It's time to show you my best birthday present this year.

It's time to show you my best birthday present this year. . Literally no one gets invited to see the Mattel factory, but for my 46th birthday, Mattel Asia invited me for a VIP induction into the factory - to meet its bosses, to meet its team and to see its advancements for a deeper insight into how our beloved Barbie is planned and made. 75% of the world's Barbie dolls are made in Cikarang, about 30km away from Jakarta, Indonesia and I got a personal tour of the facility, and got an audience with the teams that bring our dolls to us from artists to engineers to management. I even got to demonstrate my own brand of doll design which *may* even have impressed the experts. . My heart is full. Our dolls aren't made by mindless machines. Behind everything I saw lay a team with immense pride in their work. They're curious, hungry and driven. They push boundaries of art and engineering, all while being responsible to keep costs where Mattel needs them to be. They decide when we get real embroidery or metal jewellery. They dare to ask questions and experiment with solutions. They bring to life what Mattel designers in the head office sketch on paper. I'm devastated that through my 40 years of collecting, I will still never professionally be part of the Mattel team (I can design dolls. I can do hair. I can illustrate. I'm an award winning marketer and PR guy but my CV still isn't robust enough), but to be able to sort of be an honorary member of Mattel will forever be something I cherish.