American comics: You're asked to fish, but you catch a Superman template?

Page 570

At the same time, Roston's family and children need his care, and he doesn't want to make such a selfish decision.

Of course, most importantly, Roston's faith prevented him from committing suicide.

Although those who once shared his beliefs eventually betrayed them, Rostrand at least wouldn't allow himself to do so.

"If, Mr. Xu Fu, you intend to participate in the stock market, I suggest buying precious metals, especially gold and other stocks that preserve value; they cannot guarantee how much money you will make, but at least they will not cause too much loss."

The prolonged downtrend in the stock market has extinguished these market participants' confidence in Rostone.

A large number of radio 133 analysts felt powerless about the long-term prospects of the New York Stock Exchange, and none of them could predict when the market would rise again.

However, Xu Fu knew one or two things.

For 25 years, the stock market, which collapsed during the Great Depression, had been in a slump before recovering to its pre-Depression highs in 1954.

No matter how you look at it, this is a considerable amount of time.

And clearly, neither Rostrand, whom we are facing, nor most investors during that period, would have known this.

How are oil company stocks trading right now?

With the future of the New York Stock Exchange on his mind, Xu Fu looked at Rostrand standing in front of him and asked in a calm tone.

"An oil company?"

Rostrand gave him a somewhat surprised look, but still answered thoughtfully, "Oil stocks have been almost constantly falling, especially those of Coastal United Oil. Yesterday, it fell below $2.5, and everyone thinks it will continue to fall. Coastal United Oil may go bankrupt because of this."

Rostrand was able to observe that Xu Fu seemed to be showing some interest in oil stocks.

Although he didn't know the reason, Rostrand subtly reminded him: "There are currently no factors in the stock market that are favorable for the prospects of oil stocks."

Are there no prying eyes?

Chapter 646 is a good thing

Rostrand's aim was to persuade Xu Fu not to consider oil, a stock that clearly had no future, but his words only gave Xu Fu more confidence in his decision.

“Mr. Rostral, from now on, I need you to acquire shares of all oil companies on the market for me, especially the respective holdings of Seashore United Oil Company.”

Of course, it's a good thing that Xu Fu is willing to hire me as a stock manager.

However, the first order given by the other party as the supervisor was somewhat beyond Rostrom's expectations.

"Excuse my bluntness, sir, but buying oil stocks at this time is not a good decision?"

“Mr. Rothstone, you must remember one thing: I didn’t hire you to listen to you. I assume you must obey my demands, that’s all. If you can’t even do that, then unfortunately, I won’t hire you. I’m sure there are plenty of managers in the stock market willing to work for me.”

Xu Fu did not intend to try to tell Rostrand his thoughts, because at this time, even if he told him his purpose, not many people would believe him.

So he chose the simplest and most direct way, telling Rostrand either obey or get out.

“I understand, Mr. Xu Fu.”

Without a doubt, Rostrand chose the path of submission.

In fact, this was the only option for this confused person.

As Xu Fu said, hundreds of people applied for the job in the stock market, and his only good thing was that he was given the opportunity to meet with clients.

"I'm currently working hard to acquire oil blocks."

Seeing Rostrand's change, Xu Fu nodded and did not linger in front of the New York Stock Exchange building.

Buying oil stocks may not just be a matter of shorting out, even though the market is now at its bottom. There's still not enough capital to easily absorb them.

Therefore, Xu Fu also needs to prepare sufficient funds to buy these stocks.

The shares issued by Beach Union Petroleum are currently worth more than $100 million on the market, while their actual selling price is about $0.4 lower than the market price.

According to Rostrand's deduction, if Xu Fu wanted to buy shares in Haibin United Oil Company and become one of the de facto controllers of the nation's ninth largest oil company, he would need at least $300 million in capital.

Three million is a considerable sum in any era, but during the Great Depression, it was an unimaginable amount.

Although Xu Fu was prepared for the price of oil stocks, his heart still skipped a beat when he heard Rostrand's suggested price of three million.

Currently, although the Messenger newspaper's sales continue to grow, he has no more than $30 in funds available for withdrawal.

The newspaper industry is a profitable business, and for The Messenger to maintain high sales, it needs a stable supply of printed newspapers.

Of course, this funding only came from The Messenger.

In fact, in addition to newspaper revenue, the Messenger comics, the recently launched quarterly Superman magazine, and box office revenue from the animated shorts Superman and Mickey Mouse also contributed to the income.

However, the film's box office revenue will only reach Xu Fu after the cinemas and Disney separate, and this process will take some time.

Therefore, the only industries that can bring him enough income at present are those other than comic books and short films.

Checkerville, a Fisher-Price toy factory.

"Fisher's Superman dolls are now in their fifth production phase, with sales continuing to grow, especially after the release of the 'Superman Adventures' movie. The radio drama has also helped boost doll sales."

Hermann Fisher treated Xu Fu much more politely than before.

After all, Fisher-Price's most popular toy right now is the Superman doll licensed by Xu Fu.

When dealing with such a large client, Hermann-Fischer naturally had to do his best to meet their requirements.

I nodded and said that Superman dolls have always been popular in the toy market.

In particular, with the serialization of the comics, the release of short films, and the recent radio drama, these feats have all involved the sale of the dolls.

Today, more than one million Superman dolls have been sold in New York City, and that number continues to grow.

The revenue from doll sales alone brought Xu Fu a staggering $10.

This is not just a standalone product of the Superman doll.

"What about Lego?"

While he was thinking, Xu Fu casually mentioned another type of toy production that he had commissioned Fisher to produce.

"that."

Hermann-Fischer hesitated slightly before speaking.

"Currently, the market does not favor the Toy Man and Big Guy categories. Apart from one LEGO Superman toy that has been well-received by the market, the sales of other LEGO products are not high. It seems that the market does not like this product category."

The failure of LEGO products was clearly somewhat unexpected for Xu Fu.

　(Good job) He originally thought the launch of Lego bricks would cause a sensation, but he obviously missed the point in how well the public would accept the toy.

"In that case, let's temporarily put aside the development and production of Lego and focus on developing the Superman doll father."

Currently, due to technological limitations, all LEGO toys produced by Fisher-Price are made of wood. Compared to lightweight plastic, wooden LEGO toys are not only more expensive, but also less comfortable to play with, and prone to cracking after paint gets on them.

If you want to truly mass-produce Lego toys, you just need to wait for the invention of injection molding machines, which will change the history of wooden Lego.

Historically, injection molding machines truly gained momentum in the latter half of World War II.

Clearly, this is not a short-term period.

Chapter 647 Today's Life

Perhaps I could have mentioned this time earlier.

For ordinary people, this is undoubtedly a daunting task; after all, the development of science and technology is not something that can be achieved overnight; on the contrary, many scientific advances often require a long wait before they bear fruit, and are full of coincidences and surprises. For example, the invention of the microwave oven was initially intended to develop a more powerful magnetron to emit microwaves for use as a radar device, while the discovery of saccharin was due to researchers at the time not washing their hands.

It is the randomness inherent in these scientific inventions that has shaped our lives today.

The same applies to injection molding machines.

The earliest plastic injection molding machine appeared as early as 1872, and it has been improved to varying degrees since then.

The first commercially available injection molding machine known to the market was the horizontal, hand-operated, air-forming injection molding machine introduced by Eckert Ziegler in 1926.

Although electric injection molding machines are available on the market that can replace manually driven ones, the expensive electric drive is not currently the preferred option because injection molding machines have always been used only for small-batch production.

Ultimately, workers are only good when they have money.

A manual injection molding machine was clearly not what Xu Fu needed.

In this case, it's almost indistinguishable from wooden Lego, so upgrading the injection molding machine is a high priority.

As far as Xu Fu knew, it took several more years before injection molding machines achieved a real breakthrough.

The widespread availability of polystyrene boosted the market for injection molding machines. Due to breakthroughs in raw materials, injection molding machines gradually shifted from compression molding to injection molding, a major breakthrough and the origin of its current name. In the early days, injection molding machines weren't actually called injection molding machines; they were called compression molding machines, which was more accurate.

When Xu Fu thought about the history of injection molding machines, some ideas came to mind.

Since there is already a prototype injection molding machine on the market, he is well-equipped to conduct research in this direction.

Or, for another person, a technological breakthrough often requires countless attempts and failures.

But for Xu Fu, these steps could be skipped entirely.

Not only because of his (bbaj) super brainpower, but also because of the anti-world behind him, where injection molding machines have long been fully industrialized.

From that time on, the injection molding machine industry was destined to move towards modernization and development.

So why can't I be the one who stimulates development?

I came up with the idea of ​​an injection molding machine.

Xu Fu did not get straight to the point. Instead, he took a trial approach and arranged with Herman Fisher to continue producing and developing Superman dolls. This allowed Fisher to develop more types of Superman dolls and expand the market.