Is it a toy store for adults? A collectibles store for kids? A decidedly oddball design boutique? Or a potentially mainstream entertainment powerhouse? Like a handful of true business originals, postmodern toymaker Kidrobot made a name for itself not by safely burrowing into an established niche, but by following the peripatetic instincts of one individual.

That man is founder Paul Budnitz — filmmaker, animator, painter, sculptor, clothing designer, Internet entrepreneur, computer geek, and self-confessed “serial obsessive.” These days, his brainchild Kidrobot is evolving into a pleasant blend of all his previous and current obsessions — and his hopes for the future.

A Fanatic Following

It’s also become a consuming passion for a growing community of limited-edition art toy collectors. “The day we release a new toy, we get lines around the block,” says Paul in his Mac-filled Manhattan headquarters. “It’s a similar phenomenon to the Apple Soho store across the street from us. In both places, there’s a bit of a cult feeling. And I think that’s due to a design philosophy we share. We want everything we create to be simply...undeniable.”

Walk into any of their store-galleries — in Soho, San Francisco, or Santa Monica — and one glance tells you Kidrobot is very much a design-driven entity. So you’d expect its creative workshops to be abuzz with Mac computers. Yet Paul’s commitment to Mac technology was spawned by some very nuts-and-bolts business concerns. “When you’re starting a small company, the fact is you have to pinch pennies wherever you can. So I built my own back-end systems — because, using Filemaker on the Mac, I was confident I could do it myself.”

It Just Works

Even after four years of rapid growth and change, Kidrobot’s custom Filemaker database “is just a monster,” its author says proudly. “It’s bulletproof. I mean, it runs our Mac cash registers. Does all the credit card authorization and such. It handles all our purchasing, our cost evaluations and calculations. It even does stuff like automated pre-emptive ordering and order tracking. Connects to UPS for shipping. You name it.