Opportunity LOL's Spotlight Interview: Benny Kline and Stephanie Phillips of Tenacious Toys

If you are an artist, toy collector, blogger, or fan - you know about Tenacious Toys. They're an extremely popular online toy retailer with roots in New York, and they stock some of the best in designer vinyl. Through networking, kindness, and great decisions - Tenacious Toys also has the custom toy hook-up, with one-of-a-kind artwork from some sick talent. Furthermore, it's truly difficult to say enough kind words about Tenacious Toys and husband-and-wife co-owners, Benny Kline and Stephanie Phillips. Providing advice, friendship, and hooking us up for massive reviews and giveaways, working with Tenacious Toys has been exceptional. Well, we know they rock - but today brings an epic three part interview with answers from both individuals. Below begins a thirty six question interview covering toys, business, and their personal lives. Enjoy!

Tenacious Toys and Toys

If Tenacious Toys could instantly sell all of their stock tonight, what would be the most important purchases to refill your warehouse?

Benny Kline: "I guess what you're really asking is: what items sell the best, or are good investments? As far as production toys: Coarse Toys, anything KAWS, UNKL, Kidrobot, Bossy Bear toys, tokidoki, Android, ThreeA. All that stuff sells well so it'd be the first stuff I'd restock. Honestly if I had my way I'd stock mass quantities of handmade resin figures since resin always sells well too. But honestly, art toys are very much fad items, in that something can be hot one month, and sell really slow the next month. So it's really hard to answer that question very specifically. The answers change depending on the month."

How many customs do you receive to sell per month, how many sell, and do any come that you pay the artist's asking price and put it in your personal collection?

Benny Kline: "It's different every month, but I usually receive 2 to 4 customs back from artists every month. Most sell, eventually, but customs almost always sell slower than the cheaper production toys just based on the price factor. What really helps speed things up is when the artist in question is helping me promote the piece. I promote tirelessly but I need the artist to reach his or her OWN people and tell them I have the piece. When they do that, the pieces sell faster. I actually get some cool pieces from artists as thank-yous for helping promote them. So my custom toy collection is small, but really cool, and growing, and I usually don't have to buy the pieces. Not with money anyway... I dedicate lots of time and effort to the artists so I suppose I get the pieces through old-fashioned bartering."

Do you collect toys? If so, can we see a shot of your collection?

Benny Kline: "YES! We started off by collecting, and then we found we could sell some pieces on eBay, and that's basically how Tenacious Toys started. Umm, we live in a small apartment with nosy, active dogs, so there's not much safe space to display our pieces. We mostly have production mini figures scattered around. We are selective and kinda random in our collecting. Since I put so much of my money into stocking our store, I'm sort of a tightwad when it comes to my own collection. I buy stuff now and again from other shops, but mostly I keep items from our inventory if I like them or if they are damaged or returned to us for some reason. Bigger pieces in our collection: Dok A's Stephen LePodds by MINDstyle, Luke Chueh's Possessed and Black in White, MIST Goldorus, UNKL Brand SUGs & Ulligus, the big vinyl Uglydolls by Critterbox."

How valuable do you think exclusives are for Tenacious Toys?

Benny Kline: "Extremely valuable. A few years ago, a wise youngun asked me if I was planning on getting more exclusives for TT, as that would be a good thing to go after. At the time it seemed like an impossible idea: if you buy a run of 500 pieces at $20 each, you just spent $10,000 on an exclusive! That's a bit out of our range, so I was discouraged at first. Then I discovered that there are a number of smaller companies and indy artists that are willing to sell us much smaller runs of exclusive products, and so now I pursue those as frequently as possible. Basically, exclusives set a store apart, bring in new customers, get us press and coverage we wouldn't ordinarily get. Now our once-sparse exclusives section is chock full of cool stuff!"

How many shows do you try to put together per year and what artists are staples in these shows?

Benny Kline: "I have no real goal for each year. Basically, if an opportunity comes my way and I have time to do it, I do it. I don't plan stuff very much, it really just falls in my lap. Usually it's a friend/customer/artist who asks me if I can help with something, and of course I almost always help out. Whether it's logistics, or shipping, or artist outreach, or promoting the show, I have my little fingers in a lot of stuff that's going on. As far as my VERY own shows, I've never done one all on my own, believe it or not. I have an idea for 2012, and I'll tell people more when the time is right. Group custom show, in Manhattan. Uptown. That's all I'm saying. My staple artists are people who do outstanding work, that I enjoy working with: NEMO, OsirisOrion, Mr. Den, AW177, Rsin, Matt Anderson, Bryan A. Collins, Kris Dulfer, Jon Malmstedt, Brent Nolasco, SouthernDrawl, NREAZON. Those are the people who almost always set aside time to work with me on a project, and most of them I know personally, like actually know them in person. There is, of course, a much larger set of artists that I don't know as well, or I haven't had a chance to work with yet, that are very talented. It's always hard to generate those lists because afterwards I realize I've left out a bunch of people I love. So there. Print that list and I will fret about it afterwards."

What do shows do for Tenacious Toys?

Benny Kline: "Shows are basically about exposure. I learned a while back that I have to sell myself as a brand alongside Tenacious Toys. It's weird for me to do that, as I am a pretty private person, but it's the way the world works. People want to buy from a guy they know well, someone they can chill with and have a beer, or go gallery hopping, or have dinner, or whatever. No one wants to buy premium stuff like art toys from a big nameless generic store run by someone they don't know.

Shows for me are never about money. If I break even after engaging in a show, I'm stoked. I pay out artists at a much higher percentage than the traditional gallery. I also pay IMMEDIATELY whenever I can. Once the customer pays me, I turn around and take that money and give the artist their cut. I'm an artist too, so I don't really believe that a gallery ever deserves 50%. Doesn't seem right. I mean, I know they have to pay rent, but seriously? Half the damn money?"

If you were required to buy 100 total mainstream toys (those sold at Target, Toys"R"Us, Walmart, etc.) per month, which toy lines do you think would sell best?

Benny Kline: "LEGO, video games, gaming consoles, portable gaming, whatever licensed action figures correspond with the movies in theaters... I dunno. I'm knee-deep in weird, subversive collectibles. I haven't been in a Toys R Us in over a year. I go to Wal-Mart maybe 3 times a year, tops, since there isn't one in Manhattan. I have no clue what kids buy these days. I suppose sports equipment always sells. Is that considered a 'toy'?"

For designer vinyl, what artists are producing toys that sell fastest?

Benny Kline: "Trick question! Very few artists self-produce vinyl toys. Jon Malmstedt is now living in japan and producing his own line of Japanese soft vinyl toys. Erick Scarecrow, I guess. Are ThreeA toys considered self-produced, by Ashley Wood? Probably not. Most artists with vinyl toys are hooked up with a major manufacturer. Now, if you asked me what artists are producing resin toys that sell out fast, I'd have a few answers for you."

Out of an average 100 sales, how many of those are pre-orders versus someone buying an item in stock?

Benny Kline: "I'd estimate about 30% of my sales are either fully pre-sale items, or a combo of in-stock and pre-sale items."

What artists and toys do you think are underrated, that collector's should start buying now?

Benny Kline: "In terms of investment value? Like, buying a toy now at retail, and then flipping them later on eBay or the boards? ThreeA. Guaranteed to double your money in 2 years. Some of their limited releases go up in price 5 to 10 times, right away. But, I don't participate in the secondary market so I'd be hard-pressed to give you more answers other than that. I think a lot of artists and toys are OVERRATED and don't deserve the jacked-up prices that rich foreign collectors are willing to pay. But then again, the value of an object is equal to whatever someone is willing to pay for it. So, I guess I feel some people and toys are overrated financially. Not aesthetically. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

Do you have any advice for artists/toy companies that want to make more money and get more exposure?

Benny Kline: "If you want money, work towards signing a deal with a large corporation OUTSIDE of designer toys. There's not a whole lotta money in designer toys. So, build up your portfolio and do a lot of different types of things and clients will take notice. That is, if you put your work out there on the net for everyone to see. You have to be loud and shout about all the stuff you're doing, all the time, 24/7, for anyone with connections to hear you above the roar of information of the internet.

As far as companies go: my advice is be professional, and kind, and helpful. Hook people up with one another. Be useful. Offer refunds. Fix problems. Be nice. Don't say anything mean publicly. Reach out to lots of people and offer a toy, or a service, or a freebie, or coverage, or a collaboration. There are a few companies that haven't lived by these rules, and they're out of business now. See?

Also, if you think you're gonna start an art toy company, or a designer toy store, and you're gonna get rich, you're fooling yourself. You will not make a lot of money in this business. Exposure is great, and you can get that. Lots of money? Not gonna happen. Even the "big boys" in our industry don't have much money, even though you think they do."

What can fans and customers look forward to from Tenacious Toys in 2012?

Benny Kline: "In general, I will continue to reach out to and work with more and more artists. I will continue to kill myself hustling toys around Manhattan. I will continue to sleep too little and spend too much time in front of this computer. In that sense, more of the same. I might put together my own custom show, locally, like I said before. I might try to do another blind-box custom series if I can figure out a platform and a pricing structure that will actually MAKE me money. I will keep working with artists who have followers that buy their products, because they're the ones that keep me in business.

I was talking to END of Argonaut last night and he was asking me the same thing, and I realized that I didn't have a plan. And that's bad. So my 5-year plan is to increase sales through smarter purchasing and continued aggressive promotion and collaboration. I'd like to get a bigger warehouse space and hire a part-time person to pack and ship boxes because I've done enough of that for several lifetimes. I am ALWAYS looking at small vacant retail spaces in Manhattan but, sadly, the lowest-priced one I've ever seen was $2500/month, which is too much for Tenacious Toys right now. But, that's where the growth comes in: if I can sell more toys, I can afford a bigger space. Right now, we're growing in baby steps. A space opened up in my neighborhood for $1500/month. But I have to sell about $4500 worth of toys each month just to break even on the rent. So, until I increase my liquidity, brick and mortar will be just a dream."

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