| Chat with Lois Hall of Vandor, a Lyon Company | ||||||||
So to start off, Lois can you tell us about your different pottery products. Pottery is a bit of a misnomer. The work we do in ceramic and dolomite works a bit differently than terra-cotta.
Barb C: So how or where would dolomite fit into that? Dolomite is a mixture of porcelain and ceramic, Intrinsically it has more value than ceramic, but less than porcelain. Dolomite contains marble dust which is also in porcelain.
Of course the first step is the same as a potter, the sculpture is made out of clay and then molds are produced from the clay model. Nera: Are most of the Vandor jars dolomite?Most of our jars are dolomite. But, I think our most unusual cookie jars are the ones combining resin and ceramic. E.g. some of the Elvis jars. Donna: I have all the Vandor Elvis jars.That is so cool! The Elvis pieces represent some of our hardest work because all approvals are done by Priscilla Presley.
Barb C: How do you decide on a concept or design of a jar?
Julie: Like Lucy? Lucy is a definite hard approval process. Lucy and Desi, Jr. are both very protective of their mom's image.
Barb C: Well, you've done a good job then, because there are a lot of Lucy Vandor items. Oh my gosh, you have no idea how many times we do a design and sculpt over and over again!
Merla: Do the artist wanna just give up??? The Andy/Barney jar was an easy one. Andy love the sculpt right off the bat, he has a great sense of
humor.
Most our our heirs are not art critics so we have to go all the way to the finished piece. Priscilla
Presley knows Elvis's face so well that she can tell you if your a 2 millimeters off on the nose.
Nera: Wow so you make a jar then have to keep making new molds and jars until they approve.
what a lot of work! From concept to production it takes about a year to do a figural piece.
The big introduction this summer is Cat in the Hat by Dr. Suess and a Betty/Chevy license.
Julie: Great! We're doing a Cat in Hat cookie jar as well as our standard table top items. This was a license that took us 4 years to get. We still can't believe it! We started off doing Nursery products to get our foot in the door. After we did Horton 1Fish, 2Fish, we did a presentation of what Vandor would like to produce. There will just be small quantities of products as the Suess people have a pure intent and their main focus is to continue the memories of Dr. Suess and keep the interest of the kids. We are only introducing only 12 - 15 different items, all Cat in Hat based. These will be introduced this summer. The Cat in the Hat jar has the hat as the actual jar and the Cat is the lid of the jar. It's adorable!
Nera: so if someone doesn't approve a jar do you have to smash it or destroy it? Most of the rejects are in the offices around the company. They make nice show pieces! The ideas
for the cookie jars come from getting to know the legend and finding out why the fans love them.
We have already released a Horton and a 1Fish 2 Fish collection. So this summer we're doing Cat
Chris: I can hardly wait Lois for them to be released. We just signed the Lone Ranger and Roy Rogers. (No we weren't able to convince the Suess estate to let us do a cookie jar.) Isn't Tonto the best? I really want to do some things with him.
Barb C: Since the Lone Ranger was my top all time show as a kid............ and I still watch it,
I want to know what pieces are going to be done? Merla: Lois, a lot of us would like to see a Capt. Kangaroo jar As far as Captain Kangaroo, do you really think there is a collector base out there?
Barb C: Lois, I want a Capt Kangaroo in a television set jar!(also Leave it to Beaver) Nancy: Vandor can be found here at Spencers Gifts, and small local gift shops. You won't find them there anymore (Spencers). We've really decided to take the business more towards the mom and pop specialty shops.
Barb C: Lois.. Nikki's had a question about contact information. She wanted to know how to find out more about carrying Vandor products in Canada. Do you have a contact name for her? As far as distribution and shops are concerned, just call the Lyon company at 801-972-2888 and ask for a customer service rep.
Nikki: Thanks, I've been trying to track that info down for a while but most stores don't like to release their
sources to competitors. Yes, customer service can tell you the stores in your area, no problem.
GC: Is there a Vandor web site? We have not finished our web site yet, but are working on it!
I had no idea about Captain Kangaroo!
Merla: You must be a youngster Lois. You're killing me now with the Bun bun!
I can't ever forget Dancing bears, I handle the Grateful Dead.
Donna B: Thanks Lois for the information Did you see the Clinton holiday White House Tour this year? He showed the music room and in it was a Yellow Submarine Cookie jar (a gift from Yoko Ono) and right behind it was the Elvis Car jar.
He's a music fan.
Nikki: Has Vandor done any Lost in Space? On Lost in Space and Rocky and Bullwinkle - we have not done either. It was some contract issues that got in the way!
Merla: Who had to approve your Beatles line? Did Paul, George and Ringo get involved? Every Beatle and Yoko have to approve every product and if they're gone for six weeks on vacation, we are out of luck.
Bully: Who do you have to deal with for Rocky and Bullwinkle? Rocky is a Universal property, they just were bought by a french company and everything is rather complicated.
Bully: Oh....bummer! When Star Jars was going to make their Rocky & Bullwinkle, I had a lot of interest. Licensing is the most significant investment we have. We have to tell the licensor how many products we are going to sell before we ever make a product and then write a check for that amount.
Nikki: What about Mighty Mouse? I love Mighty Mouse! We're working on Wonderwoman, Batman and Superman for January so maybe Mighty Mouse might be next.
Nikki: Good news! Barb C: Btw... Lois, we all appreciate Vandor donating Jars to the Association for the show in June. You are so welcome on the donation.
Gwen: Lois.... I LOVE the old TV jars with the classic shows on the screen, I hope you plan to make more
of them. Barb C: Lois.. what has surprised Vandor the most about the collectibles market.. like what was very
popular and it surprised you?
On popularity I would have to say Lucy was the biggest surprise. I had no idea that she crossed so
many lines where fans where concerned. She has a tremendous following. We also are planning to do some Marilyn Monroe items.
Lot's of licenses have been overdone. The challenge is to find a different aspect of her and try and
capture that. John Wayne is the one I really want. It's a very difficult license to approach. If anyone has any
ideas, let me know! Michael Wayne does not want to pursue any kind of licensing. It's more than fun, I think that fans would enjoy having some pieces to commemorate his memory.
Only the Franklin Mint has the license. Everything else is counterfeit. I'm one of the principals of the company. As with everyone, I work in sales, product development,
licensing, etc. If I view myself as anything it would be the person who is a student of life, our history and
our world.
Barb C: A renaissance woman! Thanks, I'd like to think I've played a major role in reactivating the creativity and edginess behind
Vandor.
Barb C: Can you tell us a little more of the Vandor history? Vandor was established in 1957 by Ted Van Dorn.
He was a pioneer and did a variety of things, a lot of table top dinnerware. He also loved Betty Boop
and was doing Betty products back in the seventies. He sold the company about ten years ago and it subsequentially
didn't do well. It was then bought by The Lyon Co. around 1995. Going through the archives, we saw
that there were an incredible number of Betty Boop products and sales over the past twenty years.
Vandor created the Betty Boop collector by virtue of doing it for so long and in so many
different items.
The Lyon company felt that there was a hunger for a simple time and a better time. That is
why we will always do nostalgia. That is also one of the
principal reasons why we got into the older characters,
e.g. the Grateful Dead. I feel we create
memories in a three-dimensional form. These items make people smile and remember.
The Grateful Dead fans from years ago are now grownup, e.g. doctors and lawyers, etc. The items remind them of the
times they were freer and the good memories related to those times.
When we introduced the first Grateful Dead Bus Cookie jar, we were
amazed, people really do like the nostalgic items! We don't take things on because we think they are
gong to be hot, we would rather do smaller runs that are better for the collectors. At the beginning, when
we first started we did runs of 10,000. Now that we understand what we are doing and our contribution to the collectibles
market, so we now limit our runs. We rarely go over 4800 pieces, usually our runs are from 2400 - 3600
pieces. It is not being available everywhere is what makes people want it. It's a challenge to continually bring out new products. The value to the end user --
is that there are not a million items out there and that they do have something different.
It has worked for us doing it this way because cookie jars are a big part of our business. Another completely separate division of the company is the promotional items we do.
Such as
the Heinz cookie jars and salt & pepper shakers. They gave them away as
special gifts. You'll notice that we even applied the label just slightly askew, just like the real bottle, none of them
are symmetrically placed. Hey all, thanks for your interest and enthusiasm. Good night to all of you!
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