How Blending Animals Creates Unique Toys: Insights with Co-founder Nick Harman

EP077_03-11-25_Nick Harman

Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to Toy Business Unboxed, your gateway to the secrets of the toy industry. Here, Jason Hsieh, a toy entrepreneur and expert in the field. “Every product we develop is really inspired by some of the real life experience that we have with our son.” “60 percent of all toys last year were sold on Amazon.”

“Be passionate about it. Because it’s a road. It’s a journey.” “Like when you have an idea that you think is gonna somewhat change the world, make things better, I’d say go for it.“

Jason Hsieh: Hello, welcome back to another episode of Toy Business Unboxed. Today we’re shown to have a chat with Nick, the co-founder of Randimals, an inspiring toy brand that embrace uniqueness in the most creative way. Imagine animal being blended into unique hybrid, half tiger, and half elephants, and a whole bunch [00:01:00] of very interesting combination. I think Randimals is a wonderful toy brand that carry a very powerful message, means to celebrate

each of us uniqueness and the differences. So thank you so much, Nick, for being on our show and sharing your inspiring story behind your toy brand.

Nick Harman: Oh, Jason, thank you so much. This is my very first ever podcast, so I appreciate very much you reaching out for this opportunity. I can already see that I need to up my studio game. The lighting in here is a little dark, I’m afraid.

Jason Hsieh: No problem. We can see you

Nick Harman: unless you learn right out of the gate.

Jason Hsieh: No problem. Let’s start with the beginning. Where did the idea of Randimals even came from?

Nick Harman: The idea, we had the initial idea back in 2013. My best friend and I, Casey had regular jobs and we didn’t really have the financial means all the confidence or the know-how to be able to try and execute it. And probably, yeah, it was not until 2020 when obviously most of us were sat at home doing nothing during the pandemic [00:02:00] that my friend said now is probably the best time as, good a time as any to try and pull off launching a toy brand called Randimals. The inspiration was probably there, the few things. But my dog, Ollie, he was a part Bassett and a part lab. He had all the lovingness of a lab and a all the stubbornness of a Bassett. And so he was definitely an early inspiration to creating these plush figures. And also we ended up writing a book about the random wars in conjunction with the development of the product.

Jason Hsieh: Yeah, and I think you also have some product with you today. For our listener that haven’t seen your product, please check out our YouTube channel for the actual product. Could you also share some of the product?

Nick Harman: Yeah, I can try and I can try and describe some of them for sure. This was the initial one that we came up with, this is a hork. For listeners, this is a combination of a horse and a shark. This is definitely the most iconic random animal that we make. And then we also make them into plush toys. [00:03:00] This is,

Jason Hsieh: yeah.

Nick Harman: And we also a couple of years after that created these little ones called Random Minis. And so yeah, we do them in three different types. I’ll show you another couple of them. This is Huck Pot. you guess what this one is Jason?

Jason Hsieh: Is see honeybee and a d a bee and a dinosaur.

Nick Harman: It is definitely a bee and it is a dinosaur. Uhhuh. It’s a B-rex.

Jason Hsieh: B-rex. Okay. B-rex. Yeah.

Nick Harman: And one of the really nice things that we have on our website is an ability for kids to design their own randimals. So we get hundreds of these submissions every single week, and this is the winner of the 2023 contest. This is gurtle part giraffe and part turtle. So it’s a really nice thing that we’re able to offer these kids, the ability to not only send in the drawings, put them up on the website, but also potentially have these creations made.

Jason Hsieh: Yeah. Yeah, I think that really bring the community involvement piece of it and make, it like a [00:04:00] joint effort of people also participating in creating the product. For sure, so.

Nick Harman: Absolutely. This is the book that we wrote. For the listeners, there’s a picture of my dog, Ollie on the front here, and there’s a little girl whose horse and shark are in shreds and she’s figuring out a way to put them back together again. Right from the very beginning, we wanted to create a brand that had more meaning than just plush toys and funny toys. We wanted to create a brand that has some hearts and some soul. And this idea, our slogan is what makes us different, makes all the difference in the world. So that’s basically the slogan that we live by and what the brand is defined by.

Jason Hsieh: Yeah, I think that in that sense I can relate in multiple different level myself since my toy brand also trying to focusing on helping kids with special needs, and one thing is about how can we celebrate the uniqueness, the differences, and the kids special power behind them. And I think some of your brand messages also share some of the messages as well.

One thing I also wanted to talk about before today’s [00:05:00] interview, you also talk about how you are also trying to connect with some of the special needs community. Can you also share some of the feedback you got from the special needs communities?

Nick Harman: Yeah, when we launched Randimals you’re right, we are all different. And as we say at the Randimals, difference is our superpower because how boring would it be if we were all the same? We do a random old show and we take that out on the road and we go to schools. And the best example of this, I think is there was a lady on the front row of one of the shows we were at and she had identical twins. And I said to the mother, gosh, how on earth do you tell your sons apart? They’re identical and they really were. But she’s had a simple answer. She said they may look the same, but they could not be more different.

But yeah, and when we started, we had no idea. We had no idea what we were letting ourselves in for Jason, to be honest. Still we have we just came back from the London Toy Fair and the New York Toy Fair. I still have big time imposter syndrome. I have never worked in the industry before. This has all been just a happy accident and [00:06:00] we’re thrilled to be part of this wonderful toy community. But yes, you’re right. When we started, we thought we would be designing randimals for children. But it became very apparent soon, right after the, a few posts that were put online about the randimals, not from us, but from influencers that had bought the product and wanted to talk about them. It became very obvious that we had a lot of adult fans. And I think there’s a number of reasons for that, and we are just thrilled. And the kidult market, as you’re fully aware is a big demographic at the moment.

Jason Hsieh: Yeah.

Nick Harman: But one of the really beautiful communities that have reached out to us on a number of occasions have been the autistic community. We have touched the lives of a lot of autistic kids. And, I’m not an expert. You could probably tell me a lot better, but from what I understand, autistic kids they seem to love to draw hybrid animals. They love to personify inanimate objects. And there’s something, there’s some beautiful videos out there on TikTok where it, you can see it. It just makes them happy and it [00:07:00] connects with them in a very meaningful and special way. And I hope to be able to understand more about the autistic community as we keep going on this Randimals journey.

Jason Hsieh: Yeah. Thank you for sharing that and thank you for staying Behind Your Brand’s mission to really bring more awareness of how everyone is different and unique and to also respect everyone’s differences. I think that’s very important and

Nick Harman: it’s reflected in our team as well, Jason. When we started, obviously we were all working in a vacuum in our own homes, and so we looked to the world basically online. The internet is a great leveler. The internet has allowed us to play in a field that is dominated by the giant toy companies and it has allowed us to create a little space for ourselves. And we reached out to numerous people all over the world to try and help us. And we brought on a graphic designer from Armenia an illustrator from Nepal, a web designer from Pakistan, social media from Columbia. And we profile them in the back of the book because it’s just adds to this beautiful [00:08:00] message, what makes us different makes all the difference in the world. And I should, actually mention very quickly ’cause I forgot to do that, basically there are two key points in the book.

How did the randimals come to be? Ollie chew up all the little girl’s toys and there’s bits and pieces everywhere in the morning. She gets very upset. But she finds a way to put them back together again. And then they come alive and they go on a journey to a toy store. But when they get to the toy store, all the other animals and toys in the toy store are less than friendly to the randimals. And that’s where Ella Rilla comes in, she’s the matriarch of the randimals. She’s done this lesson that what makes us different makes all the difference in the world.

Jason Hsieh: I see. Yeah, that’s a beautiful story. And I think you also have a show you mentioned, right? Beside a book?

Nick Harman: We would love to have a show. We were recently in London, as I mentioned. And on the last day a gentleman who was a social media influencer did a video of us that went viral around the world. It now has over 30 million views on his TikTok and Instagram. From that TikTok and Instagram, [00:09:00] we have had the most interesting of calls that have come in from around the world, including producers and people in the industry that are inquiring as to the ability for this to become something like a TV series.

Jason Hsieh: Oh, okay. So it is currently in the work or you’re currently having,

Nick Harman: the conversations are in the early development and yes, that would be an amazing project to be a part of. If that happens

Jason Hsieh: for sure. And I know starting a toy brand during COVID must be tough. What was some of the biggest challenge initially when you started a brand?

Nick Harman: Not knowing what we were doing. It’s one of those things where if we knew everything now, we probably would’ve been too afraid to have done it. But sometimes naivety is blissful. And so we just did baby steps. We tried to prove that we could try and do this by putting one foot in front of the other. We came up with some designs and these designs actually are featured in the second book, so this was the first photoshop drawing that we created. This lady in Armenia created for us and we sent these drawings to [00:10:00] factories that we found on Alibaba and we said, can you make something like this?

Now, they’d already made toys, obviously in the past, and they had never made anything quite like this. And to be honest, that was one of their reactions. One of their reactions was, woo. Okay. This is very different. And the word different kept popping up. But kids, they don’t see difference. Kids do not see difference. They just look at something and if it’s awesome to them, it’s awesome. They don’t see it being different.

Jason Hsieh: Yeah. I think we, as an adult, we have a lot of conditioning of what, like a certain way the society is supposed to be at. Was it something how it’s supposed to act? And I think with your product, you really trying to break the barrier and break some of the social conditioning of how a toy is supposed to look like. That’s definitely a very unique aspect of your brand for sure so

Nick Harman: it’s true. And some of the big brands, we’re a small little brand trying to make a noise and we are quite happy to take big swings and risks [00:11:00] and fall on our face. And maybe make some design choices that are a little more edgy that perhaps a bigger toy company might be fearful of doing. And so I think that there’s some pluses that come out of being naive and being small and being nimble and taking some chances.

Jason Hsieh: For sure. And I know you have been making quite a bit of traction within the industry as well. What are some of the like recent milestone that you currently have?

Nick Harman: There’s been so many Jason. Going viral in the way that we did. Like I just said opened up so many doors from different people that are contacting us about potential licensing, collaborations, film, tv. An opportunity to go to schools. I’m, I have a map that I’m putting little dots on this map of all the schools that would like us to come and present the randimals show. And I’m hoping that there are enough dots on the map that I can join them all together. Rent a big bus and go on a randimals on randimals tour. We recently went national in Ripley’s believe it or not, and Ripley’s Aquariums. Ripley’s has been a tremendous [00:12:00] partner and it all came from a TikTok that one of their employees saw. They got in contact with us. They ordered a few cases. They did a test that in two stores that led to four pallets, to eight pallets, and then they decided to go national and ordered a 40 foot container. That was exciting. We were chosen by Amazon last year as one of their most exciting young companies to look out for. That was a high praise from Amazon. And it, yeah there, there’s always some exciting news it feels like just around the corner.

Jason Hsieh: Yeah, for sure. It sounds like that’s a lot, that’s a big milestone and all the different traction you have make with the brand.

So what are some of the things you are currently working on for 2025 and beyond?

Nick Harman: We’re always working on on, new randimals. Those are always in the works. And like I said, we get the most amazing drawings from kids. So they’re a constant source of creativity. We would love to put together the randimals show. We are in communication, as I said, with a number of potential key partners [00:13:00] that could really take randimals to an infl. We’re at an inflection point when that post hit and we got 30 million views. We realized then and there that my partner and I were not capable of handling all the incoming traffic calls and opportunities, and so we have been in touch with a number of potential strategic partners that could really take randimals to a Randimals 2.0, if you will.

And so that is going to be extremely exciting if one or a few of these different partnerships happen, then I think that there could be some even more exciting things in store for both Casey and my career and the randimals as a brand.

Jason Hsieh: And I think because if your brand is so unique and you are also really trying to create a universe, almost. That’s very unique to the brand. So it’s, not just the toys, it’s the books and the potential show that you’re talking about. When you have like people that’s engaging and really understand what you’re representing, I think you can create a very strong community around the brand and [00:14:00] also what the brand is standing for and as well. And I believe like the products and the toy is very different. So engaging with your customer is definitely the key.

One thing you mentioned earlier is that you’re encouraging the kids to draw different randimals and submitting different ideas. How does that idea came about? You came up with the idea or does your business partner come up?

Nick Harman: That’s a great question. A great question, Jason. And thank you for thank you for asking it because you’re absolutely right. At the end of the day, it’s about connecting with and engaging our consumers, whether they are children or as we later found out adults. And obviously those are two different markets. But yes, we wanted to create on our website the ability for kids to be able to end adults to interact with the brand.

So the Create Your Own was one channel that we created where kids can send in their own drawings and we get the most amazing design ideas, but secondarily we wanted to actually, we wanted to try and bring these characters to life and so we worked with this app [00:15:00] that allows me to basically embody any of the randimals characters with a simple picture and I am able to speak.

Jason Hsieh: Oh, whoa. That’s very fun.

Nick Harman: Yeah, I can do it. So for instance, we have on the app, a child might email us or send in a request on the website saying, Hey it’s my birthday next week. Or the mother might say It’s a birthday next week. Can you send a message to Jason from hork, because he has the hork toy. And so within 24 hours we are able to send them a video and hork has a very specific voice. I’ll embarrass myself by doing you a happy birthday Jason on air. So it would be something along the lines of, ” hi Jason hork here, part horse and part shark. We are the randimals. We have a simple message. What makes us different, makes all the difference in the world and happy big birthday coming up, mate.” So that was my less than

Jason Hsieh: Oh, pretty good. Were you a voice actor in the past?

Nick Harman: No. Every morning [00:16:00] my wife wonders what noises are coming out of the bathroom. Lemme clarify. They’re coming from the shower as I try and perfect and come up with different voices for all the different characters.

Jason Hsieh: Oh, you are very good. You are like natural at it. I’m surprised you’re not a voice actor in your business career.

Nick Harman: It’s really fun because when we go to a retail store environment, we can tell them to launch the contest and we’ll send free prizes to anybody that enters the contest if they pick a winner. But then secondly, imagine if you’re going into the store with your son or your daughter and they buy let’s say they buy B-rex and then the store attendant person that works at the store is able to say if you just go to this website and this link, you can get a personal message from B-rex. And that would go something along the lines of “Hi, B-rex here part bee and part thoronosorioux rex, I’m so happy that you took me home with you.” And so the app allows me to actually modulate the pitch and the speed of the voice. So the voice that [00:17:00] I just did gets put through a filter, and it ends up different from what I just said. But what I just said was a good base for how B Rex talks.

Jason Hsieh: I see. And does it also have a AI function to generate additional conversation with the kids as well?

Nick Harman: That would be, amazing. No, I basically put in a picture of B-rex and then you can map out where its eyes are, its nose and its mouth and it will animate the message according to the movements of my mouth. But things happening. Things are happening so fast. I’ve already been reading about how it won’t be too long before we can bring our actual plushie toys to life and maybe have can you imagine seeing this guy walking around an environment out in the wilderness? It would be really fun. We did partner with a company in London that did an AR version. So if you go to our homepage on the website, you can have an AR hork and you can put that hork in any environment along with you. Take your picture of it and you can make it as small or as large as you like.

Jason Hsieh: Nice., Nice Almost like Pokemon Go in real life.

Nick Harman: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.[00:18:00]

Jason Hsieh: Similar concept. That’s very unique as well and people can see it and like interacting with their rooms and their environment. I’ve seen not a lot of toy companies doing that yet. There’s a few but with the products as unique as yours, I think that will really bring things from it shows things from a different perspective as well.

Nick Harman: Absolutely. And all this effort in, trying to create and bring the randimals to life as much as it was to create engagement with kids, obviously we wanted to see what these creatures would be like. And that was the second book basically coming up with their personalities and characteristics. ’cause the first book explains the origin story of the randimals and the message and the second book goes, does a deep dive into their personalities and what kind of characteristics would a horse, shark or a horse duck, or a let’s see what else we have here, P-dawg. P-dawg, a very popular one. Part penguin and part husky. And so we keep just trying to push this along to see if they see how much we can have them come alive, and hopefully one of these producers or film companies will see this and then that will [00:19:00] connect all the dots that are necessary for them to see how this could be an amazing feature film or a TV series.

Jason Hsieh: For sure. Because it is very different, like you say, and you have a beautiful brand message that you are trying to bring to the world. and as we’re trying to wrap up today’s interviews, and thank you so much for sharing your story about your brand and your mission.

One thing I always like to ask the guests is, if you have to share just one piece of advice with someone that’s getting started within the toys and game industry, what would that be based on your experience?

Nick Harman: I think that my partner and i’s experience hopefully will be really interesting to anybody wanting to get into the toy industry. ’cause we had no experience whatsoever. If you have an idea and you have the passion and the determination. It’s possible. The internet has been such a great leveler in terms of being able to compete and take on to some degree. These larger toy companies. You have all the tools and it’s just been an, incredible journey. I think [00:20:00] also luck does come into it for sure. I’ve told I tell my partner all the time he tells me when we’re going to some of these trade shows, or I’m pursuing, I pursue everything. I go down every single path I possibly can, and sometimes he thinks that I’m just spinning my wheels. But I think it’s the old adage that the more that you put into something and the more you explore something and try and find out something somewhere along the line, the more stones that you unturn, eventually you’re gonna unturn a stone that has that little lucky charm under it. And it’s that luck or hard work and determination. It’s always that big question, but I, it’s definitely a mixture of the two.

Jason Hsieh: I think you need to just, like you say, create your own luck. If you don’t put in the work the chances, the opportunities, the viral video that you just mentioned will never came into place if you didn’t take the time and the effort and the hard work to make sure people actually see that initially.

But thank you so much for sharing that and also all the hard work you have put into your brand. I can, definitely feel the [00:21:00] passion and amount of the resources and also time and effort you put into your brand so far.

Nick Harman: Ah, Jason thank you. And I’m 55 years old and I’ve had many different careers. I live in a small little ski town in Idaho called Sun Valley. And that definitely hindered some of my career choices by choosing to live in a small mountain ski town. And I often say to Casey and other friends. I’ve had jobs before and I’ve had careers before, but it hasn’t been until the age of 50 when I started to work on randimals that I truly felt that this was my calling. And if anyone is lucky enough to find a calling, then it’s not work at all. It’s just pure joy.

Jason Hsieh: Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. That’s very important as an entrepreneur to find something that you can feel really passionate about and really stand behind.

Where is the best for people to find you online?

Nick Harman: randimals.com. R-A-N-D-I-M-A-L-S.com. And all the usual social channels using randimals. If you look search randimals, we’re on TikTok and and [00:22:00] Instagram, and anybody that’s out there, please feel free to send us an email or a picture that they want up on the website if they’ve got kids to create your own or send in a request for a randimals video direct message. We love to interact and engage with all the, we call them fandimal. So we love to engage with anyone that is a potential fandimal.

Jason Hsieh: I like how you have a unique term for all the different aspect that’s very fun.

And for our listeners, thank you so much for tuning into this episode of Toy Business Unboxed Podcast. We hope you have enjoyed the conversation and find it insightful and inspiring. If you like what you heard, be sure to subscribe to our podcast on your favorite platform so you never miss an episode. We really appreciate your support and we love that you can leave us a review and share the podcast with your friend and colleague.

For more resource tips and the latest update, within the toys and game industry, visit our website at toy-launch.com. Join the conversation and connect with us on social media using hashtag #ToyBusinessUnboxed. We’ll love to hear your feedback and suggestion for future episode. [00:23:00] Until next time, keep innovating, keep creating, and keep bringing Joyce to toys. This is Jason Hsieh signing off on the Toy Business Unboxed podcast and we’ll see you in the next episode. Thank you so much everyone.