PLAINVIEW, N.Y. — At least once a week, Steven Lebensfeld hears the same question: Is your life like Tom Hanks in the movie "Big"?
No, he doesn't get to sit around all the time with toys in hand. But even Lebensfeld, who is president of ToyMax International Inc., admits that playtime is part of the job.
And this game of life seems to be working. After only eight years in business, ToyMax already has some blockbuster hits to its name--like Laser Challenge and Creepy Crawlers--and Wall Street likes what it sees.
"Toys are fun, but you also must remember that toys are also about fashion and style. It's all about being on the leading edge," Lebensfeld said during a recent interview at ToyMax headquarters in this Long Island suburb.
"There are times that this job is fun, absolutely, just like the movie 'Big,' " he said. "But there is also a very serious side to this business, especially when it comes to building market share and topping the competition."
Lebensfeld grew up in the toy industry, spending much of his youth at his father's toy business, which made blackboards, magnetic letters and other educational toys. He yearned to be part of the action and always loved making gadgets, like the radar system he built in junior high school.
While attending Queens College in New York, he took classes early in the day so afternoons could be spent at the toy factory. Before age 20, he developed his first creation: an indoor basketball hoop to hang on the back of the door.
"I came up with this toy, and my dad told me to get out there and sell it," said Lebensfeld, whose father sold his toy business in 1995 and now, at age 84, still helps his son at ToyMax. "I soon learned that selling a toy was just as hard as creating it."
After college, Lebensfeld founded his first company, Hot Items, and before he was 30, he started the Asia-based HG Toys Hong Kong, where he learned about licensing and the value of producing overseas.
His biggest success, however, came in 1987, when he co-founded Toy Biz with associates from HG Toys. Within a year of its start, Toy Biz held the exclusive license for action figures based on characters from Marvel comics and DC Comics, including Batman, Spiderman and Superman.
"We were instantly the largest action-figure company in the market. It was unbelievable," said Lebensfeld, who came up with the idea for the comic book figures after seeing a void in the market. "Here we were, a little company doing about $4 million in sales a year when we get this incredible license. Today, those licenses bring in $300 million to $400 million in sales a year.
