Maestro Media is not a publisher.

I broke every G.I. Joe I ever owned. Same way every time. Those old figures had an O-ring running through the middle of the body. You could twist the torso around and it would snap back.

One turn. Two turns. Three.

I always went one turn too far. All of a sudden the entire figure would come apart in my hands. Legs on the carpet. Torso spinning. Pieces everywhere.

I wasn't trying to destroy them. I wanted to know what was inside.

And eventually I realized something. The plastic was the part everybody looked at but the rubber band was the thing holding it all together.

I've spent most of my career doing some version of that. Trying to understand what actually holds fandom together.

Credit nerdsonearth.com

Games Were the Beginning

Maestro Media started with games. And I love games. We went from Kickstarter campaigns to Target, Walmart and shelves around the world. We have worked with more than 40 licenses, incredible designers, creators and communities. That business is growing.

But somewhere along the way, something else started happening.

We made apparel. We made plush. We built recurring subscription businesses and collectibles. We started developing categories I have wanted to make for years.

Soon I realized none of these were side businesses. They were all the same business.

Maestro Media was never really about making board games. It was about fandom.

Maestro Media Is Not a Publisher

I've gotten increasingly comfortable saying this out loud: Maestro Media is not a publisher. Publishing is something we do. It is not what we are.

The traditional model is pretty straightforward. License something. Make a product. Sell the product. Move on to the next one. There are great companies doing that extraordinarily well.

But that isn't the company I want to build.

We're building a platform that can take a fandom through the entire journey. Find the community. Understand what they actually want. Build exceptional products with exceptional creators. Launch directly into that community. Learn from them. Build an audience we can speak to again. Then take the products that work into direct-to-consumer, subscription, specialty and mass retail around the world.

And then do it again.

Games. Toys. Apparel. Collectibles. Subscriptions. Whatever format makes sense for that fandom.

The product changes but the system doesn't.

What we make will keep changing. What we're building underneath it won't.

I've Been Building This Longer Than I Realized

When I rewind my career, I can see it now.

At Marvel Entertainment, I was lucky enough to work in games, movies and licensing as the Marvel Studios era began. At Studio71, I watched creators become franchises and helped build products and businesses around audiences that traditional entertainment companies didn't fully understand yet. We built things like the Guava Juice Box.

Then came Maestro Media.

Crowdfunding. Games. Merchandise. Subscription. Retail.

Different businesses on paper. Same question every time:

What does this community love, and how can we give them more ways to experience it?

That is probably the thing I love most about fandom. When somebody truly loves a world, they don't want less of it.

They want another way in.

And Now We Have a Toy Showroom

This week I walked into an empty showroom at The Toy Building in El Segundo with my wife and daughter. They are the actual decision-makers in my life, so naturally they came to inspect the place. We walked around the room talking about where products should go, what should be on the walls and what people should feel when they walk inside.

And I had one of those moments where the significance of something hits you a little later than you expect.

I've spent nearly two decades at Toy Fair, Licensing Expo, Comic-Con, GAMA and Gen Con. We've built our own booths at a lot of them. A booth comes down on Sunday.

We have never had a showroom.

This fall, Maestro has one.

That means a lot to me. Not because having a showroom somehow means we made it. We haven't. It means the experiment is getting bigger.

Come See What We're Building

From September 14 through September 25, we'll be at LA Fall Preview showing buyers, retailers, licensors and partners what Maestro is building next.

Games will absolutely be there. But so will toys. Apparel. Plush. Collectibles. Subscription products. And a lot more that I can't talk about publicly yet.

This will be the first time the whole Maestro thesis is physically sitting together in one room. And I cannot wait to see it.

So if you're a retailer, licensor, creator, inventor, designer, manufacturer, distributor or someone who cares deeply about fandom, come see me. Bring me something you're building. Tell me about a community you think deserves more. Or just come upstairs and talk toys.

LA Fall Previews · September 14–25, 2026
The Toy Building, Suite 1001A, 10th Floor
101 Continental Blvd., El Segundo

My calendar is open: calendly.com/javonfrazier

Thank you to Laura, Peri, Jackie and everyone at The Toy Association for making a first-timer feel incredibly welcome.

When I was a kid, I kept twisting those G.I. Joes because I needed to know what was holding everything together. Apparently I never stopped.

The kid who broke the rubber band now has a toy showroom.

Come see what's inside.

Javon

Javon Frazier is a digital and entertainment strategist with deep experience across film, television, music, games, web, mobile, and social platforms. He is known for building scalable media businesses at the intersection of fandom, commerce, and community.

As Founder and CEO of Maestro Media, Javon leads the creation of premium games and consumer products developed in collaboration with world-class artists, illustrators, and creators. Under his leadership, Maestro Media has become a category-defining company known for original design, authentic IP adaptations, and repeatable launch systems.

Javon is also a recognized leader in crowdfunding, having led campaigns that have raised more than $16 million. His work has helped redefine Kickstarter as a long-term platform for building enduring brands, not just one-off launches.

Frazier's Edge is a monthly note on fandom, gaming, and how durable IP gets built. If someone forwarded this to you, subscribe. If you know someone building for the long game, share it.

Source reference: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fraziers-edge-rubber-band-javon-frazier-xqy8c