TOYFARE WEEK > 5 Questions with: Adam Tracey

Codename: Adam Tracey
Specialty: Managing Editor
Base of Operations: ToyFare magazine
History: Born and raised in the swamps of Louisiana and the French Quarter of New Orleans, Adam Tracey has no stomach. Instead, he has an iron box connected to his throat that is capable of processing all manner of seemingly inedible things, such as “mud bugs” and swamp-raised alligator. In the winter, Adam uses Tabasco sauce to keep warm. In the summer, he uses it to cool off. From age three to age seven, Adam’s parents lead him to believe that he was named after Prince Adam of Masters of the Universe fame, even though MOTU wasn’t released until after Adam was born. Afterward, they told him he was named after Battlestar Galactica’s Commander Adama. The original BSG came out in 1978, before Adam was born, so that one stuck.

PG: Please describe what you do at ToyFare. Is this the culmination of a lifelong desire to work with toys or the inevitable result of a misspent youth?

My job as managing editor is to oversee all schedules and timetables for the magazine. I also initially outline features and assign them out to freelance writers, making sure that they’re getting in touch with sources, doing research and turning in their stories on time. I also make sure that everything that’s time-sensitive to the magazine-such as when certain meetings are held or when a new “Twisted ToyFare Theatre” idea needs to be outlined-is done so that other things aren’t pushed off deadline. I also liaise with other departments to help things run more smoothly. I also have to use the word “liaise” at least once a week; it’s in my contract.

I’d say this is most definitely the result of a misspent youth. I have always loved toys, cartoons and sci-fi, but in college I thought I wanted to be an artsy-fartsy novelist or English professor. Y’know, read good books over and over and teach young co-eds why they’re good books? Turns out I just wanted to work someplace where both my anal-retentive attention to detail and my useless knowledge of pop culture could be put to good use. Where else does my ability to recite History of the World, Part 1 from start to finish come in handy? Not at some stuffy publishing house, that’s for sure.

PG: Please list the toys in your work area.

• 2007 SDCC-exclusive NECA/Four Horsemen Classic Colors He-Man Mini-Statue, with ’80s Power Sword! (Thanks, Zach!)
• The new Futurama Series 1 Zoidberg by Toynami
• New Futurama Series 1 Fry by Toynami
• Rocket USA’s die-cast “heavy metal” Bender (he’s heavy metal ’cause he’s actually metal and, therefore, heavy)
• The ToyFare-exclusive Blue “Universe 1” Zoidberg by Toynami (with a Farnsworth Parabox that I made from his packaging!)
• Toynami’s SDCC-exclusive “Mating Season” Zoidberg (with the head-fin)
• Toy Biz Marvel Legends Hulkbuster Iron Man (Thanks, Zach!)
• A Halo 2 Master Chief mini-figure
• A Halo 2 Master Chief Kubrick
• And Revoltech’s gorgeous Optimus Prime (a.k.a. Convoy) and Megatron figures! Megs is taunting Prime with the little Matrix of Leadership that Optimus comes with. Maybe tomorrow Prime will roundhouse-kick Megs in his big, fat, metal face!

PG: What’s the most interesting thing going on in the toy industry today?

I’d say the industry’s acknowledgement of and the resurgence of the “retro” toys of our youth is the most exciting thing happening. Diamond Select Toys is releasing Star Trek figures in the old cloth-costumed Mego style, and I think they’re using Mego’s original molds! And Hasbro is taking their 3.75-inch figures and giving them more articulation, better sculpting and just making them cooler to play with all around. Sure, they’re doing cool things with their newer Sigma 6-style figures, but they’ve really invested a lot in their more classic-style figures, and I think it’s paying off.

PG: What’s the best thing about working at ToyFare?

The people I work with-Editor Zach Oat, Senior Editor Justin Aclin, Price Guide Editor Jon Gutierrez and Designer Jairo Leon-constantly keep me in stitches! I have such a great time at work with these guys. (Be sure to ask Zach to do his impression of the Gingerbread Man from Shrek! ) And they’re professionals as well as a really great bunch of guys. The amount of creativity in that office could fill…something large and clever!

PG: What’s your fondest toy-related holiday memory?

When I was, like, four or five years old I got the MOTU Castle Grayskull playset for Xmas (pronounced “ex-miss” like in Futurama). I’d already collected so many of the MOTU toys and vehicles, and this playset “really brought the room together.” Y’know that home video on the Internet of the kid completely freaking out and losing his shit when he got a Nintendo? (The one that BMW modified for their a marketing campaign?) Yeah, that was me that Xmas. To a “T.”

My cousin Mark-who’s my age and had a complete set of Silverhawks figures and vehicles-got the Snake Mountain playset a year later, and he and I would get together to play “Masters of the Universe” and battle each other for dominance over Eternia! I was so into He-Man back then (and still am!). It was a real blow to my childhood when the ‘rents revealed that I, in fact, was not named after Prince Adam. I guess Commander Adama’s a cool namesake, especially since he never wore as much pink as Prince Adam.