A toy business earns most of its year in about ten weeks, which means toy prep is really a calendar problem. ProShip3PL receives your production runs in Miami from late summer, builds sets and bags small parts before the rush, protects window boxes through Amazon's rough handling, and replenishes FBA in 24–48 hour cycles through peak. Amazon stopped doing prep in 2026 — your toy season needs a floor that plans for it.
Toys are gifts, and gifts get judged on the box. A action figure with a creased window panel or a playset carton with a crushed corner is technically intact and commercially dead — the buyer photographs it, returns it, and mentions the packaging in the review. That makes toy prep different from prepping, say, cables: the retail packaging is part of the product.
The second toy-specific problem is loose parts. Accessories, minifigures, doll shoes and snap-on pieces escape from open-front packaging inside Amazon's conveyor system, and a toy that arrives incomplete generates the angriest returns in the catalog. Containment — right-sized poly bags with suffocation warnings, per our poly bagging standards — is cheap insurance.
Then there's the calendar. Most toy sellers book the bulk of their revenue between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and most toy production ships from China months earlier. Our Miami floor receives those runs from late summer — counted against the PO, display packaging inspected on China-lane intake — so the season's stock is built, bagged and staged before the first Black Friday order.
One hedge worth stating plainly: Amazon's toy-category requirements shift, and we prep to the current rules — but safety certification and compliance marks belong to your manufacturer, not your prep center. We make units fulfillment-ready; we don't certify them.
| Toy season window | What should be happening at the warehouse |
|---|---|
| Aug – Sep | Production runs land from factories; PO counts and window-box inspection at the dock |
| Sep – Oct | Sets and multipacks built, small parts bagged, first FBA waves shipped |
| Nov – Dec | Replenishment mode: triggers to carrier in 24–48h, reserve feeding FBA |
| Dec (late) | Honest routing calls: FBA check-in vs FBM direct from our racks |
| Jan – Feb | Removals return, get graded and relabeled; seasonal stock racks for next year |
Display packaging bagged or bubble-wrapped by crush risk, packed so film panels never carry stacking weight — the box arrives giftable.
Loose accessories and escape-prone pieces sealed in warning-labeled poly bags sized to the toy — nothing rattles out in transit.
Two-packs, themed assortments and gift sets assembled in September–October, labeled under the set FNSKU, staged for launch.
Containers and air cargo counted against your PO with photo inspection — crushed retail boxes and wrong variants caught on day one.
Reserve stock on our racks moves into FBA on your trigger, 24–48 hours to the carrier, all the way through December.
Post-holiday removals counted, condition-checked, relabeled and racked — this year's leftovers become next year's opening stock.
Production runs arrive in Miami late summer — counted, inspected, display packaging checked while factory claims are live.
Sets assembled, small parts contained, crush-prone boxes protected — the whole line made FBA-ready before October ends.
FBA holds weeks of cover; our racks hold the season. Your triggers convert reserve into carrier hand-offs in 24–48 hours.
Removals graded and relabeled, seasonal stock racked, and the post-mortem numbers ready for next year's buy.
Late is workable if it's planned: the container books straight to our dock, prep starts the day it lands, and FBA receives it in slices while FBM covers orders from our racks in the meantime.
That's a packaging-protection gap, not bad luck. We audit how your units are surviving the network, add bagging or bubble where the box needs it, and pack cartons so display faces ride protected.
Set building is exactly this: singles arrive, two-packs leave — bagged, labeled under the bundle FNSKU, and staged so the listing goes live with real depth before Black Friday.
Bag-and-warning rules are current-requirements work we do daily. Flagged inventory reroutes to us, gets compliant bags applied with scan verification, and re-enters FBA instead of sitting stranded.
Q4 is what the toy side of our floor is planned around. Pre-season inventory lands August through October, sets and multipacks get built before peak, and November–December runs as replenishment mode — pick, label, carrier hand-off inside the normal 24–48 hour window. The sellers who struggle are the ones whose entire season arrives in mid-November; the ones who win stage stock with us early and feed FBA in waves.
Yes — small-parts containment is routine toy work. Accessories, figures and pieces that could scatter from open-front or flimsy retail packaging go into poly bags with suffocation warning labels, sized so nothing rattles loose in Amazon's conveyors. Where a toy's own box is sound, we bag only what needs bagging — over-wrapping a strong retail box just adds cost.
Window boxes fail at the film panel and the corners, so we treat them as display packaging, not just cartons. Crush-prone units get bagged or bubble-protected, cartons are packed so window faces never bear stacking weight, and anything that arrives from the factory already dented is pulled and photographed instead of shipped. A toy with a caved-in window sells as a return waiting to happen.
That's the classic September–October job on our floor. Two-packs, themed sets and gift assortments get assembled from your components, bagged or boxed, labeled with the set's own FNSKU and either sent straight into FBA or staged for a November release. Building sets before peak means your holiday listing launches with depth instead of being assembled under deadline.
Yes. Toy production runs from China land at our Miami dock as containers, LCL or air cargo, get counted against your purchase order and inspected with photos — crushed retail boxes, wrong variants and short cartons surface on day one, while a factory claim is still worth filing. See our China-to-FBA page for the full import flow; the toy-specific part is that we check display packaging as carefully as the product.
Compliance paperwork and safety marks belong to you and your manufacturer — we don't certify products and we don't issue safety documentation. What we do is physical prep to Amazon's current toy-category requirements: warning-labeled bags where bagging is required, secure containment for small parts, and packaging that survives the fulfillment network. If Amazon asks you for documents, that request routes to your supplier, not your prep center.
Our 24–48 hour prep clock holds through the season, so the real deadline is Amazon's side: check-in queues at fulfillment centers stretch in late November and December. Practically, inventory that reaches our dock by late November still has a clean path to December sales; after that we'll tell you honestly whether FBA check-in or FBM from our racks is the faster route to a buyer.
Physically, licensed goods get the same protective prep — but the paperwork stakes are higher, so intake discipline matters more. We count against your PO, photograph condition on arrival, and label with scan verification so the FNSKU on the unit matches the listing every time. Whether you're authorized to sell a licensed line is between you, the brand and Amazon; our job is making sure the physical units and the listing agree.
January is reset month. Removal orders from Amazon come back to our dock, get counted and condition-checked, and sellable units are relabeled and racked for next season or rebuilt into new sets. Storage is billed monthly on the space you use, so holding a seasonal toy line from January to September costs rack space here instead of aged-inventory surcharges inside Amazon.
Send the form with your SKU count, typical packaging (window box, closed box, blister, bagged), monthly volume and where production ships from. You'll get per-unit pricing within one business day — no setup fees, no monthly minimums — plus a Q4 staging suggestion if your line is seasonal.
Tell us what you sell — toy types, packaging styles, where production ships from, and what Q4 volume looks like. You'll have per-unit pricing and a season staging plan within one business day.
