ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

The story of Shocker Toys is a complicated one. It begins with Geoff Beckett – a guy with an idea for a toy, and it progresses through almost six years of trials, controversy, licensing messes, and almost more than anything else, a boisterous personality.

Before any other action figure company had really started connecting with the adult collectors as they do now, Beckett began detailing every phase of the creation of his toys, from the seed of an idea, through sections in-progress sculpts, all the way through to final production. It’s been a very long process, with what promises to be their truly breakthrough toy line, ‘Indie Spotlight’, being stuck in production hell for over two years. During this long gestation period, shelf dates have arrived and passed many times, but the perseverance of Beckett… perseveres.

He’ll be the first person to leap into a prolonged internet fist fight to defend his almost-creations – an unusual role for a company CEO to play, and one that’s made him fairly controversial in the mainstream action figure world. At the core of it all still exists the same ideals that I think reside in most of us – the desire to be toymakers.

Geoff dropped me a line to show off some of his new action figure sculpts, a unique blend of plastics designed to maximize both sculpt and articulation in his upcoming Indie Spotlight series, which will feature small press darlings Shadowhawk, Scud the Disposable Assassin, Katchoo from Strangers in Paradise, David Mack’s Kabuki, and my personal favorite, Sam Kieth’s The Maxx. Each figure will come with a Pink fairy or an Isz from The Maxx, and a Mr. Gone mail-away figure isn’t too far behind that.

We sat down and talked.

ToyCyte : So, for the readers who might not be familiar with your work, who are you and what do you do?

Geoff Beckett : I am Geoff Beckett, CEO of Shocker Toys LLP, makers of the Shockini, Indie Spotlight and other collectible toy lines.

ToyCyte : How did you enter the toy-making business? What inspired you to become a producer instead of just a consumer?

GB : I was always a collector of toys and had many as a kid. I [was playing] a few games of Pokemon with my younger brother and thought I could make a card game myself based on mini robots. I set out to do a trading card game – but the market was too saturated at the time. So, I took the card game characters and decided to make a toy line. I met a regular on Raving Toy Maniac (which was a big mistake) who said he was a sculptor. I gave him a few grand and the idea for our shoulder fighting robot card game characters. Needless to say, I learned as I promoted the toys that our money was taken and I was out of luck. This made some of the media and collectors not so happy with us to say the least.

So, I decided to go it myself. I picked up some clay and sculpted the robots into small 3 1/4″ figures and came up with the name ‘Shockinis’ (Shocker Toys + Minis = Shockinis). I made casts myself, showed them off, got feedback, made them better, and found a factory. ‘I’ became ‘we’ as Lance [Buttiglieri] joined the fold and we became ‘Shocker Toys LLP’ with our first real product : the Shockinis.

ToyCyte : How did you make the original casts? Was it a factory thing, or a kitchen-table thing?

GB : It was a backroom office thing…. I used Smooth-On, [a] great company in Jersey where I was at the time, and sat down and made a bunch of copies and hand painted the robots. During feedback, a collector said we should leave them blank, as we’d shown a blank one as well, which gave birth to the customizable Shockinis. Later, we sent hand casts to the factory and they made real casts through 3-D.

ToyCyte : I’ve customized a few myself, actually, and they really lend themselves to it, even with their small dimensions. So, how do you go from customizable mini-figures to Indie comics heroes?

GB : Well, as with toys I have always been a huge comic book fan too and used to draw and design them as a kid. So when I saw that something was missing between Marvel Legends and DC Universe figures. I thought up the original idea for Indie Spotlight.

ToyCyte : Now, there were some scuffles with ToyBiz over that. since you were both going for similar licenses and lines.

GB : Yes. as I had mentioned, we came up with the original idea and gathered the original licenses. We had the licenses first, as well as the idea, and our confidential e-mail was leaked to [ToyBiz] by an artist who owns a comic company we were pitching to. Next thing we knew, our licenses that were signed under non-exclusive [terms] were with that other toy company.

ToyCyte : So, since then, ToyBiz folded, turned into Marvel Toys, released two lines of their figures, and kinda disappeared. What’s happened with your line in that time?

GB : We had to just take a time out. I called the president of [ToyBiz] and told him my thoughts, as well as the press. We picked a new line up and started on sculpting. We had a few bad runs with that and finally got a new 3-D arm of Shocker Toys in Singapore and a new factory as well. We have, however, released two Indie Spotlight products during the down time – a Scud statue and mini Maxx vinyl.

ToyCyte : And these Indie guys are going to come out in December, yes? Because if they don’t, the nerds are going to find you and remove your organs, it would seem.

GB : That is correct – the line is set to ship in December. Diamond Comics will be stocking [local comic shops], Big Bad Toy Store and Toys ‘R’ Us. Oh, and yes, we have made sure this is it – we would like to keep our organs. We could always throw them our interns.

ToyCyte : Tell me – why do you think it is that there’s so much ire over the words ‘Shocker Toys’? The phrase has even been banned from some forums.

GB : Some people can’t handle that we don’t take to trolls abusing us. I can’t exactly say – but I can say it happened after the defunct Shoulder Action Figures were promoted. We should have kept that quiet, but you learn from your mistakes. We know that this line is great and so will the true toy fans. Some people just have a serious vendetta against us and have gone so far as to make fake websites to smear us, fake Wiki accounts to remove the mention [of Shocker Toys] there, and fake accounts on our forums to hack or vandalize it. It is all a bit childish if you ask me, and news sites who have been [negative towards] our name really need to set an example. If you let trolls run free, it will cause much chaos, and as journalists they should step above that low level.

ToyCyte : It’s rare to see a to company use the idea of ‘radical transparency’ as you have, where you reveal every step of the process. Do you think that this has caused impatience and contributed to the controversy? The average action figure collector isn’t usually privy to the process as they might be with the designer toy creators.

GB : Could be, but what we get back is less backlash when releasing the product, and we learn a great deal more. Without showing The Maxx early we wouldn’t have been able to correct his look, or fix the joint layout – which is something new on Indie Spotlight. I have also noticed that since we began [this] taboo tradition many other companies have followed the lead.

ToyCyte : The new sculpts that you’ve just revealed do seem like an improvement in the joints, absolutely!

GB : Yes we wanted to do a bit different from the ol’ ball and ball [laughs]. We tried to make a new set up, and it will only improve as the series continues.

ToyCyte : Are there any licenses that you’ve secured that you can tell us about, or would that only generate trouble so early on?

GB : We have picked up Sushi Pack, Madballs, My Pet Monster and a few others – we can’t say for what though. We have a new huge toy line planned for Toy Fair 2009.

ToyCyte : What’s your favorite toy? What do you actively collect?

GB : Marvel Legends and [Mighty] Muggs – but I will be collecting Indie Spotlight now… shameless plug.

ToyCyte : These are the toys that inspire you?

GB : All my life toys have inspired me. Some were corny, some were crappy, some were great, but all were toys!

ToyCyte : How do you feel about some day creating a line of original characters, or an ‘urban vinyl’ styled customizable form?

GB : I feel that day is around the corner. As a traditional collector, I have learned to like all toys, and urban vinyl has become part of my collections. Also, we did create the Electrobytes, which are an original robot toy line and were incorporated into the Shockinis.

ToyCyte : And Gwar? People call you ‘Gwarff’ for a reason!

GB : We would like to see it in our 5″ designer vinyl line. As far as ‘Gwarff’ – there is a different story behind that. A net troll (with a family no less) decided to start following us around and sling crap every chance he could. He was told to cease with his comments. So, to get around the ramifications of calling me by my name, he used Gwarff to tip-toe around us. Others who try to cut us off at the knees have also adopted this name. Some of these people are respected news site owners, and other toy industry people. It is a real shame to see this behavior in a collector world where toys should be the focus of talk, not slinging mud into a toy company’s eyes to ruin their image. That gentleman who first called us Gwarff, by the way, was sent free Shockinis for all of his kids before he went postal on us.

ToyCyte : Action figure collectors are a fickle people, I like to think that designer toy collectors are a far more mellow, balanced people.

GB : True, but this industry could accomplish much more by kicking out the trolls and giving a company a chance and proper feedback. If you have a toy company who can make a good toy line with their ear to your floor, you tell them what you would like to see. You don’t tell them they suck.

ToyCyte : How large is your company at this point?

GB : We have The main Shocker Toys people in Jersey, and a few in New York City were we would like to open our new offices. We also have our design team in Singapore. Our GFX designers are th3rdworld.com.

ToyCyte : If NOTHING else, you’ve managed to generate a huge amount of buzz around these Indie guys. No publicity is bad publicity. Everyone is going to want to see them firsthand. People are going to inevitably criticize, no matter what. Are you going to get in there and do the ol’ Fightin’ Geoff, or are you going to let it all slide?

GB : I agree with you there – the naysayers and non-supportive toy news sites caused all of the buzz. We are just going to do what we set out to do : put out great toys, whether it be Dethklok vinyl figures, Indie Spotlight, New Shockinis, other Spotlight categories or our new 5″ vinyl line.

I have been pretty quiet as of late because I knew what was happening on the inside. And once Indie Spotlight Series One hits, I don’t think there will be any need to fight, as the fans will back up how great they are. For some of these haters, it is a sickness and I would say to them “get help”, because the figures have now been seen and they are coming out regardless of what they say. They alone cannot stop us no matter how sneaky they try to be. We will make great toys and we will make new innovative breakthroughs for the industry because it is the industry I have come to love.