Robserecaps Twenty Four – episode 57 Todd’s Toys

Posted by Joe on Dec 9, 2020 in Robserecaps | 0 comments

by Joe

An all Todd McFarlane episode! I hope the Rob doesn’t wear out his voice doing his impression, listen for yourself! I’m almost certain I still have many of these Spawn toys in the basement, I let them breathe long ago.

• The only thing better than seeing your creations on TV or movies is to see them on the toy shelves
• the Rob states the reason toys today look so good are because of what Todd did some 25 years ago
• A lot of this episode so far (ten minutes in) is the Rob just naming toy lines from his childhood
• the Rob’s nephews call him “Uncle Rock”
• Marvel still sends comps to the Rob usually on a delay of six months
• the Rob talks about flippers and apps that allow you to track stock, being an avid listener of the Major Wrestling Figure podcast, I’m well aware of this
• A great story of a Wal-Mart check out person questioning the amount of figures the Rob was buying and to prove he wasn’t a flipper, the Rob told her to ‘google me’ to verify I am the creator of these characters
• in 1993, the Rob met with Mattel about making Youngblood figures and calls their offices the Willy Wonka of Toys
• Playmates, with the Ninja Turtles line, was making huge headway in the toy market so Mattel was looking to get in business with Image
• Hollywood attorney Jake Bloom, who also represented George Lucas, was representing the Rob here, and literally slapped 2-ups (industry term) out of the Rob’s hands saying Mattel was trying to get a lower deal on the Rob
• “Ol’ Toddy is in the toy business!” around the 32 minute mark is where the Todd impression begins. The Rob feels Todd did this on the sly so no one else would try and compete with him
• Paul Staber, who did the aforementioned Comic Book Greats videos, who also had a painting business (bridges and stadiums mostly) is who Todd started the toy company with
• Most everyone was happy for Todd, but Jim Lee was defeated and sick to his stomach over it
• Todd would call the Rob and complain about Jim all the time, saying he was only in the business for the money
• Todd would state that literally an extra five cents per unit would give tons of extra articulation, better paint and accessories that the other companies weren’t willing to spend
• The name, Todd Toys, was quickly changed to McFarlane Toys due to pressure from Mattel feeling the name would cause marketplace confusion with Barbie’s younger brother, Todd
• the Rob gives up the Todd impression around the 47 minute mark
• Todd would cut deals with stores to give them an extra fifty cents per figure to get the end caps on the aisles
• When the Rob was shopping around the Youngblood cartoon, he wanted to have a live action wraparound with Badrock, he already had the costume commissioned by the folks who made the suits for ABC’s Dinosaurs
• The CBS executive, Judy Price, was very resistant to the Rob ideas and when the Rob left the meeting, she got in his face and said “If you walk out of here, you’ll never get a cartoon deal in this town! In fact, I’ll give your time slot to your friend Jim!”
• Both Jim and Eric Larsen went to Playmates for toys, the Rob had a million dollar deal for Mattel to do Youngblood toys but Todd wanted a chance to beat that offer and he did
• Todd’s long term plan was to already have the retail space (“Nine feet of pegs!”) so once the movie came out, Spawn was already on the shelves
• The next big step was Todd getting the basketball, baseball and hockey licenses. During the Rob’s self imposed hiatus from comics in the early 2000’s (he was still attending conventions in disguise) the Rob bumped into Todd and gushed over the sports toys
• When Todd was getting lesser licenses, like the horror movie franchise, X-Files etc. the bigger companies could have outbid Todd, they just didn’t think the ability to move them
• the Shrek license was a big misstep as Todd couldn’t match the bright and vibrant colors of the movie on the packaging

If you want to help the show, be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pocket Casts, Spotify Player FM, TuneIn, Overcast, Beyond Pod or Castbox and leave a comment.

If the link at the top of the page isn’t working, you can always make your Amazon purchases through our affiliate link here!

Or you can support on Patreon and get early access to episodes of After Dark and more!