Project Description

Mr. Valentine Sheldon is the author of a book called “The Christmas Tree Elf”, which is about a Christmas Tree Elf who helps save lives and trees during the holiday season. He dreamed of bringing his creation to life, and called upon Sonos Product Development to design, sculpt and prototype “Blink” The Christmas Tree Elf.

When Mr. Sheldon came to us, another firm had already designed the electronics that were supposed to go inside the doll. After several conversations with others involved with the project previously, we realized that there were a couple of major problems.

  • The electronics were not designed to the same spec, and were far too large to fit inside the slim torso elf.
  • The cost of the previous electronics design was far too expensive for a toy design.

In our business, we are constantly challenged with developing what a customer wants, and trying to find ways to create an excellent product that can be sold at a competitive retail price. As it was, the existing designs for the book and doll set would be far too expensive to sell at retail. We had that difficult conversation with Mr. Sheldon, advising him that we needed to develop a new design that would result in a book and doll set that could be sold at a lower, more competitive price. It was a difficult decision for Mr. Sheldon to make, but we soon were back on track with a new design for the doll and electronics.

In the end, we delivered on all of this for less than the remaining budget given to him from the previous designer, saving him money AND we designed a realistic and viable solution for his electronic toy design. Best of all, we finished the prototype and the electrical design before Christmas so he could video and take photographs for his promotional items. With the changes we had assisted Mr. Sheldon on, the factory quotes for production of the doll and electronics came in at less than $20, giving him plenty of room for profit and a very appealing retail price.

 

One of my favorite client thank you’s was receiving a signed book from the author, Valentine that said:

Carl, 

Thanks for all the amazing work on this project thus far. You saved BLINK from the BRINK!!

All the Best,

Valentine Sheldon