Codename: Jairo Leon
Base of Operations: ToyFare Magazine
History: Shrouded in mystery/not submitted.

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?

I’m a graphic designer. I layout the magazine and help put together Twisted Toyfare Theater. I like toys and I like designing, so you put the two together and you get ToyFare. It’s the ideal job for both of the things that I like.

PG: Please list the toys in your work area.

On my desk you’ll find a couple of Marvel Legends like Juggernaut (my favorite), Hulk. Abomination, Spidey and a few others from the ‘build-a-figure lines.’ I also have a few Japanese figures from Guyver, Fullmetal Alchemist and Dragon Ball Z.

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

One of my favorite current trends is how video games are getting their own toy lines. I love when a really good video game gets a figure made from it. Like the Bioshock Big Daddy figure that came with the special edition game. The God of War figures are really cool (although they have weak ankles) and so are the Assassin’s Creed figures. The upcoming Gears of War toys are definitely on my toys-to-buy list.

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

There’s always something cool in the process of being made or about to be released and as the designer, I get a sneak peek at early prototypes and final versions of the product.

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

When I was a kid I got a full-size Voltron. As a kid, you really get a kick out of building lions into a robot.

Codename: Justin Aclin, a.k.a. Willy Wampa on the Wizard Universe Message Board
Specialty: Senior Editor (Note – this title has absolutely nothing to do with seniority)
Base of Operations: ToyFare magazine
History: Justin Aclin is:
1. The youngest member of the ToyFare staff
2. The first one to get married
3. The only one with a kid
4. The one with the most prodigious facial hair

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?

I’ve always loved toys (there’s a great picture of three-year-old me proudly holding up a Skeletor figure), but I’m not a guy who lives and breathes toys 24/7. I’m a mega-comic fan and I’ve been reading Wizard since issue #10, so I immediately started reading ToyFare when it started up slightly over 10 years ago. I immediately became a big fan. I would always make my non-comic fan college friends read Twisted ToyFare Theatre, and they always thought it was hysterical. I remember entering a “Make your own Big Shots” contest way back in the day. So I guess you could say my dream was to work with ToyFare more than it was to work with toys. Of course, working with toys is really awesome, too.

As for what I do at ToyFare, Editor Zach Oat and I do most of the nitty-gritty editorial stuff for the magazine-editing features, writing word balloons, keeping in touch with toy companies to find out what they’ve got coming up, etc. Additionally, I’m one of the head writers of Twisted ToyFare Theatre, which is far and away the most fun part of the job. If I can just plug for a second, hardcore ToyFare fans should definitely pick up the Twisted ToyFare Theatre 10th Anniversary Collection. It’s got some great old strips in there, but we worked our asses off on the new material, too.

PG: Please list the toys in your work area.

Oh, man…that’s a mouthful. I’ll give some highlights, from right to left on my desk. There’s our custom Naked Jonathan Frakes figure, the star of several back-page strips that we’ve inflicted on our readers, as customized by Mr. Joe Amaro. Then there’s the crown jewel of my collection – my custom Justin Aclin MiniMate by Matt “Iron-Cow” Cauley. Now that Matt designs MiniMates professionally, I choose to think of this as an official MiniMate (several of which litter my desk).

I’ve got a bunch of DC Direct and Marvel figures (comic fan, as I mentioned), and the Hyper Guardian from Xevoz, the toy line I wish existed today more than any other toy line. Then there are some new Toynami Futurama figures (including our exclusive Blue Zoidberg), a couple of Final Fantasy Figures and a Hordak mini-statue by the Four Horsemen.

Bringing up the rear isn’t a toy at all – it’s a cool demonic axe, as designed by an old family friend, Paul Ehlers. Check it out here.

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

I think the coolest thing happening in the industry is the new trend that there is no cult movie too small to become action figures. Three years ago, who would have thought we’d be seeing toys for The Big Lebowski, Goonies and The Princess Bride.

Of course there’s a cost to that kind of coolness, and for me it’s the lack of really compelling original concepts on the toy shelves. I mentioned Xevoz before – for me they really captured the spirit and inventiveness of those ’80s original properties. He-Man, when you think about it, is really crazy. You’ve got barbarians and robots and cowboys and bird people, all mixed up together. Xevoz captured that same spirit for me, and the customizability just kicked it up to the next level. I’d love to see somebody else step up to the plate like that and create a property that could become a cartoon or a comic, instead of the other way around. The Four Horsemen have a lot of great ideas they’ve been exploring through their FANtastic Exclusive, and part of me wishes they were mass-market lines instead of the very limited exclusives they are.

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

It’s got to be a tie between the extremely nice and funny guys I work with every day, and the insane knowledge that it’s my job to check out the coolest new toys, then write jokes about them. It still feels surreal. Tied into that is doing Twisted ToyFare, of course. That really has been a dream come true.

It also gives me a great platform to plug my very first real comic book, Hero House, set to be published next year by Arcana Comics. Keep an eye out for it and get ready to bug your local retailer.

Man, I’m the king of plugs.

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

I’ve got a terrible memory, so there’s nothing that sticks out especially in my mind from my childhood. Just in general, there being eight nights of Chanukah, the best nights were always the ones where my mom handed me a gift-wrapped present that clearly had a blister bubble. That was the tell-tale sign it was going to be awesome.

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.

Codename: Zach Oat
Specialty: Editor
Base of Operations: ToyFare magazine
History: Zach Oat grew up in the affluent suburbs of Rhode Island, where he was only allowed to play with wooden blocks and watch public television. But when his father fell in with some of the local Hasbro employees, Zach quickly became proficient in all G.I. Joe small arms, with a secondary specialty in Transformers repairs and modifications. He even considered it as a career, until he discovered girls.

While attending St. Cyr military academy, where he majored in studio art, he rediscovered toys, particularly the cheap Marvel figures available in the local Kay Bee. Upon graduation, he immediately returned to Rhode Island and signed up with a small toy company to finish his training. Three months later he was drafted by Wizard Entertainment, where he rose through the ranks to command their crack ToyFare squad.

“You can’t find guys like Zach on Craig’s List – you have to grow them in special tanks, pumping nutrients, oxygen and the latest assortment of Marvel Legends in through a tube. He’s got a handshake like a dead fish and he leaves wet spots on all the furniture.”

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?

I head up the ToyFare magazine team, planning future issues and making sure all of our features and departments live up to our high ToyFare standards. I work with Justin on Incoming, Jon on Price Guide, Jake on FanFare, Dylan on photography, Jairo on design, everybody on Twisted ToyFare, and Adam on planning and scheduling. I proofread and/or fact-check everything we print, I photograph a lot of special events like Toy Fair and I’m also responsible for all C.O.P.S. coverage in the magazine.

Working here is a happy accident. I applied for an internship and didn’t get it my junior year, but I scored a job interview shortly after I graduated. I had conveniently worked as a copy editor at a couple of small papers before and during college, I’d gotten back into toys while at college, and I’d interned at a toy company right out of school, so it was kind of perfect. I started out as a copy editor, but it was so much fun working here that I just stuck it out, and eight years later here I am.

PG: Please list the toys in your work area.

Custom Metalocalypse Dr. Roxxo Mego-style figure by Alex Kropinak
Bif Bang Pow!’s Talking Big Lebowski Bobblehead
DC Direct’s WildCATs Voodoo Statue (signed by Tim Bruckner)
DC Direct’s Infinite Crisis Wonder Woman
Diamond Select Toys’ Marvel Goblin Queen Statue
Diamond Select Toys’ Talking “Wrath of Khan” Enterprise
Mattel’s DC Superheroes Steel, Clayface and Parasite
McFarlane Toys’ Blair Monster from The Thing (Wilford Brimley)
McFarlane Toys’ Elizabeth Bathory
The Four Horsemen/NECA’s Full-Size Skeletor Statue
Mattel’s vintage Skeletor in vintage Roton
Toy2R’s Classic Bad Boy 8-inch Qee
Toy Biz’s Superhero Showdown Namor with Hammerhead Shark
Customized Cowboy Snake Eyes (riding shark)
Cards Inc.’s Golden Compass Sam Elliott figure (riding shark)
Bandai’s Big O figure
Eight wind-up dancing squirrels

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

Toys I want getting made? Everyone is jumping on the return of Indiana Jones, ending a long toy drought, and we’re also getting Goonies toys, Metalocalypse toys, Heroes toys, Princess Bride toys, Conan the Barbarian toys, Labyrinth toys, Shaun of the Dead toys, Wrath of Khan toys…it’s like I’m living in a dream.

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

I genuinely like the people I work with (Jon and I have known each other for fifteen years), and most of our meetings involve us sitting around trying to make each other laugh – and it’s entirely work-related. Also, I get to see toys well before they come out, which is both good and bad, in that I want to buy a lot of them.

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

I can’t remember the last time someone got me a toy for the holidays. I must have gotten a Transformer or Joe vehicle for Christmas in my childhood but I can’t remember which ones, for the life of me. And I never had anything bigger than Optimus Prime or the Amphibious Personnel Carrier – no Flagg or Trypticon or anything like that. I had half of Devastator, and my brother had the other half. Nobody has bought me a toy in years – they assume I have everything. I don’t!