Trend Gathers in Dongguan, Originality Empowers, Writing a New Chapter for the "China Trend Toy Capital"

Walking through the streets and alleys of Dongguan, Guangdong, "trend toy" elements are everywhere, making the city full of trendy vibes. A giant local original cartoon doll Laura stands in the square, vivid and lively as a city landmark; on the trend toy display shelves, the plush doll of "Jiliang", a mythical beast from the ancient Chinese book "Shan Hai Jing", is covered with fiery red manes and a warm and festive Chinese red scarf, with bright "golden pupils" as if containing spiritual light and wisdom across time, conveying good luck and blessings for the Year of the Horse. It cleverly integrates traditional culture with trendy creativity, showing the unique charm of Dongguan's trend toys.

Stepping into Phase II of Shipai Trend Toy Industrial Park (Manbo Center) in Dongguan is like breaking into a fairy-tale dream world. The Pikachu archway is full of childlike fun, the Chinese-style mecha presents legendary characters accurately, the crystal-clear resin small cute particles and the plush Xiaopa empowered by Doubao large model are very cute. Blind boxes, figurines, cultural and creative derivatives, AI trend toys and other categories are complete, fully meeting the needs of consumers of different ages and becoming a check-in spot for trend toy lovers.

Currently, Shipai Town is fully building an "Online Trend Toy Center", striving to become an efficient docking hub for the national trend toy industry, realizing one-stop services of "finding products, production capacity, IP, channels and services". The platform gathers a large number of trend toy supply chain resources, supporting the construction of various centers such as entrepreneurship incubation, talent services, overseas empowerment and AI prototyping. The 50,000-square-meter super large trend toy supermarket has rows of shelves and a wide range of trendy products, attracting visitors from all over to shop and discuss cooperation.

The rise of Dongguan's trend toy industry is inseparable from more than 40 years of industrial accumulation. Since the 1980s, Hong Kong and Taiwan toy enterprises have settled in Dongguan, gradually building a complete plastic toy industrial cluster, cultivating a large number of manufacturing skilled talents and accumulating solid production and technical foundation. Once dominated by OEM for world-famous IPs and lacking its own brands, Dongguan is now accelerating its transformation. A number of trend toy enterprises focus on original IPs, moving from behind the scenes to the front stage, building a complete original ecology from design and production to online marketing and offline experience, achieving a leap from "manufacturing" to "creation". In 2023, Dongguan officially won the title of "China Trend Toy Capital".

Industrial agglomeration empowers quality development. With Shipai Trend Toy Center as the core, the entire industrial chain of trend toy design, prototyping, production and sales is connected within five kilometers. The agglomeration effect has brought significant efficiency improvement: the average production cycle of products has been shortened by 20 days, and production efficiency has been increased by 20%, enabling ideas to be quickly transformed into trend toys in the hands of consumers.

In addition to the efforts of enterprises, the precise support from the local government escorts the industrial development. Tens of millions of yuan in support funds every year cover the entire chain from design and R&D to brand going global, effectively solving the worries of enterprises in development. Shipai Town has a clear development goal: not only to build a "trend toy production base", but also to strive to build a "trend toy industry highland", promoting the high-quality development of the trend toy industry.

As the "China Trend Toy Capital", Dongguan currently has more than 8,000 toy production enterprises and nearly 1,500 upstream and downstream supporting enterprises. More than one-third of the world's animation derivatives and nearly 85% of domestic trend toys are produced here. In 2025, Dongguan's toy exports covered 131 countries and regions, with a value of 23.14 billion yuan. China's trend toys going global show a diversified and brand-oriented development trend, among which the overseas sales proportion of Chinese-style trend toys is increasing year by year.

To help the trend toy industry meet the challenges of international technical trade measures, the Dongguan Trend Toy Technical Trade Service Station was established in Shipai Town in August 2025. It provides full-chain services such as information collection, risk early warning and compliance guidance by integrating multiple resources. This year, China's first national technical trade measures research and evaluation base focusing on the trend toy field was officially settled in Dongguan, marking that China's trend toy industry has entered a systematic and professional new stage in responding to international technical barriers and improving international competitiveness, continuously escorting Dongguan's trend toys going global.

From OEM to original leadership, from industrial agglomeration to global going out, the vigorous development of Dongguan's trend toy industry is not only a vivid epitome of the city's industrial transformation and upgrading, but also a true portrayal of the rise of China's trendy culture. Today, this "China Trend Toy Capital" is taking originality as the soul, industry as the foundation and innovation as the wing, continuously writing a new chapter in the high-quality development of the trend toy industry.