Elizabeth Moody and Joshua Addyman from Seven Towns dive into the creation of Hydro Pods

Lizzy, Josh, lovely to see you both – and first of all, Josh, congratulations… Award-winner Joshua Addyman! I’m contractually obliged to put that in the top paragraph!
Josh: Thank you!

For those that weren’t there, what was the award?
Josh: It was the Mojo Nation Play Creators Award for Unsung Hero.

Unsung Hero! Well, congratulations again. And why do you think you got it?
Josh: I guess it was because of Hydro Pods. I feel like maybe Hasbro nominated me because we did a lot of development work with them. We worked together through the whole year getting it done… Obviously, I’d love to know if that’s right, and if anyone else nominated me – I’d love to thank them…

Well, I can’t comment on that. First, because I want to appear enigmatic. And second because I haven’t got a clue! I think it must’ve been at least three or four people, though… It’s a very contested field.
Josh: Well, that makes me really happy.

Say again?
Josh: That makes me really happy!

I thought that’s what you said, but… Personally, I’ve never actually heard those words before! So: where were you before, Josh? What were you doing before you were at Seven Towns?
Josh: I was a student! I went to Brunel University to do industrial design and then I came here for my internship. This must have been seven or eight years ago; my third year of uni. Everyone was so nice to me – and they gave me a job straight afterwards! The only jobs I had before were waiting and bartending – things like that.

Wow. And did you know the reputation of Seven Towns when you applied for an internship?
Josh: No! I actually wanted to become a medical designer, helping people with disabilities – that kind of thing. That was in my head because it was part of a lot of projects we did at uni. When I saw Seven Towns toy invention, I thought: is that even a real job? Because when you’re a kid, you just think Santa Claus is the one that does all of this. You never really think about…

Careful, Josh. We don’t how old our youngest readers are!
Josh: Ha! Oh yeah… Maybe cut that out. Ha!

Lizzy: It’s fine! We’re the elves!

Ha! You’re the elves! Safe! But you came for an interview, presumably?
Josh: Yes. I couldn’t really tell what the vibe was from the website or anything, though. Steve Perrin did the interview. I was very shy back then, so I’m glad it was just one person because I heard that other people had like three interviewers. I would’ve struggled with that for sure!

Lizzy: He didn’t say anything at all on his internship, Deej!

Josh: Ha! I did keep myself quiet. I didn’t want to speak out of line!

Ha! Very good. Let’s talk about Hydro Pods… First, Billy Langsworthy and I have been champing at the bit to do an interview about this; it’s wonderful. S’wonderful! I might sing! Somehow this feels brand new AND retro; it feels like something I already love. For those that haven’t seen them, what are Hydro Pods?
Josh: So Hydro Pods is a collectable toy line about battling! You fill a capsule up with water, and a character rises up inside… Then you plug a target on the top, which holds the surface tension, and holds the water inside the capsule. When you knock the target off, the water sinks out at the bottom, like it’s peed itself. And then the character also sinks, as if it’s died.

Bloody hell! Keep it light, Josh! Ha! No, that’s great… I wonder if we can link to a video here to do it full justice. How did the idea come about?
Lizzy: Soy sauce, isn’t it?

Josh: Yes… Do you know those little red lids that come on Kikkoman soy sauce bottles? They’ve got one holes on either side… And one side’s got a slightly bigger hole than the other.

These are the bottles that look like medical flasks?
Josh: Right. So if you hold a finger over one of those holes, the soy sauce drips out. But if you let go, it pours out. That’s where the idea came from… I was testing it out and it turns out that if you hold one hole closed really tightly, nothing comes out at all. It’s really clever. And actually, the guy who designed it passed away quite recently – rest in peace.

Oh, you know who designed it?
Josh: Yes, it’s a Japanese designer called Kenji Ekuan. There’s a whole documentary about it; it’s really interesting. Ha! Maybe not to you… But he did hundreds of different models to get it just right. So anyway: it drips out, and it pours out – and to actually stop it coming out is super easy. I had that thought in my head for ages, but then I saw the TV show The Umbrella Academy. Do you know it?

Oh, good god, no. You need to think of me as being like a High Court judge, Josh… I have no pop-culture knowledge from within my own lifetime. Or before! Did you say The Umbrella Academy?
Josh: Yes. There’s a character in it… Look, I’ll show you! He’s like a man in a suit with a goldfish in a pod where his head should be. So I saw that, and I started thinking… Maybe there’s a really cool idea where you can seal water inside a pod, then you let go and all the water gushes out. I thought that was a really cool mechanism. I had that in my notes for a few months before I found the right home for it.

Oh my GOD! I’m so excited; I might cry! So you’re telling me that you looked at a soy sauce bottle, and then this fish-bowl-headed fella in a suit… And THAT led to this product line?
Josh: Yes.

Well, we should wrap this up right now because… Clearly, you’re going to have an incredible career in this industry and I’m just distracting you from it!
Josh: Ha! Thank you very much.

I’m blown away; I’m amazed. Imagine if you were concentrating on medical design… God knows what you might’ve sorted out by now. Let me ask you this: what’s the process at Seven Towns? How do you go from thought to product?
Josh: We have ideas meetings where we gather together, and everyone brings a few ideas each. Obviously, I saved that one to the end because I was excited about it. Ha! But then everyone else was as well… It was an instant hit; I think it was probably the best reaction I’ve got within the team. This was around two years ago.

Then what happens, Lizzy? Do individual inventors get assigned specific projects? Do they just busy themselves in their own time?
Lizzy: We take a team view. We look at all the concepts presented at our idea days, we talk about them, then we assign team members to work on them. So you may or may not work on your own concept… We usually work on who’s the best fit for the concept. As it happens, Josh actually is a really good fit for this. So he did loads of the development work on it, but there were other team members as well – those who are really good at mechanisms and sculpting and all sorts of things. So we feed other people in as well…

So it’s always about skill set?
Lizzy Yes. Nothing’s ever developed without everyone being part of it. So even when Josh is working on something, he will say – on a Monday when we all get together: “This is where I’ve got with it; we’re on this bit.” It’s always very collaborative so people can input and feedback.

And with this, did the idea then snowball? Because clearly there’s more than one product here…
Lizzy: Yes. We’ll build it out to a certain level of what we think is appropriate for that product. That’s when we go pitch it…

And after pitching this, when you partnered with Hasbro, was there much development work to do?
Lizzy: We’ve worked very closely with Hasbro on the development, all the way through. It’s been an amazing experience! From the early stages, when they were pitching it in themselves to get their teams and licensees into it, right through to the actual development of what’s on shelf. And we’re really happy with what’s come out. Because as you know, Deej, sometimes we sell in a product, and we literally don’t see it until it hits the shelf! We have no development input at all – which is absolutely fine – but it’s been amazing to have such a strong development input on this.

Thank you, Lizzy! Josh, back to you… I’m curious: how did you feel picking up your award?
Josh: Honestly, I didn’t think I was going to win because there were loads of other nominees. But it was one of the happier times of my life for sure.

One of? Meh… I’m starting to think it should’ve gone to someone else!
Josh: Ha! Obviously, yes… Then it was THE happiest time of my life.

That’s more like it!
Josh: Joking aside, I really do feel like I get real recognition here anyway, great comments and stuff, but getting it within the toy industry… Is that like the whole world? That’s crazy. So I’m not unsung anymore. I’m just a hero.

Ha! Very good! Ha! Ah, dear! I see your boots don’t quite fit anymore!
You’re going to get that put on a business card, are you?
Josh: Joshua Addyman. Hero.

I’m curious to hear your answer to this, Josh… What advice would you give to someone who’s looking to work in this industry?
Josh: I would say find a skill that’s a little niche and get really good at it, I think. In my case, I got into 3D sculpting, and video editing…

And that skill set fitted in well with the needs at Seven Towns?
Josh: Yes, I think so – especially with the 3D sculpting. There are people who could do videos, obviously, but I was interested in elevating it a bit more.

You cut a decent sizzle, do you?
Lizzy: Josh cuts an AMAZING sizzle… Including the proposition one for Hydro Pods before it was prototyped.

Perfect. And I’m just thinking about your staff retention here, Lizzy, because some people stay for a lifetime, don’t they? Chrisi Trussell retired after 40 years! We did a piece with her when she left; people can read it here. Laurence Andrault has been here 25 years, I think she said.
Lizzy: 25 years, yes. And Steve Perrin as well… We celebrated Steve’s 25th anniversary recently too.

So you’re obviously doing something very right! What’s the secret to retaining staff?
Lizzy: Feeding them! Feeding them is a good one.

I can imagine, actually! If you’d fed me today, you wouldn’t get rid of me.
Lizzy: Ha! I would’ve fed you if you turned up on time!

Ha! Brutal! Well, I asked for that… I should have put ‘Slackness’ into Toy Room 101!
Lizzy: Sorry, I couldn’t resist! Ha! The secret to retaining staff… I don’t know. Because in all fairness, a lot of the staff started before me. I’ve been here 11 years… I guess the main secret to Seven Towns is that it simply is a nice place to work. We really respect everybody in our company and the team has a lot of leeway to be creative. And I think that’s a really unique thing to be able to do in this industry. So it’s always different; you’re never really frustrated or bored.

Excellent… This has been brilliant! Thanks for having me in. Before we finish off, let me ask you this, Josh: what’s the most interesting object on your desk?
Lizzy: Oh, you wait. If you go downstairs and see his desk…

Messy?
Josh: I don’t know if I can say one thing because there are thousands of things on there! Ha! Oh! Maybe the first prototype samples of Boglins. They were like first production samples. They’re really cool.

Wonderful. Thank you both so much for your time; it’s been a blast.

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