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"The Legends of Cthulhu figures are amazing. I'm honestly building a shelf in my office specifically for them." ~ Ed Grabianowski, io9.com ~ Warpo makes new old toys. What does that mean? It means we create entirely new products that look and feel like they were crafted over thirty years ago. So while the form is familiar, the content is something that has never been done before. You see, we’re not about just making cool toys, we’re about creating an experience collectors haven’t had since they were children.
The three Warpo partners are children of the 70’s and 80’s and we love the toys that came out of that era. Back then, it was the wild-west days of the toy industry with a lot of different companies trying a lot of different things. They were experimenting and making things up as they went along. If someone had a good idea that tapped into the cultural zeitgeist, it didn’t matter if there was a cartoon or movie tie-in. If the boss liked it, they did it. The result? Retailer shelves stocked from floor to ceiling with a variety of themes and characters the likes of which no one had ever seen. Today, the toy landscape is very different and we who love the toys of the past find ourselves seeking out everything we can get our hands from that bygone era. And thanks to the internet, it is possible in a very short period of time to amass a complete collection of any vintage toy line including variants and knock-offs. With nothing new to discover…nothing new to collect and enjoy that fit the “mold” we love, we found ourselves wanting. And that’s why we created Warpo.
How do we do we make new old toys? It’s a process we call “Method Manufacturing™.” Like method acting, Method Manufacturing starts with research. We immerse ourselves into the themes, influences, and cultural trends of a specific era. We look at the movies, TV shows, books, fashion, and of course the toys. Then, we get into the mind-set of designers, engineers, and manufacturers of that era…often to the extent of roleplaying these parts. When we feel that our concept is sound, we take it to another level by enlisting the League of Warpo artists who were actually working in the industry at the time. Their experience and insights add another level of authenticity to our toys. Further, they use the same processes on our new toys that they used back in the day so despite the years, the subtleties of the original processes shine through.
Our first line of figures, Legends of Cthulhu, honors the works of H.P. Lovecraft that influenced so many of the properties we love from the 70’s and 80’s. When we were discussing directions for our first line of figures, we couldn’t believe that Lovecraft had never gotten a toy line based solely on his work. And according to our research, we felt that a creative director might have brought the Lovecraft’s mythos to the table in a late 70’s brainstorm. After all, there was a resurgence of fantasy and horror, Lovecraft’s work was on the verge of being discovered by an entirely new group of fans via the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game, and toy companies were readily looking fully fleshed-out worlds from the past to tap-into.
Legends of Cthulhu currently includes four figures that were designed to be archetypes of characters from Lovecraft’s stories. They are also amalgamations that designers who were making toys in the 80’s would have concocted to make them understandable and appealing to children. The first is the Deep One; an amphibious human/fish hybrid featured in such works as The Shadow Over Innsmouth. The second is the Cultist who is a human servant of Cthulhu whose design harkens back to the Sand People from Kenner’s Star Wars line with a long robe and a vinyl cape. The third is the Professor who represents the investigators and protagonists in Lovecraft’s stories. He’s much more than simply “the one who goes mad” as he has hints of an adventurous side with his dapper western style moustache, boot knife, and revolver. Last but not least is the Spawn of Cthulhu; smaller human-sized agent of the Great Old One with his same menacing tentacled head, wings, and beady eyes. He also comes with the ultimate accessory; the fabled Necronomicon.
For more pics, our vintage commercial, and more information go to: www.warpo.com/kickstarter or visit our Facebook page to stay up to date on the latest information at www.facebook.com/warpotoys. We have much more planned for next year! You haven’t seen the last of the Great Old Ones… Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn! *Article original published in GTM #177 Note: Supplies are limited! Please contact your Alliance Sales Rep for product availability and/or to place an order.
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For example our package painter, Ken Kelly, painted our piece with oil on canvas on the same easel he painted all the Micronauts and Dungeons & Dragons package art. The same can be said of our sculptor, Eddy Mosqueda who sculpted our figures in wax the same way he sculpted the vintage Masters of the Universe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figures. But these legends in their field were integral to the creation of our figures not only because they used traditional (non-digital) means to create our toys but they also brought subtle, unexplainable, nuances to the finished pieces. With those elements in-hand and using our knowledge of past manufacturing process and materials, we can create figures that feel unlike anything anyone is putting out today.
