[Cyclopswc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpasticPlastic

I got a Venom vinyl model from Horizon as a birthday gift in '92 or '93. Never built it. Never even opened it, in fact. No idea what happened to it. But, yeah, they were everywhere.

Find that Horizon Venom and build it! It's awesome and I still have it on display.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarkToyLord

This man CHANGED THE GAME.

That he did. For those of you "younger", you owe a lot of what you are complaining about today to Todd McFarlane raising the expectations.

Back in our days**, you either get the toy (which is a sucky piece of plastic) or if you want something that looks decent, you have to build/paint it yourself (garage kits already mentioned).

His attention to detail and intricate sculpts also means he created a whole sports lineup that actually looks like the actual athlete. And this is before the days of digital scan and printing!Now, when any figure is based on a real person, we expect that head sculpt to look like that person.

I'd say he put garage kits AND Starting Lineup out of business, and pushed all other toy companies to up their games.

He pretty much (maybe accidentally initially?) popularize the "hunt for exclusives and variations" market. I still remember racing fellow collectors when TRU open to get to that fresh box of Spawn figure to find that one per case rare variant or paint error. "Commando Angela!!!" Not saying factory errors and rare figures didn't happen before, but McFarlane toys made it a "thing". Now that's part of the regular toy collecting landscape. He wasn't always the best, but he was the first!

**We also had to walk up hill to school both ways in 10 feet of snow even during summer! And get off my lawn!!!