Interview with Damon Lau of “Round 5 MMA Figures”

The collectors market for MMA has never been bigger, especially as more items head into mainstream markets with mainstream companies backing them. Action figures have also began to creep into toy stores nationwide and the main two companies involved are Jakks Pacific and Round 5 MMA. I had a chance to speak with the President and co-founder of Round 5, Damon Lau, to talk about the new deal involving the Round 5 UFC Figures, the direction of Round 5, the business end of making toys, and what is next.

The Fight Nerd: So Damon, you have a new announcement regarding a special retail deal, what’s going on?

Damon Lau: Recently, we signed a deal to work with the UFC starting in July 2009, and we worked with them to release product into major retail till Spring 2010, but we worked out an exclusive deal with Toys R Us for the season alone. So we have a limited amount of product that will be going out in the market to TRU that is available right now.

TFN: Will other round 5 products be available at TRU or just this UFC wave?

Damon Lau: Series 3 and 4 are and will be available and after this christmas, it will be all normal UFC products that will be coming into the market.

TFN: In Canada, which is where Round 5 HQ is, these products were already available in some stores, where were they before and where else are they now in america and canada?

Damon Lau: Primarily our major outlets in Canada were always in TRU and are massively successful here. In the US, our main outlet has been TRU but by the spring you will see alot more doors opening, including Wal-Mart and K-Mart. It will be a good opportunity for the product to get out to the market and to be in thousands of stores throughout the US and Canada and more importantly, we have so many new products coming out that it will be awesome for the fans!

TFN: And this current UFC line is pretty packed, Kenny Florian, Clay Guida, Rashad Evans and Lyoto Machida to name a few!

Damon Lau: Yeah, I think the main thing that Round 5 has always done is we believe in quality over volume and we think we did this with this series. We picked who we thought the fans would want and you can expect the fact that we will be launching at least 4 to 5 series next years and 2 to 3 new product lines next fall. Fans can always expect our product to always get better and the line-ups will always get stronger.

TFN: Now how long have you been a fan of MMA and what led to you and your brother starting this company?

Damon Lau: It was really weird! I was a fan like everyone else watching with the first UFCs and then they went through the dark ages, so I did not get back into the sport until the late 90’s when it started to get back on TV. I don’t watch many sports, I don’t watch too much football or hockey, I was just an MMA fanatic! So I watched lots of Pancrase, Pride, UFC stuff, and through one of the companies I worked with in Toronto I had the chance to meet Randy Couture. Me and Randy are good buddies and back in early 2007 he flew to Toronto and said to us, “Hey why don’t we hook up for dinner?” So we were talking about fight business ideas and the idea of action figures came up and we decided to do it. So from that, we stepped up and created products and went out the market and really grew from a small business to a very strong corporation now. We are in over 5,000 stores now and we have distribution in France, Brazil, the UK, so business is going really strong. We are one of those companies that has the luxury to start in MMA early and really grow with this industry.

TFN: How involved are you in the process of creating the figures from start to finish?

Damon Lau: In the very beginning I was more involved in the process. We recently opened an office in Hong Kong where most of the product development is done but I still approve every single product before we even go into production. When it comes to picking the characters, I am involved in that. Some people call it micro-managing, I just call it being a fan and doing what I want myself and that is what I plan on doing moving forward with this company.

TFN: We had Jeremy Padawer from Jakks Pacific on awhile ago to announce the partnership of jakks and round 5 to share fighter likenesses, how is that going to affect future round 5 figures?

Damon Lau: I think the biggest difference with the partnership is that it is beneficial to the fans and everyone over all. Before the partnership, we were working with likeness exclusivity with the fighters. Now, we are working with the UFC which is a fantastic company despite all the bad things you hear, they are great to work with. Beyond that, it means we have access to all the talent in and out of the UFC and in the end, that means we can create more product with more licenses and more images. If you actually see the product hitting TRU now, the detail is phenomenal, we have bios, in-ring images, and it is UFC branded. It really changed from our first line, since now we have more talent and we will continue to move forward with all the new talent as the UFC does.

TFN: Is there any competition still between your lines?

Damon Lau: I get asked that question alot! I really do not feel that there is any competition simply since we speak to different demographics. When you look at Jakks at retail, they speak to a specific consumer who wants to play with figures and hits a younger demographic. Our company, Round 5, has been born to deal with the collectors market and we don’t think of it as a play figure , we think of it as a collectible figure. Our product is more for a fan who wants a collectible in their cubicle or in their collector case or office, just to show off that they are a fan. We go to extreme lengths to get that authenticity, above and beyond what is normally available in the market. Jakks is really strong with their demographic with action figures, playsets and role play items, ours is towards the serious collector, the same guy who wants signed gloves and event posters. Those are the same people buying our product and more importantly, the partnership between our two companies allows us to speak to both types of consumer whether you are buying it for a kid of for a UFC collector. We do not step on each others toes and just make a better offer at resale.

TFN: Will Round 5 continue making these collectors figures or will you try to do any figures for the youth-based playing consumer?

Damon Lau: I think for us, our position will always be towards a collectors market. The original vision of the company was to get a great product for the young adult and older guy. Everyone in the office here is between 18-34 and their vision is they want something they can proudly put on their shelves at home. There are opportunities to go into the kid market, it is not the direction where we want to be with this business. We want to keep speaking to the fans, that’s where we started and we want to stay in that position wherever it takes us.

TFN: Is it challenging to market a niche action figure series in the current worldwide economic situation?

Damon Lau: Two years ago, a lot of the things that were happening in retail, UFC was doing the numbers on TV and Pay-Per-View, but mass retail was only beginning to accept what was happening with this MMA phenomenon. With recent successes that we had, even if you see our UFC product in TRU now, they can not keep it in shelves and they are running out of stock. Additionally, the trading cards are doing amazing and the video game is flying out of stores! With the economic condition as it is right now, I think the only thing it has done is slow down the growth of anyting MMA related but it is on the upturn. I think you could say that out of 1 to 10 how strong is UFC at retail, i would say it is a 10. The only thing that is saying what the recession did to the UFC license or anything affiliated to it, it could have been a 15 and gone above and beyond expectations. I think the philosophy is great and retailers are starting to accept it now so it is a great time to be a part of things.

TFN: What can we expect from round 5 in 2010?

Damon Lau: With our current style, we have at least 4 to 5 new series this year. Every three months you should see a whole new line of figures coming into the market. There will be a ton of limited edition things like two-packs and ten-inch versions! Lots of new fighters, lots of new product and lots of fun stuff for collectors!

To learn more about Round 5 MMA or to find where to pick up these figures, head to www.Round5MMA.com, where you can also buy them directly.