Innovative toys manufactured at Cummings Center

Adam Hocherman is a tinkerer, pioneer, and engineer, or “tinkineer.” In fact, he is the chief tinkineer and president of the toy company of the same name that moved to Cummings Center in January.

After a successful showing at the 2016 New York City Toy Fair, Tinkineer is in production and poised to deliver its unique “Marbleocity” wooden model kits to retailers Barnes and Noble, Marbles, and ThinkGeek this year.

In late 2015, Tinkineer raised $130,771 from 1,535 backers through a Kickstarter campaign. The campaign’s original goal was to raise $14,000 to manufacture its model kits, which are designed to get children excited about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). With such great interest in the product, Hocherman and his team needed a space from which to market and manufacture the kits.

“When I saw the open and bright space and access to freight elevators,” said Hocherman, “I realized that Tinkineer could meet both its manufacturing needs and business needs at Cummings Center.”

The company has since consolidated its operations from Cabot Street in Beverly at Cummings Center.

“Cummings Center offers us the synergy we were looking for,” said Hocherman. “It allows us to be close to potential and existing local business partners, such as Goddard Technologies, with which we already do business.”

Tinkineer’s kits, which retail for between $30 and $50, are laser cut at its Cummings Center manufacturing site. According to Hocherman, they introduce children and adults to engineering principles and physics, foster team building, and encourage problem solving. Each kit offers a lesson reinforced throughout construction and told through the eyes of a cast of characters (the “Tinkineers”) in comic book format.

The kits are assembled by consumers as part of the learning experience, which eliminates significant labor cost and makes it easier to keep production in the United States, Hocherman explained.

“It was important to me to design and produce the Marbleocity kits locally at an affordable price, in order to make an American-made STEM product widely accessible,” said Hocherman.

Hocherman was born in Manhattan, attended Cornell University, and moved to Boston after graduation. He has worked in the toy industry most of his life and recently sold his other Beverly-based company, American Innovative. To learn more about Tinkineer and its products, visit www.Tinkineer.com.

Named one of North of Boston Business’ 25 Best Places to Work, Cummings Center offers first-class, fully built out space for a wide range of commercial uses, including executive offices, healthcare facilities, laboratories, retail storefronts, industrial space, and more. It is also the future home of 73 luxury residences to be known as Elliott Landing by Cummings.

PHOTO: Ayush Amin, engineering manager; Ayush Tayal, engineering manager; Adam Hocherman, founder/president; and Krista Jakes, director of Operations pose with two Marbleocity models and one of Tinkineer’s engraving machines.