AN INTERVIEW WITH JESSE FALCON
We caught up with Marvel Toys’ Jesse Falcon to ask a few questions about one of the most anticipated lines of this year. We were excited about this line when most of the information was just rumor and speculation, but now that we have seen the sculpts for the first two waves we can’t wait to get our hands on these Legendary Comic Book Heroes, brought to us by the team that revolutionized the 6" Super Hero action figure market.
AFI- Jesse, this line seems to have been the toy industry’s "worst kept secret" since Top Cow mentioned at last summer’s Comic Con that they were in talks with Toy Biz for action figures. Speculation has been running rampant ever since. Has
it been tough to keep a lid on this line leading up to the official reveal in Toy Fare?
Jesse Falcon- Well the on-line speculation has certainly been fun to watch! Seriously, I don’t think that we could have planned this line being promoted on-line any better. There was a great deal of buzz and a lot of people had questions for a long time. All in all, looking back there was this steady trickle of information that came out and that started at SDCC built with the sneak peak of the Pitt figure in Toy Fare magazine, the full article in the last Toy Fare issue and the great response we received form the Feb toy fair. It really worked out very well from a buzz standpoint.
AFI- How did you arrive at the Legendary Comic Book Heroes concept?
Jesse F.- We always though that this format of a 6" super articulated figure would be great for characters outside of Marvel. We did it for LOTR and it was a big success, and adding other "comic" characters into this same format would be totally fun. One of the first ones was Conan because of the 30 year run in the Marvel Universe; then we saw all the customized work on-line. So it
had been something that we had considered but what really drove the point home for us was when McFarlane did the 10 year anniversary Spawn Line that had a super articulated Spawn figure in 2003. I had a hard time finding the Spawn figure at retail. All I ever found were the other figures, and I thought how cool those figures could be if they were super articulated .
AFI- With Wave 1 (Savage Dragon, Super patriot, Ripclaw, Judge Dredd, Madman, Witchblade + the 10" Pitt build-a-figure) announced What do you see as the selling point for this line?
Jesse F- I think that the selling point is that the level of detail and articulation that’s incorporated into these figures and, of course, the BAF – it ties the line together. I also think that most people that collect that 6" format will like the characters that we selected to be the figures that make up this line. They are all pretty cool looking, so I think we’ll get fans of the comics, toy fans and people who just like the look of the characters.
AFI- Will LCBH come with comic books like Marvel Legends did?
Jesse F- No.
AFI- How receptive was mass market to this line?
Jesse F- We have strong support from major retailers in the mass market.
AFI- How broad is the "net" for this line? Could we potentially see figures based on, say, classic pulp characters?
Jesse F-I would think that the initial character inclusion for this line would need to be either super heroes or accessible to super hero fans from a stand point of comic readership. I’m not sure that something like "Ghost World" would work as a figure in a line like this, But that’s not to say that I don’t love Ghost World!
