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The 2012 Poppies - the Judges!
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It's our
sixth year already, and this time around we have judges from 5
different categories - Companies, Websites, Collectors,
Retailers, and
Artists. The final list includes a total of 139
people. They
come from all aspects of the industry - large companies to
small,
general websites to niche, online to print, contract artists to
customizers, and fans of just about every major license. I'm
also happy to say that there's a global influence, with judges from
North America, Asia, Australia and Europe.
And so
without further ado, here's the folks that will be selecting the
winners of the 2012 Poppies:
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Companies:
In this
category of judges, the companies are represented by 39 different
judges. The companies represented range from one guy
operations to multi-billion dollar organizations, from mass market to
specialty market, with headquarters around the world.
- Georg Brewer:
After spending 15 years as an award-winning creative leader at DC
Comics, where he spearheaded the creative growth of Design, DC Direct
and the Collected Editions groups, Georg formed The Brewing Factory in
2011. A full service consulting agency, TBF was involved in
everything from product development, franchise and business planning,
to product design. He joined the international toy company Dracco Co
Ltd. (based on Hong Kong) as their Director – Creative, Content &
Brand Management at the beginning of 2012. Georg now leads teams all
over the world in the development of new franchise properties, toys,
animation, web / mobile gaming… you name it! Many of the newest works
are rolling out across Europe now, and you can look for launches in
mass retailers all over North America in 2013.
- Joshua Izzo
has been playing in the toy, licensed brand and entertainment
industries for over a decade. Joshua has had the pleasure of
hanging his proverbial hat in the hallowed halls of such industry
giants as Topps Trading Cards, 4Kids Entertainment, Hasbro,
Capcom. During his career Joshua has manufactured trading cards
and magazines, sold and bought some of the biggest brand licenses in
the world and helped create over 150 kids cartoons. Joshua
is currently the Director of Licensing for 20th Century Fox and is
responsible for Global Publishing Licensing. Joshua has also been
going to the local comic book store every week for close to 25 years,
and has an ever-expanding toy collection that threatens almost every
inch of his home. Joshua's wife is extremely patient and
forgiving about his mania....
- Scott Tipton
serves as design consultant and copywriter for Toynami,
where he's worked on product lines like ROBOTECH, VOLTRON, THE
HERCULOIDS, THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN, and FUTURAMA, as well at the
company's CINEMAQUETTE line. Scott also writes a variety of comics for IDW Publishing,
including such series as STAR TREK: THE BURDEN OF KNOWLEDGE, ILLYRIA:
HAUNTED, KHAN: RULING IN HELL, and the upcoming STAR TREK:
INFESTATION. His book, COMIC BOOKS 101: THE HISTORY, METHODS
AND
MADNESS, was published by Impact Books and is currently in bookstores.
He has a startlingly large toy collection, but in this crowd it's
probably about average.
- Scott Neitlich is
a Marketing Manager for several of Mattel's most prominent collector
lines including DC Universe, Master of the Universe, Ghostbusters,
Mattycollector.com and the upcoming Green Lantern film. A lifelong toy
fan himself, Scott began his career in advertising but quickly followed
his heart to the toy business to help start up MattyCollector.com
and heading up Mattel's convention and fan relations presence.
- Jim Wampler is the
Sales Director for Quantum
Mechanix,
Inc. and has been with them since their start-up. Jim has been a
toy collector and fan for longer than he wants to remember and has 20 +
years experience working in the toy, hobby, and collectibles
industries.
- Howard Chan - the
Founder and CEO of Hot Toys
Limited, is a Hong Kong based entrepreneur and a creative
director
for Hot Toys Ltd. Howard has been an enthusiast of collectible figures
since his childhood and turned his passion into a successful career. He
initially started his business by producing 1/6th scale military action
figures. In view of the popularity of the military action figure series
at that time, Howard attained a great success and further expanded his
product scope by specializing in 1/6th scale popular movie character
and world-renowned celebrity collectibles.
- Ken Lilly
is currently a freelance illustrator, writer, product photographer,
graphic designer and product designer under the company name Creatus
Maximus. He was formerly the Director of Product Development for The
MVP Collection, a company created in 2009 producing NFL Mini Busts,
Statues and other sports merchandise, and was also the VP/Director of
Product Development for Palisades Toys, where Ken was the creative
force behind many product lines including Invader Zim, Resident Evil
and the very popular figures and playsets based on Jim Henson's The
Muppet Show. Prior to that he was one of the Product Managers for the
long defunct toy company ReSaurus, working on classic toy lines like
Duke Nukem, Quake, Crash Bandicoot, Sonic the Hedgehog, and the
much-anticipated but sadly canceled Badlands and Magic the Gathering
action figures and playsets.
Currently the main focus of his life is writing about his family on the
blog called Blogzilly,
where he chronicles the condition of his youngest son, who has suffered
through a period of catastrophic epilepsy called Infantile Spasms,
brought on by a very rare Grade II Oligoastrocytoma Brain Tumor and
subsequent Temporal Lobectomy, as well as a diagnosis of PDD-NOS, a
developmental delay placing him on the Autism Spectrum. While Blogzilly
sometimes strays into discussions about movies, TV, toys/collectibles,
video games and other such wackiness (which are, essentially, coping
mechanisms as much as anything else) much of Kenneth's blog is about
his family and their difficult journey through the world of Special
Needs. The changes and fears, the victories and defeats, the dreams,
the lessons, the stumbles and most importantly, the hopes. Full
emotional disclosure. Warts and all.
- Zach Oat
is Marketing Supervisor at Diamond Select Toys, and before that he was
the editor of ToyFare magazine for a bunch of years. He is also the
co-author of Pop
Sculpture: How to Create Your Own Action Figures and Collectible Statues,
a book about sculpting techniques he wrote with pros Tim Bruckner and
Ruben Procopio. He loves Minimates, Megos and C.O.P.S., and in his
spare time he likes to draw. You can check out some of his artwork on
the LAW
Blog. - Ashly Powell is Director of Product Development at Gentle Giant Studios.
She is fortunate to wear many hats and work with all the talented
creative groups at the studio. She works on concepts and designs with
the 2D art department, the talented digital and traditional sculptors,
amazing painters, and their manufacturers in China. When she
isn't figuring out the line plan for Gentle Giant collectibles, you can
find her working on specialty manufacturing projects for clients of
Gentle Giant Studios. Before landing on the west coast she worked
for DC Direct/DC Comics making Batman and Superman action figures and
polystone products, and before that, she found her real love and
passion of urban vinyl while working for Kidrobot in New York
City.
- The Phrenologist: This
anonymous judge has worked in some area of the toy industry for over a
decade. He oversaw all action figures for what was once the
largest toy specialty retailer in the US and Mexico. He has
handled contests, press releases and public relations for several toy
companies. As a writer his work has appeared in Fangoria,
Baby
Boomer, Omni, Psychology Today, Playboy, ASB Magazine, Time Out New
York, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, and numerous other
publications. He is the author of two books currently
available
on Amazon (and at a bookstore near you!) has just finished a book on
the artwork of imprisoned artist Michael Lee Ford, and is working on a
new book about Halloween in New York City. He believes that
the
MAC Rescue Center (aka MAC Mountain) is one of the greatest toys that
ever was, and misses old fashioned toy commercials of the 70's.
- Damien Glonek is
product manager at Mezco
Toyz
and co-creator of Living Dead Dolls. He is a horror movie
junkie
and collects everything dealing with horror, please find him a bigger
house to hold his collection.
- Mike
is the owner of Peril
Unlimited, a toy maker,
horror movie, and comic book fan, and works for the local fire
department.
- After spending nine of the last ten years shepherding the SportsPicks and Playmakers lines for McFarlane Toys, Mark Weber jumped at the chance of a lifetime and joined Hasbro as a Manager of Global Brand Development for the Transformers franchise. When he's not busy turning cars into robots and robots into cars, he's always trying to learn what's coming up next for G.I. Joe.
- Terry
Scott is a senior vice president at Hasbro. His
responsibilities include management of global creative services, which
includes the packaging team, and creative director for Cake Mix Studios
which is Hasbro's internal IP creative engine and video production
team. Terry's team is responsible for all packaging graphic design for
both boys and girls toy lines including; Star Wars, Transformers, GI
Joe, Spider-man and other Marvel lines, My Little Pony, Littlest Pet
Shop, Nerf, Playskool, Easy Bake Oven and many more Hasbro core brands.
He's a lifelong action figure collector of Transformers, Thundercats
and the Thunderbirds.
- Randy
Falk is the Director of Product Development for NECA.
He manages the development and production for all of NECA's action
figures. He is also an obsessive completist when it comes to his toy
collection especially 3 3/4" Star Wars and the classic MEGO
Super-Heroes.
- Brant
Bridges is the Operations Manager at Sideshow Collectibles, providing
support to the creative services and production management teams, and
assisting with the product marketing and forecasting. He's a sucker for
all things Lego and Star Wars, but has a weakness for great sculpts
from any property.
- Jason Lenzi is the
founder and CEO of Bif
Bang Pow!
Toys. Jason lives and works in Los Angeles, as a freelance
writer/producer for television, and as a voice over artist for
television and radio. He's currently in the midst of writing and
producing on his fourth season of ABC's 'WIPEOUT'. He
started Bif Bang Pow! over five years ago, and in that time has
released action figures and bobble heads for 'The Big Lebowski', the
1980 movie version of 'Flash Gordon' (with figures art directed by
Alex Ross), Showtime Networks' hit series 'Dexter' and
'Californication' , CBS' 'The
Twilight Zone', CBS Films' 'Beastly', CBS' 'Star Trek', BBC 'Doctor Who', HBO's 'Eastbound and Down' and
Cartoon Network's 'The Venture Brothers', ABC's 'LOST', and Scott Ian
of
Anthrax. He is a Leo, loves toys, movies, mod culture and The Beatles.
This is his fourth year voting on the Poppies, and he hopes
to win in every category. Even the ones Bif Bang Pow! doesn't qualify
for.
- Dan Lujan is Kotobukiya's Director
of Media Operations within North America. No stranger to the hobby, Dan is an
avid collector of toys and statues.
- Adam Van Wickler
grew up during the heyday of action figures. Star Wars, GI Joe, He-man,
Thundercats, Transformers, Super Powers, Secret Wars, Mego.
You
name the line and Adam had at least a few figures from it. His mother
still likes to tell people that Adam was potty trained with the promise
of a new Star Wars action figure each time he went like a big boy. To
this day he still expects a new action figure each time he goes like a
big boy.
Adam has been involved professionally in the toy
industry since 2001 and is lucky enough to have worked on many of the
toy lines that he grew up playing with.
Adam is gainfully
employed by Gentle Giant Studios. Working as a Senior Account Manager in
their External Prototyping division, he works with various clients
throughout the prototyping process. Overseeing concept artwork,
sculpting, molding/casting, painting, and working directly with
licensors to gain approvals are among his day to day tasks.
Be sure to check out www.gentlegiantstudios.com
and Adam's personal site www.playing-with-myself.com
for more!
- Bob Fulkerson:
his journey into the toy/collectibles industry began as young boy with
a Kenner Han Solo Blaster and has only gotten worse from there. He
started as a Collector then a Collectibles Dealer and now an Account
Rep/Janitor with Quantummechanix, Inc. Where will
it end
when they peel that Blaster from his cold dead hands.
- Antonio Barranco is
the founder, owner and president of GEEK TOYS,
a new collectible figure company which launched the "Seven
Deadly Sins" in January 2011. He has been an action figure collector
for over ten years. His private collection has around 1,000 figures,
most of which are 7 inch film characters. However, his favourite figure
is actually six years old, 40 inches tall and is called A.Barranco Jr.
(his son of course!).
- Frank Supiot is the
Director of Licensing for the acclaimed toy boutique and design firm SUPER7,
responsible for managing properties from film, comics, and music, as
well as overseeing many aspects of the toy production. Frank
is a
veteran of the toy industry with over thirteen years experience (some
of spent working in Japan) and is a lifelong collector.
- Joe Amaro has
been involved in the toy industry in some way or another for over 10
years, from making custom figures for ToyFare magazine, puppets for
Robot Chicken and sculpts for various TV shows and Feature Films. He's
also worked with most major toy companies and design studios like the
Four Horsemen Toy Studio and Rudy Obrero Illustrations, Inc.
- Jeff Trojan has
re-joined Playmates Toys Inc. as Vice President, Boys Brands.
In this position, Jeff will create integrated marketing
programs in support of a new line of action figures, playsets and
accessories based on Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
CG-animated TV series launching fall 2012 on Nickelodeon and NickToons.
Prior to re-joining Playmates Toys, Mr. Trojan was most recently Vice
President, Business Development at DC Comics where he was responsible
for the day-to-day management and marketplace expansion of DC Comics’
DC Direct business activities. Before joining DC Comics, Mr.
Trojan was Vice President of Marketing at Play Along where he led the
strategic direction for the LIMA award-winning Care Bears brand as well
as The Lord of the Rings, The Cat in the Hat, Teletubbies and Cabbage
Patch Kids. During his first tour with Playmates Toys, Trojan
served as Vice President of Boys’ Toys where he guided several
award-winning action figure lines, including Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles, Star Trek, Tomb Raider, Skelton Warrior, Exosquad and The
Simpsons. - Jesse DeStasio
- A 10 year toy & licensing industry veteran, Jesse DeStasio
founded his own company Eerie Theory Entertainment in 2009. ETE offers
consulting services in areas such as Social Media, Licensing, and Sales
& Retail Relations. Clients have included; Frederator Studios, Pop
Culture Shock Collectibles, Bandai Japan / Tamashii Nations, and more. - Andy Gore
is CEO of Quantum Mechanix Inc. (QMx) and head of product development.
As such, he's led the company's efforts in developing everything from
stickers and keychains to animatronic hero props and filming
miniatures. Licenses he's responsible for include Star Trek, Battlestar
Galactica, Doctor Who, Firefly/Serenity, Ghostbusters, Stargate.
Previous to joining QMx, Andy logged over 20 years as a technology
editor, including 4 years as VP/Editor-in-Chief of Macworld. He also
spent 8 years leading the internet strategy for a Fortune 100 science
research company, where he won several awards, including a Webby award
for design innovation. It seemed inevitable that someone who spent so
many years writing about and working on the future, sooner or later
would want to live in it full time.
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Other Company Judges include Shawn Knapp (DC Collectibles), Pat Linden (Playmates Toys), Jesse Falcon (Disney), Joseph
Reiter (Symbiote Studios), Charles Howell (Toy Factory), Joe Ahearn (Captain Action Enterprises), Jim Fletcher
(DC Collectibles), Rick Phares (Boom Limited), David Lee (Cast-A-Way Toys), Jeremy Atkins (Dark Horse), Jeff Brewer (Cool Rockets), and Alain Trembley
(Integrity Toys). There's alson one additional anonymous judge in this category.
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Media:
Where would
our hobby and the industry be without the many websites and magazines
out there that report the news, promote the collectibles, and provide
the social networks for our geek selves. The judges in this
category represent websites and print publications that cover every
aspect of the industry, from niche licenses and products to general
themes and news. There are 46 judges from a wide variety of
outlets, some
of which I'm sure you'll recognize.
- D. Martin Myatt is the lead Event/Photo Archive photographer and editor for Cool Toy Review and Rebelscum.
He's been contributing to the Star Wars community through numerous
media outlets since 1996 and found his online home with the Rebelscum
team in 2000. In 2007 he created Cool Toy Review to compliment
Rebelscum's Star Wars focus by covering everything but. With years of
constant additions, CTR and RS's combined Action Figure &
Collectibles Photo Archive is the largest in the world. - Jason "Poe Ghostal" Clarke is the writer and editor of Poe Ghostal's Points of Articulation.
In addition to running his own site since 2007, he has written for
ToyFare magazine and websites such as Topless Robot, IGN and OAFE.net.
His greatest toy loves include Masters of the Universe, Godzilla,
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Batman. Poe lives in haunted New
England with his wife and their dog, Alfie (a.k.a. Alfred Pennyworth
Clarke)
- Brian Slivka
has been covering the designer toy industry for 5 years. It
started with a few Happy Meal toys and a dream. But that just
lead to eating thousands of unnecessary calories and waking up from the
dream 30 pounds heavier. Plastic and Plush
started up over 3 years ago, and it continues to deliver daily news and
reviews from the designer toy and limited edition toy worlds.
- Nerdlocker
was originally a blog for one guy to talk about all the nerdy things he
loved. In 2010 the site made a huge change and started producing a
weekly webisode to further explore all things nerdy. Since then the
brand has gone international and nerds everywhere check Nerdlocker.com
for news on toys, comic books, movies, video games, gadgets, etc. It
truly is a place for your inner nerd. And of course everyone involved
in Nerdlocker is a nerdy kid at heart so we are honored to be asked to
give our opinions on the best toys. - Mark Picirilli is
the admin and webmaster of several large collecting websites,
including Yodasnews.com,
GentleGiantCollectors.com,
HaloCollectors.com,
CollectAvatar.com,
12inchcollector.com
and
many more.
He has been involved in the collecting online community for over 13
years and is also the Philadelphia Action Figures and Sci-Fi
Entertainment Examiner for Examiner.com.
- Jason "Slick McFavorite" Spiller
is owner of Slick McFavorite Toys, LLC and along with his amazing wife,
hosts the action figure podcast, Open Your Toys Cast.
OYTC is the official podcast of OpenYourToys.com, the site dedicated to
the four greatest action figure franchises of the 80's and all time:
Star Wars, Transformers, G.I. Joe and Masters of the Universe. Aside
from his ridiculous 10,000+ piece collection and the standard set of
geeky interests (gaming, comics, movies and tech), Slick enjoys all
things Colorado. Seasonally he camps, dirt bikes and snowboards, while
year round he plays basketball and practices Tae Kwon Do.
- Adam
Pawlus Adam Pawlus has been
writing about toys online since 1995. A former contributor to
ToyFare Magazine, several web sites, and other publications, his
currently best known for his daily "Figure of the Day" and weekly
"Q&A" columns at Galactic
Hunter. He maintains a general toy news blog and a
second "Figure of the Day" feature at 16bit.com,
and his day job is the merchandiser/Toy Evangelist for Entertainment
Earth.
- Erin Snyder
started collecting toys about a decade ago, when he realized action
figures wouldn’t stop following him home from Toys R Us. He has a
number of blogs and websites, including Toy Remix and
The Clearance Bin,
both of which are dedicated to toy collecting, customizing, and
display. He’s also written several novels and short story collections,
including a dark fantasy about the greatest toymaker of all, Santa Claus.
- Jess
C. Horsley, like Luke Skywalker, grew up on a farm and dreamt
of escaping his small-town life to travel other worlds. After enlisting
in the USMC as an infantryman, he realized this dream. A decorated
combat veteran, Horsley continues to escape the monotony of a routine
life as the managing editor of Figures.com,
where he's free to play with toys and actually gets paid to do so.
- Daniel
"Julius Marx" Pickett is the co-creator/co-owner of Action Figure
Insider, a toy news site with a focus on the creators and
process of making pop culture collectibles. He has been
writing about toys for just under 10 years and has been collecting his
whole life. He also consults with many companies on projects,
hosts panel discussions at conventions, and answers questions from
readers all over the world. Action Figure
Insider has recently been featured on Wired.com, G4's "Attack
of the Show", and USA Today's "Pop Candy" blog.
- Jeremy
Wilcox (aka blueduck37) is the administrator for the Simpsons Collector
Sector web community, the largest Simpsons collecting website
on the net. His collection was recently featured in Time Out
New York magazine, making his mother very proud.
- Raised on
diet of Marvel comics and Micronaut toys, Iok is the webmaster
at That
Figures,
a toy blog covering everything from vinyl art toys to collectible
mini-figures, cult TV and genre movies. His favorite toy lines include
GI Joe, Henshin Cyborg, Microman and Marvel Universe.
- Matt MacNabb is
the Owner/Editor of the *Legion Fan Network*, which
includes Legions
of Gotham, Toy
Legion, Ghostbusters
Collector, Pixar
Collector and DVD
Legion.
A driving force in the collecting community for over six years, Legions
of Gotham has taken leaps and bounds to break down the barriers between
the industry and the collectors. Their coverage focuses on Batman
collecting and animation. Matt is a lifelong Batman fan and toy
collector, with well over 5,000 pieces in his personal collection.
- Jack Muramatsu -
Founder and editor of Vinyl
Pulse,
the premiere news site providing coverage of designer vinyl
toys.
After opening countless toys over the past four years, he's got a
strange gleam in his eye -- one too many sniffs of vinyl fumes. He's
living the dream of blogging full-time about toys and loving every
minute of it from sunny Pasadena, California.
- Ron Mirasol became
a life-long fan of toys when he got a G.I. Joe with the Kung Fu Grip as
a birthday present decades ago - thanks Mom! Today, he is the publisher
of ActionFigurePics.com
and the Fwoosh Network, which includes TheFwoosh.com, TheShortBox.com,
and TheCoinSlot.com.
He still gets upset when an action figure can't hold its accessories
properly, and is completely devastated when their fingers break off.
- Chris
Holoka, a Poppies Judge from the very beginning, is the
designer of Star Wars sites as Rebelscum.com,
TheForce.net,
and ToshiStation.com.
- Jeff
Saylor - Editor of www.Figures.com.
Artist, writer and admitted toy addict, his passion for pop culture
collectibles dates back to a Micronaut/Star Wars/Shogun Warrior laced
childhood. If not online, Jeff can be found playing video games,
painting or rearranging his extensive toy collection. Currently trying
to find more space for his growing army of robots and
Aliens...
- Pete Svab
is the Director of Marketing & Promotions for ACME Archives in
Burbank, CA. He is also the co-owner of GalacticBinder.com,
the largest Star Wars themed directory on the internet.
- Khalil Quotap aka
Kastor is a toy and comic collector who runs the website Kastor's
Korner
with Bill Sencio. On the website, Khalil mixes toy reviews
with
the joys and frustrations of collecting, along with convention
coverage, custom reviews, and comic related projects. Along with
monthly interviews with Hasbro and Mattel, Khalil also eagerly awaits
the return of the best cartoon property ever, Thundercats.
- David Yeh is
a product of the 80's, raised on true gems such as G.I. Joe,
Transformers, He-man, and yes, even M.U.S.C.L.E. David had
outgrown toys until the
1995 release of Star Wars lured him back for more. Since
then, he has gotten
hooked on dozens of other toy lines as well. David has
written for mwctoys.com, galactichunter.com,
Geek Monthly and currently writes toy reviews
for Figures.com and
Yojoe.com.
- Bradley "Crazyjaco" Jacobs
is a co-founder, admin, and contributor for Powet.TV,
a site dedicated to bringing high-quality web programming on pop
culture subjects to a new level. Crazy is probably best known for his
regular video series called PowetToys, a segment where he gets to show
off the latest and greatest toys he has encountered in an
information-rich format all his own. As an avid collector of many lines
(Transformers, Marvel Legends, Marvel Minimates, MOTU and the Four
Horsemen's Fantastic Exclusive project to name just a few), Crazy
decided he wanted to give back to a fandom that he had so actively been
a participant. Thus, the launch of Powet.TV and PowetToys, its first
regular feature.
- Eric Resnick is
a long time collector and has been writing about the
industry for many years. After working as a features writer and
collectible reviewer for Toy Shop Magazine their untimely demise, Eric
and a Cadre of collectors and pop culture fiends launched You Bent My Wookie,
a site that blends collectibles news and reviews with entertainment
news, exclusive interviews and the sexiest geeks on the net.
- Daniel Lynch, aka
NoisyDvL5, is the site editor for ItsAllTrue.Net.
He's a product of the 80s toy explosion and has collected toys for as
longas he can remember. It's been twenty-five years and he still finds
himself excited for the next DC Classic, Joe, MOTU figure, Marvel
figure, or Transformer. Up until recently, he's been content to peruse
various toy forums and interact with other fans. This year, he gathered
up a ring of fellow collectors and started ItsAllTrue.Net, a
toy blog that strives to inject some fun into the serious
world of toy collecting.
- Engineererd
(John V.) has been collecting Star Wars figures since the original 12
came out. To appear to his wife that he's doing something
with his varied collection, he posts reviews, action figure comics, and
other related items on his website, TV and Film Toys.
- Scott Anderson launched his website, Action Figure Blues, in 2006. He now co-hosts the weekly Action Figure Blues Podcast
and continues to review toys and statue from the worlds of comics and
pop culture at the AFB Website. Originally from Chicago in the USA,
Scott married an Australian lass and moved to Oz in 1991. Currently he
resides in Melbourne and enjoys being part of the local comics and
collecting community. His main collecting passions are currently
focused and statues and busts and other such expensive items, much to
his wife (and his wallet's) despair!
- Toy Break is hosted
and produced by the owners of October Toys, George & Ayleen Gaspar.
Toy Break is a weekly internet show featuring reviews and news about
toys including designer vinyl, plush, action figures, collectibles,
events, how-tos, interviews, and more! Both lifelong toy collectors,
George has been working in the toy industry since 1996 and Ayleen since
2004. Ayleen also works with Ben Goretsky to coordinate the annual toy,
art, and apparel show, Designer
Con in Pasadena, CA.
- Lemonjuice Mcgee
spends his days flip-flopping between drowning his sorrows and
reviewing action figures. Apparently, the two go hand-in-hand as LJ is
now the current toy reviewer/news-getter-guy for MTV Geek!
While dealing with a newly-acquired crippling addiction to Glyos
figures; he still does his pathetic best to also keep up his original
toy blog: Lemonjuice
McGee's Hobotastic Toy Reviews. Sadly, he may have to seek
professional help on the matter... if only society were kind enough to
care.
- Newton Gimmick
is a longtime toy fan who was baptized in a love of GI Joe, Ninja
Turtles, Pro-Wrestling and Godzilla toys as a youth. Now that he's "all
grown up", Newt enjoys reviewing toys, movies and general pop culture
goodness over at InfiniteHollywood.com.
Newton continues to build his plastic empire, one toy at a time and
hopes to continue to provide insight and analysis from a common man
perspective on the plethora of toys that inhabit toy aisles today or
have been forgotten into the labyrinth of time.
- Jason Devall has
been involved in the world on on-line toy reviews for 7 years. Starting
with the gang at figures.com,
he went on to co-create the hit weekly on-line toy show, That New Toy
Smell and PopCultureNetwork.com with co-creator and co-host "Pixel" Dan
Eardley. He is currently an Executive Producer for ToyWorldOrder.com
and is still cranking out all-new video toy reviews, including reviews
of the new Bandai Thundercats line for Thundercatslair.org!
- Adam Bernstein is a
self-proclaimed film, comic book, and pop culture aficionado whose
appreciation of the mediums led to his creating GeekRest.com,
a website devoted to the culture. His love affair with comics began
when, at age 11, he first started helping out at the 2nd largest comic
book store in Manhattan in the early 90s. Twenty years and 30+ comic
book boxes later, his love for the medium and the accompanying culture
remains as strong as ever. - Justin Gammon
has two defining passions: creating design work and searching out new
members for his ever-growing family of not-so-normal toys. He puts his
art smarts to the task to pay the bills, directing creative projects
for national-level clients with WorthWhile.
While off the clock, he mans the helm of WeirdoToys.com
- the home for odd, ugly and neglected toys. When he has a rare break
to daydream, Justin spends time plotting out his next move to combine
his two loves, art and toys, into an army of original weirdo creations. - Corey Tincher has
been an action figure collector since birth, trading pacifiers for
plastic and never looking back. He started his own action figure
website Articuled Discussion
in 2008, briefly ran the Past Generation Toys blog, and now serves a
double tour of duty as the Guide to Action Figures for About.com and
the Community Manager for Collector-ActionFigures. He can still
occasionally be seen chewing on an old mangled figure that's probably a
holy grail to someone. - Gavin "The Daytime Ninja" Gregory created thedaytimeninja.com
in April of 2012 as a product of the hobbies of toy collecting and
writing. While the site mainly focuses on reviews, it's evolved
into incorporating toy editorials, event coverage, and more.
Transformers being the catalyst for his collecting bug, he also
collects various toy lines including Bandai's Tamashii Nations, Play
Arts Kai, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and more! - Jesse "Dr Rampageo" Chagnon is the operator of DoomKick.com.
He has a deep love of Masters of the Universe, GI Joe, and Glyos toys.
When he isn't doing work for DoomKick (so about 15 mins a week) he
spends his time working on one of the many side projects that are
always bubbling over at the DoomKick dojo. He loves toys and feels the
best way to go about things is with a positive attitude and some great
pictures. - Brian Szabelski is editor-in-chief of Tomopop,
a toys and collectibles blog focusing on a little bit of everything. A
member of the Tomopop team since the site's inception in February 2008,
his collecting hobby began when he was younger as he piled up G.I.
Joes, Star Wars figures and a healthy number of Hot Wheels, then moved
on to video games before detouring back into the world of collectibles.
His collection has a little bit of everything, from designer toys to
PVC figures to larger-scale statues. He is currently wondering just
where that next figure is going to go on his already-crowded shelves ...
- James Chillcott is a digital entrepreneur, adventurer and massive toy nerd. As co-founder of ShelfLife,
he is on a mission to build the best online community and collecting
resource known to man or alien kind. As head of Toronto
based design/development studio Advoca, James heads one of the
first pro-human focused agencies in North America. He has visited all 7
continents, spent time on mars, and hoards extremely rare Transformers
from the children of the world.
- Other
Media Judges include Dan
Messer (Vault from It's
All True), Philip
Reed (Battle
Grip), Sohaib
Awan (from Fictional
Frontiers), James Perrett (Monsters and Monkey), Colin Doman (McFarlane Figures), Scarecroodle, and John "Emerje" Crocker (both from Tomopop), Arnie (Star Wars Action News), Justin Bell (General Joes), and John
Charles. There
is also one anonymous media judge.
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Artists:
You can't
produce amazing products without designers, fabricators, sculptors,
painters and other artisans. These judges come from that side
of the business. Many are freelancers, but some work for
specific companies. Others are well known and respected customizers,
who do commission work for individuals, magazines and others. There are
19 judges in this category: - Jerry Macaluso
is a toy designer/sculptor whose love affair with the industry began
(way back) as a child when he received his first Mego Micronauts
figure. That life changing event inspired him to pursue a career in the
arts, first with his special makeup effects company SOTA Effects, which
supplied props, makeups and effects for films such as Spawn, A.I., Gods
and Monsters, Toxic Avenger 2 and Darkman, as well as television shows
including Weird Science and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Seeing
his first Todd Toys, Spawn figures in the mid-90s reignited his love
for action figures and Jerry began contacting toy manufacturers to see
if they would like to use his special effects company for creating toy
prototypes. This quickly led to work with industry leaders like,
ReSaurus, Applause, Toy Biz, Palisades, Mattel and Diamond and the
forming of a new company, SOTA Sculpture and Design.
In 2001,
Macaluso made the jump from prototype studio to full fledged toy
manufacturer by acquiring the action figure rights to Street Fighter
and Tomb Raider. Both were a big success and led to the formation
of SOTA Toys which enjoyed years of success creating action figures and
statues from such popular licenses as World of Warcraft, Johnny Cash,
Legend, The Thing, Charmed, Micronauts and Marvel, among many
others. In 2006 Macaluso sold SOTA Toys to focus on his film
producing career, making the films 'Night Skies' and 'The Devils Tomb'.
In
2008, Macaluso formed his new toy and collectibles company, Pop Culture
Shock Toys. Currently, PCS is enjoying much success crafting high
end polystone statues and busts from licenses such as Street Fighter,
Mortal Kombat, Judge Dredd and Masters Of The Universe.
- Chris Lauria
is a toy designer and illustrator specializing in concept development
and product design. He has worked in the toy industry for
over 20
years, and formed his own design company, Chris Lauria Design, LLC. in
2001. He has worked with many of the leading toy
manufacturers
including Fisher Price, Hasbro, Spin Master, Playmates Toys, Jakks
Pacific, Wild Planet, Crayola, Toy Biz, Basic Fun and Tomy. Chris
continues to work on boys toys as well as girls toys in many of the
different toy categories.
In 1999 Chris
created the presentation art for Playmates Toys pitch to Fox that
helped land them the Simpsons toy license. From that point he designed
almost every playset for the very successful World of Springfield toy
line (approximately 40 sets total). He has also designed
numerous
collectibles for The Bradford Exchange including over a dozen Nightmare
Before Christmas Halloween Village pieces, and all of their Star Wars
Galactic Village sets. You can view samples of Chris' design
work
at his
website.
- Not satisfied with the limited options available at retail, Cason Pilliod
has been crafting his own toys since he was a child. His passion
for toys merges with his background as a theatrical prop designer,
allowing him to find unique customizing solutions, which he shares with
the ever-growing customizing community via Inanimate Objects, and its new sister site DC Animated Universe Comics.
- Jonathan
Matthews has been working for a decade sculpting
collectibles. He's done work for Palisades, Graphitti, Plan B Toys, and
other unmentionables.
He's currently on contract with DC Direct. To see some of his sculpts
check out his
website.
- Currently
a Project Designer on the Mattel WWE line, Derek Handy
has been maintaing the collector WWE lines and making occasional
appearances on WWE.com for past three years. Previously he was Senior
Manager of Product Development at Gentle Giant Studios, where he worked
for 8 years. There he gained a wide depth of knowledge working on
thousands of projects, including development and production of
everything from Pre-school toys to high end bronze. Fresh out of
college, Derek worked for LEGO on the now disavowed Galidor project.
Apparently it was more fun to work on than to play with.
- Joe
Dunaway has been a painter of resin model kits for over 15
years, and is also an avid toy collector. He loves his aliens
and monsters, but also enjoys any figure that's well
sculpted. Check out his work at his site, ModelZone.
- Tim 'TK' Miller
- Growing up with a love of movies, Tim pursued a career in
animatronics design upon completing a Bachelors of Science in Biology.
After five years with a small effects company in Northern California,
he launched out as a freelance sculptor, quickly landing McFarlane
Design Group as a key client, providing portrait sculpts for the
prolific toy manufacturer. In the past fifteen years Tim has sculpted
for industry leaders, including Sideshow Collectibles, Bowen Designs,
and most recently DC Entertainment. Tim lives with his wife, Rebekah,
and their spoiled pug, Winston, in picturesque Colorado Springs.
- Matt
'Iron-Cow' Cauley, probably best known for his custom action
figure work, formed Iron-Cow Prod. LLC to better serve his
illustration, animation, design, and toy production clients. In
addition to being a featured contributer to ToyFare Magazine, there are
over 50 ICP-designed DC Direct, Battlestar Galactica and Marvel Comics
Minimate action figures currently on sale. His artwork is exhibited and
published worldwide and he is currently hard at work developing a line
of t-shirts for Macys featuring his illustrations. Matt's illustration,
broadcast, fine art, and toy design portfolios can be seen at the
official Iron-Cow
Prod.
- Jean St. Jean
is a musician turned sculptor, who began his career in a small upstate
NY toy sculpting studio doing mostly preschool toys and dolls. Five
years later he joined McFarlane where he spent almost 7 years helping
them develop their hyper realistic style, the last 4 years as Sculpting
Supervisor. In 2004, he left McFarlane to start his own company, Jean
St. Jean Studios offering sculpting, painting and prototyping services
working on such licenses as Diamonds Select’s Stargate SG-1, SG
Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica lines, Mezco’s Cinema of Fear, DC
Direct’s World of Warcraft and Ame-Comi and Amoktime’s Killer Klowns
and Day of the Dead lines.
His current projects have been the
Lion-o and Mumm-Ra for Mezco’s Mega scale THundercats line,
the
Munsters 7” Select line and various Universal monsters for DST
including the Metaluna Mutant and Phantom of the Opera as
wellcontributions to the Marvel Select figure series. He is
also
working on his 29th mini-bust for DC Direct including Heroes of the
DCU, Blackest Night and various movie properties.
- Julian "Anthony" Osario
is an accomplished Airbrush Artist, Muralist and sculptor for more than
12 years, live and work in Rhode Island. Have worked as a Freelance
artist and prototype painter for several companies
including Hasbro Toy Company.
Anthony was exclusively delegated
to paint the prototype of Cloverfield limited edition action figure.
While at Hasbro, he created standard patterns (decals) for Transformers
main character (Optimus Prime), airbrushed and hand-painted an
extensive variety of product brands including: Playskool, Cloverfield,
Disney, Dora the Explorer, Fantastic four, G.I.Joe, Ghost Rider, Iron
Man, Littliest Petshops, Marvel, Mr Potato Head, Nerf, Nickelodeon,
Play-Doh, Spider-Man, Star-Wars, The Hulk, Winnie the Pooh,
Transformers, Nerf Guns and more.
Worked painting scaled sets,
characters and backgrounds for TJ Bearytales story books. Besides Bikes
& Helmets, Anthony has done paintings for galleries, oversized
Sculptures and signs for Six Flags, Toys R’ Us, M&Ms World
London,
Campbell’s Stadium, The Pilli’s Stadium, Tonka, The Hustler night Club
in Manhattan, Paul Newman’s Water Park, as well as murals and backdrops
for the World Trade Center in Boston and other places throughout the
United States. Most of the bikes airbrushed have been awarded as the
Best Custom Paint bikes, an indicator of the quality of his work.
- Tony Robles of TonyzCustomz.com is an admin and co-founder of ProCustomizers.com as well as the owner of indy toy company, ToroToys.com.
He holds an MBA in media design with a strong focus on design and
marketing in the toy industry. Tony is a customizing extraordinaire
that specialized in made to order customs for private clients as well
as professional work for over 5 years. Tony continues his toy designing
with Toro Toys including chiBOO designer figures and his upcoming
project Nanoidz, a collectible mini action figure game.
- Kat Sapene has been
a prototype painter for the toy industry since 1999. Kat has
painted everything from Disney characters to monsters, from action
figures to
statues and busts. She was head painter at Sota toys for a number of
years before
deciding to try work as a freelancer. She now runs her own studio, WAK! Toys, with
the help of her cat who dutifully wears a tie to work everyday. - Jeremy Sung is President and Head Designer of Spy Monkey Creations Inc.
A long time toy collector and customizer, Jeremy founded Spy Monkey
Creations in 1999 to provide collectors with hand made accessories to
enhance their action figure collections. Since then Spy Monkey
Creations has moved on to mass production for their accessories and in
2012 launched their first original action figure series, The Weaponeers
of Monkaa! - Hugo Dourado may be better known as grungethemovie on figurerealm
for his awesome custom figures and not for writing in third person
about himself. He's also worked as concept artist and 3d modeler (and
2d animator back in pixel times) in videogames and animation, and would
absolutely love to work in the Toy Industry. I don't believe anyone
will read this, but if you happen to be reading go check my, uh, i mean
his facebook page. - Rubén Procopio: Designer and Sculptor, Masked Avenger Studios: http://www.maskedavenger.com/ and http://www.maskedavengerstudios.blogspot.com/
- Other
Artist Judges include Bill Mancuso, Jason Wires, Jason Babler, and John Harmon.
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Retailers:
Without
retailers to sell the stuff, there'd be a whole lot less to
buy. In fact, that's one of the current issues for the
industry, as fewer and fewer retailers carry the figures, statues and
busts we love. These 12 judges represent some of the best
known
specialty and mass market retailers, from small to large.
- Thomas
Gaul is the owner of the CornerStoreComics and Beach Ball Comics retail locations in Anaheim CA, as well as the CornerStoreComics & AmazingToyz
online toy store. He began collecting at age 7, starting with the very
first wave of Star Wars action figures produced by Kenner. He also
currently serves on the Board of Directors of ComicsPRO, the comics
retail industry's trade organization.
- Marc Bowker is the owner of AlterEgoComics.com
and the Alter Ego Comics retail store in Lima, OH. He got hooked on
comics at age 10 when he picked up a copy of Marvel Super Heroes Secret
Wars #1 and is the man he is today because of comics and the TV
shows/movies of the 1980s. His personal collection ranges from
Mini-Mates to Premium Format Figures and he's a die hard Star Trek: TOS
and Indiana Jones fan.
- Russell Kay and Jason Forkos, are
the owners of krazykingsoftoys.com,
an up-and-comer which has been around since August of 2008. Russell
Kay, also known in the majority of the toy community as KingRandor for
many years, has done several reviews for action figures for mwctoys.com,
and was responsible for the original Suncoast Area Report, back in the
day. Russell was first introduced to the world of action figures back
in 1985, receiving the MASK Jackhammer as a present for his 3rd
birthday- and he's been hooked ever since.
- Lee Ward opened
The Good
The Bad and The Robots
in November 2009 with a business partner and has enjoyed every minute
of offering a personal service and chatting to collectors.Although he
am based in the UK, my European wings are spreading.
He
started collecting Star Wars figures in 1980 followed by Action Force,
Transformers, Thundercats and He-man. (He really wishes he still had
them). He took an interest in statues approx 8 years ago but is more of
a fan of 1:6th these days. He is also a semi pro magician and has a
real passion for magic.
- Andrew McIntire is
the Senior Director of Retail Operations for Things From Another World.
He has been a comic and toy enthusiast
since he was a boy, and spent much of his youth taking Transformers and
G.I. Joe figures apart, then kit-bashing them back together in
exciting, new, mutated forms. To his great pride (and his wife's great
embarrassment) he boasts that he owns enough classic Star Wars figures,
vehicles, and play sets to stage reenactments of almost every pivotal
scene from the original trilogy--an endeavor which his long-suffering
wife has asked he not indulge in when company's over. She holds on to
the hope that he may one day listen.
- Jeff B. is
co-founder of Urban
Collector and a passionate collector of LOTR, Star Wars and
DC collectibles.
- Michael Shah is the
owner of on-line retailer,
Mikes Comics N Stuff,
an on-line retail store that specializes in Doctor Who, DC action
figures, and whatever else catches Mike's eyes. An avid and
life-long comic book collector - he still has his first comic book he
bought off the newsstand, Avengers #158, buried somewhere in his
collection - he finally decided to take his 30 years of comic book and
action figure collecting knowledge and pursue his dream of opening a
comic book related collectible business.
- Edward Couturier -
Founder & CEO of Movie Replicas
Direct.
He has always had a love for science fiction and horror. Favorite movie
monster is Dracula. Favorite Sci-Fi Movie is the Matrix. MRD was a
childhood dream he started in officially started in August of 2007.
- Troy Emmi is the
owner of Fanboy
Collectibles.
He has been collecting comic books all of his life. Like most young
collectors, he started with action figures. This would eventually lead
to statues and mini-busts, of which Star Wars and comic book related
fill the majority of his collection. Over the past few years he has
also began acquiring original pages of comic book art and commissions
by a varied number or artists. Now with a retail and online store he
gets to spend his days dealing with fellow collectors.
- Dat Ma has been the
Buyer at Entertainment
Earth,
Inc. for the past 5.5 years.
- Steven Loney is the
founder and CEO of Toynk.com.
Toynk is a toy, collectible and costume company specializing in
licensed pop culture related products. Toynk markets/distributes its
product library worldwide through various retail and wholesale
channels. Toynk is also involved in the creation, development, and
manufacturing of similar licensed and non-licensed products through its
subsidiary company, Locoape, LLC and Incogneato, LLC. Toynk's primary
warehouse is based in Bensenville, IL. Toynk also has a warehouse in
Adelaide, Australia.
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Collectors:
In the end,
it's the buyers that decide what gets made and what doesn't.
They vote with the money in their wallet, and smart companies and
retailers listen. I selected 23 collectors that I feel are
opinionated, respected, and experienced. Some are collectors
of very specific lines, while others buy just about anything, but they
all know the industry well.
- Michael S. Miller
is the Editor in Chief of Toledo Free Press. He has been a toy
collector since 1977, a year which will ring a bell with many who were
affected by the force unleashed that year. Michael has written about
pop culture and collecting for more than 40 publications coast to
coast. His next published work is a chapter in "Gotham City 14 Miles,"
a new book about the impact on the 1966 Batman TV show. - From
1977
to 1989, Action
Figure Insider blogger Jason Chirevas'
parents
bought him action figures to play with. Since 1993, he's collected
action
figures, this time with his own money and everything. A lot happened
between.
- Jeff Parker
aka Wookster, is a freelance illustrator and designer whose work has
graced everything from BBC television titles through to a burlesque
fetish artist’s logo (you should have seen the perks!). Though it has
to be said toy collecting and reviewing seem to be taking up more and
more of his time. He’s interested in all areas of pop culture and
collects anything and everything, with a special penchant for high-end
1/6 scale, especially if it’s from the ALIEN series of movies. He also
has a soft spot for Bettie Page memorabilia, Guinness (the drink, not
the book of records!) and kicking back with a good DVD (new ones are
increasingly hard to find you know!).
- Mark G. Meyer
- "The Tekwych" is a figure collector and industry historian
believing that knowledge of the toy industry's history and an
understanding of the manufacturing process can make one a better
collector. While Japanese robots and Microman make up the bulk of
his collection, almost every format and scale can be found some where
on his shelves.
- JediJones
(Eric
S.) is a programmer/analyst by day and an action figure collector by
morning, noon, night, and later night. He began collecting when his mom
bought him Kenner's original Han Solo in 1982 and he hasn't stopped
since. His favorite toy lines of the way too many he collects include
Hasbro's classic and modern Star Wars and G.I. Joe lines, Playmates'
Simpsons World of Springfield, 6" Marvel Legends and DC Universe, and
movie tie-ins from the smaller companies like Mezco's King Kong and
NECA's Ghostbusters. Good sculpting is more important to him than high
posability and he believes accessories such as vehicles and playsets
are what have truly set the great action figure lines apart from the
rest.
- Guy
Klender - A Los Angeles based
toy collector, he moved to California ten years ago and brought my love
of toys to the sunny state. IHelucked out with a collectors show or a
major show, i.e. SDCC nearly every week so the lust for toys is easy to
nourish. He started years back with the new STAR WARS line and it all
grew from there. He gained recognition as a toy collector with the film
STARWOIDS that made for a fun time at shows with the occasional
autograph and he did receive a fan letter as well. He moved on to the
higher end products and Sideshow Collectibles sees his bank statement
nearly as often as he does. He loves finding the rarity or the obscure
toy that he may not have known of but for some reason must have. It's a
wacky life sure but he wouldn’t trade it for anything in the
world….except for a 12 back vinyl caped Jawa perhaps.
- Monte Williams
has photographed action figures in Northern California, in and atop the
Snake River Canyon in Twin Falls, Idaho, at Stonehenge and Windsor
Castle, along the shores of the uninhabited Dahret Island on the Red
Sea, in Istanbul, in Asmara, Eritrea and, most recently, in Lahore,
Pakistan. His photostream will change your life. - Josh Long:
Computer Technology Teacher/Avid Collector. Josh has collecting
something in some form for as long as he can remember. When he was a
kid, he was very big into sports cards of all the major sports but one
athlete in particular. That athlete was Michael Jordan. During his
playing career he hit nearly 2,000 different cards filling multiple
books and shelves so they could all be displayed. After he retired the
second time, Josh decided to take a break from collecting but he didn't
know what he would find that he was so into.
In 2003, just about
the time Return Of The King was going to be hitting the big screen, he
found a little site called Sideshow Collectibles. Josh saw all the
various statues from the movies and kicked himself for not having found
them sooner. He didn't waste any time getting into it though going back
and getting several that he had missed and getting his Pre-Orders for
ones that where still to come.
At one point, Josh was very close
to having all the Sideshow Weta statues but have since cut back on that
to balance his collection out. However, he has replaced that with
several items from Sideshow's Lord Of The Rings lines, The Dead,
Indiana Jones, Masters of the Universe Classics, G.I. Joe and Star
Wars. He has also ventured off into buying
some pieces from Hot Toys and Medicom with the great products they've
been producing.
Josh runs a
collectibles blog called The Pulse,
as well as YouTube
video reviews. In April of 2011 he joined the staff
of The One Ring.Net
and has been writing the collecting column there called, "Collecting
the Precious". With this article he coversmuch of the comings and
goings of collectibles that deal with Middle-Earth. - Jason
Jerde (TCM Hitchhiker) is a professional toy photographer
who has been collecting toys since 1986, giving me nearly 25 years of
experience and knowledge in the hobby (or should that read obsession?).
I collect vintage and modern toys of all scales and styles from many
different properties, as well as both loose and/or MOC/MIB, depending
on the line.
- Lonnie Cummins
(aka lcummins) has been an avid collector of all things "pop culture"
for the last 35+ years! He started with comic books, non-sports trading
cards and monsters, and now collects everything from 1/6th scale
figures to high-end statues and life-size busts! His favorite line of
collecting is centered around the Universal Monsters... after all, he
was a "monster kid" of the late 60's and early 70's, reading Famous
Monsters of Filmland, building Aurora monster models and watching
monster and horror movies on late night TV. Having never "grown up",
Lonnie enjoys horror, sci-fi and fantasy genres, and has been an
animation fan since the age of 5, sitting in front of the TV on
Saturday mornings watching the Bugs Bunny show. His love of animation
has carried him into the world of anime where he currently resides most
of the time, when not watching the Discovery Channel or Science
Channel. The first "action figure" he ever owned, was the original
1/6th scale G.I. Joes from the early 1960's... which he still owns!
- Curtis - A young LEGO/Gentle Giant collector who anxiously awaits growing up and being able to actually afford the stuff he buys.
- John Morey
aka "Ridureyu" is a freelance writer and editor who has been collecting
toys ever since he received his first pack of M.U.S.C.L.E.s on his
fourth birthday. He founded the first American site based on
Kinnikuman, which became Little Rubber Guys
under different ownership. He mostly collects obscure or small-scale
toys, but enjoys just about anything. A historian since college, he
enjoys using his skills to discover and share a little extra info about
any toy he reviews or photographs, making each one just a little bit
richer. He is also an amateur toy photographer, and since last March,
as been daily updating his Flickr account
to develop and show off his vast (and sometimes obscure) collection.
The name "Ridureyu" doesn't actually mean anything - it was a random
set of keystrokes that turned out looking like a name, so he enjoys
using it.
- Gillian Mann: Charlotte, Chooch and Alex are 3/7 of the admin from CriticalMess.net;
who clashed heads, poked fun (at each other!), and danced the fandango
till the decisions were made regarding the votes counting towards this
years Poppies awards.. - Brian Ashmore
is an illustrator and avid toy geek. Brian has produced
illustrations for many companies including Marvel and DC Comics.
His "toy heart" is firmly planted in the nostalgic past with the toys
of his childhood (Megos, Evel Knievel, Kenner Star Wars, Six Million
Dollar Man) but he continues to collect many pieces from modern toy
lines, as well. He is still struggling with the idea that a new
Batman or Star Wars action figure can cost over $200. Check out his
work at his website here!
- Other
Collector Judges include Jeremy Wilcox, Mark Bellomo, Jeff McGinness, Brant Rusch, Eamon O'Donohuge, James Doble, Mike
Kaplowitz (The
Fight Nerd),
Adrian Faulkner, and Mike Kelley.
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And there
you have the 139 judges for 2012! I'll be looking to expand
this group of judges in 2013, so if you or a colleague are interested,
please drop me an email.
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