’ll receive your customized toy in time for Christmas Day.

Schube said, each and every toy order is made right here in Milpitas. The location is optimal, as it is central to where each of his employees come from.

“It felt very natural to do it here,” he said.

Visit Happy Toy Machine at www.happytoymachine.com.


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