The inventing community see us as world players because of Polly Pocket If the idea's good enough, we might buy it for a set fee. You have to spend more and more money on advertising to keep it alive. It's like trying to push water uphill."The trick with toys is to go with the flow. And for that a constant source of fresh ideas has to be tapped. Although Mr Burgin gives the impression of not being a man to suffer fools gladly, he is prepared to spend some time with eccentric figures who produce weird and wonderful inventions from tattered carrier bags or shoeboxes."Often it's something totally non-commercial," he says. "But there might be a germ of an idea in it which our research and development department can take forward. But my background at Hasbro taught me that was counter-productive.

"In the past a company like Bluebird would hang on in there and try to squeeze the last drops of turnover out of a product like that. "Their moods can change when they see something on the telly or one of their mates has something they don't have."Hence the threat to Mighty Max, a sort of Polly Pocket for boys. Taking the axe to Max is a difficult decision after three years of buoyant sales, but Mr Burgin knows he has to do it. "If anything, boys are even more fickle than girls," he says.

Today, he is well aware that the lifestyle he has worked so hard for is dependent on his ability to continue to spot what will appeal to children with more choice and disposable income than he could have dreamt of at their age He is dealing with a fickle market. Mr Burgin was the sort of kid who would get in to Headingley Test matches through a hole in the fence, collect a pass out, sell it outside and then repeat the operation.His favourite toy was Baco, which enabled him to construct model houses far more luxurious than the one in which he lived. Before that he worked for Hasbro, the other big player from America, managing brands such as Trivial Pursuit and Action Man. "But I learnt more from Torquil in two years than I did in the previous 40," he says.On the face of it they were unlikely business partners: a former public schoolboy with an aristocratic demeanour and a Yorkshireman from the back streets of Leeds who left his secondary modern at 16. Bluebird kept the retail price comparatively low for a product of such intricate detail by having it manufactured in China.