Clark-made, real-looking stuffed animals a hit among celebrities

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — Michael Jackson, Oprah Winfrey, Dick Van Dyke, and Kirstie Alley have them. And Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Philip, wants some as part of his commitment to wildlife conservation in Africa.

Their objects of fancy: real-looking stuffed animals handmade by at least 300 Filipino workers of Hansa Toy International, one of the pioneering investors in the Clark special economic zone in 1994 and the ecozone’s first exporter.

"It takes three to eight years to master the production of our products," said Hans Axthelm, who founded Hansa in Australia in 1972.

Officials of the state-owned Clark Development Corp. (CDC), which runs the ecozone, have credited Axthelm not only for his success in the global toy industry but also for his ecological commitments.

For instance, CDC executives cited Axthelm for his water conservation project where he installed a huge tank that catches rainwater during the rainy season for use in his toy factory for the rest of the year.

Hansa is now reputed to be one of the top toy manufacturers in the world. It is set to launch soon stuffed animals which can move through robotics.

When President Arroyo visited the Hansa factory last Thursday, she was delighted by the array of real-looking stuffed animals like birds, monkeys, horses, rhinoceros, turkeys, rabbits, lions, and tigers, some of which were equipped with devices allowing them to move.

"It takes about five years of training before a person is able to produce a detailed animal head," Axthelm said. "An error of some millimeters is enough to disfigure the product."

The stuffed toys looked so real that some visitors were tempted to ride on the bigger animals, whose solid framework allowed this.

Axthelm said Jackson, Winfrey, Van Dyke, and Alley are among the American celebrities who have bought Hansa stuffed animals from their distributor in the United States.

Myra Crisostomo, an assistant to Axthelm who has remained as Hansa’s chief executive officer and managing director, said the stuffed toys have factory prices ranging from $4 to $3,000.

But she said some US outlets sell the bigger toys such as the 18-foot tall giraffe and the four-meter high mammoth (an extinct elephant) for as much as $25,000.

Crisostomo said six conservationist groups in Africa have endorsed Hansa, thus arousing the interest of Prince Philip who has reportedly shown interest in purchasing some Hansa toys.

On a daily basis, Hansa exports a 40-foot container van of stuffed toys to any of its foreign markets, including the US, Russia, France, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Middle East.

It holds regular exhibitions in major cities such as New York, Paris, London, and Nuremberg (Germany) under the banner of Hansa Toy International Philippines.

Axthelm said he decided to move to the Philippines in 1994 because "market intelligence showed that the Philippines is rich in culture and artistic abilities."

He noted, too, the Filipino workers’ proficiency in English.

Hansa has invested some P500 million in its operations here.

Axthelm said Hansa will continue to expand and eventually employ 1,000 workers to be able to fill in the remaining 40 percent of the demand for its products abroad.