How I Built This with Guy Raz

Episode: Carlton Calvin: Razor. The wild rise, collapse, and reinvention of a mobile toy empire.
Date: September 8, 2025

Episode Overview

In this dynamic episode, Guy Raz sits down with Carlton Calvin, co-founder of Razor, to explore the exhilarating—and at times tumultuous—journey behind some of the biggest toy crazes of the last 30 years. From Pogs to yo-yos, fingerboards to the iconic Razor scooter and beyond, Carlton shares how his knack for spotting crazes, learning from repeated collapse, and ultimately building a brand transformed fleeting fads into a mobile toy empire. The discussion is candid, humorous, and packed with insight on entrepreneurship, risk, and resilience.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Rhythm of Toy Crazes: Pogs, Slammers, and the Early Hustle

• Early Business Attempts: Carlton started his entrepreneurial journey wanting to create children's books illustrated in the styles of great painters, but stumbled into toys through artist connections in the 1990s (06:35).
• Genesis of the Scorpion Slammer: During the height of the pogs craze, he innovated by embedding real scorpions in plastic slammers, leading to an explosive order and first taste of mass manufacturing (11:14).
  • Researched specimen embedding at museums, desiccated scorpions in makeshift ovens, and hand-poured polyurethane in his Pasadena garage (13:47).
• The Perils of Craze Culture: Carlton’s "Stinger" slammer soared—until the pogs craze imploded overnight, leaving him with piles of unused scorpions and a harsh lesson about trend-driven businesses (24:00).
• Notable Quote:

  “The day I delivered the last scorpion, the pog craze collapsed… The whole industry shut down immediately, like, in a matter of hours.”
  — Carlton Calvin (23:27)

Pivoting—Yo-yos and the Power of Ten-Year-Old Sensibility

• Finding Opportunity in Surplus: To offload surplus scorpions, Carlton embedded them in yo-yos just as a yo-yo craze erupted (26:13).
• Understanding Kid Appeal: Carlton’s unique connection to what excites ten-year-olds proved crucial (“I am a ten-year-old boy. My favorite story is I got into trouble… because his, he had the most powerful computer to do video gaming on.” (17:14)).

• Scaling Up: Learned hard business lessons, built a small manufacturing operation, hired his first sales manager, and landed Toys R Us as a customer (29:01).

  “I started to get my big… first big customers, and I sold millions of scorpion yoyos globally.”
  — Carlton Calvin (29:31)

The Fingerboard Ride and Experience with Competition

• Another Fad: Carlton picked up on the fingerboard (mini not-skateboard) trend, utilizing his growing retail connections (32:20).
• Learning from Competitors: Big competitors like Tech Deck leveraged market power, eventually pushing Carlton out of this craze and teaching him about fragility and IP disputes in toy land (34:21).
• Reflecting on Burnout: Repeated cycle of “chase, crest, collapse” was draining, yet at this stage, Carlton still believed toys were always about catching and riding short-lived waves (35:18).

Razor Scooters: From Craze to Classic

• Discovering Razor: A 1999 LA Times article about adults riding scooters in Tokyo set the wheels in motion for Carlton to approach J.D. (the scooter’s Taiwanese makers) (39:36).

• From Knockoff Maker to Craze Owner: Initially wanting to license miniature Razor scooters, Carlton pivoted to importing and selling full-size versions, partnering directly with the inventors (41:12).

  “For the first time in my life… I had the notion that I could be the craze. I could own a craze.”
  — Carlton Calvin (41:25)

• Securing Retail and Brand Strategy: Formed Razor USA, pitched to Toys R Us, and immediately experienced explosive demand:

  “I was selling a million scooters a month from the get go.”
  — Carlton Calvin (49:18)

• Branding Over Knockoffs: Used patents, branding, and legal strategy to distinguish Razor from the flood of copycats and claim the cultural moment (53:00).
• The Inevitable Crash and What Followed: Craze crashed just as hard, with sales plummeting to zero almost overnight (55:00).

  “It doesn’t make sense unless you understand crazes… No matter how many times the retailers go through this, no matter how many times I went through this, everybody’s thinking to themselves, this time is different.”
  — Carlton Calvin (55:00)

Reinvention: Building a Lasting Brand Beyond the Craze

• The Critical Pivot:
  • With partners Robert and Geno, Carlton resisted gutting the company after the crash (61:13).
  • Sat on a million scooters, until the dust settled and sales “leveled out” at a sustainable, if smaller, rate—4 million scooters/year for new kids entering the market (62:00).
  • “It was the beginning of a kind of a classic toy.” (63:30)
• Brand Extensions & New Products:
  • Expanded the “wheeled mobility” category—aluminum “Big Wheels” (the Scream Machine) and other ride-ons.
  • Brand value began to insulate Razor from the worst of craze culture.
• Innovation and the Electric Revolution:
  • Spotted the trend early and pioneered electric-powered versions of scooters and bikes (66:27).

  “The electric scooters—as soon as I put them out there, they flew off the shelf.”
  — Carlton Calvin (67:46)

  • Laid groundwork for “evergreen” products like the Ripstick—half skateboard, half art project—which became another major cultural moment (68:27).

The Evolving Toy Landscape: Online Sales, Tariffs, and Staying Ahead

• Retail Shifts & Challenges:
  • Changing consumer channels (transition from Toys R Us to Amazon and other retailers). The loss of Toys R Us left a significant gap that was never fully replaced (72:22).
• Facing Tariffs:
  • New challenges arose with US-China tariffs, leading to price hikes and frantic attempts to move operations to Vietnam/Thailand (75:56).

  “We were just basically running around like our chicken with his head cut off, trying to respond to whatever happening next.”—Carlton Calvin (77:01)

• Looking for the Next Big Thing:
  • Even with hundreds of current products (75:16), the perpetual search for the next craze never ends—Carlton muses about the potential of AI for trend-spotting (78:20).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Luck and Timing:

  “Luck is so humbling as part of success… You can never bring back the hula hoop. How do we explain things like this? I often think that, you know, the Beatles, if you brought them into the market today, might not become famous.”
  — Carlton Calvin (79:44)

• On Being True to His Inner 10-Year-Old:

  “The secret is that I didn’t stray too far from what I am. Like I am a ten-year-old boy … and so I have a sensibility about, you know, naughty, dangerous things or like, scorpions that boys like.”
  — Carlton Calvin (17:14)

• On Patents and Competition:

  “Mostly people ignored the fact that we had a patent.”
  — Carlton Calvin (53:00)

• The Razor Formula:

  “It was like, if you build it, they will come.”
  — Guy Raz (69:06)

Important Segments & Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment | Highlights | |-----------|---------|------------| | 03:55 | Introduction to Razor | Launch of the Razor scooter, background on Carlton’s early hustles | | 11:14 | The Scorpion Slammer Story | Manufacturing learnings, first big deal, pitfalls of toy crazes | | 26:13 | Pivot to Yo-yos | Reusing existing inventory to ride a new trend, scaling lessons | | 32:20 | Fingerboards & Competition | Learning to negotiate and survive in a cutthroat, IP-driven space | | 39:36 | Discovering the Razor Scooter | Reading an article, negotiating global partnerships | | 47:01 | Startup Operations | Scaling employee base, learning corporate structure | | 49:18 | The Million-a-Month Phenomenon | Distribution explosion, handling the high tide of demand | | 55:00 | The Craze Collapses | Sudden bust, stockpiles, and psychological impact | | 61:13 | Resilience & Reinvention | Robert’s pivotal role, keeping the team intact | | 66:27 | Electric Scooter Revolution | Embracing electrification, establishing stability | | 68:27 | The Ripstick Story | Recognizing organic crazes, rapid product launches | | 72:22 | Retail/Channel Evolution | Navigating the death of Toys R Us, rise of Amazon | | 75:56 | Supply Chain & Tarriffs | Adapting to global market upheaval | | 78:20 | The AI Angle | Future-planning, the quest to algorithmically spot “the next craze” | | 79:44 | On Luck and Success | The humility of luck and serendipity |

Episode Tone & Style

• Conversational, humorous, candid, and reflective. Carlton is frank about his stumbles, embraces luck, and credits his success to a combination of instinct, timing, and openness to change.
• Authenticity: The discussion captures both the excitement and emotional toll of entrepreneurship, with a “scrappy garage” ethos throughout.

For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This episode traces the wild, whiplash ride of America’s biggest toy crazes through the eyes of the man who turned Razor from a fad into an enduring fixture. It’s a story of luck, timing, relentless adaptability, and the eternal hope of the next big thing. Carlton Calvin’s journey is as much about learning to let go of failed bets as it is about betting big—and sometimes winning bigger.