During the 2010 holiday season, Koodo, a youth-oriented Canadian mobile phone company, wanted to build on the commercial and cultural success of its new spokesperson El Tabador, a 4-inch tall Mexican wrestler and “Champion in the Fight for Phone Freedom.” The client wanted to create a value-added piece that would reinforce the brand, while raising money for a national charity.

The design of the packaging needed to fit with Koodo’s brand standards, while still reflecting the playful tone of the El Tabador character. Instead of designing one box for the toys, four different boxes were created to encourage the collection of all four characters.

The Mini Muchachos were a huge success with fans, popping up on Twitter feeds, in Flickr and Facebook photos, and they were even sold to collectors on eBay and Craigslist. The packaging designs also caught the eye of the design community and were featured on popular design blogs, such as lovelypackaging. They were also able to raise over $75,000 for the charity, proving that El Tabador really is one of the good guys.