This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, what's up? Welcome back to Side Hustle School. I am your host, Chris Guillebeau. Let's talk about collectibles. Now there is a lot of money in the world of items that people try to acquire for a personal collection.
In fact, the entire hobby consists of spending money. If you collect doll houses or baseball cards or stamps, or just about anything that you don't physically acquire yourself, perhaps like collecting rocks or something, the way you advance in your hobby is by spending money. Now this lends itself well to the world of side hustles. Today's story highlights the collectible known as six scale miniature figures from movies and television. I actually didn't know much about this hobby or collectible at all, but in Asia, it's a billion dollar industry.
It's caught on in the US and elsewhere, and one retail store manager in Kansas has found a way to profit from it by using his skills as a craftsman that he developed long ago. I'm gonna do a shout out to our sponsor, and I'll be right back with that story. [Music]
During business hours, Jason Hewitt manages a large retail store in Kansas. His climb in the retail sector took him from Kansas City to Chicago to the Mall of America in Minneapolis for companies like Fossil and Eddie Bauer. After eight years, he returned home to settle down.
In college, Jason had imagined himself making miniature sets for the movie industry. He had grown up using his hands and imagination to fix cars and houses alongside his dad. He was also a huge movie fan and fascinated by anything miniature. But at a certain point, filmmakers began using computer-generated imaging to create their miniature sets, so Jason set his dream aside to become a star in retail. He didn't set aside his love of movies or miniatures, however.
He discovered the world of six scale miniature figures from movies and television, and Batman was his favorite. Now, I didn't know much about this before researching this episode, but these one six scale figures stand 12 inches tall, and the process of creating them is a long back and forth between the studios and manufacturers. The figures have to be as exact as possible, and in Asia, this is a billion-dollar business. The manufacturers typically post pre-production photos of the characters online, and they take pre-orders. It's common to wait six to nine months for delivery with limited runs.
Collecting six scale figures became popular in the U.S. about 10 years ago, and these aren't cheap. The cost ranges from $150 to well over $1,000 for a single figure. Jason loved collecting these figures, but he didn't love how other collectors displayed them. They tended to put them on stands, as if in a museum, and Jason felt the figures deserved more.
He wanted to place them in a scene from their movie. So on the side, working in his off hours, he started building one six scale miniature movie sets. His Kansas City basement became his studio. He loved the feeling of using his hands to build things once again, and imagining how to use found objects to replicate the movie scene. The plumbing and electrical aisles at home improvement stores became an adventure in re-imagining how one thing could be used for another.
He called these displays dioramas. And as it happens, one of the country's top distributors of six scale figures is only three blocks from Jason's home. The employees there encouraged his interest and even featured one of his dioramas at Comic-Con. Jason also posted photos of his creations on Instagram. This caught the eye of other collectors who asked him to create scenes for them.
His first commission was for the holding cell scene from "The Dark Knight," which prompted four more holding cell orders within five days from other customers who saw the photos online. Jason says his basement became an assembly line. Because all the figures are 12 inches tall, he knows the proportions for each scene exactly. It usually takes him two weeks to a month to complete a diorama, and he currently has a four month waiting list. Thankfully, collectors are used to pre-orders and long wait times for the figures themselves, so they don't balk at waiting for their scenes from Jason.
He collects a deposit to secure a customer's place in line, Jason invites customer input, but he also makes it clear that he has final creative license. Once a scene is completed, Jason sends it to the customer, he asks them to place the figure in the scene, take a photo, and post it on Facebook. Once he sees the figure in the set he designed, he considers the scene a wrap. Jason's dioramas cost an average of $300. Right now, he has more work than he can handle, and he doesn't want his side hustle to take over his personal time, so he's content to let customers find him through word of mouth, Facebook, or Instagram.
In fact, he doesn't even have a website, although he may consider it in 2018 because he's been invited to have a booth at a popular Maker's fair. On a personal note, he and his wife are trying to have a baby, and his side hustle profits are going toward medical expenses in hopes of increasing their chances. It wasn't the way he initially expected, but with this money-making side hustle, Jason's big dream of making miniature movie sets has come true. This world of miniature figures from movies and television is an interesting little industry that I actually had no idea about, so it was fun to learn about it in the process. As I said, there is a lot of money in collectibles if people go nuts over stuff.
I'd never actually heard of this particular industry of miniature figures from movies and television, but I'm not surprised. Whenever millions of people are fans of a particular movie, TV series, or franchise, it makes sense that a certain subset of those people would want to collect action figures, or other figures, I guess, from those series. So congrats to Jason for finding his niche in that little world. I also like this comment from him about using his hands. This was from our notes for the story.
He said, "You know, it feels so good to be using my hands and creativity to make things again. It balances out my life perfectly." Because as I mentioned, when he was a kid and a teenager, he loved growing up fixing things. But then he started this career in retail management, and that kind of went by the wayside. So people start side hustles for all kinds of different reasons. And in this case, one of his main motivations is to do something that uses his hands and creativity.
It just so happens he's also making a nice side income from it, so that's fantastic. And then lastly, just a reminder, you don't have to scale your side hustle. Like in this case, Jason doesn't want more customers, at least not right now. He doesn't want the hustle to take over his life. That's why he has the three to four month waiting list.
So some people do have the goal of scaling their project, just like yesterday's story about Harry Campbell. He started a blog for rideshare drivers, and now he has multiple employees and something like 10 freelancers, makes a full-time income from it. And this contrast is just a reminder that not everyone wants the same thing. So you should set your own goals and do what's best for you. That's my encouragement for you today.
I'll also remind you that inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. If you'd like to see the show notes for today's episode, including some photos of Jason's miniature figures, just come over to sidehustleschool.com/376. That is for episode 376. You can also get a special invitation to join Side Hustle Society, our new training program and online community for a limited time only. Thank you so much for listening today.
I hope you enjoyed this one. I'll be back tomorrow. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.
