Power Con 2019 Four Horsemen Studios Video Interview

[00:00:00] Anthony Scott: hey guys Anthony Scott toy hype USA I'm here at power con 2019 with the four horsemen two of the horsemen I should say corn boy Eric and Eric two of the [00:00:13] Speaker 2: most talented guys in the toy business no that's not accurate one of us is I was gonna ask you if that was accurate but not this one of us okay this one of you [00:00:25] Speaker 3: would you say you're one second got customers up here we're doing it like a [00:00:33] Anthony Scott: little bit of anything hold on guys hey guys we're back with the four horsemen so let me kick off what's on everyone's mind Thundercats how excited are you that it's back very incredibly exciting it's it's what people have been wanting for years originally when Super 7 said okay we're doing Thundercats we want you guys to sculpt them how did that get started did you guys get like say and how [00:01:03] Speaker 2: to update them stuff like that a little bit I mean they what happened was they started working on it back when we were doing the Masters of Universe classics figures and they had taken that over they also wanted to take on the Thundercats license so we started doing the work for them for that and it's pretty much just kind of coincided and then they kind of decided on what the design aspects that it had and that kind of thing so okay yeah I mean just like everybody else when Mattel was doing them and that ended we were super bummed out because we loved working on those figures yes and then when it was a possibility that Super 7 was going to be picking it up and they wanted to sell it along with the Masters of the Universe classics that they were doing or ultimates or whatever and we were excited again and then when that didn't happen we're kind of bummed out so we're super excited that they're going [00:01:58] Anthony Scott: ahead and moving forward with that now it's very exciting what's going on so Super 7 was saying characters like the Luna tanks are going to be a possibility with their 30 between 30 40 characters that they've already confirmed coming how excited are you guys to work on characters like the Luna tanks I don't think they've ever been done before official toys I don't think so right yeah as far as I know [00:02:24] Speaker 3: there was a prototype there was me but that was as far as it ever went icon heroes came [00:02:29] Anthony Scott: close to doing mini mates but I I spoke to them at the time they didn't think they would sell enough of them because they were a bit too obscure but I think they should have tried it yeah yeah you [00:02:40] Speaker 2: never know you never know so look at the wall see if it'll stick so my question you [00:02:44] Anthony Scott: guys characters like that that have never been done before how will you go about um you know take it on the challenge would it be just like the same as some of the two classics as far as what as far as keeping it accurate going with the uh accuracy of the cartoon yeah I mean [00:03:07] Speaker 2: that's that's the key is trying to make them look cool and updated to today's standards with lots of articulation and stuff but also keep it in mind that these need to look like the cartoon when people's but but with a slight bit of realism too I mean these are three-dimensional representations of uh animated characters on a cartoon so you know they're going to be bumped up a little bit but yeah we want to keep as close as possible as we can to the cartoon and these are the guys to do it I mean [00:03:38] Anthony Scott: who else can do that they've proved it years with uh multi-classic so let's jump with turtles now super seven turtles I have to say I love Baxter Stockman awesome I think he's gonna be uh he's best of the wave very excited of the first wave he's my favorite too yeah so what made you guys go with a bit more bulkier interpretation of him because he's maybe a little bit more bulkier than he did on the tv show [00:04:07] Speaker 3: well that's that's really the defining factor this this line of figures is that it's not based on the tv show um you know over the years the the cartoon versions have been done several times uh you know there's currently figures out there that that are cartoon based and so we were huge fans of toys always more so than the cartoon which which is the case of a lot of times that was the way we were with masters um and so in looking at how to approach the line what can we do that would make it unique and different [00:04:46] Anthony Scott: sorry guys the announcement uh probably be taken away from the microphone [00:04:50] Speaker 3: a little bit but what we were wanting to do is to figure out how to make it different exciting and what would make a great toy and that following those action figure designs it was just the perfect opportunity to go back to that inspiration right and really just dive into the what the uniqueness and weirdness of those figures and that's what you know you Baxter Stockman is getting a huge reaction and i think that is great because that's where the line is going to go because you know what the turtle it definitely looks like a toy turtle but yeah but for the most part you've seen the turtles over and over and you've seen splinter you've seen the foot soldiers Baxter Stockman in a form like this you haven't seen since the early 90s no and so you know i'm thinking of all these characters like uh muck man and joe eyeball and wingnut and screw loose and ray fillet and uh these these characters that have just wild designs to them and all you know things so many details on them that they couldn't even paint back in the day yeah um and so it's a matter of taking that stuff and just running with it as far as we can go with it and just i think we're going to get some great figures out of it yeah playmates [00:06:13] Anthony Scott: toys really did a great job on the vintage line they really uh i think set the bar pretty high as far as character selection absolutely giving you guys a ton of choices i mean this can go on for years and that uh even at 45 a pop i think that enough people will buy it and it will keep [00:06:30] Speaker 3: going you know yeah yeah because i think the the pacing that they're looking at with the four pit figures per wave four times a year it's um you know even at 45 a piece it's not that aggressive um so you know considering what people will spend on a marvel legends wave um you know 20 times a year however many times they come out with a wave i think it's uh you know it's reasonable to think that that uh that that's not going too fast and uh too much well that's good i hope at least because we [00:07:06] Anthony Scott: want to make more figures yeah obviously so you guys worked on conan too yes right how did that go how did that come together for uh conan is that something you guys is that something super seven pitched [00:07:20] Speaker 2: here no they just said hey we got the conan license do you guys want to do it we're like absolutely we're huge fans of the the movie and we're like sure let's let's jump on board and i mean the figures turned out better than we expected yeah super seven really liked them the uh people who have seen them as far as we've seen online and people here at powercon seem to really like them so we're excited about that one [00:07:48] Anthony Scott: yeah it looks great i love the uh realistic style you know just like the motu movie figures that are the final classic figures coming out i guess at the end of the year i believe right something like that maybe early 2020 i forget when but those look great and i hope to see more out of that yeah we do [00:08:08] Speaker 2: too i mean we're really um surprised at and happy with the response they've gotten we knew that they were good looking figures but there are a lot more conan fans out there than we thought and the characters that at least the three that they've revealed this weekend they're all characters that we can do multiple variations on like the conan that's in the booth is from the uh conan the destroyer line and obviously you know they want to do conan the one from conan the barbarian the other two guys rexor and thorgrim they're in their costumes and like the final or no when they first show up in the conan movie and there's like two or three other costumes during that movie alone that we can put them in so yeah we do a lot of a lot of variations just on the three that they've shown so far so hopefully this will get a long life we'll be able to see a lot of different uh characters in that [00:09:00] Anthony Scott: one i'm very excited for that so let's jump to uh motu origins obviously this is power con we're going to talk about masters for a little bit how excited are you all new line fresh start uh are you happy with uh the direction it's going in absolutely it's it's a fun line to work on yeah we love it so what exactly are you guys doing with the line because i tried to get some information from mattel but it seems to be i couldn't get um exactly what you're sculpting right i couldn't get all that [00:09:34] Speaker 2: information we're not we're not sculpting all the figures like the the ones that were released for comic-con the the um exclusives that were san diego comic-con we didn't work on those and the battle cat that they just revealed this weekend we didn't get the chance to work on those but or that one but on the other figures we're doing things like we're taking the original iterations of the figures and doing digital alterations digital scans things like that and like the faces uh we're slightly altering them [00:10:06] Anthony Scott: to give them slightly different expressions and stuff from the 80s counterparts yes okay and uh so what figures are you sculpting because i did hear you guys did uh tila and evelyn for example are they are they did they show those yes those are out there otherwise i wouldn't say it right no spoilers [00:10:26] Speaker 2: that's what i when you said what are you sculpting i'm like uh i don't know if we can talk about what [00:10:29] Anthony Scott: we're sculpting right now yeah i mean what's on display now on display over there um everything [00:10:34] Speaker 2: except for battle cat and the two of the release that uh okay comic-con we we worked on all right what about the mo2 minis is that from you yes yeah we worked on those okay and we're so happy those are coming back because yeah that was another one that when matty collector started i mean stopped doing those we were really disappointed because we loved that line and i'm so excited they're they're blind box and i'm not a huge fan of blind box stuff but i know there's a lot of people that are and i think that's going to create a lot of excitement in retail for those too i think so too you know and i spoke to [00:11:05] Anthony Scott: about the blind box my concerns because other companies like fisher price diamond select toys they stopped the blind boxes because people were opening them up at the store yeah you know there was some theft going on right so i said to them uh what about little codes or you know some way to [00:11:21] Speaker 2: identify the character yeah fisher price does that with the imagine x yeah the imagine x and i love that because i do too i i collect like all the monsters from that wave and i can go in and just look on the back of the package there's a little corner and if you don't want to if you're like into the whole blind bag blind box thing you don't have to look at the number and figure out what it is you can just be surprised but for somebody like me who really only wants certain ones out of the line and doesn't want to go through the trouble of doing a lot of trading and stuff i love they have that on there so yeah that would be a good suggestion i would like to see that done as well yeah but i mean as far as the theft goes they're going to come become in that little plastic uh castle grayskull and that will probably be in a box as well or wrapped or something so it's probably not likely that those are going to be opened up in the store hope not yeah i hope not it would be tougher to do than just something a [00:12:12] Anthony Scott: little cardboard box or a little bag yeah i hope i hope so so let me ask you this uh you guys sculpted snake mountain right right super seven uh are you taking part in it in the uh progress at the factory what's [00:12:31] Speaker 2: going on with that no no i mean they'll send us photos and things okay that kind of thing to like look over hey do you guys see anything here but they they can handle that completely they're going to [00:12:41] Anthony Scott: do a great job okay so now it's you guys really much have nothing to do with it now it's sculpted it's sent over to them and they took it over from there i wouldn't say nothing because if they ever [00:12:53] Speaker 2: ask us like you said send us photos and say what do you guys think about this and obviously we'll we'll jump in and get involved with that but no they've got it now and they're they're cranking through [00:13:04] Anthony Scott: okay a couple more questions about origins uh mattel is looking to do or hoping to do a lot of the characters uh from the 80s i think there was like 130 140 different characters that you know i'm sure they're going to do mini comics and stuff like that all those characters stuff like that what is the one if you had to choose one character that you would love to capture in this style let's say they asked you to do modular i don't know you know this is not confirming that but how would you tackle a character like that in that style that's a good question i didn't i didn't hear the i heard oh sorry [00:13:46] Speaker 2: modular oh like if we had to tackle that kind of a guy how would we approach it in the origin style [00:13:55] Speaker 3: i mean i guess it's really somewhere in between what we did with classics as far as the added articulation um you know you i think we would probably use some of the similar mechanisms that we used in that because it it worked both as a modular figure but also maintained the articulation but of course the going completely back to that original look and sticking as close to the the vintage [00:14:25] Anthony Scott: of eyes just design and sculpture yeah like um break apart like you did back in the 80s and the classics uh figure and just like uh make them interchangeable yeah maybe you could buy multiples [00:14:42] Speaker 3: yeah so stuff like that you know with bending elbows and ball joints in the shoulders but still with the [00:14:47] Speaker 2: possibility of the possibility of the original okay my hopes for that line is that it does well enough that we'll get to a point where like with classics we're able to do characters that weren't released as toys at one time i would love to see like i would love for us to be able to do our take on what a classic version like the shadow beast with that articulation and stuff oh it'd be so much fun yeah [00:15:13] Speaker 3: that's that's where i think like for the you know because i think the stuff that that's going in now like it has that broad appeal that i think for a lot of the the real long time masters universe fans to uh i don't know put a character like uh like icer fang man something like that since you're now back to the complete this retro style and on a vintage looking card and all that to get some of these characters i mean similar to what we did with super seven with uh with the shadow weaver um and some of those other characters that that people have wanted for years and wish they would have made back then i think there's a lot of excitement for those types of characters yeah absolutely i think the more [00:16:01] Anthony Scott: characters they do the better i i think um it would be nice if they followed uh classics a bit with uh character selection maybe do characters that uh classics never got to eventually but right now they're just focused on the 80s line which is great you know i think once all that or most of that is done maybe [00:16:23] Speaker 3: we will see a character like icer something like that may be a good like show exclusive or something yeah yeah that's great you know you're really hitting that focused fan base more so than at a walmart [00:16:36] Anthony Scott: where most people probably would say who's icer yeah there's that too the one thing that i would like to see i know you got something to do with but i think an animated series would help you know masters universe animated series to really bring the kids engaged i don't know if the movie's [00:16:56] Speaker 2: going to be enough it absolutely would i mean we've seen the success of shira cartoon on netflix i mean it everybody was was like skeptical at it about it in the beginning and the first season did well the second season did better now the third season it's blowing up and there's a lot of really cool uh references to past masters of the universe iterations and characters and stuff in the third season it's just getting more and more popular so i really don't see why they couldn't do something like that with a he-man [00:17:30] Anthony Scott: yeah i don't uh i don't think they confirmed anything yet i think right now they're just focused on as far as i know but i think eventually they really should absolutely i think he-man masters universe has just as many or more characters than uh she-ra i mean to me that's where he-man lived like it was the [00:17:54] Speaker 2: animated series is what really to me put he-man the masters universe on the map a lot of people like the movie and you know the toy line was great but the mass appeal was because of that cartoon and to capture capture that kind of like a lightning in a bottle type thing again would be would be fantastic [00:18:14] Anthony Scott: yeah i definitely agree so let me ask you guys a question too about uh legions do you think that more homage characters you have the trap draw character the panther character on sale or sold out for the day but do you think more homage characters we never said that was crap jaw and [00:18:34] Speaker 2: and panthor it's well no it's purplore and chronon what are you talking about well because i forgot their names masters universe i don't know what you're talking about yeah i mean for power con we will always as you know we will always come up with homages to do with power con and we'd like to do it like if it's there's a certain theme that goes along with it yeah of course oh yeah grab those and show them [00:18:58] Anthony Scott: i'm sorry i interrupted you we're talking about yeah yeah i'm looking at them so this is to be more accurate non-traptua non-panthor chronon and perkwar i forgot their names you'll have to forgive me i'm looking at all these figures i don't i only remember oh that's the only name i have yeah but a lot of these names are not easy to pronounce yeah so i have to go to you and like how do you pronounce this yeah it's pronoun yeah well we have to do that sometimes too yeah so very nicely sold out but hopefully you guys pre-ordered on the store horseman you completely missed jim hanging out behind you didn't you i did yeah see it would not be power con without you threatening me in any way [00:19:46] Speaker 2: slit my throat something like that going on there but yeah with like well we're probably getting close to if not over 200 mythic legions characters now like at least 150 wow i mean it gets easy to forget characters names at this point so i don't blame you for that yeah thank you especially when there's supposed homages of other characters oh my god but yeah we like to do things for for conventions where we do what we call debut releases they're not exclusives they're debuts people who pre-order them are guaranteed to get them people who come to this show as you saw yesterday half the people standing in line didn't get the figures because we bring super limited amounts to the show we um have the factory pushed forward and finish production on the small set that we bring here and then we have them air shipped over here for the shows which is very expensive yeah and that's why the price point is just a little bit higher per character and we make sure that um you know we have cool things for the the different shows that we do and power con is no exception we like to have something that you know if people see it it kind of has a familiar feel to it or as you put it an homage yeah so let me ask you this [00:21:00] Anthony Scott: what about thundercats now that that's back because i know i asked you guys thundercats a few years ago when he was still cancelled but now it's back it's not a sore spot for people what do you think of like a lion o or a panthor or maybe even a mumrock character in legions type thing i don't know i mean you know the difference between [00:21:25] Speaker 2: motu and every other thing we've ever worked on is that this is a property that we've done an unbelievable number of iterations for and it's it's a property that you know from the beginning we were doing masters of the universe has just kind of become a little bit of a part of who we are so paying homage to that and giving respect to the the characters and the designs and the creations and and the the people that we've worked with over the years by you know making our characters but kind of colored in colors of some of those classic characters i mean it kind of makes sense if it's you know like the dc stuff that we worked on or if it's like you just mentioned thundercats it doesn't make quite as much sense as masters of the universe really if you get right down to it we want you know mythic legions to be its own thing that we put out there we're only doing these uh versions because of power con and mythic legions you know if we have a choice to make characters we want to make characters that we you know came up with and designed they're specifically for mythic legions not some fun like little one-off thing for uh for a convention okay that's being said though there's plenty [00:22:38] Speaker 3: of customizing opportunities yeah where people could easily take some of these characters and make a cool lion or panthro maybe like i said maybe a moment yeah a little ingenuity i'm sure someone will [00:22:54] Anthony Scott: eventually there's so many talented people out there that do this it's amazing it really is and they [00:23:00] Speaker 3: should do it full-time work like you guys yeah i mean that's what we're looking at he mike across the yeah the aisle from us and he's got a full table full of amazing customs he does yeah that they don't look like customs yeah no they don't and there's there's a lot of people out there that that are doing um and it's a lot of people that are specifically just mythic legions heavy customizers um and that's for us that's exciting to see what people take with our creations and then what they bring back to it um because there's just an unbelievable amount of creativity and um you know it in terms inspires us you know the next time around when we're creating characters and they just between the toy photographers and the the uh the websites and customizers and just the the duca community at large um you know that's so much of what has helped this line grow for us because um we can spread the word so much but when you've got you know real people out there that that love the line um you know that that's the the best way to spread the word because it's you know for their love of property yeah um so it's you know we can't you know we really can't thank the community out there no [00:24:31] Speaker 2: yeah and two of our our favorite custom uh customizers they post on instagram a lot and they're part of uh various mythic legions facebook pages okay one of them is nikki nicole chaney it's n-i-k-k-i-n-i-k-o-l-e 3704 on instagram and the other one is jeremy gerard those of you who watched the recent g-con might have seen jeremy on the show um what is that is that like mythic customs yes yeah it's just mythic customs all one word on instagram you guys got to check those out because they do some amazing customs and there's fans all over that do customs and fans would just do like photography of our characters where they they pose them and they build little sets and they have amazing lighting and stuff and it just looks so real with the photography that they do and we just love [00:25:26] Anthony Scott: all that kind of stuff that's great yeah definitely so many uh talented people so there's uh anything you guys want to add about multi-origins thundercats anything particular other than saying guys please [00:25:40] Speaker 2: buy them i mean we're thankful that people buy them and we really appreciate not just mythic legions itself obviously thank you for that because with every release it just keeps growing with leaps and bounds and you know hopefully we'll take over the planet with mythic legions one day but also for like the properties that we've worked on over the years with mattel with super seven um and and just the opportunity to get get to work on a lot of properties that we've loved since we were kids i mean it's an absolute blessing and we wouldn't be able to do it if it wasn't for all you fans out there buying the stuff and we can't thank everybody enough it's awesome that's right there you go right from the horsemen [00:26:24] Speaker 3: all right thanks to val for putting on another amazing uh show here i we always say powercon is our favorite show of the year um it's just and then this year it's moved to anaheim yeah it's so much larger i we never thought it could be spectacular um but it's it's a it's another fantastic year the [00:26:49] Speaker 2: thing about powercon that's so much different from every other convention we've ever attended is that even though it's growing it's probably this room's probably twice as large as last year right it seems like it's a lot bigger it's it's huge and there's so many people here but it's like you walk into a gigantic room full of best friends everybody's so friendly and so welcoming and it's just i mean there's a lot of love at this convention that you just don't see at other conventions it's just it's all camaraderie [00:27:16] Anthony Scott: here it's fantastic yeah i think uh the same thing could be said about a lot of the smaller conventions compared to um you know san diego comic con yeah stuff like that where uh hollywood has completely taken over shows like that yeah but this is just about one thing this is like some of the core fan bases here and people are just really enjoying the toys they're in their element really and i think that's a big part of the success of the show and why it's not as chaotic and for people stuff like that [00:27:49] Speaker 2: just a nicer atmosphere i mean other than mythic legions fans that we've met in the past couple years masters universe fans are the most passionate fans i've ever seen i mean they just absolutely love this property with all their heart and it shows when they come here to this show maybe someday there'll be a mythic legions convention i know you never know it'll be nice hey mythicon i mean that's what gcon yeah yeah i guess that's what gcon is but maybe there'll be a physical one that fans can come to right now it's just all online but well you guys can also one in new jersey right no we don't have enough i mean it'd be cool yeah i guess we'd have to find out how many people would want to come and then see how big it can get we could probably find a spot to do it i don't know a little hotel somewhere in a room that'd be awesome yeah joe knows how to put on a toy show yeah joe vetteri the guy that runs toycon new jersey and was on the recent gcon yeah i met him nice guys put that put that [00:28:47] Anthony Scott: together yeah there you go guys hopefully let these guys know you know maybe um instead of gcon gcon can expand to include the public too who knows gcon 2.0 yeah could be a five named after me okay i think george george who george george who george gashper [00:29:12] Speaker 2: we'll call it acon anthony will have to be there every time that's right i'll have to drive down that [00:29:17] Anthony Scott: name's already taken yeah i'll have to drive uh 350 miles to be there but i'll do it you did it - You did it for G-Con. - I did it for G-Con.