Blind box as a representative of the fashion toys has been 100 billion in the toy market.Behind its crazy growth lies the way that urban men and women under “high pressure” seek comfort, cure, relieve pressure and release their desires.But the blind box into the pit is easy,and out of the pit is difficult.Once you are careless,you will poor three generations.

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Wang ning, the chairman and founder of POP MART, the head of POP MART group that created Molly, Biqi and other popular toys, said that Molly products sold 4 million in a year in 2018, with a sales volume of more than 200 million yuan in China. This year, at least, the sales volume is expected to double to 8 million.POP MART, a pioneer and successful representative of the mainland market, was listed on the new three board in 2017.POP MART currently has more than 100 direct-sale stores, dozens of unmanned stores and about 300 vending stores in China, and the number of vending stores is expected to reach 600 this year.POP MART bubble MART products are available in more than 20 countries worldwide.

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Funko which sells popular games in supermarkets around the world is a joint venture with avengers, game of thrones, captain marvel and other popular IP brands. Its net revenue in the first quarter of this year was $166.8 million which is up 22% year-on-year.Net profit was $7.1 million that is up 216% year-on-year.Sales last year were $425 million.

China’s toy market will reach 72.1 billion in 2019, with an average annual growth rate of about 9.16% (the date is predicted by tou zhong wang). Moreover, popular games have a wider audience, more playing methods and higher group consumption capacity. Combined with the art and IP markets, there is a huge space for growth in the world.

Fashion toys are also called Art toys or Designer toys.It integrates art, design, fashion, painting, sculpture, street fashion culture, IP and other elements into the toy as a specific “carrier”.This is not a product for children.It has a certain cultural connotation or background story to obtain the goodwill of all ages.Its art collection value even exceeds the nature of play.The limited amount of production in a particular series and hidden hot style which let the value soar.

Why the young people’s fashion toys crazy growth and has the potential of 100 billion market?First of all, we need to start with collecting fetish.

• Everyone is a collector

Many people have the collect fetish syndrome.You never know which water margin hero is hidden in the open simply face.You’ll never know what kind of postcard and gift the travel frog will send you.And you’ll always wonder what skin will pop next raffle in the League of Heroes.Hipster fans are obsessed with the thrill of unpacking the next blind box and getting a “hidden” can be delirious with surprise too.There are thousands of kryptonians, and half of them are collectors.A collecting fetish is large or small as an addiction following with you.

In 1999, small raccoon company hired a professional designer draw water margin card, sophisticated production.We don’t know how many boys have set out to collect 108 CARDS and spend all their pocket money in that time.The water margin card, which has become the common memory of a generation, may involve tens of millions of people.The raccoon company is said to have made hundreds of millions and used the profits to build an office building.

Then cheetos did the same.A set of CARDS featuring characters from the theme of The Three Kingdoms was released in 2000, and 57 battle gyros were released in 2002, along with dark gold, bright silver, and a handful of mismatched CARDS.

In recent years, the activities of “gathering five blessings” during the Spring Festival in China are similar in terms of design, collection and social thinking.Collecting CARDS is only a preliminary stage.Go back, these are popular gradually,such as Transformers, Gundam, EVA, lego and other toys, garage Kits, peripheral, game skin, weapons.With the growth of the post-90s generation, krypton has developed and expanded. The post-1995s and post-00s have stronger consumption power, more segmentation and younger age at the beginning, and more realization space.

• Blind box – addictive FMCG toy

Why collecting trendy toys is so addictive?On the one hand, the unit price is not expensive, the second is surprise marketing.Blind box is surprise making machine.

Blind box, from Japan, small paper box containing different types of doll hand.Generally, each blind box will be sold in a series according to the season. Each series will have about 12 styles. There is no style on each box.Blind box unit price is not high.For example, bubble mart, generally between 39-69 yuan, a series is generally several hundred yuan.But it is like Pandora’s box, once opened, you will unconsciously empty your wallet.

First, its toys are often just a carrier and a container, such as Funko’s big head and Molly’s pouting girl, which can be changed and updated constantly.

The second is that there are “hidden styles” in each collection.The hidden item is not included in the regular series, and the draw is rare and random.In many cases, even if you buy a box of 12 items at one time, you may not get the hidden items.

Third, in addition to “hide money” this must kill skill, the businessman still can launch a few limited edition from time to time that the price is far higher than ordinary edition.

This is similar to the egg twisting machine, low impulse consumption, series more, hidden surprise, re-purchase strong.This lottery model has made the price of Molly, a hidden version, more than 30 times higher.On one fish APP, the nutcracker (2018 Christmas) series of hidden princesses also tops out at 1500-1600 each.Customers can be as small as elementary school students, such as Molly, cheap and lovely blind boxes, or as large as art collectors, such as KAWS and kishan.

Buy a box without knowing what it contains.Commemorative, limited version, hidden version, twist eggs, blind box is a surprise marketing.It has its own mystery. You don’t know what’s inside until you open the box.If you put a few toys naked in the store and choose which one you want, you will not want so much.You want to do it again when you don’t like it. You always want the next one. It’s like an addiction.

• New social currency

Addiction captures consumer psychology;And product design shapes the emerging IP.Most fashion toys do not rely on the story, simply to image to move people.For example, Line Friends and KAWS have rich malleability and gameplay of content.For example, change the dress up and so on.Let people who have the same kind of toys collect dolls together, change dolls, and form online and offline communities.Like the water margin card, it has become a kind of universal currency for boys.Whoever has the scarce card will be the leader of the children.And when exposed in the game scarce equipment, skin, even can be directly realized.

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Trendy toys have also become the social currency of the new generation.You love your doll. You can dress her Chanel, LV, or even live in a luxury house.For example, most of its users are in first-tier and second-tier cities, aged between 18 and 35, and are mainly young white-collar workers, among whom more than 70% are female.Their incomes are relatively high, and their aesthetic and spending power are above average.They also have their own understanding and style of fashion.After self-modification car, modification gundam, “change doll” and its community circle came into being.And like the modified car, there are different “levels”.Add adornment, change color is base level.If someone gets a bad match from the blind box, most girls will change to macaron or pink, and the price will go up.Slightly more complicated is the recombination of several children into a new one.The superlative complete change needs to be changed from drawing to airbrush, such player, actually a lot of also have the dream that creates his “tide to play a brand”.But like the blind box, dolls often cost more than they appreciate.

• Value: from trendy toys to contemporary art

There is a joke on the Internet:

A British official has been accused of corruption, but his money was not spent on luxury cars, villas or luxury goods, but on art toys.His house is stuffed with dolls.

The British official in this joke is not fictional.We have real people around us.For example, some people spend tens of millions to auction and collect KAWS.You can’t knock it off. It’s an IQ tax. After all, many “players” collect gags, KAWS dolls and so on.The appreciation of these collections is amazing.

In early 2019, KAWS’s collaboration with Dior sold for $7,500 which is equal about 50,900 yuan.

In April 2019, a black COMPANION based on Mickey Mouse fetched more than hk $2 million at sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong.Each COMPANION is only published in ten editions worldwide, and each edition is numbered.The first auction was NIGO’s “life and two lives” auction.It’s a wonderful name, like contemporary art.People only have one life, but hope to build another possibility in life.For example, attached to toys, cars, art, handicrafts.

Value and meaning are endowed by human beings.The value of money is just a scale.And the other scale is time.Only more people believe that its value is possible to circulation and appreciation.And if people already have capital, then their love and aesthetic blessing can also keep the collection value and appreciation.Even though many people find modern life empty and shallow, “immortality” may be attached to these contemporary art toys.Its value of penetrating time, embodied in creativity, craft and even connotation, may become the “cultural and archaeological heritage” of future mankind.