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. (more…)
One thing I’ve always wanted to do with PGPoA is discuss not just the latest toys or the machinations of various toy companies, but also the nature of of our hobby and, in particular, the way the toys regularly intersect with media since the days of the “half-hour commercials” in the 1980s. And so it’s with great pleasure that I present this interview with Prof. Henry Jenkins. If you’ve never heard of Professor Jenkins, I think it’s your duty as a geek to become familiar with his work.
Real Name: Henry Jenkins
Specialty: Educator
Base of Operations: henryjenkins.org
History: Henry Jenkins is the Provost’s Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. He arrived at USC in Fall 2009 after spending the past decade as the Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and the Peter de Florez Professor of Humanities. He is the author and/or editor of twelve books on various aspects of media and popular culture, including Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture, Hop on Pop: The Politics and Pleasures of Popular Culture and From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games. His newest books include Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide and Fans, Bloggers and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture. He is currently co-authoring a book on “spreadable media” with Sam Ford and Joshua Green. He has written for Technology Review, Computer Games, Salon, and The Huffington Post.
1.) An easy one first: what were your own favorite toys as a kid? Did you have any action figures?
I think you could say that I was raised on the cusp of the era of action figures. Many of my favorite toys were extensions of media properties that mattered to me. For example, I love, to death, a rubber King Louie figure which was produced to coincide with the release of Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book. I had many stuffed figures who embodied cartoon characters or cereal box icons — some of which had pull cords which activated phonograph recordings hidden in their bellies. I had a series of small plastic figurines which embodied key characters from the Hanna-Barbara cartoons, and a company called Soakie distributed bubble bath in plastic cases designed to look like popular characters as well. We collected these and used them to block out little plays. (more…)
In what has happily become an annual tradition here at PGPoA, the Four Horsemen graciously agreed to answer a few of my questions about DC Universe Classics, Masters of the Universe Classics and their own FANtastic Exclusive figures. Read on to get the latest from Santa’s not-so-little helpers, Chris Dahlberg, Eric Treadaway, Jim Preziosi, and H. Eric “Cornboy” Mayse. (more…)
I’ve got a special treat for you Poesters this week. Comic scribe extraordinaire Geoff Johns, the writer behind DC Comics’s mega-popular Blackest Night storyline, has graciously agreed to answer a few questions for my little toy blog. Read on to find out which toys Geoff loved as a kid, what he collects now, and what’s it like having figures made of your own characters.
Real Name: Geoff Johns
Specialty: Comic book writer, toy collector
Base of Operations: www.geoffjohns.com
History: Geoff Johns originally hails from Detroit, Michigan. He attended Michigan State University, where he earned a degree in Media Arts and Film. He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1990’s in search of work within the film industry. Through perseverance, Geoff ended up as the assistant to Richard Donner, working on Conspiracy Theory and Lethal Weapon 4. During that time, he also began his comics career writing Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. and JSA (co-written with David S. Goyer) for DC Coimcs. He worked with Richard Donner for four years, leaving the company to pursue writing full-time. His first comics assignments led to a critically acclaimed five-year run on the The Flash. Since then, he has quickly become one of the most popular and prolific comics writers today, working on such titles including a highly successful re-imagining of Green Lantern, Action Comics (co-written with Richard Donner), Teen Titans, Justice Society of America, Infinite Crisis and the experimental breakout hit series 52 for DC with Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid.
1.) What were some of your favorite toys growing up?
Super Powers, He-Man and the early McFarlane figures. I remember pouring over the He-Man characters because their backstories were so unique and the diversity was amazing (except that Moss Man was Beast Man only green and fuzzy). I vaguely remember the Remco Universal Monsters figures, which I loved. I had always been a big fan of the Universal Monsters so those were great. I also always wanted the vinyl Monster Cereal figures, but I never had them. I think Badrock was well-loved when I was a kid because there was so much plastic. (more…)
Code name: SpyMagician
Real Name: Jeremy Sung
Specialty: Plasticsmith
Base of Operations: Los Angeles, CA
History: Once merely a humble toy customizer, Jeremy Sung has since made the leap into the small business world as President of Spy Monkey Creations Inc. The Goal: to create quality hand made original accessories for various collectible action figure lines!
Last week I posted about the custom District 9 “prawn” mech that sold for a whopping $5300 on eBay. I got in touch with the customizer, Chris Hooton (who goes by “Sabertooth” on Figure Realm) to find out more about this amazing piece.
What parts did you use to make your custom prawn mech?
Ok, well, this is going to sound like a MacGuyver recipe, but I used parts of a Transformer, a Bionicle, one pair of chopsticks, some q-tips, a toy gun, some sheet plastic and some rubber floor mat.
How many hours of work were involved, and how much did it cost you to make?
Well, I did him over a weekend, starting at about 3 a.m. Saturday morning and finishing him about 6:30 p.m. I took a three-hour nap somewhere in there 🙂 He was quite a challenge!
As for costs incurred, I think with paints and parts about $60.
Have you made, or do you plan on making, any more District 9 customs?
Yes, I recently made a custom of the “Christopher” prawn character and I will be making another mech, and possibly a Wikus/prawn custom with all sorts of neato accesories! I really like the movie, and so far making the toys has been quite fun!
Which toy company would you like to see make a real District 9 toy line, and why?
Hmmmm…well the company that i think would do the best job would be NECA, they do great work and I am a big supporter of theirs.
Do you make other customs, and if so, what kind?
I make all sorts of customs! Most of the time it’s based on impulse on what or who I make. Transformers tend to be labor-intensive but fun; for the most part I like to try to make things that are either have not received the toy treatment yet–or what is out is not all that great looking and I like to see if what I can do could be better. I like to keep trying to improve my skills and hopefully make a fan of what I’m made a very happy camper!
To see more of Chris’s customs, check out his customs section on Figure Realm!
Poe’s note: I’ve got a special treat for you all today: an interview with my one and only, Dr. Mrs. Ghostal. What can I say about my lovely, understanding wife that I haven’t said on this blog a dozen times already? Brilliant, beautiful, geeky, and more than I probably deserve.
Code name: Dr. Mrs. Ghostal, DMG, DottyGale
Specialty: Biochemistry, Knitting
Base of Operations: Brighton, MA.
History: Born and raised in SoCal as a child of the 80s, but was more into TV and books than toys. Got pulled into the world of action figures when I started dating Poe 5 years ago, and have had a house full of plastic men, women and creatures ever since.
1.) What were your favorite toys as a kid?
Like I said, as a kid I wasn’t all that into toys. I had a lot of stuffed animals of various sorts. My mom says that I was a “social doll player” in that if someone else wanted to play with the Barbies or the Cabbage Patch Kids I would play, too. I think the toys I really remember the most fondly were these little animals that my sister and I collected. They were plastic, but furry, and wore tiny doll clothes. We had bears, rabbits, little baby moles. I can’t remember what they were called, but we sure had a lot of them.
Perhaps the funniest thing I can remember is that when my friends, my sister and I played with toys, the story lines were really influenced by the TV my babysitter watched, which included a good share of talk shows and soap operas. I’m pretty sure that Barbie’s Dream Wedding was interrupted by a mysterious stranger with a scandalous past! (more…)
Today we have an interview with a good friend of mine, Rustin Parr of OAFE. Rustin and I first met through OAFE in the early 1990s, and despite living on separate coasts, we’ve met in person many times since then. An passionate if idiosyncratic movie buff, Haunted Mansion enthusiast, and King Leonidas look-alike (well, maybe not the abs, but the face, anyway), Rustin has agreed to bare just a bit of his soul to us here at PGPoA.
Code name: Scott McEachen, alias Rustin Parr, alias Gunstas von Artlefuasdensein, D.D.S.
Specialty: Dreaming Big and Accomplishing Small
Base of Operations: Monterey, CA
History: Began the adventure in gorgeous Hermosa Beach, California, whence an egregious lust for action figuring took hold. A lack of sculpting ability and painting prowess propelled him into the world of Motion Picture production whose frivolities spat the man into the cutting edge of Neuro Marketing during which a healthy imbibing of toys and movies keeps the life juices flowing. It was a hot and sunny day when a close personal friend, the self-titled Lord of the Nazgul, brought together Rustin with Yo Go Re and Poe Ghostal, all posters at the formerly awesome and important/relevant spawn.com message boards, the latter two being founding members of oafe.net. After one particularly long and laugh-riddled evening in which Rustin performed his then-constant desperate rage upon the unprepared Yo’n’Poe towards falsely accused inept waitresses and rightfully, if not righteously accused George Lucas and his modern films, Poe’n’Yo dragged the Froce’o’da’nature into the fold at OAFE where on Rustin continues to this day to be less entertaining than that first eve and less consistent in producing reviews than his editor would prefer. Rustin is survived by his collection projected to consist of over 2,000 individual action figures, 500 hundred vehicle and location replicas 9in varying scales) and hundreds of plus-sized and resin collectibles, not to mention a DVD collection of some 1200 discs.
Welcome to the first of what I hope will be many interviews with fellow collectors!
MisterBigBo, who comments here occasionally, is a real-life friend of mine who I’ve actually spent time with in person. He’s taken time out of his busy schedule as a brand-new dad to answer a few questions about his toy collecting.
Codename: MisterBigBo
Base of Operations: The Commiewealth of Taxachusetts
History: Regular ole suburban lower middle class kid who grew up in the 80s. Star Wars fan first, but like most boys of that generation I had a healthy action figure collection. I have gone on to become a teacher, a dad, and study traditional Japanese martial arts, but the toys are still there.
1.) What were your favorite toys or toy lines as a child?
Though I started with Star Wars, moved with the trends to Transformers and He-Man for a while, GI Joe was my favorite. The designs and the articulation caused me to stay with the line into junior high, after most of my friends had moved on. As a youngster I had a little of everything: a few M.A.S.K. vehicles, and one or two Sky Commanders, Army Antz, Silver Hawks, C.O.P.S., Centurins, Marvel Secret Wars and D.C. Super Powers, Captain Power, Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos, Battle Beasts, Starcom, Eagle Force. . . those are the faves that I can remember right now . I suppose my tendency these days to collect only one or a few of any given line is a continuation of that trend. (more…)
A few weeks back, I reviewed an Action Figure Display from JDP Design. I was so intrigued by the concept, I asked the boys at JDP to chat a bit about how the product came out and their own experiences with toy collecting.
Code Name: JDP Design
Real Name(s): Dan and Jeff Phillips, co-owners
Base of Operations: www.actionfiguredisplays.com
History: Our company creates Action Figure Displays, which are detailed, themed environments that give your toys a world to live in. We have always loved action figures and enjoy displaying our collection. We created Action Figure Displays because we wanted a way to more effectively display and photograph our figures. Years of developing our product has resulted in quality displays that include a wide variety of themes that can accommodate almost any type of action figure.
