Customized toys, mobile pubs, and other far-out business ideas

jan calleja

(First published in the Philippine Online Chronicles, July 21, 2013)

At start-your-own business workshops held at UP ISSI and SERDEF,  participants are taught that a crucial initial step to business planning is business idea generation.

Entrepreneur-wannabes are asked to brainstorm and list down whatever comes to mind.  No rules,  no boundaries, no reality checks.  The usual outcome of such unrestricted thinking is a bumper crop of ideas ranging from the ho-hum to the brilliant to the unusual and even downright wacky.

Business proponents are asked not to laugh at what may seem to be untrammeled leaps of the imagination.  Some of the truly wild ones have been known to fly and their owners to have since laughed their way to the bank.

Here are some examples.

 

Custom-made toys

There are toys for the young tots and there are toys for the big boys.

Jan Calleja never outgrew his boyhood passion for unique toys.  Shunning those that are mass produced and can be picked up from any store shelf, he would painstakingly make his own.

His materials could be scraps recycled from abandoned computers and other gadgets or parts from broken toys. He might pick up a couple of bolts and nuts while taking a walk or stumble on a washer or spring while puttering around the house.  He would create something new and delightful out of these odds and ends.

Today, his favorite medium is vinyl.  He would pick up a blank vinyl — and who knows what it will turn out to be in the end, when he adds other materials like metal scraps, acrylics, oil, watercolor, plaster, and plastic?

The toy-assembly process Calleja uses isn’t child’s play.  In fact, it could be very elaborate and time-consuming.

His work has won for Calleja national and international recognition.  He has exhibited at Toy Art Gallery in Hollywood, California many times.

Calleja used to do a tricky balancing act between his day job in a big advertising agency and his nocturnal toy-making.

A few months ago, he quit his job to see whether he could make a business out of commissions from companies and collectors.

Calleja is known for his mecha creations – items based on the Japanese anime and manga series making use of robotic elements.  He works on his products to make them look finer and more polished than those available commercially.

His toys need to be very clean, he says.  For him, they are more than toys but expressions of himself —  “ more like sculptures, artworks.”

 

Pedal pub

Carinderia on wheels, mobile sari-sari stores, craft shops on cattle-drawn carriages.  These are sights which no longer make us do a double-take.

What  about a bar on wheels powered by brew-pounding pedalers?

pedalpub_610x438

These are known as pedal pubs, which  takes bars to an entirely new direction — any which way the pedalers want to go.

A wooden bar and serving deck is built upon a steel chassis, which is ringed by five pedal seats per side and a bench in the back. The center is the serving area and a tap connects to a keg holder in the shape of a wine barrel at the front of the vehicle. One person sits upfront and steers the contraption.

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Photo 1: from Jan Calleja’s Facebook page, reprinted with permission

Photo 2: from www.cnet.com