Galaxy's Quest

There's a new make-your-own retailer on the scene, and its eyes are set on that seemingly most difficult of kid consumers to capture with a “build a [blank]” concept—the American boy.

This fall, Robot Galaxy stepped in to try to fill the void, opening its first two locations in the New York City suburbs, a move that drew the attention of not only local media, but newspapers as far away as Baltimore and even the financial news cable networks. The interest is focused not only on its newsworthy concept, but also on the man who's spearheading it: Ken Pilot, a retail veteran whose resume includes corner office posts at several national apparel chains, including Gap, J. Crew, Polo Ralph Lauren and, most recently, American Eagle.

“Relative to new concepts that I've helped launch in the past, this was one of the easiest start-ups I've ever done,” Pilot told Playthings. “It was by far the most exciting, because it was our own.”

The Robot Galaxy plan, Pilot says, is for the retailer to exist on “three pillars,” the first being the core make-your-own retail stores, the second, an entertainment property—“a story that could lead to a comic book or a cartoon or even someday a movie”—and the third, a viable web community along the lines of Webkinz World or Club Penguin.

With its first stores, Pilot's “pillars” are already headed skyward. Robot Galaxy has launched its first comic through IDW Publishing, the imprint responsible for a host of independent comics and tie-in books for properties like Transformers and next year's Speed Racer movie. A site presenting the characters where kids can preview their creations has already launched.

The retailer's existing locations—in Freehold, N.J., and West Nyack, N.Y.—are built to what is expected to be a common template: 2,000 to 2,200 square feet of space, housing all the parts necessary to build each of the five main robot characters, or, more likely, to mix-and-match parts to create robots of a child's own imaging. Designed to look like the interior of a spaceship, the stores' walls feature the comic's illustrations, reflecting the importance being placed on creating a world that kids will want to return to and interact with after the initial purchase.

Reaction from Robot Galaxy's kid customers has been “very positive,” according to Pilot. “Kids love the fact that they can create one of the characters from the comic, or create their own because all the parts are interchangeable.” The stores have already had “a strong birthday party response,” Pilot adds. “We'll get into that in earnest after the Christmas season.”