01x06 - Unboxed

[bunniefuu]

[man 1] The childhood me,

if you were to tell him
that I would do what I am doing now,

I don't think he would believe it at all.

To be honest with you,
some days I don't even believe it.

[woman]
The toy industry is populated with people

who never completely let go
of their intellectual child.

A lot of people leave that sense
of wonder behind,

and toy people don't.

[man 2] I remember the stories I created.

I remember the hours spent building
my own version of the Marvel Universe.

[man 3] Marvel Comics has created
an entire universe,

and they really humanize,
quite well, all of their characters.

And I think that's what the appeal is.

The storytelling in the comics 100%
influenced our approach to making toys.

[man 4] Now you can actually,
in three-dimensional form,

have this figure pulled straight
from the comic book pages in your hand,

and now you can move it around,
and you can articulate it.

You can have it hanging around,
swinging, doing all kinds of stuff

that played out in your mind
in between the pages.

[man 5] You can't underestimate
the power of an action figure

and what that means to the user.

To a kid, it can be a gateway
to alternate universes

and imaginary worlds in their minds.

That's the coolest thing
about these characters.

Once you put the toy into a kid's hands,

they can create their own stories,
and more power to 'em. That's awesome.

I sh**t toys. I tell stories
through photography of toys.

It's a hobby, and it's a passion.

A lot of the reason
that I sh**t Marvel toys today

is because of comics
that I read growing up.

I liked Iron Man, and I read
those comic books as a kid,

and somehow,
by creating stories with these toys,

it just brings me back to that childhood.

When I was growing up
and reading these comic books,

I didn't even know
toy photography existed.

I ended up as a wedding photographer.
I shot hundreds of weddings.

But it wasn't coming
from a place of deep creativity.

My nephew, Johnny, says, "Uncle Mitch,
next time you come up to San Francisco,

bring your camera.
I'll take you out and sh**t some toys."

I went up there, and I just thought,
"Sure. Why not? I'll try it."

And from the very first
click of the shutter,

I realized that there was potential
to make it into a career.

I went from sh**ting "bridezilla"
to sh**ting Godzilla,

and I couldn't be happier.

I like to show characters in ways
that people aren't used to seeing them.

Squirrel Girl's superpower
is being able to control squirrels.

And the fact
that she has a big bushy tail,

I knew that
that character has a lot of possibilities.

I know there's a precedent
for her having fought Thanos.

So I thought if I could create this image
where she's battling this villain

who is so much larger than her,
especially to see her come out on top,

that might surprise somebody a little.

Okay, I'm gonna create two splashes.

And to do it in a
dynamic water-splashing environment,

it's gonna make
a much more engaging image.

I do feel like I'm using
my imagination the same way

that a kid uses his imagination.

You're creating stories and you get
so wrapped up in these stories,

that you live in that world
for a little while.

I'm living in that world
and capturing it through my camera.

[male announcer]
The Incredible Hulk meets Spider-Man.

[Wu] Through the years,
Marvel's been creating so many toys.

[male announcer] Captain America,
fighting injustice the world over.

Thor, using his Viking power against evil.

They're creating the characters.
They're giving you the story.

And then different toy companies
bring their own unique style.

♪ Webs, webs, web-spinning Spider-Man ♪

In the '80s, Mattel had the idea

to partner with Marvel
to make action figures.

They challenged them.

They said, "Let's develop a comic book
where all of the core characters,

the most famous characters, are thrown
into one giant adventure together,

and they have to fight one villain."

And Marvel said, "We're gonna make
a thing called Secret Wars."

So all of the books, Spider-Man, X-Men,
Fantastic Four, Avengers,

they all crossed over
in this giant overarching story.

It was very successful, and kids loved it.

[male announcer]
Marvel's supervillains are coming.

[man] Secret Wars.

[announcer]
Can the Marvel superheroes stop them?

Marvel's supervillains and
superheroes figures each sold separately.

[Falcon] I think it was exciting
because it was really the first time

that kids really saw this comingling
of all of these characters.

How do we stop them, Captain America?

That's our secret, Spider-Man.

The other thing that they had done, from
a toy perspective that was really smart,

they gave their number one character
a brand-new costume.

So on the cover of Secret Wars,

we see Spider-Man
in his black-and-white costume,

and that costume would end up
becoming a major part of his history.

Eventually, that black costume ended up
becoming the character Venom,

who spun off into his own franchise

and has become super popular
in and of himself.

It was at the beginning
of what was to come for Marvel and toys.

[Vonner] But in the '90s,
the comic book industry just bottomed out.

And Marvel, at the time,
was the big player.

So, you know, long story short,
they wind up going through bankruptcy.

[Falcon]
A company called Toy Biz purchased Marvel,

and then Toy Biz started making
all of the toys for Marvel.

And Toy Biz had
this really awesome responsibility

to bring these characters to life,

and I felt that they had never really been
made in toy form the way they could be.

The way that they're depicted
in the comics.

[whistling]

[Jasperson]
In the '80s and '90s, I worked for Toy Biz

doing art for hundreds
of Marvel action figures.

I think I drew at least 200,


but then with all the iterations,
it seems like hundreds more.

I never knew the Marvel Universe
was that big.

I mean,
just biblical proportions of characters.

As a kid,
I just dreamed of being an artist.

My mom used to joke
that I was born with a pencil in my hand

'cause, as soon as I found a piece
of paper as a kid, that's all I'd do.

But I never, in my wildest dreams,

thought I could make a living drawing
and working for Toy Biz.

We used to joke
we're professional children.

We were a lot of artistic rebels,
you know? And comic book geeks.

My mom didn't read me bedtime stories.
I always had comic books around.

She was into Norse mythology.
So she would tell me stories about Thor.

So, Toy Biz to me,
that was like a university.

It was like going through
this whole new growth process,

and we were kinda
on the ground floor of that.

[Falcon]
I started making toys when I was a kid.

I would see versions of the characters
in different comic books I had,

and I would cut them out.

And I would play
with the flat paper cutout.

Cut to years later,
I'm in my college dorm room,

feverishly whittling away at Milliput,

a bonding agent that you use to fix leaks,

to create heads and hands
of different characters

that had not been made into toys yet.

I brought a lot of those things
to my very first interview

at a company called Toy Biz.

The gentleman I was interviewing with
looked at what I'd brought in that day.

He said, "Did you make these?"
I said, "Yes." He said, "You're hired."

Marvel was just at the beginning
of rolling out

all of this insanely popular content
that they've made over the past 25 years.

[woman] At that point, action figures were
all pretty much the same size and scale.

That's really not what the world is about.

When you look at a comic book, characters
are taller and a lot bigger than others.

[Falcon] JoAnn said, "Listen,

I think we should do something
for our Spider-Man collector."

[McLaughlin] We decided that we were
gonna do figures to scale and form.

So they were different heights,
different body shapes.

They were more true to the character.

[Jasperson] There was a lot
of interesting mechanism and movement

that we designed into the figures,

that really weren't
that big of a thing before.

As the production process
became more sophisticated,

now we can have
different points of movement.

[Falcon]
He was so flexible, he could do yoga.

[Vonner] We really pushed it with
the other extremities, like the fingers.

So now you can have
Spider-Man come at you.

[Falcon] It was a runaway success.

And then JoAnn looked at me,

and we both agreed that we should
open this up for all of Marvel.

It was her idea to call it Marvel Legends.

[Vonner] It was uncharted territory,
a whole line of characters

that look like they've fallen
right out the comic book.

Bringing the characters to life,
you just immersed yourself

in what the action figure was supposed
to do and how the character would do it.

These are some original control drawings.

What this basically does
is give the sculptor an idea

of what the action figure looks like.

A control drawing starts with you go
to The Marvel Universe Handbook,

and you look up a particular character

that you've been asked to do
the technical drawing on.

The Marvel Universe is, sort of,
the bible for every character.

The amount of backstory and detail
is just awe-inspiring.

This is Iron Man,

and Iron Man's suits come
with really specific qualities

depending on what he's doing with them.

Each character has
this really significant look

that you really have to honor
in the control drawings.

You start to very roughly draw.

And there's a really specific silhouette
within Marvel,

a certain proportion across the shoulders
and a certain stance on the legs.

And you always,
always exaggerate the muscles. Big time.

That's, sort of, one of those huge things.

I mean, you do not have small biceps
on a Marvel action figure.

Once I get through doing all of this,

then I go to my side view,
and I line everything up.

I try and keep it straight.

I'm gonna line up
the detail of the helmet.

And after I do this really rough,

then I would just go ahead
and do this final,

very clean ink,
with permanent fine marker.

As you can see,

all of these particular details
have to match on the same plane.

So, everything is exactly the same
all the way across.

So that you end up with, basically,
a three-dimensional view that's done flat.

[Vonner] We started to see certain comics,

and I would say, "That looks exactly like
our action figure right there."

The toys started to influence the comics,
and once that started to happen,

it's like now
we kinda pumping on all cylinders.

[McLaughlin] Toy Biz passed the torch
to Hasbro in 2007.

Many of the things
that we invented at Toy Biz,

they have taken those products
and really treated them with great respect

and really have taken them to new heights.

[Stall] I've been at Hasbro for 18 years.

Started here straight out of college,
and I've been here ever since.

-Morning.
-Morning, Dwight.

Growing up, reading comics
definitely helped spark the interest

that I am able to tap into today.

I had some rough years
from my seventh and eighth grade.

That's when I really started
to draw a lot,

and I remember my best friend
and I went to the store,

and we saw X-Men comics.
And it blew my mind.

It was just about the X-Men
coming together to try to fight something

that was way bigger and more powerful
than they were alone

and the sacrifices they had to make
to overcome it.

The poison shot through my veins,
and it's just-- I couldn't let it go.

There's a lot of like-minded weirdos here
at Hasbro and that makes it fun.

[Ting] I joke that I had given
thousands of dollars

to Hasbro of my own money
before I started working here,

because I've always really had a passion
for the collector's side of the business.

Got my start with Marvel trading cards.

This was my bread and butter,
and it still is to this day.

I have a collection of sealed boxes
at home, in case of a rainy day.

I may need some more.

My wife deals with a lot of boxes,
and she would say,

"Do you realize,
every night when you brush your teeth,

you wander into that room
and you just look around for a few minutes

and then you come out?"

I said, "Yeah, I never thought about it,
but yeah, I guess I do."

These pictures
were from my third grade expo.

"The X-po's X-Men X-hibit,"

with each word starting with the letter X.

Being around it just makes me happy.

Now I am working on the Marvel Legends.

I work on photography for the packaging.

I'm designing stuff
that I want in my collection too.

[director]

[clicks tongue, inhales]

Why don't we lower his right arm
a little bit and have his left arm higher?

Do you think we could tilt his head
slightly so he's looking at his hand?

On Thing, could we raise his right hand?

Is this piece flexible?

It's never just good enough. It's like,
"Well what if I-- What if we did this?"

I wanna keep pushing myself
to try to incrementally make things

better and better until finally,
you have to call it.

One of Toy Biz's biggest legacy points
is the creating of Marvel Legends.

When Hasbro started making Marvel Legends,

initially we stumbled a little bit
out of the blocks.

Well, we hadn't done a six inch,
super realistic line.

We tried to just do what Toy Biz did
but with some differences,

and that wasn't working.

In 2012, we decided we wanted
to relaunch in a big way.

We built a whole bunch
of new bodies, new sculpts,

to start from scratch
and give a new era to it.

[Ting] Improved and more lifelike deco
on the faces.

The greater "posability,"
the greater play you can have.

Launching new things like vehicles
for the first time in the six inch scale.

Ghost Rider and his motorcycle
or Professor X and his hover chair.

We know that the fans
love that kind of stuff.

[Wu] Sometimes a good idea
will just come out of thin air.

When that happens, you have
to drop everything that you're doing,

get your toy, get your gear out,
and just make that happen.

This is a hover chair.

It definitely needs to be up on wires
to give it the effect of floating.

These figures,
they are mutants from the X-Men.

Professor X, he's got telepathy.

He can affect people's thoughts and how
they act by getting into their heads.

Dazzler can convert sound waves.

I was really drawn to her
because of the roller skates.

Storm is a really rad character.
She can control the weather.

And Psylocke,
one of her powers is telekinesis,

so she can create weapons
from psychic energy.

I will use a remote shutter release
so that I can take the pictures

and also do some effects at the same time.

I want it to be a little misty,
so I'm gonna use this spray.

It's Atmosphere Aerosol.
It's basically fog in a can.

[rapid clicking]

I'm actually gonna have
two effects going on here.

One is gonna be the dirt
that's gonna be kicked up

in his turbulence from the hover chair.

If we can have the story
plus some kind of practical effects,

the dirt and debris being kicked up
by his hover chair,

the fog that we created with
the Atmosphere Aerosol in the background,

it's just really gonna make the person
become engaged with the image.

Right now I'm erasing
the compressed air can,

as well as a bit of my hand,
and that red straw.

A good toy photograph, in my opinion,

means the technical aspect
of the photography has to be spot on,

which means, exposure, color,
all of those things.

The composition has to be amazing,

and some type of effects,
whether that's digital or practical.

I try to get all of those things together

because I think it's gonna make
a much more dynamic and engaging image.

[Falcon] There are several different
communities where people build sets,

pose the action figures out,
put special effects into them.

It's so exciting to see people
engaging with a product

that you've worked on to that level

and challenging and expanding
who those characters can be.

Companies like Funko have leaned
into that in a big way,

and it's worked incredibly well.

Funko's approach to making toys
has a lot more to do with pop culture

than actual mechanics
in the way that Hasbro does.

They like to play in the more whimsical
nature of who our characters are.

They really love to pivot
inside of a character.

You know, if there's a way
to bring the character to life

in a new and unexpected way,
that's their forte.

[Wilkinson]
I've been here since the beginning,

since the original owner
had started it up in his garage.

He made a quick handshake deal
with the owner of Big Boy Restaurants

and made a Big Boy bobblehead.

And that's sort of what launched it all.

Working with Marvel started very simply,
and it was a dream for me because,

from the moment I could turn a page,
I was reading Marvel comics.

Hulk and Spider-Man were my favorite,

and because I was an artist,
it was all about my favorite illustrators,

whether it was Jack Kirby
or Stephen Ditko.

So it kept me just poring
through these pages

and looking for the details
and skill level.

I suppose facing these icons of my youth
could be a little intimidating.

You know? A little bit of,
"Oh, boy. I gotta do these justice."

But it was a blast.

I've created all the first series
of bobbleheads.

Some of those, sort of,
retro, classic characters.

Not too big of poses.

They were just very old-school bobbleheads
hugged together with, you know, big head.

And it was a huge hit,
and we haven't looked back.

We've been creating hundreds
of Marvel characters a year ever since.

Once you get past creating every Thor
and Spider-Man five or six times,

you know, you kind of want to reimagine
what we do with Marvel.

We had the success with our plush line.

They were just, sort of,
cute little button eyes and tiny nose,

and my challenge was to take that
plush line and put it into a vinyl line.

[man 6] The 50-50 body to head ratio,
the big eyes,

the cartoony quality,
that appealing, simplified form.

[Wilkinson] No mouth, eyes low, far apart.

I always call it the science of cute.

-I got some stuff to show you...
-All right!

...if you don't mind.

[Wilkinson] Man, we got classic Thor!

I might just barely go a little bigger
with the feet.

-[Luu] Okay. Yeah.
-And--

[Luu] Kinda small right now actually.

[Wilkinson]
Yeah, and then zoom in on the torso.

Perfect.

And maybe I'd just pull back a little bit
on the muscular of the rib cage.

Just pull that back a little bit.

Yeah, just soften it up so we stay in
the Pop world and not quite as detailed.

And I'd probably punch up
both the hands, size-wise.

Get that fist a little bigger
just to kind of get that Pop feel to it.

-That feels right.
-Yeah.

-Around that size, and this one as well.
-Yeah.

Yeah, nice work on that hair.

The Venomized series--

There's multiple comic story lines
in the Marvel Universe

that everybody seems
to have been venomized at some point.

[Butcher]
We talk about not just making it look like

you just threw Venom
on top of a character.

Like, how do we keep the true essence
of the character and still be venomized?

You know, what makes Groot,
when he's taken over by Venom, different?

I wanted Groot to have a feeling of--
It's, like, engulfing him.

So, what I'll do is I'll make it feel--
Along these edges.

Give it, like, a little raised feel to it.

Making a little plant parasite on him.

[chuckles]

We work on characters
that each character is different.

Each one has a different personality,
and I can do this for hours

without even noticing
that the time flies by.

We are very driven by what the fans want,

what they're into,
what they're passionate about.

There's fan boards and our
Funko Fan Fests, and that's never changed.

I've worked on thousands of Pops,

and I still get those toy tingles
when I see a new Pop come in.

To watch an idea turn into a toy in
a matter of months is amazingly rewarding.

Each toy company, Funko, Hasbro,
they all have different ways in, um,

with every brand that they work on.

Funko is, without a doubt,
one of the greatest novelty companies

that's ever come along
in the toy industry.

Hasbro, they take the Marvel brand
incredibly seriously.

And, when you're around the product
and around the development cycle,

it makes me feel young.

It makes me feel like I am that same kid

that wanted X-Men toys
when there were none.

And how do we take what we're doing today
and make it the best possible thing?

[Stall] What you see all around you
is our working archive.

We try to look at this wall
and see what we've made in the past,

and what can we use
that we can turn into a whole new figure

by just adding a few new pieces.
So it's really fun.

We pull things down,
see if they fit, if they would work,

and we mix and match,
playing a three-dimensional puzzle game

with all these action figures
to build new ones.

Today we're working on Cyborg Spider-Man.

He's about as '90s as they get.

Marvel Publishing has done a lot
of crazy stuff over the years,

and some of the '90s stuff
is some of the most awesome.

In the comics, he gets beat up,
and they get him all patched up,

and he's superfied with
a cybernetic cast to help his arm heal

and a cybernetic eye for the final fight.

We find all these awesome images
of different versions of him

from the comics that he appeared in.

Once we have the art,
once we've selected a style,

then the design team takes over,

and that's when we draw out
what the figure looks like,

and we turn that over to sculpting.

Our sculptors take our 2D illustrations,
and they turn them into 3D,

and then we can start
adjusting this thing.

If you look at it, compared to the
reference, his eyes are a little bit high.

Spider-Man's got really big eyes,

and these are sitting a little bit
too high up in his head,

so we have to fix that.

We can start fixing the shape,
the overall size.

We can start pulling it down
to where you want it.

It's all subtle things,
but you have to remember,

at the end of the day,
these heads are only the size

of about a US penny.
So it's the little things that matter.

And then I usually just
wanna get the colors roughed out.

That shows where I want the colors to go.

So you can just bulk in the forms.

This is kinda fun. It's like Bob Ross
with your happy little paintbrush.

Spider-Man, looking
at the reference over there,

he's still primarily red and blue
with some cool techy stuff.

Once we get these complete,
we'll work with our model department,

and that's where you meet Laura.

[DeLorenzo-Jones]
When Dwight passes the baton to me,

now it's my turn to come up
with an awesome paint scheme.

Finding ways to use paint to accentuate
what's already there in the sculpt

is what I aim to do.

I like the idea that my job is bringing
these characters into the reader's worlds,

so they can have a little piece of them.

I do always like diving in
and doing super detailed stuff.

Then I just get in the zone,

and that's when I feel
my best as a person, honestly.

When I first started,
I couldn't even drink coffee,

or at least I didn't think I could,

because I was so nervous
that my hand would shake too much.

But, over the years, I am back to,
you know, two cups a day. [chuckles]

It's always awesome, when I finish,
to go back to Dwight.

-Hey, how's it going?
-Good. What we got today?

Cyborg Spider-Man.

♪ Cyborg Spider-Man ♪

This looks fantastic.

Did we stay with classic colors,
or did we update the blue?

-Um, I stayed pretty classic.
-Cool.

-Yeah.
-I think it works.

-Awesome.
-How long till you have it all wrapped up?

End of day, I'll be done.

-Excellent. Cool.
-Cool.

These little plastic figures,
they've transcended toy.

They're more than that.

And working on something that
reaches across and touches so many people

in so many different ways
and at so many different levels,

that's powerful stuff, man.

[Wu]
Today, I'm going to the New York Toy Fair.

The New York Toy Fair is the largest
toy trade show in North America.

So you have many, many toy companies
that are exhibiting there.

You also have many, many store buyers
that go there to buy the latest toys.

And going to Toy Fair
is a big deal for me.

To be brought in and to be the inaugural
photographer, that means a lot to me.

They'd never had any kind of installation
or exhibition at any of their shows.

That's gonna be fun. I'm excited.

It's a big spread.

[director]

No. I just thought he was just playing
with a toy [laughs] in our backyard.

[Wu] I always had wanted to come
to New York Toy Fair.

It's just kind of mind-blowing
that I'm gonna be cutting the ribbon

because the ribbon cutting
is the official beginning of Toy Fair.

So to be able to kick it off,
it means something pretty important to me.

[McLaughlin] Toy Fair happens every year,

and it's where all of the toy-makers
show off their new products.

It's the time of year where
we're so excited to go see

all the great new toys coming out.

You can feel the electricity.
You can feel the excitement.

[Vonner] That's what you want.

You wanted that, "What's next?"
"What's coming next?" That magic trick.

You know, "How did they do that?"
And, "Who are they coming with?"

And, "I can't believe they did that guy."

[Stall] Toy Fair is awesome.

We get to go to New York once a year,

and all of the big fan media
comes into the Hasbro showroom,

and we get to put on a big presentation

and show them everything
that we're doing for the upcoming year.

[Falcon] Every year you've gotta turn
what you're developing over

and make an entirely new line, find
another reason for people to get excited,

and it is one of the
most satisfying things in the world.

Anytime there is a new reveal,
everyone wants to be the first to see it,

and sharing that excitement
and sharing that fandom,

it's never a dull moment.

And it's so fulfilling to bring
these characters to life

and actually see it on a shelf.

[Rachel] Give me a little smile.

Awesome. Okay.

[Wu]
My exhibition includes about 70 images.

-Showing the Hulk in a lighter moment.
-[laughs]

[Rachel] Oh, the image is nice.

I mean, he's still grimacing but,
you know, he's feeling peaceful inside.

-Here we have Thor.
-[Rachel] Yeah. This is fun.

[Wu] Before Thor's hammer,
there was his awkward handsaw period.

[both laughing]

I found toy photography so late in life.

I have so much creative energy right now
that I wanna really just, kind of,

ride this and see where it goes.

[male executive] Who's ready for Toy Fair?

Come on!

This is the 117th annual
New York Toy Fair.

And we are really blessed today.

If you look up behind you
and you see Mitchel Wu Gallery,

that is some of the most amazing toy
photography that you're ever gonna see.

This is Mitchel Wu,

and you need to check out
that amazing gallery of photography.

-Three. Two. One.
-[spectators] Three. Two. One.

Happy Toy Fair, everyone!

[whooping, cheering]

[Wilkinson]
Toy Fair is very important to Funko.

Many of our lines, including Pops,
were launched at Toy Fairs.

It's hard to explain that, sort of,
joy of having something you like so much,

like venomized Marvel characters,

getting to own it
and guide it and steer it

and create a new vision
of amazing characters.

[Stall] The stakes are very high.

Our team is always chomping at the bit
to elevate our game

and do something bigger and better
than we did the year before.

Getting the chance to be here,
creating these for that next generation,

we're giving them the fuel
to create those stories

and create their own nostalgic memories
at some point in time,

and to be part of that loop
is really powerful.

[Vonner] Back in the day, we just had
no clue where things would end up now.

And that's what's so exciting.

Like, to see so many fans
that actually bought into your vision,

that actually dug
what was lurking in your mind.

To be a spoke in that huge, huge wheel,
that's a honor in and of itself.

Jesse, that one looks great.

Yeah, both of these came out great.

[McLaughlin] To be in charge of making
toys of any kind is a huge responsibility

but also so incredibly rewarding.

You don't realize the effect
you've had on, you know, people's lives.

If all the jobs, the toy fairs,
were to go away tomorrow,

and if there was no place to share them,

I'd still be taking photos of toys.

Really, it comes down to just doing
what makes you happy,

and, right now, creating images
with toys makes me happy.

[Falcon] I think all toy collectors
are kids at heart,

and some of the appeal is recapturing
components of their childhood.

I think that play is one of the most
important things that we can do as beings.

You know, play structures lessons,

from a standpoint of when we were a kid
to when we're adults.

We're goofing around or joking.

We're building scenarios
that can help and teach us to grow.

The comics are inspiring,

and they tell them who the characters are
and what they do,

and from that point on, when the kids
are playing with the physical toys,

they're really making
their own stories up.

[Jasperson]
I think that when you play with toys,

you imagine yourself as the character.

And I think that play fosters imagination.

It changes the way
that you look at things.

When you look at some superhero
doing something that you,

in your real life, could never do,

it makes your brain
go in different places.

[Stall] I think my childhood self seeing
me doing this now would be blown away

that this is actually an option
for a grown-up person.

I think he'd be incredibly jealous
of my children,

because they get to play
with so many of these action figures.

I bring them home,
and I leave them on the table,

and they'd make their own stories,

and you could just sit back
and watch them a little bit

playing with action figures
that you created

and see exactly that kind of storytelling
going on in their minds.

They weren't following any script.

They were mixing and matching
and combining things

and just having fun and being creative
and using their imagination.

These little plastic figures,
they got a lot of power behind 'em.