Inside McFarlane Toys

For the past few years this website has been active with the postings of literally thousands and thousands of you. That input has been invaluable for not only my company but also for me personally. Although not all the remarks put up on the various boards at SPAWN.com have been favorable, the fact that someone took the time to come here and post has always been rewarding in and of itself. The growth of a true community here with all your voices is a sense of pride for those of us at this site.

So what does any of this have to do with you?

Well, everything actually. For a while now I thought that it would be very important to have a full-time moderator on this board. Not just to watch over the comments but to become more proactive in showing you some of the daily activities that go on around here. I want to give you updates every day, some in the form of a write-up and others in the form of actual artwork or scans of some of the various stages of our toys. We’ll be letting you in on the ground level of how, when, where, and why we do the things we do.

In order to accomplish all of this the need has now arrived for the full-time moderators. Beginning today those new moderators will be DREW HUTCHINSON and BRAD GOULD. Drew has been with us for about five years now. He, for the most part, has been out on the road doing in person what I now hope he will do on this board, and that is to listen to the comments. He’ll interact with you, give the daily reports and scan lots of visuals on a regular basis for you to see. He will be the point man for all your requests or questions in the future. Brad has also been with us for awhile working in the comic division and dealing with artists as well as the comic board part-time.

Both men sit a mere ten feet away from my desk and they will be one of the first persons to know what it is that I am doing or what my company is up to. It will then be their job to pass as much of that information on to you when the time is right (and I am hoping that it is almost immediately). This also means that some of the moderators you have gotten used to will now be used as information outlets and advisors. WILDCAT from the sports board and STEVE the VICTIM will be helping just like before, but because both have other full-time duties within the company they are not capable of doing two jobs at the same time. They will still be around but in a more supervisory position. I’d like to thank both of them for managing their respective board so enthusiastically. And know that they will help DREW and BRAD in their new jobs.

What I hope all this means is that this website and these boards will become even more interesting for all of you. Let us know how this works out. Like I said, we do listen. We now hope to be able to bring you closer into our companies on a daily basis. 

Variation and Chase Figures Defined

As we continue to put out more and more sports figures out in the market place there will be a steady stream of questions that are asking for the varios differences of all our toys. This is something that we have been through with the non-sports figures that we have made in the past eight years or so. But for the sake of making all of the definitions consistent here on this board, let's seperate a few common things.

Like 'chase' versus 'variant'.

Remember, this is how I define the two within the context of our business.

A 'chase' or a 'repaint' is something that we intentionally do. They are figures that we want to change and let the factories know about them in advance. These would include the home and away uniforms that the players wear. Or they could be some of the low production figures that were sent out in the NHL series one line.

A 'variant' is something that WASN'T suppose to happen! These are the ongoing mistakes that happen at the factories that we are unaware of (for the most part). This can include everything from a figure missing an arm to being misplaced in the wrong packaging. But usually it is that the paint applications aren't coming out correct so we have to adjust some of the fine tuning during the actual production phase.

For instance... some of you have asked about some of the NFL series two figures that were produced without dirt or grass stains. This is a bit of a hybrid reason. The problem here was that the factory wasn't quite getting the feel for what we were striving for at the beginning. So we told them to just stop doing any of it until they recieved a new tape from us showing how we wanted the paint application done. Once they got that they started putting the grime back on the players. So, yes, there were some made without stains but it was for only a short period of time and for the wrong reasons.

Along the production of any line there will always be various differences in any line. And the greater the number of toys made the higher the chance of something going wrong.
But as in the card collecting business, ERROR cards didn't hold their value. I believe the same is true here with toys.