Breaking the Mold with the Four Horsemen

Cornboy, Part 2.

Figures.com: What kind of hours do you put in as a fabricator?

Cornboy: You know what? Sometimes I show up around 10am and sometimes I’m here at 8am. I’m usually here eight hours a day and I sometimes take stuff home and work on it three, four, even five hours a night. And there have been times when we’ve all spent the night here in the studio. Two or three days straight in here... There’s a blanket and pillow on the shelf over there that’s a testament to that fact. On average though, I put in about 10 hour days.

Figs.com: Please tell us about these materials you use a little more.

CB: There are different types of materials we work with: ren, styrene, urethane. There are different types of these too. There’s a red ren that we use to make concrete as it’s a lot more porous. There’s a lot more air bubbles in it and gives it a rougher look.

One thing we can do is heat it up and we can actually bend it into shape. It’s a pretty versatile material…

Figs.com: You trained as a comic artist. We spoke with Chris and Eric about the original characters you’re creating now with FANtastic Exclusive. Where do you see it going?

CB: Seventh Kingdoms been chosen by fans and it’s a great choice. It’s incredibly versatile and we were actually surprised how the voting went with that. We knew the Minotaur was a favorite, but there was one character – the Ice Elemental – that voted really well. And there was another character – a mutant Crab guy – and he didn’t do that well. We were really surprised…

What we want to do with this is have all of those properties blossom into their own and have figures and comic books and cartoons and underroos (smiles). We’re gonna start on the ground level though and see where it goes from there.

Figs.com: What do you make of the trend in the toy business right now with the reimergance of old toy lines – like He-Man – and the lack of new original characters and properties?

CB: It looks to me, right now, that the whole “bringing back the 80s” trend is kind of dying down somewhat. At least leveling off. There are a couple of properties that I know people would like to get their hands on. ThunderCats. We’d love to get our hands on that. But, I think we’ve just about run out of top-notch properties from the '70s and '80s. The next step then is do licensed properties or come up with new items. You can’t go back and rehash a rehash again and again.

That’s exactly what we’d like to see happen. There are few companies that are trying to take that step and do a few independent things. None of them seem extremely successful. There are a few minor success stories. Hopefully, if there’s a surge toward independent items, we’ll be able to be a part of that.

Figs.com: What are the toys that have come out recently that you think have been some of the best?

CB: I’m haven’t gotten ahold of any of it yet, but I really like Mezco’s Hellboy stuff.

Figs.com: Here… (handing CB a Mezco Hellboy figure.)

CB: Ooohhhh…wow…Dave Cortes sculpted…we’re gonna have to break his fingers. He’s too good. You know, a long time ago, Eric and I tried to get the Hellboy license. We tried to convince the guys over at McFarlane Toys to talk to Todd (McFarlane) about doing Hellboy and it just kind of fell apart. Eric actually sculpted a Hellboy figure and I did a little backpack and stuff for him and we showed it to Mike Mignola and he was really impressed with it. But nothing ever came of it. It was a fan boy pipe dream. This stuff is top notch...

Figs.com: There are easily over one million action figures in the world that you’ve been a part of…

CB: A million?

Figs.com: How many pieces of each figure do you think there are of each He-Man figure? How many people – kids and adults – are out there with something you helped make…

CB: That’d be interesting to find out. How many figures we’ve made. How many actually made it to the shelves? I’ve never really thought about that. When we were working with McFarlane Toys, some of their runs were 25,000 or 50,000 for a line, but they started going up quite a bit when we left. But, working with a company like Mattel, who’s doing Batman and The Batman animated stuff and He-Man..they’re doing hundreds of thousands (of each figure). Yeah…you’re probably right...I hadn’t even thought about that. There are millions of toys out there that we’ve actually had a hand in making. That’s pretty mind boggling (laughing). Thanks for making me feel like a speck of dust… There are a lot of guys out there that are more prolific in toy design (than we are). We’re just four guys….

Figs.com: Who are some of your inspirations? Who are some of the guys in the industry that you think are pushing the boundries of toy making?

CB: I think part of the problem with the industry is there aren’t really many who are pushing the boundaries a lot. I think there are a lot of great sculptors and a lot of companies that are doing their best to get the whole independent thing going. Mez over at Mezco, he gets unusual stuff out there and has great sculptors working for him. The guys over at SOTA. Jerry Macaluso’s stuff and Street Fighter. There doing the Street Fighter stuff exactly how we would have done it. We were originally approached to take over the Street Fighter stuff and we turned it down. He’s doing it exactly how we would have done it and doing a great job.

Then there’s all the sculptor friends we have out there: Billy Mancuso, Phil Ramirez, Dave Cortez, Derek Miller…a bunch of guys we’ve known for a long time and who do great work. We’re just happy there’s work in the toy industry. And no one’s really starving, which is a good thing.

By Jess C. Horlsey and Jeff Saylor

A special shout out THANX! to the Four Horsemen for the interview and tour, picking us up at BK and dropping us off at JFK. Snuggles to Kirby... Have to hang with my mutt Bobo sometime:)

PART 3: Cornboy