“Help! The Lucites in My Order All Look Different”

Lucites in your deal toy order will vary. That’s just the nature of the Lucite production process; but where and how your Lucites vary is the real issue.

“I’m here in our conference room with my colleagues…”

Unscheduled calls beginning with these words tend not to end well.

But in my experience, the caller, usually an analyst, typically goes on to say something like:

“We’ve taken each and every Lucite in our deal toy order out of the box and lined them up on the conference room table. Many of them look different. Some Lucites are even different sizes. Some Lucites are thicker, some are taller. We measured them with a ruler. Our dinner’s tonight. I don’t know what to tell my MD. I want answers.”

Lucites Are Not Mass-Produced No. 2 Pencils

If we were talking about, say, surgical instruments—and not Lucites—a lack of product uniformity like this would be troubling, to say the least.

But let’s face it, we’re talking about Lucites; and though no one could reasonably expect you (or most anyone else) to know this, Lucites are different.

The Lucite production process is extremely labor-intensive and many of the production steps are performed by hand. Each Lucite piece, for instance, is sanded and buffed by hand—and this causes slight differences in their height, width, and thickness.

Your MD Probably Knows Something You Don’t

Similarly, the position of anything you place inside the individual Lucites—and this would include either the paper or clear materials containing your deal text—will vary as well. Here again, anything to be inserted in the Lucite must first be layered into a semi-liquid substance by hand; and the Lucite is then placed inside an oven. And as anyone who bakes can tell you, the process itself creates subtle differences. Shifts occur during baking process, and even the position of the piece within the oven can cause subtle variations.

In fact, part of the cachet of Lucite deal toys is that they are so very customized, and they do vary slightly—something, ironically, your MD probably already knows and appreciates.

Keep in Mind Your Client’s Perspective

Remember, we’re talking here about relatively subtle differences in a Lucite production run; if those differences are extreme, then you may have a quality control issue. But just as a matter of perspective, keep in mind that your clients will be looking at each Lucite piece individually—and will not, immediately upon receipt, proceed to line every single piece up. They will instead be distributed to individuals who will look at them as distinct, individual pieces.