In the U.S., It’s a Hot Toy; in Thailand, a $5-a-Day Job : Labor: The factory making Power Rangers figures has added workers and now runs at capacity.
There’s no shortage of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers for Lamduan Chatsomboon. She’s surrounded by them as she works 13 hours a day assembling pieces of molded plastic, trying to meet the insatiable worldwide demand for the toys.
She could never afford one for herself.
The 38-year-old Thai earns $5 a day and 84 cents an hour for overtime. In the race to put the toys under Christmas trees in Europe and the United States, she may attach shoulder shields to as many as 500 Power Rangers heroes in one hour.
The Rangers cost $13.50 on average in the United States, but here the asking price is $88 apiece, far out of Lamduan’s range.
She works while speaking.
“It’s too much, but I can do it if I don’t stop,” Lamduan says. “I cannot smile, I cannot talk, I cannot make a sound.”
When it became clear the Power Rangers were going to be the ultimate prize of the U.S. holiday season, the Japanese-owned Bandai factory here added 600 new hires to bring its work force to 2,000. It started producing around the clock and raised its output to 725,000 toys a month from 150,000.
“All of us should feel like Santa Claus,” said Tawatchai Pingsuthiwong, deputy manager of the factory. “Our production now is at maximum capacity.”
It still isn’t enough.
Stores in the United States have limited the number of Power Rangers one customer may buy. Some desperate shoppers reportedly scuffled over dwindling supplies of the 8-inch-tall Rangers, their dinosauresque Power Zords and Thunderzord battle machines.
According to Mary Woodworth of Bandai America, Power Rangers toys are being made at nine plants in China, three in Thailand, two in Japan and one each in Taiwan and Mexico. She said four other plants in China will begin production soon.
Bandai says it expects sales in the United States alone to top $300 million for the year ending next March, 10 times more than in the previous year.
At the factory outside Bangkok, hundreds of workers flank rows of conveyor belts to snap together body parts and shoulder armor and insert screws and springs.
In another room, workers don surgical masks to paint eyes and noses on the characters--five teen-agers chosen to rescue the planet from evil space invaders led by the villain Rita Repulsa.
Moving along the assembly lines, the plastic pieces “morph” into the characters, from the Sabertooth Tiger Dinozord to Titanus, the Carrier Zord that totes the other zords.
It’s quiet except for the hum of machines stamping out Power Rangers parts and the whir of drilling into molded plastic. The factory is clean, air conditioned and brightly lit; workers get an hour off for lunch and two 10-minute breaks.
The conditions are superior to those in many factories in Thailand, where some sweatshops are known to lock in their laborers and sometimes chain or beat them.
Still, the workers don’t get any special deals on the toys. The “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” show has been on Thai television about a year and the toys are popular, but they’re even scarcer in stores here than in ones overseas.
About 90% of all the Rangers toys rushed off the assembly lines go into shipping containers bound for the United States. The rest go to Europe or Canada.
At Robinson’s in Bangkok, clerk Nurak Thamuangthai says the toy department has received no more than six Power Rangers in a month, and none at all for the last two months. The Rangers are the store’s most expensive toys, but they nevertheless don’t stay on the shelves long.
“We’ve tried to order more, but there are no supplies,” she says. “Yesterday alone, three or four customers came to ask for them.” She said the inquiries are mostly from foreigners, usually Japanese or Americans.
When the Rangers are in stock, factory worker Sawai Kannarong, 30, sometimes takes her 3-year-old son to look at the toys she produces.
Similar pride is voiced by other workers who, despite the grueling hours, seem happy to be turning out the hottest gift item of the season.
“My family is proud that I make such a modern, popular, amazing toy,” says Varaporn Polsawat, 27, who says she puts in about 11 hours a day.
Lamduan says she’s just happy for the overtime pay. She usually earns $5.40 for an eight-hour shift--40 cents of which goes to the agent who got her the job--bringing her earnings under Thailand’s official daily minimum wage of $5.20.
She works three to five hours of overtime a day to earn an extra $2.50 to $4.20.
“If there was no overtime, how could I afford food?” she asks over the simple meal of rice and salad she buys at a stall across the highway from the factory.
“I want to buy a Power Ranger,” she adds, “but even if they were sold here, I couldn’t buy one. They’re too expensive.”
