Today we’d like to introduce you to Manuel Garcia.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My first efforts to be artistic started out of necessity when I was around 13. I needed games and toys for my little brother and me, to play with. Before then, we had a mother and a father, but then my father left the family when I was 5 and my mother died of cancer when I was 8. Leaving my brother, sister and I to go live with an uncle and aunt who already had 3 children of their own. And so, gone were all the toys and games at Christmas, replaced by clothes for school, bought once a year.
In order to keep my little brother and one of my cousins entertained, I would create ‘characters’ and we would play like we were those characters. I started out as the “MAD PICKLE” who would yell at you if you didn’t do your chores, but then I became “DR. STEWART” who would heal you if you were hurt. To this day, my older cousin still calls me “Dr. Stewart!” whenever he sees me.
We moved out into the country where houses were surrounded by barbed wire. Cows and bulls lived on the other side of the wire. That’s when Texas wildlife became our new toys. There were frogs, turtles, salamanders, insects – flying and crawling. But we didn’t play with the snakes, spiders or scorpions. I particularly liked the grasshoppers which would leap into the air and fly to another plant as I mowed the lawn. They could leap and fly and made a lot of fluttering sounds with their flapping wings.
Then one summer, when I was 13, one of my cousins came over to stay a few weeks he was so much fun to be around. He even brought me a birthday gift. It was a box that contained 100 GAMES! Well, not having had games or toys for so many years, we played every one of those games. I found some of them so ridiculous and non-entertaining, that I declared, “I could do better!” And so, I designed and crafted a few of my own board games. Forced my little brother to play them with me. I have no idea whatever happened to those games.
Flash forward, to when I was 18 years old, and now living in a trailer house with a different cousin. I had a full-time job selling shoes, and with my first paycheck, I bought a good amount of art supplies: pencils, pens, rulers, drawing paper and more. I spread them out over my bed, and I thought, “Now what?” Back then there were no home computers, everything artistic was done by hand, so I drew a lot. Not too long after that, I got into playing Chess, with friends, and family at my church.
Next thing I know, I was trying to improve the game of Chess! Finally, I designed a ‘New Chess Piece’! But what Chess piece was missing from the set? Well, think about it. You got your King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook and Pawn. So, what ‘character’ is missing?
TIMES UP! It’s the JESTER! He was magical, just like Merlin, because…. oh, you’ll figure it out. Then one day my older sister who was an art teacher, said to me, “Why don’t you make your own new games, instead of just making variations of the Chess game. And so, I did. I started making totally new board games never seen by mankind before. My board games were awesome with new shapes, new playing rules they were very advanced designed. I ended up designing some 50 or more board games and puzzles. I was featured in a half page article in the Houston Post when my first board game (Triangoes) got marketed by KADON ENTERPRISED, INC.
And I was mentioned in a book entitled: “INSIDE SANTA’S WORKSHOP’’. By the time my 2nd board game (Teleporters) hit the market both of my board games were listed in GAMES magazine as the Best New Games for the year when they were released. Thanks to Kate Jones-the President of Kadon Enterprises for being my mentor and getting my board games to market and puzzles for your mind.
In the market today, the video games are still in the lead over the board games, so I’ve switched to designing new ‘toy sports’. But the products require patents and quality working prototypes’ which can cost thousands of dollars.
Thankfully my oldest son came to me one day and said, “Dad, you should publish your Grass Chopper Book. “He knew about it as a child; he would see me doing the drawings and writing the story. And he reminded me how fantastic the story was. I also made a board game of it that my two sons enjoyed playing but have not marketed. They grew up playing and testing my creations. So proud of them now grown up as great men, my youngest is a Doctor. Both love to play games and win me in Chess!
Today, “The Grass Chopper” book is signed up with one of the world’s largest book distributors. I will have a global distribution. And has the capability to be in 39,000 retailers and libraries around the world, as well as reaching some 70+ major online channels. We are talking, the book can be sold in such countries as China, Germany, Italy, India, Poland, Russia and South Korea. I also plan to have a series of books about the “The Grass Chopper”. The story is the Grass Chopper is a cross between a grasshopper and a rescue helicopter.
The way he was born is amazing in the story. So, the helicopter crashes where the egg was dropped. And is born with whirling wings just like the rescue helicopter. So, he grows up helping and rescuing his new insect friends. The adventures are about predators such as birds, spiders, frogs and dragonflies all in the insect world and I tried to keep it educational and fantasy for the child reader. So, the series of books will be of new insect adventures and rescues and hopefully this new character The Grass Chopper will catch the eye of some company like Walt Disney.
For now, I want to thank Voyage Houston Magazine for giving me this opportunity to share my new children’s book release.
Has it been a smooth road?
There were many bumps in the road, such as lacking knowledge about prototype building – knowing what products are made of, where to buy the materials, and tools and ways to cut out or glues together parts of a prototype. Having a poor quality prototype, will make your great idea, less appealing and hinder it from performing the way you hyped it up to be.
Other bumps in the road were the cost of prototype building supplies, office supplies, copyrights, trademarks, patent lawyers, and patents. And you must keep up with technology. I used a typewriter for a good period of time until I learned how better a home computer was at editing and printing my playing rules documents and letters to companies were. (And better at saving them all on disks.)
What helped me get through it all, is that I didn’t just have one new idea – I had some 50 or more and am still thinking up new ones often. So, if one idea didn’t seem to be working, I knew I have others to try. A person having only one or two ideas may give up too soon, and go on to another field of business.
You will know when the bumpy road you were taking smooths out when a manufacturer takes an interest in your product idea, and friends and relatives start encouraging you to go onward because they believe in your success. Not believing in your own success, is like coming to a stop sign in the road, and just staying there, never moving on.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Garcia’s World Of Games story. Tell us more about the business.
What I do in my company, is everything and anything I can think of to do. And I do it every moment I get off work, every weekend, every vacation, every holiday. I’m sad if I didn’t do anything for my future business and projects. People ask me when I get back to work, “How was your weekend?” I judge my weekend, by how much I got accomplished during my time off, not by how good a tan I got at the pool or beach. (Luckily, I have a natural tan.)
I create new product ideas, from boardgame, puzzles, card games, toy sports, and now children’s books. I build the prototypes or in some cases pay some business to build a protype for me. I play-test the protypes (preferably with relatives and in-laws and some close friends.)
I write up the playing instructions (some board game rules are like small books), draw the illustrations for the instructions. I apply for copyrights – myself and patents with lawyers. I market the prototypes to select game or toy manufacturers and have traveled to other cities to attend toy/game conventions, presenting my game/puzzles in booths.
Now I’ll be visiting bookstores and libraries to present my newest children’s book, “The Grass Chopper”. I’ve done interviews with a newspaper, (The Houston Post – if anyone remembers that paper) and was mentioned in a book named, “Inside Santa’s Workshop” by Richard Levy. I’ve even dressed in a JESTER’s outfit to push one of my game/puzzles at a Renaissance Festival in Maryland, sponsored by KADON ENTERPRISES, INC. which still sells my board game/puzzles today. (The shoes of the Jester were too small I hurt and smiled at the same time.)
Today, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten wiser. Modern computers help me illustrate new designs, but I have to learn more on how to use them. I guess, you must go with the flow, and remember to improve your business techniques as you move forward.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Well, since I’m now more like in three industries – Board Games / Puzzles, Toy Sports (like new types of Frisbees – outdoor or indoor and now children’s books (with my newest character set to have a book series of 4 books.) I feel I can move from new idea to new product to a new industry with better ease.
I also have designed a few ‘inventions’ along the way. Unfortunately, building prototypes for those ideas now have increased in cost by thousands of dollars more and so have their patent costs. On top of that, there is very little safety protection from some companies in other countries from knocking off your new product idea and mass producing it without your knowledge.
But, other than that, I think today’s trend is to not only think of the ‘new’ but think of something that will help mankind, help the Earth and will entertain thousands of others who feel so depressed that they turn to other bad ways to entertain themselves. I hope my games, puzzles and now children’s books will keep today’s youth happy and know that there are possibly endless ways of entertainment playing with new toy sports in the sun and with the help of wind and gravity which are free energy to use for fun too!
Thanks to technology, I think more people will be able to express their ideas and find more companies willing to help them achieve their business dreams!
Pricing:
- New Book – ‘THE GRASS CHOPPER” $12.99 + shipping (Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cafepress.com/mannyscartoons
- Phone: 713-417-2319
- Email: MannyGarciaBGC@gmail.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheGrassChopperBooks/
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/Grass-Chopper-Manuel-Garcia/dp/0692083111/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1530071324&sr=1-1&keywords=grass+chopper+book
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