"Dad, what is this?"

"Kandor City, the home of Superman."

At the entrance of the toy store, a customer pointed to the Lego bricks of Kandor City in the window and explained them to his children.

Around him, people stopped from time to time to look at the novel toy in the window. Occasionally, you could see a figure coming out of the store holding a Candor City toy box.

In front of the display window, Stanley stared at the Kandor City Lego toys behind the glass with his eyes wide open without blinking.

He has been standing at the door for almost two hours.

"Boy, do you like it very much?"

Just when Stanley was lost in thought, a questioning voice suddenly came from behind.

Stanley turned his head and saw a man in a neat suit and bowler hat looking at him and saying.

After taking a look at the man who appeared behind him, Stanley moved cautiously to make room for the display window, while nodding timidly.

Seeing Stanley's careful look, Colin smiled and took out a Lego Superman from his arms and handed it to him: "This is for you."

His eyes stayed on the little Lego Superman in Colin's hand for a long time. An excited look flashed in Stanley's eyes. He wanted to reach out and take the toy but subconsciously stopped, opened his mouth and whispered.

"Sir, I have no money..."

Sensing the hesitation in Stanley's expression, Colin put the Lego Superman into his hand and said: "This is just a small gift, as a gift for you to like Superman."

He only occasionally passed by the toy store and wanted to see the sales of Lego in Kandor City. He happened to see Stanley outside the window and the next scene happened.

In front of the toy store, Stanley watched Colin's leaving figure and then looked down at the Lego Superman in his hand, silently lost in thought.

It wasn't until many years later that Stanley learned that the person who gave him Lego Superman was the author of Superman, Mr. Colin Looper.

"In my young memory, the appearance of Mr. Colin Looper was like a real superhero, lighting up my life."

…

"Sorry, I'm a few minutes late..."

In a café on Fifth Avenue in New York, Colin apologized to the inviter who had been waiting early.

"It doesn't matter. In fact, I just arrived."

Looking away from the delicate watch on his wrist, the person in charge of Waterbury Clock Company immediately shook his head to show his understanding.

After saying a brief hello and gesturing to the waiter to order coffee, the person in charge of the Waterbury Clock Company once again expressed his gratitude: "It's an honor to meet Mr. Colin Looper here. Your presence is a great honor."

Extremely important to us at Waterbury Clock Company."

"No, I also have high expectations for this cooperation."

The hot sales of Kandor City Lego bricks brought Colin a lot of profits, but the competition in the stock market forced him to invest more funds in it.

Currently, in terms of oil stocks, Roy Stone and Paul Getty, who represent Colin, are still engaged in a fierce competition. Through the acquisition of Mission Company, he currently controls more than 20% of Mission's shares and indirectly controls some of the shares.

Seaside Union Oil Company's stock, but Paul Getty was not to be outdone and fought back and began to compete with him for the shares of the mission.

In order to maintain an advantage in this battle for oil stocks, Colin had to continue his old path of superhuman licensing cooperation.

But this time, the one who took the initiative to seek cooperation was the watch company called Waterbury.

Speaking of Waterbury Watch Company, its brand also has a very long history. The company's predecessor was R H Ingersoll & Bro (Ingersoll Watch Company), which was also the once famous American Ingersoll Watch.

The company's predecessor was a mail-order company, which initially focused on selling low-cost products such as rubber stamps. It was not until 1892 that the first Ingersoll watch was launched, known as the "Universal".

Called watches, they were actually small, spring-driven clocks, about 3 inches in diameter and over an inch thick. They were housed in a watch case and hung from a bracelet with a bow and crown, just like contemporary watches. The crown had no function.

, the watch is a spring connected by a fixed key, with a wheel in the center of the dial for the hands, and when the case is opened like a clock, both hands can be used.

Initially 'universal' watches were sold wholesale to dealers, but later in 1892 mail order catalogs were produced and watches were sold directly to the public.

Later, with the popularity of watches, Ingersoll Watch Company gradually changed its business and became a watch manufacturer.

In the following period, Ingersoll Watch Company has been committed to launching new watches. Over the past 20 years, watches worth nearly 40 million US dollars have been sold. Ingersoll created "the watch that made the dollar famous!"

.

Only later, the outbreak of World War I caused an economic recession and the Ingersoll Watch Company had to declare bankruptcy, and the Waterbury Watch Company also bought it under such circumstances.

However, the Waterbury Watch Company, which acquired the Ingersoll Watch Company at the time, never expected that in less than ten years, it would be on the verge of bankruptcy.

The occurrence of the Great Depression greatly reduced people's demand for watches, and the Waterbury Watch Company's revenue also dropped sharply.

At present, the cooperation with Colin also hopes to rely on the popularity of "Superman" to help the company get out of difficulties.

Therefore, during the meeting with Colin, the person in charge of the Waterbury Watch Company was extremely sincere, because once the cooperation failed, the company would most likely miss the opportunity and go bankrupt.

"Thanks."

After taking the coffee from the waiter, Colin nodded and thanked him, then took a sip of the coffee.

"Mr. Looper..."

On the other side, after Colin put down his coffee, the person in charge of the watch company took out the design drawings he had prepared.

This is the result of Waterbury Clock Company spending several nights designing, with the aim of designing a work that would satisfy Colin.

Taking over the design draft from the person in charge, Colin was first attracted by the bright image of Superman on the watch. The entire watch was almost designed around Superman, without any cover-up. The clock dial clearly depicted

Superman stands with his chest raised, and the two arms representing the hour and second hands are clearly Superman.

At the same time, the careful thinking of Waterbury Watch Company can also be seen on the wrist. The watch is also designed with a superhuman flying action.

It can be said that Waterbury Watch Company has integrated almost all Superman elements into the design of this watch.

From a personal aesthetic point of view, this watch with the image of Superman as its main axis does not look very good.

However, aesthetics aside, from the perspective of the licensor, Colin is happy to see this happen. After all, in addition to obtaining financial benefits for himself, he also authorized Superman to let more people know about Superman.

The purpose is, if that's the case, then how do you make yourself conspicuous and how do you make Superman appear on authorized products?

Although he was convinced of the watch company's design in his heart, Colin still acted very calmly on the surface.

"If Mr. Looper is not satisfied with this design, Waterbury has other design drawings, which also use the image of Superman as the core..."

Seeing that Colin in front of him didn't react much, the person in charge of the company immediately opened his mouth to explain, and at the same time took out more drawings from his arms.

From these design drawings, we can still see the design ideas of the watch company.

On the large and small clock dials, there are various clock designs based on Superman shapes, which can be said to be an eye-opener for Colin. Some have heat vision instead of hour hands and seconds, and some have cloaks. Of course, the more exaggerated ones are those with

Superman legs.

It is foreseeable that if the final design product is really determined to be produced, everyone who buys a watch in the future will see a scene of Superman doing the splits on the watch, and it will be a full 360-degree split.

Thinking of this scene, Colin felt inexplicably trembling.

He shook his head and looked away from the last design drawing in his hand. Compared with this obviously speechless design, what caught Colin's eye the most was the idea of ​​using thermal vision as the hour and second hands. Not only was it used reasonably,

Superhuman abilities also give people a rather novel feeling.

As for, if this design is actually used in production, that is not what Colin needs to pay attention to.

Anyway, he is only the licensor of the product, and all he needs is that the final result is what he wants, and the rest is entirely up to Waterbury Watch Company.

“The design of this thermal sight is very thoughtful.”

Colin picked out the one he liked from the drawings and expressed his opinion to the person in charge of the watch company in front of him.

After receiving his response, the latter immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

At least on the contract issue, both parties have reached a preliminary consensus, which at least represents the possibility of successful cooperation and authorization.

Taking a deep breath, he took the design that Colin liked. The person in charge nodded and agreed: "Indeed, this design is also one of the favorite designs within Waterbury Watch Company."

There is no doubt that the person in charge told a little lie in this regard. After all, if it was as unanimous as the other party said, he would not need to bring so many design drawings to Colin for screening.

Without exposing the person in charge's politeness, Colin started to steer the topic towards something more practical, that is, the profit sharing of the licensing contract.

"...As long as Mr. Luper is willing to cooperate with Waterbury, we are willing to give up three levels of profits as licensing fees."

A 30% profit authorization is already considered a considerable expense.

In comparison, as the licensee, Waterbury Watch Company not only needs to design the image of the clock but also produces and sells the products, but Colin does not need to do anything in this regard, just license the image of Superman.

You can make money just sitting down.

Of course, although Waterbury Watch Company has expressed a high level of sincerity, there is no reason for Colin to miss out on the money he deserves.

After taking a sip of coffee, Colin said to the person in charge in front of him: "Fifty percent."

"Fifty percent?!"

In response, the person in charge of the Waterbury Watch Company showed an obviously embarrassed expression on his face.

You must know that this 50% is the net profit after the watch is sold, which is an extremely huge profit requirement for any company.

"Mr. Looper, if it's 50%, there won't be much to make in Waterbury..."

The person in charge revealed the current difficult situation in Waterbury in an awkward tone, but the expression on Colin's face was still somewhat unmoved.

Business negotiations are never a place to talk about feelings.

Waterbury's situation may have been difficult, but there were so many companies in similar situations during the Great Recession that Colin was unlikely to give up on his bottom line.
To be continued...