I never met Eddie Wires, but like many of us, I certainly knew his work. His passing earlier this week was a shock to the action figure industry. To say he will be missed is an indequate understatement. Chances are some of your favorite toys were painted by Mr. Wires, as his portfolio shows.

My sincere condolences to Eddie’s family.

Julis Marx of AFI has put together a nice tribute to Mr. Wires here and here, with more to come. Here‘s VeeBee at the Fwoosh.

The Four Horsemen posted this on their forum:

One of our longtime industry friends, prototype painter phenom, Eddie Wires passed away yesterday. We’ve been pals with Ed since way back in our McFarlane days and it’s going to be really tough imagining going to Toy Fair or SDCC without running into and hanging out with him again.

We don’t know many of the details yet, except that he was in his studio doing what he loved when he passed. As much awesome work as that boy cranked out, we wouldn’t have imagined it any other way.

Eddie was a spectacular guy that we could never get enough of. He was one of the kindest and most gentle people you’d ever wish to meet, and his talents were beyond compare. A true icon in the toy industry that never got the full amount of praise he deserved.

Not only will this leave a tremendous gap in the toy industry itself, but it’s going to leave a tremendous hole in our hearts as well.

Our sincerest condolences go out to Eddies family.

With Eddie out there now, the afterlife’s gonna’ be a lot more colorful, but things just got a little more gray down here.

We’ll miss you Ed.

-FOUR HORSEMEN-