Toy makers with US manufacturing facilities are getting slammed with orders as the industry scrambles to negotiate a slew of stiff tariffs from the Trump administration, The Post has learned.
MGA Entertainment, which makes Bratz and LOL Surprise dolls, also owns the 56-year-old Little Tikes brand, which manufactures larger, indoor and outdoor toys at a factory in Hudson, Ohio. The facility will hire more workers as it lines up a “select” group of toy companies who it believes will become “long term” clients, according to MGA CEO Isaac Larian.
“We have received many inquiries and we have the capacity,” Larian told The Post.
A 20% duty on goods made in China and a 25% tariff on Mexican and Canadian made products are directing demand toward a small group of toy manufacturers in the US, including so-called 3D printing farms that can make products domestically for companies that typically manufacture overseas.
Paul Young, owner of Pye Games — which operates 560 3D printers that can produce small toys en masse — came to Toy Fair at the Javits Center in New York City this week and hung a banner touting “Made in the USA. No tariffs.”
Recent clients have included Amarillo, Texas-based Hey Buddy Hey Pal, which turned to Pye Games to produce 20,000 miniature dragons that it then shipped to China to be stuffed into plastic eggs before being shipped back to the US as part of its Eggmazing decorator kits. The 20,000 dragons were produced within 10 days.
Curtis McGill, founder of Hey Buddy Hey Pal, said had to pay tariffs on the Eggmazing kits that were shipped back to the US from China despite the dragons inside being domestically produced. Still, he’s hoping it pays off in the future when Pye Games might be able to handle more production.
“It’s an experiment to see if 3D printing might work for us as the technology gets better and to develop a relationship with someone who is doing this in the US,” McGill said. “I’m hopeful that we go from 20,000 units to 60,000 next year.”
Simplay3 — which makes outdoor equipment including sandboxes, slides and playhouses at a factory in Streetsboro, Ohio — will need to hire more workers and more shifts to its 24/7 operation, said Brian McDonald, vice president of sales and marketing.
Simplay3 recently inked a deal to make educational toys for a company that has been manufacturing overseas, McDonald said, declining to identify the business.
“I think we’ll have more business as [the tariff issue] ramps up,” McDonald said.
Simplay3 also is partnering with Canada-based Kailani, which makes a collapsible premium dog crate that will be sold in the US later this year at prices between $350 and $650 depending on the model.
It’s being shown for the first time in the US at the Global Pet Expo in Orlando this month.
“In the US I can save the four to five weeks it takes on the water and I don’t have to pay a 30% deposit upfront for shipping,” Kailani, founder and chief executive Sean Alexander told The Post.
The tradeoff is that Kailani’s costs will increase because labor is more expensive in the US.
Simplay3’s starting pay in Ohio is $17, McDonald said, compared with about $3 or $4 per hour in China.
Alexander estimates that it will cost him between $70 and $90 more per unit in the US, which is nearly offset by higher cost of shipping from China.
“It’s not a wash entirely,” he said. “We may have to raise the retail price of by about $15.”
Still, Alexander said Kailani will continue to use its Chinese factory to make the dog crates for his Canadian customers because Canada implemented a retaliatory 25% tariff this week on goods that are made in the US and shipped to Canada.
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