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Meet the ToyCrew!
Our story
Awen Hollek began with a simple promise: make the toy journey in China calm, clear, and fun. After years across factory floors and prototyping benches, we saw brilliant ideas fall between design, sourcing, and compliance. So we built a studio that closes those gaps-hands-on craft, honest ops, and the kind of follow-through that gets you from sketch to shelf without drama.
Awen nods to the creative spark. Hollek is our wink to doing the whole thing, end-to-end. Breton roots, Shenzhen execution.
What we believe
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Play is serious work. We design with respect for kids and buyers.
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Safety lives in the concept. EN71/ASTM/UKCA aren't last-minute checkboxes.
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Beautiful must be buildable. Clean DFM, realistic tolerances, robust costings.
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Candour saves launches. We'll tell you the hard thing early rather than fix it expensive later.
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Partnership over vendor. We act like an embedded team because that's how great products ship.
Who "we" are
A compact, senior-led studio with a trusted circle of specialists we plug in by phase: industrial designers, rechanical engineers, model makers, compliance pros, QA inspectors, packaging & instructions. You get one accountable lead and the right expertise at the right time—no bloat, no context lost.
Some of what we've done (anonymised highlights)
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Electric water blasters: consistent pressure profiles and compliant battery markings.
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RC platforms: torque, runtime, drop durability—without ballooning the BOM.
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Plush & collectibles: stitching specs, pull tests, child-safe trims that pass.
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Bubble/fog play: mechanisms tuned after realistic fluid testing and kid-use cycles.
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Compliance orchestration: EN71 / ASTM F963 / UKCA / REACH coordination with packaging & manuals aligned.
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And loads of manufacturing runs
Want specifics? We're happy to share private snapshots under MNDA.
How we show up
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Founder-led from day one. Senior eyes on scope, cost, and risk until cartons leave the line.
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Factory-agnostic. We match the factory to the product, not the other way around.
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Samples early, samples often. Prototype fast and test like kids will.
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Paper trail that matters. Clean BOMs, ECNs, tolerance stacks, and lab reports that keep launches on track.
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Clear comms. Line videos, annotated photos, and plain-English "what this means" updates.
Meet the lead toymaker
Chris Boucher — Founder & Studio Lead. French by origin (Brittany), Shenzhen by choice. Chris leads every project personally—pulling in the right specialists when needed. Expect craft, candour, and a sense of humour when schedules get spicy.
Or just Hit Us Up and we'll take it from there.
