《Alexander Creed: Re-Life》Chapter 267: Production Rationale I
Advertisement
"Since you can't be convinced, why don't we just try the other things out for the fun of it?" Milla offered and reasoned. "You can find wearing a costume to be silly but enjoying an event that you "masterminded" should be fine, right?"
"I guess it should be alright." Alexander had no qualms with that. Except for the smoothness of it. "This can't just be your idea."
"Hehe! You're right! Grandpa Sullivan gave me notes." The little girl straight-up admitted to it. "You're my buddy in this place, so I had to prepare so that I can be the one to drag you around."
"Fair enough." Alexander was tasked to keep an eye on here after all and his intentions happen to coincide with roaming around this place. So why not?
"Yes!" Milla celebrated a bit before dragging him in a certain direction. "Let's go to the toy section first."
"Don't you have them already?" Alexander wasn't lying as Milla was the privileged nominal granddaughter of a spoiling grandfather. Said spoiling grandfather happen to own a toy production company.
"I'm not going there for the toys. I'm going there for the people." Milla offhandedly said while Alexander was surprised at how much it sounded like a samaritan-esque spiel.
------
In any case, Milla had herself caught up in people's excitement. In addition to her excitable personality as a child, the atmosphere here was quite her liking.
Unlike introverted Alexander that didn't want any immersive participation, Milla was all in.
It didn't help that her big break was coming up and there was no mother to keep a strict watch on what she does.
The reason that two little kids like them were able to roam around this place was because of the Creed employees stationed around the area. Well, Miss Galina was still around but she took a step back to let her daughter enjoy herself in this event.
Of course, Alexander was an undisputedly level-headed kid, so having Milla stick around with him should be no problem.
Granted, the two of them had to go with a buddy system in this place, and as Milla enjoyed the "festivities" of the event… Alexander was more on observing and rationalizing things. Production and plan-making rationale was his thing nowadays.
He may not be able to fit an 'Undercover Boss' scenario now but he could still mingle around to get a more accurate observation of his business endeavors.
-----
The entire toy display in this entire area was straightforward as it can get- to sell and advertise toys.
Of course, there were TV sets in two specific stations but they were all for later.
As for the toys, they are extensions of existing toylines and the establishment of new ones.
In Alexander's opinion, that's just how the toy business is and that is what Creed Toys will continue to do.
Advertisement
From just Dragonballs itself, the toys in this event display were an example of how he expected toy production to go forward.
Aside from these new toys to be matching the covered storylines from respective comic books, they are made to be marginally new and different from the toy designs that it had established.
Toys would always hit their peaks and would go downhill when they lose their "new-ness". To combat that, new designs had to be put out, so that the new-ness will be refreshed.
Creed Toys can't survive by publishing the same pose of Goku or the same inventions of Bulma year after year. Shuffling and innovations need to be done.
In any case, that was Alexander's thoughts on that and that is why the other comic properties followed suit.
TMNT had new villains in the story and the first arc's final big bad, Shredder, was expected to be a matching big-seller as the turtles.
Of course, the Turtles and Foot clan ninjas on display now were marginally different from how their previous versions had been… even though it was just shifting of skater gear or two but that should be enough.
Taking inspiration from the original timeline’s Turtles and its stupendously successful toy line... Alexander had the plan to release varying Turtles iterations every year.
It was exploitative but that's just how business is.
Someone would probably point out such a droll tactic but with how the nerds of this convention are eating it up without complaint, Alexander was sure that Creed Toys will have customers either way.
Moving on from Dragonball and TMNT, the rest of the IPs under his belt had the same treatment.
ThunderCats, RoboCop, Predator, and Cybertronian Chronicles each had minor changes and upgrades to their previous iterations... but they weren't really that prominent as they had varying fixtures that are specific to their needs.
ThunderCats toyline was more on depictions of scenes in the comic books and also the addition of new characters as their adventures in Thundera progresses.
RoboCop's toyline was focused on cyborg and robot aspects of the story with both Alex Murphy and ED209 as also progressive technologies along with the storylines.
Predator toyline was much basing itself on a one-off 3-Volume release but the showcase of the new Predator and the upcoming storyline should revitalize it some more.
There's really not a lot to be said for Cybertronian Chronicles... because saying more on it would be incredibly plentiful. What's clear is that the Autobot and Decepticon toylines are Creed Toys' bestsellers and they made it doubly sure to keep it that way.
These were pretty much the upgrades from how these toylines had debuted in December of last year.
About 8 or so months after that, it was high time that they'd be invoked again into the toy market... and Comic-Con was the perfect platform to kick things off.
Advertisement
Of course, there are bombing-ly explosive toys that have to be added as well... and great examples of that would be the Great Ape Gokus on display. With high quality and rarity, these were the type of toys that are meant to keep the Creed Toys brand in elevated relevance.
Alexander wanted a Shenron toy but that was more of a truly artistic sculpt that is hard to come by. He just hoped that Creed Toys would advance to that level.
-----
In any case, that wasn't the only thing that was offered since the new toylines in this Comic-Con displays seem to be clear and accounted for.
The Hotaru and Shinri toys should pretty much serve as a baseline and test for all the anime-esque toys from all the anime and manga stories that Alexander would plunder in the future. Japanese culture had a lot of school-based and romance genres to take from after all and Hotaru and Shinri toys were good market testers.
Then from JoJo to Watchmen to Ace Attorney... it was a pretty straightforward push of comic book stories to toy-ification from there.
Alexander had to single-out Watchmen's Doctor Manhattan though... as it was the hardest one for him to decide on.
Nude Manhattan was the obvious way to go but what to do with his crotch was the brain teaser. It was hard to admit but Alexander had a bit of a stump on this one.
The Design Heads of the Creative team were actually going for that famous acorn statue as tribute to the David statue. It kinda makes sense as the suggestion came from art majors.
Then, there were the Engine Heads that proposed to keep the obstruction gag... and proposed newspapers and various assortments that would cover the godly man's au natural.
Of course, in the end, Alexander found both directions to be weird and ultimately decided on the “Ken” deal.
No acorn crotch or obstruction but the full spandex effect. As for the explanation... well, it was because Manhattan was so godly that he bleeped his private parts out of the toy buyer's perspective.
Granted, controversy and debate would probably rise from this decision... but so be it.
The extremely adult toy aside, there was the completely "young-er" version as well.
Alexander was pretty vocal with his decision to have a stuffed Hobbes ever since the whole April Easter and Phoenix Wright scenarios.
He simply made it happen and awaits the benefits and effects of it.
Of course, throughout all of this… cost-efficiency was key, and earning profits were of high import.
-----
"Alex, are you done being lost in your thoughts?" Milla sounded out as this usually happens when there was something important circulating in his thoughts.
"I guess I am." Alexander could pretty much admit that when he looked at toys now... it wasn't about how he'd imagine playing with them but looking back on the production rationale behind it.
"Anyways, I'm just wondering why all this exclusive stuff. Wouldn't you make more money if you make a lot of it?" She was pretty curious about this because a lot of people lining up to buy Creed Toys were quite curious about this as well.
She didn't have to debate against other curious people though because she could just ask the decision-maker behind all of this.
"Well... Comic-Con exclusives are to form camaraderie with the convention itself while limiting stuff creates value." Alexander may not have taken part in Comic-Cons but he did hear about these so-called Comic-Con exclusives. He just incorporated it to benefit himself. "When value rises, even the most unnecessary toys become sought after."
"Oh." Milla more or less understood but she had complaints. "Why is there no Charlie toy being sold then? Limited, exclusive, or not. Does that mean Charlie toys are even worse than unnecessary?"
"Erm..." Alexander didn't know that this little girl held a grudge for that but thankfully, they reached the BttF area to help his excuse.
"It's quite complicated, really... but it helps if you take a close look at the Doc Brown and Marty toys."
Milla did just that and she noticed this too. "They don't look like Michael and Old Christopher at all... just like how your BttF comic book version did not look like them too. But why?"
"Well... complications arise when real faces are involved. It complicatedly involves legal problems and is generally a pain." Alexander had rejoiced that they got rid of Glover for the Father McFly role but the DeepFake problem seems to stick closely to this time travel franchise.
Truth be told, the Creeds were just greedy, and paying facial royalties to actors could be avoided with this strategy.
Old Sullivan and him had considered utilizing "real faces" but that is just problematic for toy production. After all, buying the rights to use an actor's face is pretty impractical and all that suing nonsense would just be a pain.
In a way, they just went with the option that is less problematic and has less hassle. Of course, with even more honesty... Charlie and Milla were exempt from those problems but Alexander just found it best to not give it a go. One can never know how life really goes… and a 'family friend' now may be a 'family enemy' tomorrow.
Minimizing problems is key and Alexander simply explained it as such. "Simply put, facial likelihood is a no-go and by extension, Charlie toys that have your liking to it had to be on the back burner again. I hope you understand."
Milla was a bit disappointed but understood it as she can. "Well, it's fine if you put it that way."
Mission accomplished! Probably!
Advertisement
- In Serial19 Chapters
Awakening
An average day turned into a nightmare, the world turns into a scene from the movies as an other-worldly being known as the "Over-System" turns humanity into an experiment out of boredom. A decade later, Cain is one of the newest graduates to enter the "Gates"; interdimensional portals that unlock human potential and give access to the "System."
8 262 - In Serial33 Chapters
Reborn as a Symbiote
Synopsis Hi everyone, just to let everyone know that this will be a story mix of both Wuxia and LitRPG. There will be a system with point being use involve in the story but it will not be a CASH app where you can buy EVERYTHING in it. Please if you can critique, comment, review, and spare some time to read my novel. Thank you for giving my novel a chance. A child bless by birth, curse by destiny. The child, a little girl, trapped in her own body from a painful illness. The only child to a growing small clan Matriarch, father nowhere to be seen. The little girl Yao Zi, helpless and hoping for the future. A mysterious foreign entity, a symbiote, whose past haunts him. The symbiote, lost traveler, free from his prison. The only of his kind he ever seen, all alone in a foreign land to him. Cold and lost simbiote Shimmy, alone and seeking power for the past. The two meet in a most coincidental way. One who needed a cure, a miracle to live, the other needed someone, a path to rely on to live. Watch as two lives intertwines, revealing the little girl's future and the symbiote's past. See as how they face the world together, one who almost loss everything and the other who have lost everything. What choices will they make and what effect will it cause to other? (Picture is mine I made) “I will also be posting this story on Scribblehub.com” ^_^)>
8 157 - In Serial41 Chapters
Re:HUNTER *DROPPED*
Sgt. Chris Wandell, a US Marine Sniper, passed away in a war somewhere in Afghanistan. Now he reborn in a new life with no fragment of any memories of his past life, but soon he later discover a persona within him as the one who was famed "VAMPIRE". "What comes in your mind if I ask what Vampire is, you'll that it meant about those ancient evils that feed on blood of the mortals, had fangs and Lord of the Night. Well you are right, but it also another meaning rather than a Mythical Creature. It also meant as Hunters of the Shadows, Reaper of Dark, and Silent Killer." Condition: DROPPED Link: http://wp.me/P6wr8i-2P Note:• Updates are more likely posted in random. • Story may be either whole or partially revised. • This Title and Names is just either Permanent or Temporary. • ENGLISH is not my main language, so don't expect a good grammar. Hello readers, This is me, cjayr369, telling you that this webnovel had long been dropped. I'm sorry that some of you had been expecting me to continue the story but because I lost my material that I used as inpiration to continue the story. That is why I decided to rewrite the whole story from the start. Some changes would be make and it would still follow the plot I design to move towards. I can't say when I would upload the story, but I would happened in the near future.
8 387 - In Serial11 Chapters
Purple Lipstick Designer Club Vol. 1: Let's Be Cute Maids!
Purple and Teal are roomates, best friends, college students, magical girls, maids, and able to summon psuedo-demonic entitites to fight on their behalf. Life as a 20-something is hard enough, but when you come home to find a blood-covered body on your white carpet... well, that's just the last straw, isn't it? Featuring a story by Maru and artwork by Vanilla, Purple Lipstick Designer Club was a planned start in a long-running series. Originally published in 2017 for Comic Fiesta. Check out the illustrated version at Maru's itch.io!
8 90 - In Serial12 Chapters
Star Pilot in a Woman's World
Lt. Stryker of the United Earth Alliance Navy tests new technology that could have a far-reaching impact on humanity. While testing out the new engine on an old interceptor, things take a horrible turn and Lt. Stryker is sent to an alternate earth where his way home burns up on entry and things are quite different. To make matters worse, his body has reverted to that of a 16-year-old! Alone and cut off from the Alliance Navy, Lt. Stryker only has an implanted A.I. to keep him company. Follow Allen Stryker as he adapts to life on this new earth with only a quirky A.I. to assist him while unknowingly being observed by a determined government agent! -Regularly scheduled updates will be posted on Fridays. I reserve the right to publish ahead!
8 163 - In Serial136 Chapters
Taming The Bad Boy
After a Summer of rest, relaxation, and finally being out from under her brothers thumb, Olivia is all but pleased that her brother is now back from soccer camp, along with his 3 best friends Mason, Ryan, and Ben. Mason also being their neighbor. But they are in for a rude awakening when they realize, Olivia is not the same person they left at the beginning of the summer. Her attitude, her personality, her style, and more importantly, her new boyfriend that they had no clue about for the past 3 months, who soon, but not soon enough, ends the relationship. But what happens when the one person she least expected, comes out and asks her if he can have a chance?"Three months." I shook my head."What?" He gave me a look. "I'm going to give you three months, to show me you actually want this. Three months to show me that you can be the guy. And if you can go those three months without sleeping with anyone, we'll give it a try." I pursed my lips and nodded. And as fast as could be. He said "deal." Can the bad boy be tamed? Can he finally get the girl? Can he really make it those 3 months?Come along on the wild right that is Taming The Bad Boy
8 119

