Gifts / Sports & Toys

A few days ago, the collectible toy brand 52TOYS announced the completion of 400 million yuan C round of financing, which was jointly led by Qianhai Fund of Funds and Interchina Capital. Funds of CICC Capital, Xintong Capital, and Jiangu Capital participated in the investment, and Taihe Capital served as the exclusive financer. consultant.

This round of financing will be used to develop high-quality products that highlight "Made in China", build a Chinese local toy brand, build China's collectible toy ecology, and invest in and incubate local artists and designers.

▌Positioning "collectible toys" to cover the entire industry chain

Founded in 2015, 52TOYS is the first domestic brand that proposes to position itself as a "collectible toy". The founder and CEO Chen Wei said: "I prefer to use collectible toys to define the industry we love. Collectible toys include but are not limited to trends. Toys, which carry more diversified styles and cultures. Film and television, animation, games, history, tourism, and even food can be extracted as elements of product creation. And blind boxes are just the tip of the iceberg among many collectible toy categories , Figures, deformations, mechas, assembled models, movable dolls...Different materials, sizes, and creative forms carry different styles and themes. Collectible toys use diversified product forms to meet the needs of different players. From people, to bring happiness, companionship, and healing to everyone, and even become a social carrier, integrating into the popular lifestyle, collecting toys is collecting feelings."

As a leading player in the field of domestic trends and collectible toys, 52TOYS's business chain covers IP incubation, product creativity, supply chain management, sales channel construction and market communication. It is one of the few brands in the industry that can cover the entire industrial chain.

Before this round of financing, 52TOYS had completed five rounds of financing, involving more than ten investment institutions. At the end of 2015, completed an angel round of financing of RMB 15 million; completed a round of financing of RMB 100 million in 2018, and launched IP derivatives such as "Glory of the King", setting a record for the highest single financing amount in the domestic IP derivatives industry at that time; On March 13, 2019, the A+ round of financing was completed, with a financing scale of tens of millions of yuan, which is mainly used for product development and production, sales channel expansion and market promotion; and in February and December 2020, 52TOYS completed the B round respectively And B+ round of financing.

In an interview with the media a few days ago, Chen Wei said that 52TOYS hopes to become the "first brand of collectible toys" in the future and strive to be listed within 1-2 years.

▌Strengthen product innovation and make high-quality products that highlight "Made in China"

Relevant reports show that the domestic trend and collectible toy market has grown rapidly in recent years, with a compound annual growth rate of over 30% in the past six years. Under this trend, 52TOYS has grown rapidly, gradually building a closed-loop business, establishing core competitive advantages in product development and innovation, and forming brand barriers that are difficult to surpass.

"National tide" is a hot trend in recent years. As early as 2018, 52TOYS thought about "how to use collectible toys to convey Chinese culture", and developed a "super activation" with the concept of "beyond tradition, revitalize history, and inherit culture". series". A reporter from the Sino-foreign Toy Media Center learned that this series interprets Chinese culture from a new perspective, creatively integrates historical culture and modern culture, and creates "Lady Yoga", "Lady Daily", "Terracotta Warriors in Battle", "Plank Support" and more. A series of brain-opening images allows young people to touch history and culture through interesting products.

Among the products currently launched in the "Super-Activation Series", the "Bronze Squad" and "Horse Ta Feiyan" originated from the prototype creation contest with the theme of "Super-Activation of Cultural Relics" organized by 52TOYS in cooperation with the Shaanxi Provincial History Museum in 2018. As soon as the product was launched, it was loved by the public, and it has long maintained the No. 1 sales record in the cultural and creative products of the Shaanxi Provincial History Museum.

The "BEASTBOX" series is a mecha deformation product independently researched and developed by 52TOYS, which has a milestone significance in the field of collectible toys in China. According to reports, 52TOYS endows the core of this series of Chinese culture---developing various creatures with distinctive characteristics into mecha shapes. It has produced five series including dinosaurs, giant beasts, aquatic products, birds, and insects, as well as the recently launched "Swiss Beast Series" with Chinese cultural elements. There are more than 100 products in total, and each product can be deformed. It is a cube with a side length of 5 cm. In addition, 52TOYS is creating content in the form of movies, comics, animations and novels around this series of products, and strives to create the Chinese's own original mecha deformation IP.

The original "BEASTBOX" series incorporates different cultural elements

In addition to the above-mentioned products, 52TOYS also created the "Panda Roll" series based on the image of the panda, showing the soft and cute image characteristics of the national treasure with cleverly designed shapes. The first series of products became the best-selling products this year as soon as they went on the market. In the future, the company will also use its own advantages to create more rich and creative high-quality products, and convey Chinese culture through a variety of products that are very attractive to young people.

▌Offline sales start a dual-engine model to build brand influence

The number of 52TOYS offline sales channel cooperation terminals exceeds 10,000, covering trendy boutiques, boutique toy stores, cinemas, bookstores, convenience stores, theme parks, etc., fully covering the consumption scenes of young people

. Sales areas include mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, as well as Japan, North America, Southeast Asia and other countries and regions.

Starting from this year, 52TOYS has begun to build offline direct-sale brand stores, striving to provide consumers with the most complete brand experience with the richest product categories, the best product display, and the most creative store design, and cooperate with cooperation channels. Build a "dual-engine offline channel" model.

52TOYS offline stores

At present, the company has opened more than ten direct brand stores in Beijing Taikoo Li, Hangzhou Hubin Yintai in77, Chengdu Kuanzhai Alley, Shanghai IAPM and Superbrand Plaza, Shenzhen COCOPARK and other domestic large-scale shopping malls. Effective over 10,000 yuan.

"The reason why we choose to start building direct offline channels at this time is based on the huge product matrix formed by the concentrated development of products in the past 6 years and the high-frequency new speed." According to Chen Wei, it is expected that within the next year, 52TOYS will open more than 100 directly-operated brand stores and successively put in thousands of unmanned retail machines, covering the core business districts, museums, attractions, and major transportation hubs of major cities across the country.

52TOYS is also opening up a road of offline direct brand stores integrated with cultural tourism. In August of this year, 52TOYS Kuanzhai Artisan's brand store began its trial operation. The brand store is located in Kuanzhai Alley, a famous scenic spot in Chengdu. The store selects the brand's latest original IP "Panda Roll" as the main visual element. In the overall visual system full of modern art, it integrates the representative mahjong and hot pot in local culture. Elements, showing a unique visual effect.

52TOYS wide and narrow craftsmanship brand store combined with cultural tourism

The form of cooperation between 52TOYS and cultural tourism attractions, museums, etc. is not limited to directly operated stores, but can also be theme activities. For example, recently, 52TOYS’s “Super Revitalization Series” IP and Guangzhou Xiguan Yongqing Square jointly created an event called “Lady to the Square” to revitalize the old buildings in Guangzhou with the image of “lady” that young people like. Innovative forms activate traditional culture.

According to reports, 52TOYS will seek to cooperate with more cultural tourism attractions, museums, etc., so that collectible toys with Chinese cultural connotations can collide with historical culture offline to create creative sparks and further promote Chinese culture.

"Ladies to the workshop" activities

▌To build an ecology of collectible toys in China, invest and incubate local artists

As a leading brand in the industry, 52TOYS is willing to shoulder the responsibility of promoting the development of the industry, and uses the “one competition, one exhibition, one prize” approach to promote the ecological construction of China's collectible toys.

Since 2016, 52TOYS has launched the annual "prototype creation competition", the themes include "super-activation of cultural relics" in cooperation with the Shaanxi Provincial History Museum, "Science Fiction Era" in cooperation with the Future Affairs Administration, and cooperation with Changlong Wildlife Park "Animal Carnival" and so on. In total, it attracted more than 2,000 designers and artists from home and abroad, and produced more than 600 outstanding works, such as Yuan Xingliang's "Autumn Luan-Guanghan Palace" and Li Huai's "Bronze Squad". The theme of the sixth "Prototype Creation Contest" held this year is "Ultraman Monster Super Attack", which is intended to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the "Universal Hero Ultraman" series. After the registration was opened, it attracted many designers and artists to actively participate.

"Prototype Creation Competition" provides opportunities for more designers and artists to show their talents

As for the exhibition, in July this year, 52TOYS held a three-day "BEIJING DREAMFAIR 2021 Beijing International Original Art and Designer Collection Toy Exhibition". The exhibition covers an area of about 15,000 square meters, covering seven themed exhibition areas of collectible toys such as statues, GK, tide play, and hand-made toys. A total of more than 400 corporate and designer brands will participate.

Based on the "One Competition" and "One Exhibition", 52TOYS will also launch the "One Prize", which will set up awards in the industry every year to reward outstanding designers and artists, encourage creation, and promote the development of the industry. For some outstanding designers and artists, 52TOYS will use the company's full industrial chain advantages in the form of investment or cooperation to help them bring their works to the market. At the same time, 52TOYS also explores potential and high-quality young creators from universities and other channels, incubates from scratch, and guides them in creation and other links to help them apply what they have learned and grow into excellent designers and artists.

This year's DREAMFAIR exhibition attracts a large number of consumers

▌Conclusion

Ibo, the investment director of Qianhai Fund of Funds, said: “The potential of collectible toys in China is huge, and 52TOYS is one of the few domestic industry leaders with multi-category product design and R&D capabilities. It is a great honor for us to witness the company’s rapid growth and look forward to it. In the future, the company will create more excellent products, promote the development of China's collectible toy industry, inherit the fine traditions of Chinese art, and bring more surprises and joys to toy collectors."

Yang Yang, Vice President of Interchina Capital, said: “New consumption is a key industry that we have been digging and tracking. As early as 2017, we were exposed to the 52TOYS project. The professionalism of the founding team and the love for the industry made us full of confidence. Immediately we completed our first investment in the company, and accompanied 52TOYS from a start-up company to a leading company in the industry. At the same time, we also witnessed the gradual development of collectible toys in China into a huge industry with a scale of tens of billions. New consumer products purchased by young people. We expect that after this round of financing, 52TOYS can better integrate the accumulated R&D experience, supply chain resources and channel capabilities, strengthen cooperation with upstream and downstream companies, and create a win-win ecosystem , To continuously explore the contemporary value of Chinese traditional culture, and to bring more good products that highlight the heritage of Chinese traditional culture to young consumers."