Dark Shadows figures interview with Rick Phares

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On July 1st, SPECTRE TOYS will unleash its first Dark Shadows products to awaiting collectors. Spectre's first Dark Shadows release will include the brooding, 175 year old vampire Barnabas Collins and the woman who put the vampiric curse upon him - the beautiful but deadly witch Angelique. Each figure will be limited to a 3,000 piece run. We caught up with Rick Phares, to talk about the Dark Shadows figures and more. The Big Bad Wolf: Were you always a fan of the TV show Dark Shadows? Rick Phares: Yes, I remember rushing home from school every day and sitting in front of the TV set, totally enthralled with what I was watching. It was really cutting edge at that time; vampires, werewolves, witches, ghosts, etc., all on daytime TV. As a kid, I was always into monster movies and anything to do with the horror genre, so this was like a daily dose of my favorite genre, right there in my living room. The Big Bad Wolf: Which character stands out as your personal favorite? Rick Phares: I would have to say Barnabas Collins. The character was so brilliantly portrayed by Jonathan Frid. I believe that Jonathan brought a multi layered characterization to the role that really hadn't been seen before in the portrayal of a vampire. You could feel sympathy, anger, and other emotions for him, sometimes simultaneously (depending on the storyline at the moment!) that you would not normally experience in a typical vampire/horror film. The Big Bad Wolf: Can you talk a bit about how you came about producing toys based on this license? Rick Phares: A few years ago I held the license for Dark Shadows as highly detailed 1/6 scale figures for the collectors market under a previous company, Majestic Studios. The response for the Dark Shadows 1/6 scale figures was great and I realized how many dedicated Dark Shadows fans there were that wanted product based on the show. Due to some of my work in the toy industry, I recently had the opportunity to meet and work with EMCE Toys. Being a MEGO fan and toy collector myself, I was excited by what they were doing and the endless possibilities of new products that could be produced in this format. In fact, I had always thought that Dark Shadows would have been a great MEGO license/line years ago and thought it was a shame that it never came about. Being a fan of retro style product, Dark Shadows, and toys in general, I thought this was a great opportunity and time to finally see a Dark Shadows line of MEGO style figures. The Big Bad Wolf: What can you tell us about your partnership with EMCE Toys? Rick Phares: Joe Sena and Paul Clarke at EMCE are great guys. They really understand the market and are great to work with. We all share a love of the product and industry in which we're working which helps tremendously. We have a good synergy that relates to our working well together on various projects. The Big Bad Wolf: Can you talk a bit about the Barnabas Collins and Angelique figures? Rick Phares: Barnabas and Angelique make up Series1 and will be released in July. We're being faithful to the original 70's MEGO style of figures, but at the same time, bringing them into a more modern day aesthetic. The head sculpts and paint applications are more detailed and the clothing will be more refined. The Big Bad Wolf: Can you talk a bit about the SDCC exclusive Chris Jennings werewolf figure? Rick Phares: We're really excited about this one. It turned out much better than originally expected (and our expectations are high!). For some reason, this particular character really translates well in this format. We will be releasing images of the figure in a few weeks on our web site, spectretoy.com. We will have 500 pieces available at SDCC. Spectre Toys will be located at the Entertainment Earth Booth #2343. We'll also have prototypes of several upcoming Dark Shadows figures and a special surprise guest from Dark Shadows. We'll be announcing that guest in a few weeks as well. The Big Bad Wolf: Can you talk a bit about the packaging of these figures? Rick Phares: The packaging will be identical to the MEGO style blister card packaging of the 70's. In fact, we have all new artwork from original MEGO artist, Harold Schull. His work on this line is absolutely beautiful! Overall, the packaging looks as if you time travelled back to the 70's and picked these up! The Big Bad Wolf: Can we expect more Dark Shadows figures in the future? Rick Phares: Absolutely. Series 2 will be released in November and we plan on releasing numerous characters as long as the interest/demand is present. The great thing about Dark Shadows is that there are so many characters and different versions of each character that can be released. The Big Bad Wolf: Besides Dark Shadows, what else can we expect from Spectre Toys? Rick Phares: We're negotiating several additional licenses now and will be making announcements soon. We specialize in licenses that some of the major toy/collectibles companies may have overlooked and/or feel are too "specialized". We will be releasing various types of products as well (not just action figures). We also welcome suggestions from the public and would love to hear new ideas. There's a section on our web site for suggestions, so we encourage anyone with a suggestion to let us know. The Big Bad Wolf: Where can our readers find out more about your company and the Dark Shadows figures? Rick Phares: Our web site at Spectretoy.com Once there, you can sign up for our mailing list and that way you will receive all new announcements and images as soon as they are released. The Big Bad Wolf: In closing, what would you like to say about these Dark Shadows figures? Rick Phares: Buy them!!!! ;) Seriously, we're really proud of these figures as we feel they really capture the retro style of the line with a great modern day touch. We also plan to continue the line with really cool figures that would make not only a Dark Shadows fan, but a figure collector as well, very happy. The Big Bad Wolf: Thank you for your time, Rick. Best of luck with Dark Shadows figures! Comment on the Dark Shadows interview with Rick Phares.

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Published on: 2010-04-21 (1605 reads)