Todd McFarlane Teases New License, Wants Toys That Look Better

Todd McFarlane wears many artistic hats. While he still loves and remembers his roots in drawing comic books (and during this interview, he signed several comic books from Spawn to Spider-Man), his focus at Toy Fair 2015 was of course McFarlane Toys.

With new The Walking Dead collectibles, from action figures to statues to the relatively new building block line, plus the many other licensed products featuring sports stars and video game icons, business is booming for McFarlane Toys. According to the namesake and founder, there’s one very simple reason: they make better looking products.

Todd McFarlane sat down with ComicBook.com during his busy Toy Fair schedule for a quick interview to talk about his current products, tease some plans for the future, and of course, give us at least a little update on where things are going with Spawn.

Todd, obviously Toy Fair is important for you guys for retailers to come and buy your product so that fans have access to it, but why is it important to you directly for fans?

Todd McFarlane: You know, I would actually say it’s more important for the fans. The big stores that have to buy our product and basically keep us alive, we’ve presold them. It used to be, years and years ago, you came to Toy Fair, you brought your wares, you sat your retailer down, you get your order form out, they give you your order form, and by the time you left Toy Fair, you knew if you were having a good year or a bad year. So when people said, “hey, how was your Toy Fair?” There actually was an answer!

But that model has sort of shifted, about the time I got into the business it was sort of on its last legs. To me, it has become more of a media event. You show your new product, you try to get people excited, you try to get people to take a couple of photos. For the most part, either you’re hoping you can sell into smaller stores, or “I’ve already sold it in, now I need the consumer to take it off the shelf.”

Making a product, and building it, now that I’ve done it, is actually the easiest part of the equation. The hardest part is getting somebody to put it on a shelf, that’s the steep incline, especially when you’re talking about big stores like Target and Walmart. Once we get them to say yes, now we get to the next hardest step: Good, they gave you a space and put your boxes on the shelf, and now we need people to take those boxes off shelves and off pegs, which is the fans!

So we have to get the fans excited that what we’re doing is interesting enough, has enough quality at a decent price, so that they’re gonna go and pick it off of the shelf. Depending on how those three components work is whether they want the next wave of product from you.

So, obviously you’ve had your sports lines and various video game lines for a long time, but it seems like The Walking Dead has just made things explode for your company; what has it meant to McFarlane Toys?

TM: I wouldn’t say that it’s made us explode; what it’s done is give us an opportunity to scratch some of the artistic itches that I’ve had for awhile. You know, we’ve done figures and had highs and lows; The Walking Dead, amongst other licenses, both the comic book and TV show have done well. But the toy company as a whole was started on the simple premise of me walking up and down the action figure aisle twenty years ago, saying, “I don’t get why these things can’t be better.” Right? Just simply better. And the better is artistically, in my mind. Given that nobody was doing it, I decided to just start a company and do it myself, because it’s just plastic and paint! (laughs) Don’t let anyone tell you it’s more complicated than that, because it isn’t!

So now I’m walking down this other aisle for the first time in twenty years and it’s the same question! It’s déjà vu all over again, I don’t know why this stuff can’t look cooler. So it rocked my sensibilities in the building block aisle: this stuff looks cool, but the closer you get to it the less cool it looks to me. You start to see that it’s made out of the blocks and it starts to bitmap itself. I had my kids, we go the amusement parks, and I’ve seen these buildings that people have made of a million parts, and they’re cool from 100 feet, but you get up close and see the million blocks, and I don’t understand why it can’t look more realistic.

So, it’s the same question. I went to retailers and said, “Hey, I got an idea. I’m going to do building blocks, but add a veneer, one more layer than everyone else is adding, and it’s just going to be sexy plastic art blocks to cover the bland blocks.” They went, “Yeah, sure, go knock yourself out, let me see it.” I did it, we worked hard, I brought a prototype and laid it out in front of them, and they said, “We don’t understand, you were gonna bring me building blocks!” Even after we talked about it, they still didn’t get it. I remember I was having them hold the Governor’s Room, and when they were confused about the building blocks, I said, “You’re holding 292 pieces in your hands!” I had to peel off a couple pieces so you could see the dimples, the bumps, and they go, “What? So you’re doing the bland block with a veneer of art!”

That’s what I was talking about for seven months! But I guess we did our job so well that we tricked them. As you can see, even at Toy Fair here, I have to put sign upon sign that says “Build this!” Even after they get it, they’ll go “what about that vehicle?” I go, “yeah, the vehicle is the same! It’s all building blocks!” I guess it’s acknowledgement that we did what we set out to do, that when it’s done it doesn’t look bit mapped. It looks like what it is supposed to make.

There’s incredible detail, even down to the weaponry in the building sets – how did you get that level of detail in the weaponry? That’s not something that’s very common on figures and accessories this size.

TM: Right! Well, God bless you for noticing, and God bless you for giving me credit. The thing is though, this is just black plastic in a mold! You think of the molds; when we were kids we made jello, and you could pour it into a mold to make a dinosaur or something. So we’d have the cherry T-Rex. Toy molds are not really that much different than that concept. The steel, the clay doesn’t care what shape it’s in. The question isn’t, “God, how did you make that crossbow that’s only half an inch actually look like a crossbow?” The question is more, “Why don’t they do it?” It’s weird that you’re giving me credit for doing what they could’ve done for decades! The mysteries of the world to me are, how did the universe get its start, and how did they not make cooler toys, because it’s all there! (laughs) The reference, the photography is there. They just chose to ignore the reference of reality! 95% of my stuff I sell to people 15 and older, and you can’t BS people who are buying things for themselves.

So their billion dollar model – and let me just say, completely fair, if I had a billion dollar model, I wouldn’t change it either. But their billion dollar model, they sell to moms and their kids, and they’re selling brands. So if little Tommy tugs on mommy’s skirt and says, “I want Superman, mommy,” then mom looks and everyone has it, and she wants to get it for him because his birthday’s coming. She goes out and asks the retailer, “Do you have any Superman stuff?” And they take the toy that has the big Superman logo on it – and I’m not picking on Superman, just using it as an example – but as long as it has a red cape, and a blue suit, and has a big S on it, it’s good enough for mom, and good enough for the six year old. But if you’re going to sell that same brand to a 26 year old, it had better look like the TV show, Movie, or Video Game that they’re inspired by. They know when you’re tricking them and giving them generic, and they don’t buy generic, they want reality.

So we’re just giving them as close to reality in the building block aisle.

TM: Yeah, yeah, but again, timing is everything. As much as I like Spawn, if there’s not a need for it, a hunger for it, it’s just me trying to shove something down somebody’s throat. It’s like me trying to get my kids to eat their broccoli (laughs). So, what I need is, I need to get the animation and the movie stuff going, so that there will be a new audience, and a bigger audience, that will want to have that brand. Then when I put stuff out, it will make more sense than me just putting it out now because I did it five years ago or ten years ago. There has to be a reason, a compelling reason, so I’m trying to create that with my own brand, Spawn, then at the right point come back with the toys. What I don’t want to do is come out with it, have it do mediocre at best, then when I’m really ready for it have retailers and fans say, “no, you came out with that last year and it didn’t work!” You have to be patience with some of this stuff so it can finish “baking” if you will.

Makes sense! Any little teases of something coming up that you’re excited about?

TM: Yeah, we’ve got the new wave two stuff on The Walking Dead, which is going to rock and roll, it’ll be at Walmart and Target and Toys R Us all at the same time, and they’ll get their data on it. Then at San Diego Comic-Con we’re going to announce our second big license in the construction aisle, and it’s gonna work. There are some I go, “I hope it works,” but this is just going to work. So I’ll have my two anchors there, and hopefully it will allow me to then do some smaller assortment stuff in-between.

Then hopefully in 4 or 5 years, I’ve made my footprint, and then I can do McFarlane Robots, McFarlane Dragons, just come up with crazy stuff out of my head, not worry about brand, just do it, come up with my own IPs for this. Then given that I don’t have to pay a royalty I can put even more into it, and make it even sexier than what I’m doing now. That’s the long term plan as I’m going off and making movies and directing stuff!