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!
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