Eason, standing tall with the 1985 Olmec Toys Sun-Man (left) and Mattel’s recent reissue as part of the Masters of the Universe series (right) | (Photo by Jordan Hollender)

Back in 1985, my son Menelik, who was three years old, told me he couldn’t be a superhero because he wasn’t white. That was a shock.

When children don’t see themselves represented, research shows it has a negative effect on self-esteem, development, and ability to achieve. At the toy store, I found Black dolls for girls but nothing for boys.

So I created Sun-Man, a superhero who gets his strength from the sun. The idea grew from exploring the biology of melanin and its protective qualities for those with darker skin.

In my ignorance, I didn’t think creating and launching a new action figure would be difficult. But the toy business is a serious, cutthroat industry. Later, my experience building Olmec Toys would be documented in an HBS case.

I was working as an editor at Standard and Poor’s when I started Olmec. I had no direct experience in consumer products. I tried to meet with buyers in June, when retailers had made their purchasing decisions in February.

Sales is often about education. I asked chain retailers where they were selling dark pantyhose and makeup for brown skin, then cross-referenced that information with census data and asked buyers to put my products in those stores. it was sheer perseverance.

My first big breakthrough was a $50,000 purchase order from Kmart; after that, Toys “R” Us also carried our full line of action figures, dolls, and games. By 1995, Olmec Toys had $5 million in sales. Our problems began with trying to turn around purchase orders for Walmart, which I now know is an issue many small vendors have encountered.

Buyers used to tell me, “If there was an idea here, Mattel would have done it already.” Which is ironic, because this year a new edition of Sun-Man was issued by Mattel.

One lesson I pass along in my teaching is, No doesn’t mean no—it means not now. If you believe in an idea, and it’s viable, it will live. And if it’s not viable, you can always go back and rework it.

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