Feature Shows Extravaganza - Chapter 41

Chapter 41: Explosive Boys

“Attaboy!”

The father and son laughed wholeheartedly in the director’s office of Pengda Toy Factory.

Slapping his own thigh, Meng Minghui laughed. “My idea was that we would come up with a yo-yo competition and make some commemorative edition yo-yos afterward.

“You really are the brain of this company! The competition hasn’t even started yet, but we’ve earned half a billion from the registration fees alone… Hahaha!”

Meng Lang laughed as well.

Making “Photon Fairy” a designated yo-yo for the competition was Meng Lang’s idea. His initial plan was only to set up a basic criterion for entry so that they could include the contestants who actually wanted to participate.

But as it turned out…

Kids just had so much pocket money!

Even the basic version Photon Fairy cost 250 yuan, and after Pengda announced that Photon Fairy was going to be the designated yo-yo for the world cup, they sold over 2 million pieces almost overnight!

They had even sold thousands of Photon Fairy S, the limited edition one.

That was the global sales figure. The domestic figure wasn’t as overwhelming, but it had taken up about 40% of the global figure.

Exactly how affluent were these families?

The sales revenue was insanely high. According to the 25% sales proceeds rate set by Pengda Pictures for all the toy manufacturers, the company would receive 62.5 yuan for every Photon Fairy sold, and 2 million pieces would give them 125 million!

That was a revenue of nearly 100 million even after tax!

It was such an unexpected goal to reach.

Suddenly, Meng Lang didn’t feel like working hard anymore…

The money had come so easily that he felt he could just rely on the yo-yos and count money as more flowed in. Why should he have even been bothered to work anyway?

He burst into another fit of laughter.

He laughed until the muscles on his face grew sore, and only then did he ask, “Dad, have many people registered for the competition?”

“Yes, but most of them are just here to join the fun.” Meng Minghui laughed as well.

He took a sip of his tea before putting the lid back on his teacup. “A lot of people might seem to have registered for the competition, but only a few of them are serious players. Some contestants can’t play as well as I can.”

One would be considered an excellent player if they could master some basic skills.

As a matter of fact, Meng Minghui had seen more than enough kids who had the will to play, but didn’t have enough skill to match their ambition.

Those who couldn’t play were the most addicted!

Some couldn’t do basic stances such as “dog-walking” or “baby’s cradle”, but they still bought the 250-yuan Photon Fairy and entered the competition…

Where did they get such courage?

As expected, people like this wouldn’t be eliminated in the preliminary contest.

The contest didn’t concern Meng Lang too much. After all, this was going to be their first year, and the setup was very straight forward. There was nothing fancy, and the contestants were divided into teenage and adult groups according to their ages only.

In the next world cup, maybe they would try some more complicated categories, naming the groups 1a, 2a, 3a, and so and so forth. That way, it would look more professional.

Meng Lang suggested, “Once the competition is over, we can set up an international yo-yo league. That way, when a certain style isn’t selling well, we can have the league recommend it…”

That was a great idea!

Mr. Old Meng’s eyes lit up, and he quickly jotted down Meng Lang’s words.

The old man decided that his son had inherited that bright business mind all from him.

Meng Lang had a lot of ideas about the yo-yo world cup, and of course, each was more scheming than the next. He might as well have printed “gimme money” all over the yo-yos.

If the consumers knew what the father and son’s plans were, they probably would have protested on the streets, shouting “PD, go to hell” and “Save the yo-yo”.

After going through the arrangement of the yo-yo world cup, Meng Minghui put down his notebook and lit himself a cigarette. As he puffed smoke into the air, he said, “I heard that you’ve set up quite a few new projects.”

Where did he learn all that? thought Meng Lang.

Meng Lang explained while trying to figure out who had sold him out. “There aren’t ‘quite a few’, but just three. One of them is the one with TBS.”

Tapping his cigarette, Meng Minghui stared at his son and sounded displeased when he said, “You’re saying it as if three projects aren’t a lot. Have I forgotten to kick your ass in a while, and you’ve forgotten who you are again?”

Meng Lang immediately took a few steps back.

“Dad, what are you talking about? With you around, how could I ever forget who I am?”

With the great sales record of yo-yos, it was only natural that Blazing Teens would be followed by a sequel. With the existing fan base from the previous series, the sequel was bound to be well-received for sentimental reasons, even if it turned out to be a sh*tty show.

Hence, they couldn’t possibly lose money on Blazing Teens 2!

The same reasoning applied to Magic Girls. Since TBS had been generous enough to pay all the salaries, Pengda didn’t have to pay much themselves.

Even if Ishinomori Shotaro ended up ruining the show and made it into some “Kamen Teenage Girls”, TBS had covered most of the costs, and Pengda wouldn’t lose as much money.

Then, there was Explosive Boys.

Frankly, this project was similar to Blazing Teens and would turn into a genuine cash cow for the company.

Would anyone deny that selling “popping balls” and game cards was a profitable business?

If someone dared to say such things, Meng Lang wouldn’t hesitate to spit on them.

Those balls and cards had made their company so much in his previous universe that was infested by knockoffs, it would be a miracle if he couldn’t make a profit in this universe.

One would have considered it such a bargain to pay 50 yuan for a Gallon Flaming Dragon ball.

He was going to release all kinds of cards possible, such as Warriors, Holy Symbols, commanding cards, and auxiliary cards.

The same card also came in different rarities from Common and Silver to Gold and Platinum…

With those strategies, kids who were into collecting things could easily spend thousands of yuan on the cards. Meng Lang had great confidence in that outcome.

In his original universe, because of piracy issues and knockoffs, the production company didn’t put too much effort in the peripheral products. Otherwise, it could have turned into a very profitable project.

Those popping balls should have been a spectacular project, but had been undermined by piracy and knockoffs. At the time when the show was the most popular, nearly all cards and balls one saw in the market were knockoffs.

It was cheap to produce knockoffs, but a lot more expensive to safeguard one’s legal rights. Moreover, the ball design had been borrowed from Japan, making the copyrights a complicated issue.

All in all, the original “popping balls” didn’t stay popular for very long because of some external issues.

But Meng Lang didn’t have those issues now.

He had created those popping balls himself!

Anyone who had a second opinion could keep it to themselves!

“The idea of popping balls is great. After all, it’s a new toy and has some potential, but do you have to set the production budget so high? You didn’t use as much money when you were making Blazing Teens…” said Mr. Old Meng hesitantly.

With all these 8-figure productions, how many yo-yos would he have to sell to break even?

Meng Lang chuckled. “That’s because of the special effects! This one isn’t like Blazing Teens, and the special effects are a bit more complicated…”

Why didn’t he choose to shoot Explosive Boys or Balala the Fairies first?

Because he couldn’t afford all the special effects!

No matter how lame the special effects were, they were still special effects, and they cost money. Even if Meng Lang could make them in house, he still would have to pay the electricity bill and the salary.

The special effects in Explosive Boys were a lot more complicated than those of Balala the Fairies. With the fairies, the magical transformations were the most complicated, but the fighting scenes had been rather crudely made.

As for Blazing Teens, it wasn’t even comparable. The lousy special effects on the yo-yos were too embarrassing to be mentioned.

If Blazing Teens had one penny worth of special effects, those of Balala the Fairies had risen to three pennies. As for Explosive Boys, it had been further improved to a five-penny standard!