Array
(
[derick] => Array
(
[Building Mighty Jaxx from a hobby into a multimillion-dollar business %] => MIGHTY JAXX:由興趣演變成百萬企業
[Not child's play: Singaporean grows top-of-mind global figurine brand from the ground up.] => 絕不兒戲:新加坡創業家由零開始建立他的環球模型品牌。
[[]] =>
[Building Mighty Jaxx from a hobby into a multimillion-dollar business] => MIGHTY JAXX:由興趣演變成百萬企業
[A collection fueled by technology
A keen understanding of the technology space has also helped Mighty Jaxx carve out a niche that engages the community. Mighty Meta, its platform for tech-enabled figures, integrates interactivity between the collectors and collectibles.
The idea is to merge the physical and digital realm, allowing collectors to get more out of their collectibles through gamification.
For example, Mighty Jaxx’s Nubbies: Sesame Street collection is more than just a bite-sized figure. By tapping them to a mobile device equipped with near-field communication (NFC), collectors can play mini games with the Sesame Street character on the Mighty Jaxx app.
More importantly, there is an identification tagged to these NFC-enabled figures, allowing collectors to prove the authenticity of their collectibles, thus translated to their valuation.
The company has also moved into the digital space by creating Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT). Its NFT, the Huntress Gaze, sold for 1.1 Ethereum, or about US$2,163, in April 2021.
Tapping into global fandom
The value of partnerships is also clear when it comes to how Jackson approaches creative tie-ups.
Besides exclusively creating new characters, the company also leverages characters from globally popular brands and reimagines them to create a unique product. And the company did this by focusing on one thing: the fans themselves.
“In doing so, we bring in all their fandom onto our platform, onto our brand. That's why we can grow rather quickly,” said Jackson.
But beyond the creative process, Jackson noted that the company’s success is driven by a deep understanding of what it means to be a fan and the nostalgia that comes with it.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mighty Jaxx (@mightyjaxx)
For instance, one of their most sort after collectibles is from the anime One Piece. The popular Japanese manga already has 20 years of history, and a following that numbers millions of fans across the globe.
“Anytime a fan sees or hears the opening theme song, they will immediately associate it with One Piece, right? So that’s the power of fandom we are looking for.”] =>
例如來自《One Piece》海賊王的玩具是品牌最受歡迎的產品,這一部大紫大紅的漫畫作品已有20年歷史,全球粉絲可謂數以百萬計。
「粉絲每次聽到片頭曲的旋律,便會立即聯想到One Piece。這就是粉絲群的力量,亦是我們所追求的號召力。」
[The most exciting part about his job is that Jackson gets to work with artists and heroes he loves such as Mr James Jean, a Taiwanese-American visual artist.
“These are the little wins that money can’t buy,” he added.
Reflecting on his journey as an entrepreneur so far, he channels one of his favorite DC Comic characters, Green Lantern. The Green Lantern is only as powerful as his will and imagination, which Jackson takes to heart.
Said Jackson: “How far you go with that depends on how broad you are willing to think and visualize. That’s exciting because it naturally creates no barriers to what one can do.”] => 對Jackson來說,工作最刺激的部分是和藝術家兼他的英雄共事,例如台裔美國視覺藝術家James Jean。
「這是金錢買不到的經歷。」他補充說。
回想起他的創業之路,Jackson借用了他最愛的DC漫畫角色綠燈俠的概念。一眾綠燈俠的力量源於自身的意志和想像力,而Jackson對此深信不疑。
Jackson說:「你可以走得多遠,取決於你的思想和願景。這叫人振奮不已,因為沒有任何限制。」
[In 2015, Jackson Aw sat across the table from a senior executive of Warner Brothers in Burbank, California.
Mighty Jaxx, the company he founded, was only three years old then. At that moment, he only had one shot and a few precious minutes to convince one of the biggest media companies in the world to partner up with a small company from Singapore.
Getting that face-to-face meeting in the U.S. was equal parts luck and due to his pro-activeness. The former came about when someone accidentally copied him in an email with the company’s Global Head of Toys.
Seizing the opportunity, Aw sent an email pitch to the top guy and surprisingly managed to get an invitation to the Warner Brothers headquarters.
“I went to the U.S. for the first time and almost died. It's just so scary, you know,” he said.
But instead of a horror show, that meeting turned out to become a blockbuster for Mighty Jaxx, which was started on a budget of S$20,000. Jackson walked out of that 15-minute meeting with an agreement to produce collectibles of some of the most famous characters in the DC Comics universe.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mighty Jaxx (@mightyjaxx)
Since then, big brands such as Hasbro, Formula 1, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Toei Animation, and Looney Tunes have signed up.
Today, Mighty Jaxx is a multimillion-dollar company that produces some of the most sought-after phygital collectibles in the world. And they did it through passion, drive, and a deep understanding of the people they make products for.
Learning the tricks of the trade from scratch
The company began life as a passion project of its founder, who used to work in digital media, developing and writing code for digital market spaces.
But his real love was in figurines and collectibles, a hobby he had kept since he was a young boy. That hobby grew over the years, and he has his eyes especially on the items made by his favorite artists.
In 2012, he decided to turn his passion into a career and left for Shenzhen on a one-way ticket to learn how collectibles are manufactured.
He spent a month knocking on the doors of factories, learning everything from molding, painting, and assembling the item, to shipping them out.
“The people there were nice enough to allow me to stay in their factories to understand the whole manufacturing process,” he said.
After he came back to Singapore energized, he founded Mighty Jaxx. He had to learn how to build everything from scratch and, because he has only ever been a creative, found the process to be very challenging.
For instance, he spent most of his time talking to people and staff instead of running a business. That realization led him to hire people to handle the administrative work, and he could focus on growing the company.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mighty Jaxx (@mightyjaxx)
The efforts paid off. Best known for their anatomical dissection style, which they worked on with Jason Freeny, a New York-based sculptor and toy designer, Mighty Jaxx now ships an array of fresh, new, and quirky collectibles to over 80 different countries worldwide.
Building global touchpoints with good logistics
Another key lesson he learned in his entrepreneurial journey was that good partners are invaluable. This was the case when it came to logistics.
In the early days of 2012, Jackson moved the company’s warehouse back and forth between China, Hong Kong and Singapore. The company did this to find the most affordable shipment routes through ad hoc deliveries on their own and smaller-scale delivery partners.
This approach, however, was riddled with problems. Customers were not able to track their items and would receive them late.
He said it was only by partnering with DHL that they solved their supply chain issues.
“After a few years, we needed to go with someone reliable like DHL to provide the right information to the right people and to deliver our products in a timely fashion,” he said.
In 2019, DHL Express Singapore became Mighty Jaxx’s logistics provider for import, export and return shipments, all over the globe. This formed a bridge for the brand to venture out at scale.
The company did encounter a stumbling block with Covid-19, when the virus forced a halt on operations at their production facility in China. But a reliable supply chain and a turnaround in operations helped successfully double their revenue over the past year and a half.
“As a global online business, last-mile delivery is actually a crucial step in our experience-driven approach. The partnership with DHL makes a lot of sense as their extensive global network allows us to connect with our customers in major cities worldwide with speed and reliability,” added Jackson.] => 2015年,Jackson Aw在美國加州伯班克和華納兄弟的高級行政人員見面。
當時,他的公司Mighty Jaxx創辦只有三年。那是他唯一的機會——他必須在短短幾分鐘內,說服世界媒體巨頭之一和他的新加坡小企業合作。
他之所以有機會和華納代表面對面傾談,一半是運氣,另一半是靠自己積極進取。一切緣起,全因有一封給華納環球玩具總監的電郵意外地抄送給他。
Jackson決定把握這個機會,將一份建議書直接發送給這位總監,出乎意料地收到回覆,對方還邀請他到華納兄弟總部見面。
「那是我第一次前往美國,嚇死人了。一切都很嚇人。」他說。
然而,那次會面卻十分順利。設立初時,Mighty Jaxx只價值20,000新加坡元,而在15分鐘的會面後,Jackson和華納達成了協議,讓Mighty Jaxx為DC漫畫最著名的一些角色生產模型。
在創業旅途中,他亦明白到優秀的夥伴是多麼重要,尤其是物流。
2012年初,Jackson將公司倉庫由中國內地、香港和新加坡之間搬來搬去,希望尋找最划算的配送路線,當時都是自己送貨,或者選用小型送貨服務。
這個方案帶來很多問題。客戶無法追蹤自己的訂單,貨件亦經常延遲送達。
他說後來找到DHL這個物流夥伴,這些供應鏈問題終於迎刃而解。
「創業幾年後,我們需要像DHL一樣可靠的物流夥伴,才能確保大家都收到正確的資訊,並迅速地運送貨件。」他說。
2019年,DHL Express新加坡成為Mighty Jaxx的物流供應商,負責全球的入口、出口和退貨事宜。這個合作關係為Mighty Jaxx打開了通往世界、擴充業務的大門。
面對新冠疫情,Mighty Jaxx亦受到一些打擊,因此疫情逼使位處中國內地的生產線停運。然而,全賴一條可靠的供應鏈,當一切恢復營運,公司便在一年半之內賺到雙倍營業額。
「我們是一門網上環球業務,特別重視客戶體驗,因此最後一哩運送是至關重要的一步。DHL是最合理的物流夥伴選擇,憑藉他們的環球網絡,我們能夠迅速可靠地將貨件送到世界各大主要城市的客戶手上。」Jackson補充說。
[wysiwyg] => wysiwyg
[callout_box] => callout_box
[outbound_box] => outbound_box
[Creating a partnership of joy] => 締造快樂的夥伴關係
[Building on this partnership, Mighty Jaxx and DHL Express have collaborated on a capsule collection, “Joy Across The Distance”. Inspired by the iconic yellow and red DHL boxes, the “Joy Across The Distance” features a myriad of collectibles that include a t-shirt, baseball cap LED box lamp, and many more that can be stored in a modular collapsible crate.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mighty Jaxx (@mightyjaxx)
"It is a joy to partner with Mighty Jaxx and witness first-hand the idea-to-creation ingenuity that the Mighty Jaxx team brings into the collection. We may operate in very different business sectors, but through this partnership, our shared pursuit of delivering excellence and joy finds a most creative union that breathes new life into both brands," said Christopher Ong, Managing Director, DHL Express Singapore.
The highlight of the capsule collection is Joy the Delivery Kid, an emotive figurine with multiple faces that embodies the hard work and joyful expression at the end of a delivery. Mighty Jaxx, with its years of experience in the collectible business, knew exactly how these emotions can be personified in a figurine.
“This capsule collection is both a great opportunity and a bold statement for us to lend our innovation and styles to showcase a different side of DHL and help both brands connect creatively to our audiences’ everyday lives,” said Jackson.] => 在合作關係之上,Mighty Jaxx和DHL Express更推出「Joy Across The Distance」聯乘系列。系列靈感來自經典紅黃DHL速遞盒,包括T恤、棒球帽、LED燈盒仔燈和更多精美設計,全部放在可摺疊的箱子內。
「我們很高興能和Mighty Jaxx成為合作夥伴,親身見證Mighty Jaxx團隊由構思到創造系列的獨特過程。我們雖然身處截然不同的業務領域,但是通過彼此的合作關係,我們找到了最具創意的模式,攜手追求卓越,為客戶帶來快樂,更為品牌注入新鮮活力。」DHL Express新加坡董事總經理Christopher Ong表示。
Joy the Delivery Kid是這個系列的主角,表情豐富的Joy充分展現了努力送貨後的滿足和愉悅。Mighty Jaxx具備多年模型業務經驗,能夠讓模型公仔表達出細膩的情感。
「這個系列是我們發揮創意和設計的大好機會,更有助DHL展示不一樣的面貌,令彼此能夠以創新的方式走進客戶的日常生活。」Jackson說。
[Not child's play: Singaporean grows top-of-mind global figurine brand from the ground up. In 2015, Jackson Aw sat across the table from a senior executive of Warner Brothers in Burbank, California.
Mighty Jaxx, the company he founded, was only three years old then. At that moment, he only had one shot and a few precious minutes to convince one of the biggest media companies in the world to partner up with a small company from Singapore.
Getting that face-to-face meeting in the U.S. was equal parts luck and due to his pro-activeness. The former came about when someone accidentally copied him in an email with the company’s Global Head of Toys.
Seizing the opportunity, Aw sent an email pitch to the top guy and surprisingly managed to get an invitation to the Warner Brothers headquarters.
“I went to the U.S. for the first time and almost died. It’s just so scary, you know,” he said.
But instead of a horror show, that meeting turned out to become a blockbuster for Mighty Jaxx, which was started on a budget of S$20,000. Jackson walked out of that 15-minute meeting with an agreement to produce collectibles of some of the most famous characters in the DC Comics universe.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mighty Jaxx (@mightyjaxx)
Since then, big brands such as Hasbro, Formula 1, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Toei Animation, and Looney Tunes have signed up.
Today, Mighty Jaxx is a multimillion-dollar company that produces some of the most sought-after phygital collectibles in the world. And they did it through passion, drive, and a deep understanding of the people they make products for.
Learning the tricks of the trade from scratch
The company began life as a passion project of its founder, who used to work in digital media, developing and writing code for digital market spaces.
But his real love was in figurines and collectibles, a hobby he had kept since he was a young boy. That hobby grew over the years, and he has his eyes especially on the items made by his favorite artists.
In 2012, he decided to turn his passion into a career and left for Shenzhen on a one-way ticket to learn how collectibles are manufactured.
He spent a month knocking on the doors of factories, learning everything from molding, painting, and assembling the item, to shipping them out.
“The people there were nice enough to allow me to stay in their factories to understand the whole manufacturing process,” he said.
After he came back to Singapore energized, he founded Mighty Jaxx. He had to learn how to build everything from scratch and, because he has only ever been a creative, found the process to be very challenging.
For instance, he spent most of his time talking to people and staff instead of running a business. That realization led him to hire people to handle the administrative work, and he could focus on growing the company.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mighty Jaxx (@mightyjaxx)
The efforts paid off. Best known for their anatomical dissection style, which they worked on with Jason Freeny, a New York-based sculptor and toy designer, Mighty Jaxx now ships an array of fresh, new, and quirky collectibles to over 80 different countries worldwide.
Building global touchpoints with good logistics
Another key lesson he learned in his entrepreneurial journey was that good partners are invaluable. This was the case when it came to logistics.
In the early days of 2012, Jackson moved the company’s warehouse back and forth between China, Hong Kong and Singapore. The company did this to find the most affordable shipment routes through ad hoc deliveries on their own and smaller-scale delivery partners.
This approach, however, was riddled with problems. Customers were not able to track their items and would receive them late.
He said it was only by partnering with DHL that they solved their supply chain issues.
“After a few years, we needed to go with someone reliable like DHL to provide the right information to the right people and to deliver our products in a timely fashion,” he said.
In 2019, DHL Express Singapore became Mighty Jaxx’s logistics provider for import, export and return shipments, all over the globe. This formed a bridge for the brand to venture out at scale.
The company did encounter a stumbling block with Covid-19, when the virus forced a halt on operations at their production facility in China. But a reliable supply chain and a turnaround in operations helped successfully double their revenue over the past year and a half.
“As a global online business, last-mile delivery is actually a crucial step in our experience-driven approach. The partnership with DHL makes a lot of sense as their extensive global network allows us to connect with our customers in major cities worldwide with speed and reliability,” added Jackson.
Creating a partnership of joyBuilding on this partnership, Mighty Jaxx and DHL Express have collaborated on a capsule collection, “Joy Across The Distance”. Inspired by the iconic yellow and red DHL boxes, the “Joy Across The Distance” features a myriad of collectibles that include a t-shirt, baseball cap LED box lamp, and many more that can be stored in a modular collapsible crate.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mighty Jaxx (@mightyjaxx)
“It is a joy to partner with Mighty Jaxx and witness first-hand the idea-to-creation ingenuity that the Mighty Jaxx team brings into the collection. We may operate in very different business sectors, but through this partnership, our shared pursuit of delivering excellence and joy finds a most creative union that breathes new life into both brands,” said Christopher Ong, Managing Director, DHL Express Singapore.
The highlight of the capsule collection is Joy the Delivery Kid, an emotive figurine with multiple faces that embodies the hard work and joyful expression at the end of a delivery. Mighty Jaxx, with its years of experience in the collectible business, knew exactly how these emotions can be personified in a figurine.
“This capsule collection is both a great opportunity and a bold statement for us to lend our innovation and styles to showcase a different side of DHL and help both brands connect creatively to our audiences’ everyday lives,” said Jackson.
A collection fueled by technology
A keen understanding of the technology space has also helped Mighty Jaxx carve out a niche that engages the community. Mighty Meta, its platform for tech-enabled figures, integrates interactivity between the collectors and collectibles.
The idea is to merge the physical and digital realm, allowing collectors to get more out of their collectibles through gamification.
For example, Mighty Jaxx’s Nubbies: Sesame Street collection is more than just a bite-sized figure. By tapping them to a mobile device equipped with near-field communication (NFC), collectors can play mini games with the Sesame Street character on the Mighty Jaxx app.
More importantly, there is an identification tagged to these NFC-enabled figures, allowing collectors to prove the authenticity of their collectibles, thus translated to their valuation.
The company has also moved into the digital space by creating Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT). Its NFT, the Huntress Gaze, sold for 1.1 Ethereum, or about US$2,163, in April 2021.
Tapping into global fandom
The value of partnerships is also clear when it comes to how Jackson approaches creative tie-ups.
Besides exclusively creating new characters, the company also leverages characters from globally popular brands and reimagines them to create a unique product. And the company did this by focusing on one thing: the fans themselves.
“In doing so, we bring in all their fandom onto our platform, onto our brand. That’s why we can grow rather quickly,” said Jackson.
But beyond the creative process, Jackson noted that the company’s success is driven by a deep understanding of what it means to be a fan and the nostalgia that comes with it.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mighty Jaxx (@mightyjaxx)
For instance, one of their most sort after collectibles is from the anime One Piece. The popular Japanese manga already has 20 years of history, and a following that numbers millions of fans across the globe.
“Anytime a fan sees or hears the opening theme song, they will immediately associate it with One Piece, right? So that’s the power of fandom we are looking for.”
RELATED ARTICLESDigitalization and e-commerce turning the page for manga and Japanese artistsJapan’s manga is massively popular overseas, but getting the artwork safely to fans required some original thinking.The most exciting part about his job is that Jackson gets to work with artists and heroes he loves such as Mr James Jean, a Taiwanese-American visual artist.
“These are the little wins that money can’t buy,” he added.
Reflecting on his journey as an entrepreneur so far, he channels one of his favorite DC Comic characters, Green Lantern. The Green Lantern is only as powerful as his will and imagination, which Jackson takes to heart.
Said Jackson: “How far you go with that depends on how broad you are willing to think and visualize. That’s exciting because it naturally creates no barriers to what one can do.”] =>
Array
(
[derick] => Array
(
[Building Mighty Jaxx from a hobby into a multimillion-dollar business %] => MIGHTY JAXX:由興趣演變成百萬企業
[Not child's play: Singaporean grows top-of-mind global figurine brand from the ground up.] => 絕不兒戲:新加坡創業家由零開始建立他的環球模型品牌。
[[]] =>
[Building Mighty Jaxx from a hobby into a multimillion-dollar business] => MIGHTY JAXX:由興趣演變成百萬企業
[A collection fueled by technology
A keen understanding of the technology space has also helped Mighty Jaxx carve out a niche that engages the community. Mighty Meta, its platform for tech-enabled figures, integrates interactivity between the collectors and collectibles.
The idea is to merge the physical and digital realm, allowing collectors to get more out of their collectibles through gamification.
For example, Mighty Jaxx’s Nubbies: Sesame Street collection is more than just a bite-sized figure. By tapping them to a mobile device equipped with near-field communication (NFC), collectors can play mini games with the Sesame Street character on the Mighty Jaxx app.
More importantly, there is an identification tagged to these NFC-enabled figures, allowing collectors to prove the authenticity of their collectibles, thus translated to their valuation.
The company has also moved into the digital space by creating Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT). Its NFT, the Huntress Gaze, sold for 1.1 Ethereum, or about US$2,163, in April 2021.
Tapping into global fandom
The value of partnerships is also clear when it comes to how Jackson approaches creative tie-ups.
Besides exclusively creating new characters, the company also leverages characters from globally popular brands and reimagines them to create a unique product. And the company did this by focusing on one thing: the fans themselves.
“In doing so, we bring in all their fandom onto our platform, onto our brand. That's why we can grow rather quickly,” said Jackson.
But beyond the creative process, Jackson noted that the company’s success is driven by a deep understanding of what it means to be a fan and the nostalgia that comes with it.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mighty Jaxx (@mightyjaxx)
For instance, one of their most sort after collectibles is from the anime One Piece. The popular Japanese manga already has 20 years of history, and a following that numbers millions of fans across the globe.
“Anytime a fan sees or hears the opening theme song, they will immediately associate it with One Piece, right? So that’s the power of fandom we are looking for.”] =>
例如來自《One Piece》海賊王的玩具是品牌最受歡迎的產品,這一部大紫大紅的漫畫作品已有20年歷史,全球粉絲可謂數以百萬計。
「粉絲每次聽到片頭曲的旋律,便會立即聯想到One Piece。這就是粉絲群的力量,亦是我們所追求的號召力。」
[The most exciting part about his job is that Jackson gets to work with artists and heroes he loves such as Mr James Jean, a Taiwanese-American visual artist.
“These are the little wins that money can’t buy,” he added.
Reflecting on his journey as an entrepreneur so far, he channels one of his favorite DC Comic characters, Green Lantern. The Green Lantern is only as powerful as his will and imagination, which Jackson takes to heart.
Said Jackson: “How far you go with that depends on how broad you are willing to think and visualize. That’s exciting because it naturally creates no barriers to what one can do.”] => 對Jackson來說,工作最刺激的部分是和藝術家兼他的英雄共事,例如台裔美國視覺藝術家James Jean。
「這是金錢買不到的經歷。」他補充說。
回想起他的創業之路,Jackson借用了他最愛的DC漫畫角色綠燈俠的概念。一眾綠燈俠的力量源於自身的意志和想像力,而Jackson對此深信不疑。
Jackson說:「你可以走得多遠,取決於你的思想和願景。這叫人振奮不已,因為沒有任何限制。」
[In 2015, Jackson Aw sat across the table from a senior executive of Warner Brothers in Burbank, California.
Mighty Jaxx, the company he founded, was only three years old then. At that moment, he only had one shot and a few precious minutes to convince one of the biggest media companies in the world to partner up with a small company from Singapore.
Getting that face-to-face meeting in the U.S. was equal parts luck and due to his pro-activeness. The former came about when someone accidentally copied him in an email with the company’s Global Head of Toys.
Seizing the opportunity, Aw sent an email pitch to the top guy and surprisingly managed to get an invitation to the Warner Brothers headquarters.
“I went to the U.S. for the first time and almost died. It's just so scary, you know,” he said.
But instead of a horror show, that meeting turned out to become a blockbuster for Mighty Jaxx, which was started on a budget of S$20,000. Jackson walked out of that 15-minute meeting with an agreement to produce collectibles of some of the most famous characters in the DC Comics universe.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mighty Jaxx (@mightyjaxx)
Since then, big brands such as Hasbro, Formula 1, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Toei Animation, and Looney Tunes have signed up.
Today, Mighty Jaxx is a multimillion-dollar company that produces some of the most sought-after phygital collectibles in the world. And they did it through passion, drive, and a deep understanding of the people they make products for.
Learning the tricks of the trade from scratch
The company began life as a passion project of its founder, who used to work in digital media, developing and writing code for digital market spaces.
But his real love was in figurines and collectibles, a hobby he had kept since he was a young boy. That hobby grew over the years, and he has his eyes especially on the items made by his favorite artists.
In 2012, he decided to turn his passion into a career and left for Shenzhen on a one-way ticket to learn how collectibles are manufactured.
He spent a month knocking on the doors of factories, learning everything from molding, painting, and assembling the item, to shipping them out.
“The people there were nice enough to allow me to stay in their factories to understand the whole manufacturing process,” he said.
After he came back to Singapore energized, he founded Mighty Jaxx. He had to learn how to build everything from scratch and, because he has only ever been a creative, found the process to be very challenging.
For instance, he spent most of his time talking to people and staff instead of running a business. That realization led him to hire people to handle the administrative work, and he could focus on growing the company.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mighty Jaxx (@mightyjaxx)
The efforts paid off. Best known for their anatomical dissection style, which they worked on with Jason Freeny, a New York-based sculptor and toy designer, Mighty Jaxx now ships an array of fresh, new, and quirky collectibles to over 80 different countries worldwide.
Building global touchpoints with good logistics
Another key lesson he learned in his entrepreneurial journey was that good partners are invaluable. This was the case when it came to logistics.
In the early days of 2012, Jackson moved the company’s warehouse back and forth between China, Hong Kong and Singapore. The company did this to find the most affordable shipment routes through ad hoc deliveries on their own and smaller-scale delivery partners.
This approach, however, was riddled with problems. Customers were not able to track their items and would receive them late.
He said it was only by partnering with DHL that they solved their supply chain issues.
“After a few years, we needed to go with someone reliable like DHL to provide the right information to the right people and to deliver our products in a timely fashion,” he said.
In 2019, DHL Express Singapore became Mighty Jaxx’s logistics provider for import, export and return shipments, all over the globe. This formed a bridge for the brand to venture out at scale.
The company did encounter a stumbling block with Covid-19, when the virus forced a halt on operations at their production facility in China. But a reliable supply chain and a turnaround in operations helped successfully double their revenue over the past year and a half.
“As a global online business, last-mile delivery is actually a crucial step in our experience-driven approach. The partnership with DHL makes a lot of sense as their extensive global network allows us to connect with our customers in major cities worldwide with speed and reliability,” added Jackson.] => 2015年,Jackson Aw在美國加州伯班克和華納兄弟的高級行政人員見面。
當時,他的公司Mighty Jaxx創辦只有三年。那是他唯一的機會——他必須在短短幾分鐘內,說服世界媒體巨頭之一和他的新加坡小企業合作。
他之所以有機會和華納代表面對面傾談,一半是運氣,另一半是靠自己積極進取。一切緣起,全因有一封給華納環球玩具總監的電郵意外地抄送給他。
Jackson決定把握這個機會,將一份建議書直接發送給這位總監,出乎意料地收到回覆,對方還邀請他到華納兄弟總部見面。
「那是我第一次前往美國,嚇死人了。一切都很嚇人。」他說。
然而,那次會面卻十分順利。設立初時,Mighty Jaxx只價值20,000新加坡元,而在15分鐘的會面後,Jackson和華納達成了協議,讓Mighty Jaxx為DC漫畫最著名的一些角色生產模型。
在創業旅途中,他亦明白到優秀的夥伴是多麼重要,尤其是物流。
2012年初,Jackson將公司倉庫由中國內地、香港和新加坡之間搬來搬去,希望尋找最划算的配送路線,當時都是自己送貨,或者選用小型送貨服務。
這個方案帶來很多問題。客戶無法追蹤自己的訂單,貨件亦經常延遲送達。
他說後來找到DHL這個物流夥伴,這些供應鏈問題終於迎刃而解。
「創業幾年後,我們需要像DHL一樣可靠的物流夥伴,才能確保大家都收到正確的資訊,並迅速地運送貨件。」他說。
2019年,DHL Express新加坡成為Mighty Jaxx的物流供應商,負責全球的入口、出口和退貨事宜。這個合作關係為Mighty Jaxx打開了通往世界、擴充業務的大門。
面對新冠疫情,Mighty Jaxx亦受到一些打擊,因此疫情逼使位處中國內地的生產線停運。然而,全賴一條可靠的供應鏈,當一切恢復營運,公司便在一年半之內賺到雙倍營業額。
「我們是一門網上環球業務,特別重視客戶體驗,因此最後一哩運送是至關重要的一步。DHL是最合理的物流夥伴選擇,憑藉他們的環球網絡,我們能夠迅速可靠地將貨件送到世界各大主要城市的客戶手上。」Jackson補充說。
[wysiwyg] => wysiwyg
[callout_box] => callout_box
[outbound_box] => outbound_box
[Creating a partnership of joy] => 締造快樂的夥伴關係
[Building on this partnership, Mighty Jaxx and DHL Express have collaborated on a capsule collection, “Joy Across The Distance”. Inspired by the iconic yellow and red DHL boxes, the “Joy Across The Distance” features a myriad of collectibles that include a t-shirt, baseball cap LED box lamp, and many more that can be stored in a modular collapsible crate.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mighty Jaxx (@mightyjaxx)
"It is a joy to partner with Mighty Jaxx and witness first-hand the idea-to-creation ingenuity that the Mighty Jaxx team brings into the collection. We may operate in very different business sectors, but through this partnership, our shared pursuit of delivering excellence and joy finds a most creative union that breathes new life into both brands," said Christopher Ong, Managing Director, DHL Express Singapore.
The highlight of the capsule collection is Joy the Delivery Kid, an emotive figurine with multiple faces that embodies the hard work and joyful expression at the end of a delivery. Mighty Jaxx, with its years of experience in the collectible business, knew exactly how these emotions can be personified in a figurine.
“This capsule collection is both a great opportunity and a bold statement for us to lend our innovation and styles to showcase a different side of DHL and help both brands connect creatively to our audiences’ everyday lives,” said Jackson.] => 在合作關係之上,Mighty Jaxx和DHL Express更推出「Joy Across The Distance」聯乘系列。系列靈感來自經典紅黃DHL速遞盒,包括T恤、棒球帽、LED燈盒仔燈和更多精美設計,全部放在可摺疊的箱子內。
「我們很高興能和Mighty Jaxx成為合作夥伴,親身見證Mighty Jaxx團隊由構思到創造系列的獨特過程。我們雖然身處截然不同的業務領域,但是通過彼此的合作關係,我們找到了最具創意的模式,攜手追求卓越,為客戶帶來快樂,更為品牌注入新鮮活力。」DHL Express新加坡董事總經理Christopher Ong表示。
Joy the Delivery Kid是這個系列的主角,表情豐富的Joy充分展現了努力送貨後的滿足和愉悅。Mighty Jaxx具備多年模型業務經驗,能夠讓模型公仔表達出細膩的情感。
「這個系列是我們發揮創意和設計的大好機會,更有助DHL展示不一樣的面貌,令彼此能夠以創新的方式走進客戶的日常生活。」Jackson說。
[Not child's play: Singaporean grows top-of-mind global figurine brand from the ground up. In 2015, Jackson Aw sat across the table from a senior executive of Warner Brothers in Burbank, California.
Mighty Jaxx, the company he founded, was only three years old then. At that moment, he only had one shot and a few precious minutes to convince one of the biggest media companies in the world to partner up with a small company from Singapore.
Getting that face-to-face meeting in the U.S. was equal parts luck and due to his pro-activeness. The former came about when someone accidentally copied him in an email with the company’s Global Head of Toys.
Seizing the opportunity, Aw sent an email pitch to the top guy and surprisingly managed to get an invitation to the Warner Brothers headquarters.
“I went to the U.S. for the first time and almost died. It’s just so scary, you know,” he said.
But instead of a horror show, that meeting turned out to become a blockbuster for Mighty Jaxx, which was started on a budget of S$20,000. Jackson walked out of that 15-minute meeting with an agreement to produce collectibles of some of the most famous characters in the DC Comics universe.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mighty Jaxx (@mightyjaxx)
Since then, big brands such as Hasbro, Formula 1, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Toei Animation, and Looney Tunes have signed up.
Today, Mighty Jaxx is a multimillion-dollar company that produces some of the most sought-after phygital collectibles in the world. And they did it through passion, drive, and a deep understanding of the people they make products for.
Learning the tricks of the trade from scratch
The company began life as a passion project of its founder, who used to work in digital media, developing and writing code for digital market spaces.
But his real love was in figurines and collectibles, a hobby he had kept since he was a young boy. That hobby grew over the years, and he has his eyes especially on the items made by his favorite artists.
In 2012, he decided to turn his passion into a career and left for Shenzhen on a one-way ticket to learn how collectibles are manufactured.
He spent a month knocking on the doors of factories, learning everything from molding, painting, and assembling the item, to shipping them out.
“The people there were nice enough to allow me to stay in their factories to understand the whole manufacturing process,” he said.
After he came back to Singapore energized, he founded Mighty Jaxx. He had to learn how to build everything from scratch and, because he has only ever been a creative, found the process to be very challenging.
For instance, he spent most of his time talking to people and staff instead of running a business. That realization led him to hire people to handle the administrative work, and he could focus on growing the company.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mighty Jaxx (@mightyjaxx)
The efforts paid off. Best known for their anatomical dissection style, which they worked on with Jason Freeny, a New York-based sculptor and toy designer, Mighty Jaxx now ships an array of fresh, new, and quirky collectibles to over 80 different countries worldwide.
Building global touchpoints with good logistics
Another key lesson he learned in his entrepreneurial journey was that good partners are invaluable. This was the case when it came to logistics.
In the early days of 2012, Jackson moved the company’s warehouse back and forth between China, Hong Kong and Singapore. The company did this to find the most affordable shipment routes through ad hoc deliveries on their own and smaller-scale delivery partners.
This approach, however, was riddled with problems. Customers were not able to track their items and would receive them late.
He said it was only by partnering with DHL that they solved their supply chain issues.
“After a few years, we needed to go with someone reliable like DHL to provide the right information to the right people and to deliver our products in a timely fashion,” he said.
In 2019, DHL Express Singapore became Mighty Jaxx’s logistics provider for import, export and return shipments, all over the globe. This formed a bridge for the brand to venture out at scale.
The company did encounter a stumbling block with Covid-19, when the virus forced a halt on operations at their production facility in China. But a reliable supply chain and a turnaround in operations helped successfully double their revenue over the past year and a half.
“As a global online business, last-mile delivery is actually a crucial step in our experience-driven approach. The partnership with DHL makes a lot of sense as their extensive global network allows us to connect with our customers in major cities worldwide with speed and reliability,” added Jackson.
Creating a partnership of joyBuilding on this partnership, Mighty Jaxx and DHL Express have collaborated on a capsule collection, “Joy Across The Distance”. Inspired by the iconic yellow and red DHL boxes, the “Joy Across The Distance” features a myriad of collectibles that include a t-shirt, baseball cap LED box lamp, and many more that can be stored in a modular collapsible crate.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mighty Jaxx (@mightyjaxx)
“It is a joy to partner with Mighty Jaxx and witness first-hand the idea-to-creation ingenuity that the Mighty Jaxx team brings into the collection. We may operate in very different business sectors, but through this partnership, our shared pursuit of delivering excellence and joy finds a most creative union that breathes new life into both brands,” said Christopher Ong, Managing Director, DHL Express Singapore.
The highlight of the capsule collection is Joy the Delivery Kid, an emotive figurine with multiple faces that embodies the hard work and joyful expression at the end of a delivery. Mighty Jaxx, with its years of experience in the collectible business, knew exactly how these emotions can be personified in a figurine.
“This capsule collection is both a great opportunity and a bold statement for us to lend our innovation and styles to showcase a different side of DHL and help both brands connect creatively to our audiences’ everyday lives,” said Jackson.
A collection fueled by technology
A keen understanding of the technology space has also helped Mighty Jaxx carve out a niche that engages the community. Mighty Meta, its platform for tech-enabled figures, integrates interactivity between the collectors and collectibles.
The idea is to merge the physical and digital realm, allowing collectors to get more out of their collectibles through gamification.
For example, Mighty Jaxx’s Nubbies: Sesame Street collection is more than just a bite-sized figure. By tapping them to a mobile device equipped with near-field communication (NFC), collectors can play mini games with the Sesame Street character on the Mighty Jaxx app.
More importantly, there is an identification tagged to these NFC-enabled figures, allowing collectors to prove the authenticity of their collectibles, thus translated to their valuation.
The company has also moved into the digital space by creating Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT). Its NFT, the Huntress Gaze, sold for 1.1 Ethereum, or about US$2,163, in April 2021.
Tapping into global fandom
The value of partnerships is also clear when it comes to how Jackson approaches creative tie-ups.
Besides exclusively creating new characters, the company also leverages characters from globally popular brands and reimagines them to create a unique product. And the company did this by focusing on one thing: the fans themselves.
“In doing so, we bring in all their fandom onto our platform, onto our brand. That’s why we can grow rather quickly,” said Jackson.
But beyond the creative process, Jackson noted that the company’s success is driven by a deep understanding of what it means to be a fan and the nostalgia that comes with it.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mighty Jaxx (@mightyjaxx)
For instance, one of their most sort after collectibles is from the anime One Piece. The popular Japanese manga already has 20 years of history, and a following that numbers millions of fans across the globe.
“Anytime a fan sees or hears the opening theme song, they will immediately associate it with One Piece, right? So that’s the power of fandom we are looking for.”
RELATED ARTICLESDigitalization and e-commerce turning the page for manga and Japanese artistsJapan’s manga is massively popular overseas, but getting the artwork safely to fans required some original thinking.The most exciting part about his job is that Jackson gets to work with artists and heroes he loves such as Mr James Jean, a Taiwanese-American visual artist.
“These are the little wins that money can’t buy,” he added.
Reflecting on his journey as an entrepreneur so far, he channels one of his favorite DC Comic characters, Green Lantern. The Green Lantern is only as powerful as his will and imagination, which Jackson takes to heart.
Said Jackson: “How far you go with that depends on how broad you are willing to think and visualize. That’s exciting because it naturally creates no barriers to what one can do.”] =>
Array
(
[derick] => Array
(
[Building Mighty Jaxx from a hobby into a multimillion-dollar business %] => MIGHTY JAXX:由興趣演變成百萬企業
[Not child's play: Singaporean grows top-of-mind global figurine brand from the ground up.] => 絕不兒戲:新加坡創業家由零開始建立他的環球模型品牌。
[[]] =>
[Building Mighty Jaxx from a hobby into a multimillion-dollar business] => MIGHTY JAXX:由興趣演變成百萬企業
[A collection fueled by technology
A keen understanding of the technology space has also helped Mighty Jaxx carve out a niche that engages the community. Mighty Meta, its platform for tech-enabled figures, integrates interactivity between the collectors and collectibles.
The idea is to merge the physical and digital realm, allowing collectors to get more out of their collectibles through gamification.
For example, Mighty Jaxx’s Nubbies: Sesame Street collection is more than just a bite-sized figure. By tapping them to a mobile device equipped with near-field communication (NFC), collectors can play mini games with the Sesame Street character on the Mighty Jaxx app.
More importantly, there is an identification tagged to these NFC-enabled figures, allowing collectors to prove the authenticity of their collectibles, thus translated to their valuation.
The company has also moved into the digital space by creating Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT). Its NFT, the Huntress Gaze, sold for 1.1 Ethereum, or about US$2,163, in April 2021.
Tapping into global fandom
The value of partnerships is also clear when it comes to how Jackson approaches creative tie-ups.
Besides exclusively creating new characters, the company also leverages characters from globally popular brands and reimagines them to create a unique product. And the company did this by focusing on one thing: the fans themselves.
“In doing so, we bring in all their fandom onto our platform, onto our brand. That's why we can grow rather quickly,” said Jackson.
But beyond the creative process, Jackson noted that the company’s success is driven by a deep understanding of what it means to be a fan and the nostalgia that comes with it.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mighty Jaxx (@mightyjaxx)
For instance, one of their most sort after collectibles is from the anime One Piece. The popular Japanese manga already has 20 years of history, and a following that numbers millions of fans across the globe.
“Anytime a fan sees or hears the opening theme song, they will immediately associate it with One Piece, right? So that’s the power of fandom we are looking for.”] =>
例如來自《One Piece》海賊王的玩具是品牌最受歡迎的產品,這一部大紫大紅的漫畫作品已有20年歷史,全球粉絲可謂數以百萬計。
「粉絲每次聽到片頭曲的旋律,便會立即聯想到One Piece。這就是粉絲群的力量,亦是我們所追求的號召力。」
[The most exciting part about his job is that Jackson gets to work with artists and heroes he loves such as Mr James Jean, a Taiwanese-American visual artist.
“These are the little wins that money can’t buy,” he added.
Reflecting on his journey as an entrepreneur so far, he channels one of his favorite DC Comic characters, Green Lantern. The Green Lantern is only as powerful as his will and imagination, which Jackson takes to heart.
Said Jackson: “How far you go with that depends on how broad you are willing to think and visualize. That’s exciting because it naturally creates no barriers to what one can do.”] => 對Jackson來說,工作最刺激的部分是和藝術家兼他的英雄共事,例如台裔美國視覺藝術家James Jean。
「這是金錢買不到的經歷。」他補充說。
回想起他的創業之路,Jackson借用了他最愛的DC漫畫角色綠燈俠的概念。一眾綠燈俠的力量源於自身的意志和想像力,而Jackson對此深信不疑。
Jackson說:「你可以走得多遠,取決於你的思想和願景。這叫人振奮不已,因為沒有任何限制。」
[In 2015, Jackson Aw sat across the table from a senior executive of Warner Brothers in Burbank, California.
Mighty Jaxx, the company he founded, was only three years old then. At that moment, he only had one shot and a few precious minutes to convince one of the biggest media companies in the world to partner up with a small company from Singapore.
Getting that face-to-face meeting in the U.S. was equal parts luck and due to his pro-activeness. The former came about when someone accidentally copied him in an email with the company’s Global Head of Toys.
Seizing the opportunity, Aw sent an email pitch to the top guy and surprisingly managed to get an invitation to the Warner Brothers headquarters.
“I went to the U.S. for the first time and almost died. It's just so scary, you know,” he said.
But instead of a horror show, that meeting turned out to become a blockbuster for Mighty Jaxx, which was started on a budget of S$20,000. Jackson walked out of that 15-minute meeting with an agreement to produce collectibles of some of the most famous characters in the DC Comics universe.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mighty Jaxx (@mightyjaxx)
Since then, big brands such as Hasbro, Formula 1, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Toei Animation, and Looney Tunes have signed up.
Today, Mighty Jaxx is a multimillion-dollar company that produces some of the most sought-after phygital collectibles in the world. And they did it through passion, drive, and a deep understanding of the people they make products for.
Learning the tricks of the trade from scratch
The company began life as a passion project of its founder, who used to work in digital media, developing and writing code for digital market spaces.
But his real love was in figurines and collectibles, a hobby he had kept since he was a young boy. That hobby grew over the years, and he has his eyes especially on the items made by his favorite artists.
In 2012, he decided to turn his passion into a career and left for Shenzhen on a one-way ticket to learn how collectibles are manufactured.
He spent a month knocking on the doors of factories, learning everything from molding, painting, and assembling the item, to shipping them out.
“The people there were nice enough to allow me to stay in their factories to understand the whole manufacturing process,” he said.
After he came back to Singapore energized, he founded Mighty Jaxx. He had to learn how to build everything from scratch and, because he has only ever been a creative, found the process to be very challenging.
For instance, he spent most of his time talking to people and staff instead of running a business. That realization led him to hire people to handle the administrative work, and he could focus on growing the company.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mighty Jaxx (@mightyjaxx)
The efforts paid off. Best known for their anatomical dissection style, which they worked on with Jason Freeny, a New York-based sculptor and toy designer, Mighty Jaxx now ships an array of fresh, new, and quirky collectibles to over 80 different countries worldwide.
Building global touchpoints with good logistics
Another key lesson he learned in his entrepreneurial journey was that good partners are invaluable. This was the case when it came to logistics.
In the early days of 2012, Jackson moved the company’s warehouse back and forth between China, Hong Kong and Singapore. The company did this to find the most affordable shipment routes through ad hoc deliveries on their own and smaller-scale delivery partners.
This approach, however, was riddled with problems. Customers were not able to track their items and would receive them late.
He said it was only by partnering with DHL that they solved their supply chain issues.
“After a few years, we needed to go with someone reliable like DHL to provide the right information to the right people and to deliver our products in a timely fashion,” he said.
In 2019, DHL Express Singapore became Mighty Jaxx’s logistics provider for import, export and return shipments, all over the globe. This formed a bridge for the brand to venture out at scale.
The company did encounter a stumbling block with Covid-19, when the virus forced a halt on operations at their production facility in China. But a reliable supply chain and a turnaround in operations helped successfully double their revenue over the past year and a half.
“As a global online business, last-mile delivery is actually a crucial step in our experience-driven approach. The partnership with DHL makes a lot of sense as their extensive global network allows us to connect with our customers in major cities worldwide with speed and reliability,” added Jackson.] => 2015年,Jackson Aw在美國加州伯班克和華納兄弟的高級行政人員見面。
當時,他的公司Mighty Jaxx創辦只有三年。那是他唯一的機會——他必須在短短幾分鐘內,說服世界媒體巨頭之一和他的新加坡小企業合作。
他之所以有機會和華納代表面對面傾談,一半是運氣,另一半是靠自己積極進取。一切緣起,全因有一封給華納環球玩具總監的電郵意外地抄送給他。
Jackson決定把握這個機會,將一份建議書直接發送給這位總監,出乎意料地收到回覆,對方還邀請他到華納兄弟總部見面。
「那是我第一次前往美國,嚇死人了。一切都很嚇人。」他說。
然而,那次會面卻十分順利。設立初時,Mighty Jaxx只價值20,000新加坡元,而在15分鐘的會面後,Jackson和華納達成了協議,讓Mighty Jaxx為DC漫畫最著名的一些角色生產模型。
在創業旅途中,他亦明白到優秀的夥伴是多麼重要,尤其是物流。
2012年初,Jackson將公司倉庫由中國內地、香港和新加坡之間搬來搬去,希望尋找最划算的配送路線,當時都是自己送貨,或者選用小型送貨服務。
這個方案帶來很多問題。客戶無法追蹤自己的訂單,貨件亦經常延遲送達。
他說後來找到DHL這個物流夥伴,這些供應鏈問題終於迎刃而解。
「創業幾年後,我們需要像DHL一樣可靠的物流夥伴,才能確保大家都收到正確的資訊,並迅速地運送貨件。」他說。
2019年,DHL Express新加坡成為Mighty Jaxx的物流供應商,負責全球的入口、出口和退貨事宜。這個合作關係為Mighty Jaxx打開了通往世界、擴充業務的大門。
面對新冠疫情,Mighty Jaxx亦受到一些打擊,因此疫情逼使位處中國內地的生產線停運。然而,全賴一條可靠的供應鏈,當一切恢復營運,公司便在一年半之內賺到雙倍營業額。
「我們是一門網上環球業務,特別重視客戶體驗,因此最後一哩運送是至關重要的一步。DHL是最合理的物流夥伴選擇,憑藉他們的環球網絡,我們能夠迅速可靠地將貨件送到世界各大主要城市的客戶手上。」Jackson補充說。
[wysiwyg] => wysiwyg
[callout_box] => callout_box
[outbound_box] => outbound_box
[Creating a partnership of joy] => 締造快樂的夥伴關係
[Building on this partnership, Mighty Jaxx and DHL Express have collaborated on a capsule collection, “Joy Across The Distance”. Inspired by the iconic yellow and red DHL boxes, the “Joy Across The Distance” features a myriad of collectibles that include a t-shirt, baseball cap LED box lamp, and many more that can be stored in a modular collapsible crate.
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"It is a joy to partner with Mighty Jaxx and witness first-hand the idea-to-creation ingenuity that the Mighty Jaxx team brings into the collection. We may operate in very different business sectors, but through this partnership, our shared pursuit of delivering excellence and joy finds a most creative union that breathes new life into both brands," said Christopher Ong, Managing Director, DHL Express Singapore.
The highlight of the capsule collection is Joy the Delivery Kid, an emotive figurine with multiple faces that embodies the hard work and joyful expression at the end of a delivery. Mighty Jaxx, with its years of experience in the collectible business, knew exactly how these emotions can be personified in a figurine.
“This capsule collection is both a great opportunity and a bold statement for us to lend our innovation and styles to showcase a different side of DHL and help both brands connect creatively to our audiences’ everyday lives,” said Jackson.] => 在合作關係之上,Mighty Jaxx和DHL Express更推出「Joy Across The Distance」聯乘系列。系列靈感來自經典紅黃DHL速遞盒,包括T恤、棒球帽、LED燈盒仔燈和更多精美設計,全部放在可摺疊的箱子內。
「我們很高興能和Mighty Jaxx成為合作夥伴,親身見證Mighty Jaxx團隊由構思到創造系列的獨特過程。我們雖然身處截然不同的業務領域,但是通過彼此的合作關係,我們找到了最具創意的模式,攜手追求卓越,為客戶帶來快樂,更為品牌注入新鮮活力。」DHL Express新加坡董事總經理Christopher Ong表示。
Joy the Delivery Kid是這個系列的主角,表情豐富的Joy充分展現了努力送貨後的滿足和愉悅。Mighty Jaxx具備多年模型業務經驗,能夠讓模型公仔表達出細膩的情感。
「這個系列是我們發揮創意和設計的大好機會,更有助DHL展示不一樣的面貌,令彼此能夠以創新的方式走進客戶的日常生活。」Jackson說。
[Not child's play: Singaporean grows top-of-mind global figurine brand from the ground up. In 2015, Jackson Aw sat across the table from a senior executive of Warner Brothers in Burbank, California.
Mighty Jaxx, the company he founded, was only three years old then. At that moment, he only had one shot and a few precious minutes to convince one of the biggest media companies in the world to partner up with a small company from Singapore.
Getting that face-to-face meeting in the U.S. was equal parts luck and due to his pro-activeness. The former came about when someone accidentally copied him in an email with the company’s Global Head of Toys.
Seizing the opportunity, Aw sent an email pitch to the top guy and surprisingly managed to get an invitation to the Warner Brothers headquarters.
“I went to the U.S. for the first time and almost died. It’s just so scary, you know,” he said.
But instead of a horror show, that meeting turned out to become a blockbuster for Mighty Jaxx, which was started on a budget of S$20,000. Jackson walked out of that 15-minute meeting with an agreement to produce collectibles of some of the most famous characters in the DC Comics universe.
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Since then, big brands such as Hasbro, Formula 1, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Toei Animation, and Looney Tunes have signed up.
Today, Mighty Jaxx is a multimillion-dollar company that produces some of the most sought-after phygital collectibles in the world. And they did it through passion, drive, and a deep understanding of the people they make products for.
Learning the tricks of the trade from scratch
The company began life as a passion project of its founder, who used to work in digital media, developing and writing code for digital market spaces.
But his real love was in figurines and collectibles, a hobby he had kept since he was a young boy. That hobby grew over the years, and he has his eyes especially on the items made by his favorite artists.
In 2012, he decided to turn his passion into a career and left for Shenzhen on a one-way ticket to learn how collectibles are manufactured.
He spent a month knocking on the doors of factories, learning everything from molding, painting, and assembling the item, to shipping them out.
“The people there were nice enough to allow me to stay in their factories to understand the whole manufacturing process,” he said.
After he came back to Singapore energized, he founded Mighty Jaxx. He had to learn how to build everything from scratch and, because he has only ever been a creative, found the process to be very challenging.
For instance, he spent most of his time talking to people and staff instead of running a business. That realization led him to hire people to handle the administrative work, and he could focus on growing the company.
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The efforts paid off. Best known for their anatomical dissection style, which they worked on with Jason Freeny, a New York-based sculptor and toy designer, Mighty Jaxx now ships an array of fresh, new, and quirky collectibles to over 80 different countries worldwide.
Building global touchpoints with good logistics
Another key lesson he learned in his entrepreneurial journey was that good partners are invaluable. This was the case when it came to logistics.
In the early days of 2012, Jackson moved the company’s warehouse back and forth between China, Hong Kong and Singapore. The company did this to find the most affordable shipment routes through ad hoc deliveries on their own and smaller-scale delivery partners.
This approach, however, was riddled with problems. Customers were not able to track their items and would receive them late.
He said it was only by partnering with DHL that they solved their supply chain issues.
“After a few years, we needed to go with someone reliable like DHL to provide the right information to the right people and to deliver our products in a timely fashion,” he said.
In 2019, DHL Express Singapore became Mighty Jaxx’s logistics provider for import, export and return shipments, all over the globe. This formed a bridge for the brand to venture out at scale.
The company did encounter a stumbling block with Covid-19, when the virus forced a halt on operations at their production facility in China. But a reliable supply chain and a turnaround in operations helped successfully double their revenue over the past year and a half.
“As a global online business, last-mile delivery is actually a crucial step in our experience-driven approach. The partnership with DHL makes a lot of sense as their extensive global network allows us to connect with our customers in major cities worldwide with speed and reliability,” added Jackson.
Creating a partnership of joyBuilding on this partnership, Mighty Jaxx and DHL Express have collaborated on a capsule collection, “Joy Across The Distance”. Inspired by the iconic yellow and red DHL boxes, the “Joy Across The Distance” features a myriad of collectibles that include a t-shirt, baseball cap LED box lamp, and many more that can be stored in a modular collapsible crate.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mighty Jaxx (@mightyjaxx)
“It is a joy to partner with Mighty Jaxx and witness first-hand the idea-to-creation ingenuity that the Mighty Jaxx team brings into the collection. We may operate in very different business sectors, but through this partnership, our shared pursuit of delivering excellence and joy finds a most creative union that breathes new life into both brands,” said Christopher Ong, Managing Director, DHL Express Singapore.
The highlight of the capsule collection is Joy the Delivery Kid, an emotive figurine with multiple faces that embodies the hard work and joyful expression at the end of a delivery. Mighty Jaxx, with its years of experience in the collectible business, knew exactly how these emotions can be personified in a figurine.
“This capsule collection is both a great opportunity and a bold statement for us to lend our innovation and styles to showcase a different side of DHL and help both brands connect creatively to our audiences’ everyday lives,” said Jackson.
A collection fueled by technology
A keen understanding of the technology space has also helped Mighty Jaxx carve out a niche that engages the community. Mighty Meta, its platform for tech-enabled figures, integrates interactivity between the collectors and collectibles.
The idea is to merge the physical and digital realm, allowing collectors to get more out of their collectibles through gamification.
For example, Mighty Jaxx’s Nubbies: Sesame Street collection is more than just a bite-sized figure. By tapping them to a mobile device equipped with near-field communication (NFC), collectors can play mini games with the Sesame Street character on the Mighty Jaxx app.
More importantly, there is an identification tagged to these NFC-enabled figures, allowing collectors to prove the authenticity of their collectibles, thus translated to their valuation.
The company has also moved into the digital space by creating Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT). Its NFT, the Huntress Gaze, sold for 1.1 Ethereum, or about US$2,163, in April 2021.
Tapping into global fandom
The value of partnerships is also clear when it comes to how Jackson approaches creative tie-ups.
Besides exclusively creating new characters, the company also leverages characters from globally popular brands and reimagines them to create a unique product. And the company did this by focusing on one thing: the fans themselves.
“In doing so, we bring in all their fandom onto our platform, onto our brand. That’s why we can grow rather quickly,” said Jackson.
But beyond the creative process, Jackson noted that the company’s success is driven by a deep understanding of what it means to be a fan and the nostalgia that comes with it.
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For instance, one of their most sort after collectibles is from the anime One Piece. The popular Japanese manga already has 20 years of history, and a following that numbers millions of fans across the globe.
“Anytime a fan sees or hears the opening theme song, they will immediately associate it with One Piece, right? So that’s the power of fandom we are looking for.”
RELATED ARTICLESDigitalization and e-commerce turning the page for manga and Japanese artistsJapan’s manga is massively popular overseas, but getting the artwork safely to fans required some original thinking.The most exciting part about his job is that Jackson gets to work with artists and heroes he loves such as Mr James Jean, a Taiwanese-American visual artist.
“These are the little wins that money can’t buy,” he added.
Reflecting on his journey as an entrepreneur so far, he channels one of his favorite DC Comic characters, Green Lantern. The Green Lantern is only as powerful as his will and imagination, which Jackson takes to heart.
Said Jackson: “How far you go with that depends on how broad you are willing to think and visualize. That’s exciting because it naturally creates no barriers to what one can do.”] =>