About Leon
Product development and R&D professional based in South China.
Who I am
I’m Leon — a product development professional working in South China’s toy manufacturing ecosystem. I work across the full development cycle: industrial design review, mechanical design, electronics and embedded engineering, prototyping, supplier coordination, compliance preparation, costing, and mass production follow-up.
I keep my current employer, client identities, and active project details confidential. Everything on this site is shared either as anonymized case studies or as general engineering observations drawn from years of working alongside Chinese factories, suppliers, and testing labs.
What I work on
- Toy and juvenile product development, from concept to mass production
- Electronics: low-cost MCUs, audio ICs, Bluetooth / Wi-Fi modules, battery-powered design
- Mechanical design: plastic parts, silicone, plush mechanisms, simple mechanisms
- Prototyping: 3D printing, CNC, soft tooling, pre-production samples
- Costing: tooling breakdown, BOM costing, supplier comparison
- Compliance coordination: EN 71, IEC 62115, ASTM F963, FCC, RED, and basic battery regulations — final requirements are always confirmed by accredited labs
- Supplier communication and on-the-ground follow-up in South China
Why TOY R&D exists
Most “toy industry” content online is either retail marketing, generic sourcing advice, or thin AI summaries. TOY R&D exists to document what actually happens on the engineering and manufacturing side — the small judgments, the misunderstood specifications, the supplier habits that don’t show up in any brochure, and the trade-offs that decide whether a product makes it through tooling, certification, and mass production.
Field notes from real product development and manufacturing, written for engineers, founders, and product managers who want to understand what they are actually signing up for.
Experience working with established brands
I have supported product development, engineering, testing, and manufacturing projects for established international toy and juvenile-product brands. Client identities, brand names, exact project timelines, and internal figures are kept confidential. Instead, anonymized case studies are used on this site to illustrate engineering decisions without disclosing commercial details.
Example — anonymized case study
Case Study — Electronic Soothing Toy for an Established European Juvenile Brand
Category: Electronic soothing product with audio playback. Region: Europe. Challenge: meeting EU toy safety and audio limits while keeping unit cost under a tight BOM ceiling and shipping shelf-ready samples within a compressed timeline. Responsibilities: electronics architecture review, supplier shortlisting, audio sample-rate and output validation, and pre-production follow-up. Outcome: passed the relevant lab tests on the first formal submission. Brand name, exact dates, internal pricing, and identifying figures are intentionally omitted.
For collaboration or project review requests, please use the contact page. Identities, current employer, and active projects remain confidential.