

Pedal to the Mettle: The unbelievable, true story of Automoblox - chip
http://www.core77.com/reactor/02.05_automoblox.asp

======
eps
Last year I bought two Autoblox cars, two months apart. First was of a very
high manufacturing quality, it snapped together very tightly, everything
aligned and it was just a pleasure to hold and play with. It was the reason
why I bought another one. Got it from the same place, exact same packaging,
authenticity label and what not. And what a wobbly piece of shit it was. Major
quality problems. And what is strange, it left me far more pissed with the
company than it wiuld've if the first toy were of a subpar quality.

I guess the point is that if you are going to differentiate by delivering high
quality products, you just absolutely cannot let the quality slip. Ever.
Otherwise it's an instant trip to the pile of "regular products" and a long a
painful climb back up to gain back customers trust.

~~~
mkramlich
Yep. I've always loved how LEGO has such high precision standards. I once
bought a LEGO set where the pieces fit together very poorly -- oh wait, no I
didn't -- and realized it was MEGABloks, not LEGO. This was many years ago, so
I can't speak as to MEGABloks quality today, but I put together a new LEGO kit
recently and the fit/precision was still awesome.

LEGO's gone probably 20-30 years without letting me down in terms of physical
quality of the pieces. I can't say that about any other vendor I've bought
from over the same time period (not even Apple, for example). Well, not
counting consumables like toothpaste. I've never had a bad experience with say
Colgate.

~~~
samlittlewood
Megablox was still utter rubbish as of about six months ago. My 8yo Lego
fanatic son was given a kit by his cousins - "It's just like Lego" - err, no -
many of the parts would not stay attached.

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michael_dorfman
What a depressing story.

The guy had an offer from Brio, a very reputable partner, to take over the
manufacturing responsibility, and passed on it in favor of dealing with some
shady, fly-by-night Chinese firms he stumbled upon, because he _"wasn’t
willing to let Automoblox out of my control at this point; I still wanted to
achieve my dream of being a manufacturer."_

~~~
Sujan
Yeah, and he learned a hell lot of important stuff. I think this experience
shaped him to be a better entrepreneur.

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ck2
I know this view won't be popular but what I took from this article is it's
hard for a well-off westerner to maintain slave labor and get high quality
control products for pennies in labor in the east. I have no sympathy.

How was it surprising to realize you can't control patent/copyrights in non-
democratic country ten thousand miles from you, where the factory owners have
far fewer ethics than you and are willing to manipulate their slave labor even
further to sell your product as theirs in other markets?

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mkramlich
Great story about starting a new business. Also a great story about China.

I found it interesting how in the photos, many of the "factories" look like
little more than junkyards or disaster areas, and how many of the people
working in them looked like teenagers or possibly even children. That plus all
the shady dealings going on may explain at least in part how China is able to
manufacture so many things so cheaply compared to the US. Shameful.

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matrix
I can't believe this story got so few votes. It's great story of the ups and
downs an entrepreneur went through to bring his product to the market. Worth
the read.

~~~
krschultz
A lot of the people on HN are software guys, they have no connection to
something like this. This is one of the best stories I've seen on HN in a
while becuase I'm actually a product guy and manufacturing is a huge component
of it. In fact manufacturing is usually far harder than design for an
entrepreneur. The capital required means you _have_ to use a contracter, and
for something cheap like a toy you probably have to go to Asia where the
quality is lower but the prices are low enough to make it work. Hell, I was at
a company that used US manufacturers and we got screwed over for hundreds of
thousands of dollars from multiple vendors because they were unable to deliver
on quality - not to mention the oppurtunity cost of time delays. How many web
app startups can you boot strap for the value of one manufacturers mistake?
The stakes are higher because there is a lot more capital in play.

~~~
joe_bleau
Yep.

And don't think you can't find bad molders here in the US, or moldmakers that
steer your work to a certain molder, who just happens to be an in-law. The
best was a molder that found a way to "lose" several parts of a mold just as
it was being picked up and moved to another mold shop. "Must have fell of your
truck, buddy!". Hmm.

Oh yeah: if you let the moldmaker do the mold design, be sure and get copies
of all the files, even if you don't have the CAD system to open or edit the
files! Don't trust 'em to back up their hard drive.

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mkramlich
When I saw the part about the low-bidder winning the deal I had an ominous
foreboding of what would later happen. Oftentimes you really do get what you
pay for. Price is a signal. Ignore it at your peril.

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RiderOfGiraffes
Does the author actually mean "Pedal to the Metal" ? The original saying comes
from pressing the gas pedal as far as it goes, until it presses against the
metal underneath and can go no further.

I've never heard to "Pedal to the Mettle" ...

~~~
baddox
"Mettle" means willingness to succeed or endure; standfastness. I'm assuming
the title is just a pun.

~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
Ah. I was aware of the meaning of mettle, I was just unsure if it was
deliberate. It's a nice theory that it's a deliberate pun, but I'm not sure it
works. It feels the same as "The proof is in the pudding" and other, similarly
meaningless distortions of old adages that made sense in the original.

But still, nice idea - thanks.

~~~
lunchbox
It's actually "The proof is in the putting", where "putting" refers to putting
the pedal to the metal ;)

~~~
baddox
I thought the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

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aresant
Anybody know what happened after 2005?

------
mkramlich
By random chance I happened to be looking at a few Automoblox models in a
store in Boulder a few night ago. Reminded me of a cross between the Pinewood
Derby cars we used to make in scouts as a kid, and LEGO. My tastes are little
more into robotics/RC now otherwise I would have bought one. Nice designs.

------
baddox
> _[It] was a day that rivals only the day that my daughter was born._

I hope you mean "it was a day rivaled only by the day that my daughter was
born." The former sounds like your daughter's birthday was your worst day
ever, and the success of your toy was just slightly better than that.

~~~
wccrawford
I read an article recently that said many, many people actually can't tell the
difference between active and passive voice. I had a hard time believing it,
but seeing mistakes like this in an otherwise well-written article lends
weight to it.

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phugoid
I own a few of these, and I've given more away as gifts. They are truly
awesome, the toy equivalent of an iPhone in terms of beauty, perfection, fit
and finish.

It's nice to see the story behind the toy.

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seltzered
just for posterity, I'd like to link to design theatre for anyone who liked
this: <http://designtheatre.net/>

I've been pretty fascinated by these articles, as there's many opportunities
out there outside of pure software business.

