svetikya Page 607
Page 607
Sorry, according to the rules, the window is sent first.
This requirement for display cases may not just be a movable glass display case, but a real display case in the store.
Over the next few days, Xu Fu worked to find a store for LEGO and eventually succeeded in persuading a toy retailer to display LEGO assembly products in the window.
As a result, large quantities of ready-made LEGO bricks soon appeared in the windows of some toy stores.
Unlike what customers buy, the CandorCity display case is a complete version of several landmark models, which makes it more attractive and gives customers entering the store a first impression of the allure of LEGO bricks.
These toys made of plastic building blocks have a completely different charm from wooden and metal toys, especially when colorful LEGO toys are combined together, creating a novel feeling.
Thanks to the exhibition, sales of LEGO bricks showed steady growth, while returns (from Wang Zhao) decreased significantly.
Meanwhile, toy retailers who had previously returned their products came to Fisher, expressing their willingness to restock.
For both Fisher and Xu Fu, the answer was simple: follow the steps and set up a display stand before selling Lego toys.
As a result, dozens of toy stores opened in New York City in a short period of time, demonstrating LEGO's popularity.
"...Recently, a toy auction record was set when the first edition of the LEGO 'Honesty City' themed display set fetched a record price of £129,347 at Christie's auction in London, the Eagle Nation. This set was the first themed LEGO set ever released and is highly collectible."
"The LEGO Candy City section at Christie's auction features a scene from the 1932 Daily Messenger Comics Superman series. It's a miniature city, one of the classic Superman designs of the time. The display case includes a LEGO Superman and an extremely rare LEGO fanboy. The LEGO figurine wasn't originally part of the LEGO Candy City release but was an exclusive gift from Fisher-Price, adding even more value to this LEGO set."
Christie's discovered that this Candor City Lego Constructor was held by a Chequerville toy store for decades until recently. While Candor City Lego toys were produced in large quantities at the time and later reissued, original, intact sets of building blocks are rare, which is one reason for the toy's high price.
Chapter 702 Superman's Watch
"Dad, what is this?"
"Kandor, the hometown of Superman."
In front of the toy store, a customer pointed to the LEGO Candor City bricks in the window and explained them to his child.
People would stop by him from time to time to look at the novel toys in the shop window, and occasionally they could see figures coming out of the Cando City toy box in the store.
Standing by the window, Stanley stared wide-eyed at the Lego Cando City outside the glass.
He stood at the door for nearly two hours.
"Do you like it very much, child?"
Just as Stanley was lost in thought, an unexpected voice came from behind him and asked a question.
Stanley turned around and saw a man in a neat suit and a top hat looking at him.
Looking at the people behind him, Stanley cautiously walked to the window and nodded with a timid expression.
Under Stanley's wary gaze, Xu Fu smiled, pulled a Lego Superman figure from his pocket, and held it out, "This is for you."
His gaze lingered on the small Lego Superman in Xu 167's hand for a long time. A hint of excitement flashed in Stanley's eyes. He wanted to reach for the toy, but subconsciously stopped and opened his mouth to say a few words.
"Sir, I have no money."
Sensing the hesitation in Stanley's expression, Xu Fu shoved a Lego Superman into his hand and said, "This is just a little gift for your love of Superman."
He was just passing by the toy store occasionally to check on Lego sales in Candor, and happened to catch a glimpse of Stanley outside the window before the next scene unfolded.
At the entrance of the toy store, Stanley watched Xu Fu's departing figure, his gaze falling on the Lego Superman in Xu Fu's hands, silently lost in thought.
Many years later, Stanley learned that the person who gave him the Lego Superman was Mr. Xu Fu, the author of "Superman".
“From my youthful memories, Mr. Xu Fu appeared as a true superhero, illuminating my life.”
"Sorry, I'm a few minutes late."
New York, Fifth Avenue café, Xu Fu apologizes to a waiting guest.
“It’s okay, actually I just got here.”
Looking at the exquisite watch on his wrist, the head of Waterbury Watch Company shook his head to indicate his understanding.
After a brief greeting and gesturing for the waiter to bring coffee, the head of Waterbury Watch Company spoke again to express his gratitude: "It is an honor to meet Mr. Xu Fu here. Your visit is extremely important to Waterbury Watch Company."
"No, I also have very high expectations for this collaboration."
Xu Fu made a fortune from the booming sales of Lego bricks in Cando, but the stock market frenzy forced him to invest even more money.
Currently, Rostrand, representing Xu Fu, and Paul Getty are still engaged in fierce competition for oil stock. Through the acquisition of Mission, he now owns more than 20 shares of Mission stock and indirectly owns a portion of Coastal United Oil Company, but Paul Getty is not hesitant to retaliate and has begun competing with him for Mission stock.
In order not to be eliminated in this battle for oil reserves, Xu Fu had no choice but to continue his old ways and engage in cooperation that was approved by Superman.
This time, Waterbury Watches took the initiative to cooperate.
As for Waterbury Watch Company, the brand also has an extremely long history: the company's predecessor was RH Ingerso Bro Ingersoll Watch Company, which was once known as the beautiful Eagle Gesang Flower watch.
The company had previously been engaged in mail order business, initially selling inexpensive items such as rubber stamps, until 1892 when it produced the first Ingersoll watch, known as the "Universal Universe".
People thought it was a clock, but it was actually a yellow-powered bullet watch, about 3 inches in diameter and over 1 inch thick. It was housed in a bow-tie case, with the crown suspended from the bracelet, just like a modern wristwatch. The crown had no function; the watch was fixed to a pivot that held the mainspring in place, and a wheel in the center of the dial held the hands. Both wheels were usable when the case was opened like a wristwatch.
Initially, Universal Watches were sold in wholesale to distributors, but later in 1892, with the issuance of mail-order catalogs, watches began to be sold directly to the public.
Later, as watches became more and more popular, Ingersoll gradually changed its business and became a watch manufacturer.
For some time afterward, Ingersoll continued its business of releasing new watches, selling approximately $4000 million worth of timepieces over 20 years. Ingersoll created "the watch that made the dollar famous!"
Then a major war broke out, causing an economic recession, and Ingersoll Watch Company was forced to declare bankruptcy. Waterbury Watch Company then acquired it in the same manner.
Waterbury Watch Company, which acquired Ingersoll Watch Company at the time, did not expect that in less than ten years, it would also be on the verge of bankruptcy.
The arrival of the Great Depression led to a sharp decline in demand for watches, causing Waterbury Watch Company's revenue to plummet.
Currently, the collaboration with Xu Fu is expected to help the company overcome the predicament of the Superman popularity.
Therefore, the head of Waterbury Watch Company was extremely sincere in his meeting with Xu Fu, because if the cooperation failed, the company might miss the opportunity to go bankrupt.
"Thank you."
After accepting the coffee from the waiter, Xu Fu nodded his thanks and took a sip.
"Mr. Xu Fu".
On the other hand, after Xu Fu finished his coffee, the head of the watch company took out the blueprints that had been prepared for a long time.
Chapter 703 is indeed not good.
This was the result of several nights spent at the Waterbury Watch Company, designing a product that would make Xu Fu feel good.
When Xu Fu received the design draft from the person in charge, what first attracted him was the striking Superman image on the watch. It was almost entirely designed around Superman, without any concealment. The dial clearly showed Superman standing on his chest, with two hands representing the hour and second hands.
In the watch's design, you can also see Waterbury Watch Company's subtle touches on the wrist; it also features a flying Superman.
It can be said that Waterbury Watch Company incorporated almost all of Superman's elements into the design of this watch.
From a personal aesthetic point of view, this watch featuring the Superman image is indeed not good-looking.
But putting aesthetics aside, from the perspective of the licensee, Xu Fu was very happy that all of this happened. After all, besides gaining financial benefits for himself, his purpose in licensing Superman was to let more people know about him. Given that, how could he make Superman appear in the licensed products in a prominent way?
Although he held a positive attitude towards the watch company's designs deep down, Xu Fu remained outwardly calm.
"If Mr. Xu Fu is not satisfied with this model, Waterbury has other designs on the drawing board, again based on the image of Superman."
Seeing that the person in front of him did not react, the company manager began to explain, while taking out new blueprints from his pocket.
In these drawings, you can still see the design philosophy of the watch company.
On the watch faces of all sizes, you could say that Xu Fu's eyes were opened, and he saw clock designs in various Superman shapes, from thermal vision instead of hours and seconds, to capes, and of course, even more exaggerated - Superman's legs.
We can assume that if the production of the final design is indeed confirmed, then every person who buys the watch in the future will see Superman's crack on their watch, and it will be a 360-degree crack.
What's puzzling is that Xu Fu felt a slight tremor just thinking about this scene.
Xu Fu shook his head, shifting his gaze from the last design in his hand. He was more interested in the idea of using thermal vision as the hour and second hands than in this obviously breathtaking design. This was not only a clever use of superhuman abilities, but it also made the watch's appearance quite unusual.
Whether the design will actually be used in production is not something Xu Fu needs to worry about.
In any case, he was merely a licensee of the product, and all he needed was a final result that suited his preferences; the rest was only up to Waterbury Watch Company to consider.
"This thermal energy vision is very well designed."
After selecting one he liked from the drawings, Xu Fu expressed his opinion to the head of the watch company standing in front of him.
The latter breathed a sigh of relief after receiving his reply.
At least a preliminary agreement has been reached on the treaty issue, which at least represents the possibility of successfully authorizing cooperation.
Taking a deep breath, the company representative picked up the watch Xu Fu was looking at and nodded in agreement. "Indeed, this model is also a favorite of Waterbury Watch Company."
There is no doubt that the person in charge lied a bit about this; after all, if things were really as consistent as the other party said, he wouldn't have brought Xu Fu to screen so many projects.
Without betraying the person in charge's politeness, Xu Fu began to steer the conversation toward a more practical topic: the profit share of the licensing agreement.
“We are willing to forgo three tiers of profit as a licensing fee, as long as Mr. Xu Fu is willing to cooperate with Waterbury.”
The 30% of the licensing profit is already considered a significant expense.
In contrast, Waterbury, as the licensee, not only had to develop the watch, but also produce and sell it, while Xu Fu did nothing but license the Superman image and wait to make money.
Of course, even if Waterbury Watch Company had the best intentions, there was no reason for Xu Fu to miss out on the money he was entitled to earn.
After taking a sip of coffee, Xu Fu said to the person standing in front of him, "Fifty percent."
"Fifty percent?"
The head of Waterbury Watch Company looked visibly embarrassed.