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Carlton Calvin

24 statements across 2 episodes · 4 bullish · 6 bearish · 1 people on the record · first statement Sep 8, 2025 by Carlton Calvin · across every show →

On the record as a speaker too: Carlton Calvin's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.

Everything said about Carlton Calvin, oldest first

Sep 8, 2025 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Tech Deck falsely accused Carlton Calvin of infringing their intellectual property
“And at the time they sent around a letter saying that I was infringing their intellectual property, even though the exact opposite was true in, you know, it was really, so it was really dirty actually in my understanding of the world.”
Carlton Calvin Sep 8, 2025 ▶ 31:31 Carlton Calvin: Razor. The wild rise, collapse, and reinvention of a mobile toy empire.
Sep 8, 2025
Assertion Not checkable as stated
A toy distributor wrote Carlton Calvin a $75,000 check on the spot
“He wrote me a check for 75,000 dollars that day, and Guy Raz: On the spot. Carlton Calvin: On the spot. Carlton Calvin: On my face. Guy Raz: As a deposit. Carlton Calvin: As a deposit, so that I could open up a factory, try to figure out how to make them.”
Carlton Calvin Sep 8, 2025 ▶ 13:23 Carlton Calvin: Razor. The wild rise, collapse, and reinvention of a mobile toy empire.
Sep 8, 2025
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Razor has been profitable every single year since its inception
“I have, you know, made money every single year. I was actually thinking we were going to lose money this year.”
Carlton Calvin Sep 8, 2025 ▶ 1:08:01 Carlton Calvin: Razor. The wild rise, collapse, and reinvention of a mobile toy empire.
Sep 8, 2025
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Carlton Calvin imported dead scorpions from China starting at seven cents each
“I think they started at like seven cents a scorpion, but as I got more popular, And I wanted to order more. The price rapidly increased.”
Carlton Calvin Sep 8, 2025 ▶ 17:50 Carlton Calvin: Razor. The wild rise, collapse, and reinvention of a mobile toy empire.
Sep 8, 2025
Disclosure
Carlton Calvin rejected licensing the original hoverboard because it seemed too difficult
“Every year, He would show me these wild and crazy inventions that he made, and I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, I'm happy to keep showing me, you know, we could try a little bit, but I don't know, it just seems too odd, and amongst the things that I…”
Carlton Calvin Sep 8, 2025 ▶ 1:05:16 Carlton Calvin: Razor. The wild rise, collapse, and reinvention of a mobile toy empire.
Sep 8, 2025
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Carlton Calvin sold millions of Scorpion Yo-Yos globally
“So I started to get my big, my first big customers, and I sold millions of Scorpion Yo-Yos globally.”
Carlton Calvin Sep 8, 2025 ▶ 26:12 Carlton Calvin: Razor. The wild rise, collapse, and reinvention of a mobile toy empire.
Sep 8, 2025
Assertion Partly supported
Razor sold one million scooters per month during its 2000 retail launch
“So I was selling a million scooters a month.”
Carlton Calvin Sep 8, 2025 ▶ 43:13 Carlton Calvin: Razor. The wild rise, collapse, and reinvention of a mobile toy empire.
Sep 8, 2025
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Walmart and Toys R Us paid cash on delivery for Razor scooters
“These Toys R Us and Walmart were paying COD for scooters to me.”
Carlton Calvin Sep 8, 2025 ▶ 39:12 Carlton Calvin: Razor. The wild rise, collapse, and reinvention of a mobile toy empire.
Sep 8, 2025 positive
Assertion Supported
Razor established a baseline of two to four million annual scooter sales
“After a certain amount of time, the retailers were able to work through their inventory of their extra inventory. And then they needed somewhere between two or four million scooters a year to keep going.”
Carlton Calvin Sep 8, 2025 ▶ 54:41 Carlton Calvin: Razor. The wild rise, collapse, and reinvention of a mobile toy empire.
Sep 8, 2025
Insight
Electric ride-on toys resist knockoffs through engineering complexity, not patent protection
“These electric motorcycles and scooters, they just keep getting stronger and stronger and stronger, and they're not as easy as To knock off as the scooter. You know, they're not, it's not so much the patent, but the actual technology in making them is quite ch…”
Carlton Calvin Sep 8, 2025 ▶ 1:02:31 Carlton Calvin: Razor. The wild rise, collapse, and reinvention of a mobile toy empire.
Sep 8, 2025 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Razor held one million unsold scooters when warehouse demand plummeted to zero
“We still had like a million scooters in the warehouse for the next month's sales, which then were zero.”
Carlton Calvin Sep 8, 2025 ▶ 50:02 Carlton Calvin: Razor. The wild rise, collapse, and reinvention of a mobile toy empire.
Sep 8, 2025
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Carlton Calvin secured a $600,000 toy show order for scorpion slammers
“A guy walked by who was a, happened to be in the pog and the slammer business, was a toy distributor, and he said, if you don't leave this toy show today, you know, it's the first of three days, if you don't leave today, and you sign an exclusive contract with…”
Carlton Calvin Sep 8, 2025 ▶ 11:43 Carlton Calvin: Razor. The wild rise, collapse, and reinvention of a mobile toy empire.
Sep 8, 2025 positive
Opinion
Kick scooters are more foundational than skateboards because they require less talent
“It's even more than a skateboard because it doesn't take as much talent as a skateboard to ride.”
Carlton Calvin Sep 8, 2025 ▶ 56:09 Carlton Calvin: Razor. The wild rise, collapse, and reinvention of a mobile toy empire.
Sep 8, 2025 negative
Insight
Retailers repeatedly misjudge novelty crazes by ignoring demographic saturation limits
“No matter how many times the retailers go through this, no matter how many times I went through this, everybody's thinking to themselves, this time is different. Like this time it's going to sell a million a month for the next three years. And they can't even …”
Carlton Calvin Sep 8, 2025 ▶ 49:38 Carlton Calvin: Razor. The wild rise, collapse, and reinvention of a mobile toy empire.
Sep 8, 2025
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Toys "R" Us was Razor's biggest customer for a long time
“I think for a long time they were my biggest customer, even for the Raid scooters and stuff like that.”
Carlton Calvin Sep 8, 2025 ▶ 26:29 Carlton Calvin: Razor. The wild rise, collapse, and reinvention of a mobile toy empire.
Sep 8, 2025 neutral
Assertion Partly supported
Razor captured only one-third of the scooter market during the 2000 boom
“And so I maybe only had a third of the market, believe it or not.”
Carlton Calvin Sep 8, 2025 ▶ 49:28 Carlton Calvin: Razor. The wild rise, collapse, and reinvention of a mobile toy empire.
Sep 8, 2025 negative
Disclosure
Calvin lost his Scorpion Slammer profits to inventory when Pogs collapsed
“So I, I'm saying, I'm selling, you know, 75,000 scorpions, slammers a month. I need to order, like, a few 100,000 more scorpions to be ready to, and that, and the price of the scorpions went up, so all my profits were tied up in, you know, my second order of, …”
Carlton Calvin Sep 8, 2025 ▶ 20:53 Carlton Calvin: Razor. The wild rise, collapse, and reinvention of a mobile toy empire.
Sep 8, 2025
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Razor's top revenue drivers are electric motorcycles and scooters
“The electric motorcycle and the electric scooter. I mean, in terms of dollars, and then the scooter obviously sells quite a bit too.”
Carlton Calvin Sep 8, 2025 ▶ 1:07:17 Carlton Calvin: Razor. The wild rise, collapse, and reinvention of a mobile toy empire.
Sep 8, 2025 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Toys "R" Us's bankruptcy caused significant, irreplaceable sales losses for Razor
“The most saddest dramatic shift for razor has been the loss of Toys R Us. You know, not only is it a loss from the kids perspective of a fantasy place to go, but they actually always carried our entire line. And when we came out with something innovative, they…”
Carlton Calvin Sep 8, 2025 ▶ 1:04:19 Carlton Calvin: Razor. The wild rise, collapse, and reinvention of a mobile toy empire.
Sep 8, 2025
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Carlton Calvin hired 75 scorpion arrangers and converted bakery racks into ovens
“I had like 75 scorpion arrangers, and then I took bakery racks. And converted them into makeshift ovens with light bulbs, with, like, insulation on the outside of a bakery rack, and I would stick bakery trays in there of scorpions.”
Carlton Calvin Sep 8, 2025 ▶ 18:47 Carlton Calvin: Razor. The wild rise, collapse, and reinvention of a mobile toy empire.
Aug 20, 2026 negative
Insight
Calvin: Retailers always mistakenly believe consumer product crazes will last forever
“No matter how many times the retailers go through this, no matter how many times I went through this, everybody's thinking to themselves, this time is different. Like, this time, it's gonna sell a million a month for the next three years, and they can't even j…”
Carlton Calvin Aug 20, 2026 ▶ 41:19 Advice Line with Carlton Calvin of Razor
Aug 20, 2026 positive
Disclosure
Calvin: Classic Razor Scooters Still Sell Close to 1M Units Yearly
“I think it's our, still our largest selling item by volume. So, you know, close to a million units a year I would say..”
Carlton Calvin Aug 20, 2026 ▶ 2:15 Advice Line with Carlton Calvin of Razor
Aug 20, 2026
Insight
Calvin: Founders should ride prevailing cultural trends instead of fighting them
“Don't fight the culture. Just like because American Idol, you know, came out and, you know, did a you know, singing contest on TV, you'll notice there were 27 other singing contests that came out after them. Some of them exceeded American Idol. And being secon…”
Carlton Calvin Aug 20, 2026 ▶ 38:23 Advice Line with Carlton Calvin of Razor
Aug 20, 2026 positive
Insight
Calvin: Toy creators should license if they love inventing, not running businesses
“If you love being in business, be in business. If you love inventing toys, then I would say you know, I would license it for sure. I work with inventors and they've done extremely well from me.”
Carlton Calvin Aug 20, 2026 ▶ 11:54 Advice Line with Carlton Calvin of Razor
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