At the beginning of this month, the famous toy design team the Four Horsemen announced their newest venture: a resurrection of the 1960s alien toy property “The Outer Space Men.” (For a detailed history of the Outer Space Men, check out the list of links at the bottom of the article.)
I got in touch with the Horsemen–Eric Treadaway, Jim Preziosi, Chris Dahlberg and Eric “Cornboy” Mayse–to get the official scoop on their first-ever licensed property.
PG: How did this project come about?
ERIC: We noticed the Glyos figures a few years ago, and really appreciated the style and innovative play feature of them. We quickly became friends with Matt Doughty, the owner of Onell Design and creator of the Glyos system.
CORNBOY: We discussed many times about collaborating on a project, but the timing just never seemed right, until we started discussing the possibilities of re-introducing the Outer Space Men.
JIM: We’d been considering the possibilities of re-doing and re-introducing the Outer Space Men in some form for a few years, but just like with the collaboration with Matt, the timing and collector climate just never seemed to be quite right until we started discussing the possibility of combining the Outer Space Men with the Glyos system.
CHRIS: The opportunity to take the scale, style and playability of the Glyos system and combine that with the cool quirkiness and distinct look of the OSM seemed to be the perfect method to re-introduce the Outer Space Men to today’s market.
ERIC: We contacted Eric Hayes, who is the writer on the first (and hopefully future) Outer Space Men graphic novel, and he put us in touch with Mel Birnkrant – the creator and owner of the Outer Space Men. We discussed with both Mel and Matt Doughty about the possibilities of re-introducing the Outer Space Men action figures and incorporating the Glyos build system, and things just kind of fell into place.
PG: Did any of you own any Outer Space Men toys as kids?
ERIC: I didn’t have any of the figures as a kid, but I did have the Outer Space Men Colorforms playset with that awesome photo of the prototypes for the action figures on the box cover. I used to play with the OSM Colorforms playset a lot, but even more than that, I would stare at the awesome looking characters on that box cover thinking about how awesome it would be if these guys were actually action figures. Little did I know that they were also action figures, and the figures on the Colorforms playset box cover were actually prototypes of those figures.
CORNBOY: I had a couple of the figures when I was a kid. Xodiac and Orbitron (I kind of remember Alpha 7 hanging out at our house too, but that may have been my older brothers’ figure). I found my Xodiac and Orbitron figures at two different times at two different garage sales, and by that time the series had been and gone, and I had no idea what they were or even that they both belonged in the same line! All I knew was that they were cool, and a couple of my favorite early action figures. I played with Orbitron so much that the bendy wires in his arms and legs were broken and poking through to the outside.
PG: The original figures were bendies, and varied from 3 1/2″ to 6″ tall. Why did you decide to go with a 3¾” scale, articulated line?
JIM: There were many different factors that brought us to our decision of scale. One of the biggest decision makers was production costs. The costs of creating an action figure have increased exponentially since we first began creating and releasing our own figures. The scale and construction of the new Outer Space Men will alleviate a lot of that cost, while also allowing us to build up some extra capital to allow us to go back into production on some of our other lines.
ERIC: The 3¾” scale is very popular right now, and the play system for the Glyos figures just fits perfectly into that scale.
CHRIS: Even though the first four releases are pretty close to the 3¾” height (give or take – they are aliens), the actual size of the characters throughout this line will vary greatly. Alpha 7 is going to be tiny and Cyclops & Colossus Rex are going to be massive compared to the rest of the characters.
PG: Do you have any plans for the license beyond the figures?
CORNBOY: Our current plan is only to do the figures, but who knows what the future might hold. Our hopes are that this line can continue indefinitely. We’d love to have the opportunity to not only do the original 13 characters, but also to expand into some of Mel Binrkrant’s other unused designs and work with him to create new Outer Space Men characters! We’d love to do “army builder” versions of the 13 main characters as well.
JIM: If the Outer Space Men turns out to be as popular as we hope, we’d love to get the chance to do a highly detailed, fully articulated, larger scale run of these guys as well. We’ll see how things go…
PG: This is the Four Horsemen’s first license. If the Outer Space Men is successful, would you consider trying to pick up other licenses–say, I don’t know, Power Lords, perhaps?
ERIC: Don’t even tease me. The Power Lords was one of my favorite toy lines of all time, and to get the opportunity to go back and re-do those would be incredible! They had a look and style that was just too far ahead of their time. Hey… Those guys would fit pretty well into the same scale and style that we’re doing the OSM in right now wouldn’t they?… Hmmm…
To learn more about the Outer Space Men:
- An Outer Space Men Archive – official site by OSM creator Mel Birnkrant.
- The Outer Space Men – comprehensive fansite run by Gary Schaeffer.
- Colorforms Outer Space Men Headquarters – another fansite, this one created by Ralph Grosskopf
captainzero
I wished the talented 4H would join up with someone who could produce many of the Golden Age Heroes that are in the "public domain"….and compete with the quality of action figures of the DCUC line.
I would love to have the 4H do The Black Terror, Daredevil, Crimebuster, Iron Jaw, THE CLAW, and as many Golden Age heroes (with the quality of the DCUC line) as possible.
Can't figure out why no one is doing this bunch of "classic" Super heroes.!!??
This would be THE time!!
chopa
So excited. I should be more concerned about their seemingly low amount of articulation, but whatever they're awesome.
Jeff Cope
I am so down with these. I love the designs of all these characters. I'll never own the originals, but this new line gives me a chance to own the characters…and in my favorite scale to boot!
LBAM
I'd like to see this succeed, for obvious reasons; competition in the 3 3/4" scale, the 4H do great work and I'd love to see them get even more opportunities on their own, etc.
But at the end of the day this property – characters, designs, history – really doesn't mean anything to me. I can't say I'd buy them unless I am somehow utterly and unexpectedly blown away by the product.
Dead Man Walking
Hey Poe, why don't you try to get the rights to Onan, and release figure?
Philip Reed
@Ben: I'm guessing $12-$15/each.
Fengschwing
They don't ring my bell.
Best of luck to the 4H though.
Esbat
THe more I see them the more and more interested in them I become, they kind of remind me of the old Battle Beasts figures I had as a kid, the stark colors and cool designs. YeahI'm interested in their price point.
Ben
I'm still dying to know the price point on these, because I could see myself breaking down and getting them. The OSM are some of the most creative designs I've ever seen for toys, and it's good to see that you can update them while still retaining their original designs and have them look like they truly belong in 2010.
Dead Man Walking
@Philip Reed: I certainly don't hold it against the 4H for trying something new, or taking on this line because a couple of them were fans as kids. But I suspect this ended up being the line they are updating because it was easy to acquire the rights.
Philip Reed
@Dead Man Walking: I think they're just trying something new, which can always be fun. I'm a Glyos fan, though, so I'm kinda excited about all of these new parts and what I'll be able to build with them so I'm likely not the average 4H fan.
Nicholai
Great interview!
Dead Man Walking
Yeah, I just really don't see TOSM becoming that popular. But who knows; maybe I'm just biased since I really don't care for the designs. I kept thinking these things were some sort of Sentry-like ruse, since I had never heard anyone talk about them before.
It makes me kind of sad that the 4H are devoting their talents to these guys, when they could be working on something more worthy, like Thundercats. Oh well. Hopefully that new line of Thundercats stactions bears some resemblance to the 4H's line of MOTU stactions.
dayraven
all this OSM excitement… it's almost more that one can bear… so any word yet on when to expect pricing/distribution info? i can only imagine that these will be making their debut at SDCC?