TOYFARE WEEK > 5 Questions with: Zach Oat

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!