Looking to start my own animal toy brand

[doggoswoofwoof]

For a long time I have wanted to create my own brand of model animals similar to Schleich in scale that would eventually cover wild, domestic, prehistoric, and fantasy animals.
The problem is I have no clue where to start. I don't have experience 3D modeling and would want to hire a sculptor(s).
How do I find a manufacturer or a sculptor? How do I find a distributor for my products? And I would of course have to figure out all of the toy safety testing for the countries I wish to sell the figures in

[EpicRaptorMan]

You'll probably have to start by learning to sculpt, paint first and then start taking commissions. Start cheap, get a reputation, build upon that, then increase prices. You can use social media, eBay, Etsy, Mercari, etc to sell your items to individuals.

THEN your next step is large commercial sales like SafariLtd and Schleich...assuming you get that far.

[AnimalToyForum]

That's ambitious. I wouldn't know where to start, you'd be basically starting a business from scratch. If you're really serious about it then you might consider going to business school? If you're thinking more of a small cottage industry then you'd do well to follow @EpicRaptorMan's advice. 

[BlueKrono]

If I could ask, why do you want to? What appeals to you about doing this? Is there something you want to achieve?

[Kenc]

For a long time I have wanted to create my own brand of model animals similar to Schleich in scale that would eventually cover wild, domestic, prehistoric, and fantasy animals.
The problem is I have no clue where to start. I don't have experience 3D modeling and would want to hire a sculptor(s).
How do I find a manufacturer or a sculptor? How do I find a distributor for my products? And I would of course have to figure out all of the toy safety testing for the countries I wish to sell the figures in

As a brand founded in 2017, I believe I can answer this question. As many have mentioned on this forum, initially we had no sales and had to rely on copying models from other successful brands. This is an inevitable step not only in the animal modeling industry, but in all industries that lack a loyal customer base.

In the beginning, it was a safer and wiser choice to go this route. Please note that I am not endorsing plagiarism, but rather pointing out that without a large budget, this is a practice that the average person might consider.

Mass production requires molds, which are divided into public and private molds; public molds are molds that are open to everyone and can be purchased and made by anyone from the factory for much cheaper. A simple private mold can cost up to $7,000!But only you can use it. For example, to make a small frog model, you also need a special coloring machine, drying machine, and all sorts of other things that the factory needs to use; I'm a website branding operator who visited our factory this year, so I was very impressed with all of this. I can't speak for other countries, but this is the situation in China.

At first, we couldn't afford to hire skilled engravers, designers or operations staff. But as we grew, we started making our own molds and hiring senior carvers and designers. We started working with influencers, and of course, I publicized my ideas on this forum. It took about 5 years to start from scratch and take off, so it takes some time when you are interested in this business and want to make money off of it. Now we control the quality and materials ourselves, so you can see that now our brand is getting more competitive, our prices are lower and our quality is better.

This answer is for users who want to create their own animal modeling brand, hope it can help you a little bit. Maybe my presentation will be a little bit wrong because my native language is not English

[doggoswoofwoof]

For a long time I have wanted to create my own brand of model animals similar to Schleich in scale that would eventually cover wild, domestic, prehistoric, and fantasy animals.
The problem is I have no clue where to start. I don't have experience 3D modeling and would want to hire a sculptor(s).
How do I find a manufacturer or a sculptor? How do I find a distributor for my products? And I would of course have to figure out all of the toy safety testing for the countries I wish to sell the figures in

As a brand founded in 2017, I believe I can answer this question. As many have mentioned on this forum, initially we had no sales and had to rely on copying models from other successful brands. This is an inevitable step not only in the animal modeling industry, but in all industries that lack a loyal customer base.

In the beginning, it was a safer and wiser choice to go this route. Please note that I am not endorsing plagiarism, but rather pointing out that without a large budget, this is a practice that the average person might consider.

Mass production requires molds, which are divided into public and private molds; public molds are molds that are open to everyone and can be purchased and made by anyone from the factory for much cheaper. A simple private mold can cost up to $7,000!But only you can use it. For example, to make a small frog model, you also need a special coloring machine, drying machine, and all sorts of other things that the factory needs to use; I'm a website branding operator who visited our factory this year, so I was very impressed with all of this. I can't speak for other countries, but this is the situation in China.

At first, we couldn't afford to hire skilled engravers, designers or operations staff. But as we grew, we started making our own molds and hiring senior carvers and designers. We started working with influencers, and of course, I publicized my ideas on this forum. It took about 5 years to start from scratch and take off, so it takes some time when you are interested in this business and want to make money off of it. Now we control the quality and materials ourselves, so you can see that now our brand is getting more competitive, our prices are lower and our quality is better.

This answer is for users who want to create their own animal modeling brand, hope it can help you a little bit. Maybe my presentation will be a little bit wrong because my native language is not English

I cannot thank you enough this is exactly the kind of advice I was looking for thank you so much.

[sbell]

I was in touch with the guy that started Replica Toy Fish and Toy Fish Factory.

He went through a lot for sculpting, tooling, etc, and in the end he just couldn't make it work.

It comes down to the costs and infrastructure as @Kenc mentioned. A starting line of unique materials needs to come out with a full line -- TFF tried to start with a couple sets, but that doesn't work for retailers.

RTF was more successful, but it was production issues that ended it. Maybe Toymany could get licences for the moulds (produced and unproduced) and resurrect a line of fish models that is very missed!?   @Kenc ?