Exclusive NYCC Interview With Nacelle Toy Company Creator
Image Source: CultureSlate
At New York Comic Con, CultureSlate had the opportunity to sit down with Brian Volk-Weiss, founder of Nacelle and The Toys That Made Us, to discuss the new season of the show, the history of the company, and what it takes to be a toy company.
CS: Could you give us a brief history of the company?
Nacelle: We started off as a management company that managed comedians. Then we became a production company that still only did comedy. I'm a toy collector. It's my number one hobby. I sold a show to Netflix that became The Toys That Made Us. All of a sudden we were this famous company in the toy space. When that happens, you get a lot of incoming phone calls, and one of those calls was somebody who said, “you should do toys.” I don't even know how to make toys. I just buy the toys. I eventually hired him [the guy from the phone call], and we started making toys.
Our first toy was RoboForce. Then we did Biker Mice for Mars. I'm a huge fan of The Expanse. I met with Alcon (nothing to do with The Expanse) but they asked if we wanted to do The Expanse. About a year after that, I had a meeting at Playmates Toys, and they told us they had given up the Star Trek license. We reached out to Paramount with a pitch for the toys, and they said yes.
RELATED:
Image Source: The Pop Insider
CS: How hard is it to get an IP?
Nacelle: It depends on the IP. Some, literally, are incoming calls where someone had heard what we're doing and think we’d be a perfect fit and we do a deal. Others, you call once a month for three and a half years, and you hope at some point they'll say yes. We deal a lot with estates. We deal a lot with widows. Sometimes you're dealing with a widow whose husband has died six months earlier. Sometimes it's 10 years earlier. So you just got to be patient, you have to be respectful.
CS: Is there an IP that you want to work with that you have not had a to chance yet?
Nacelle: Dozens. An IP I'd love to work on is Star Wars. What can we do to help with Star Wars? Nothing. They got it down. It's not what I want to do, it's more about can we improve? Can we push forward? Can we contribute? With Star Trek, the technology had evolved drastically between Diamond and now. I knew a lot of the characters hadn't been made, so I felt there was a lot we could contribute. That's not always the case. It's surprising how few characters have been made. That was a real big thing for us. The entire inspiration for our Star Trek line is [Captain] Rachel Garrett and Captain Jellico. She’s [Rachel Garrett] the captain of the Enterprise C. She'd never been made. So, we could do that with Star Trek.
Image Source: YouTube
CS: Tell me a little bit about the Polly Pocket series and how that came about.
Nacelle: We're partnered with Maude Campbell. Polly Pocket was always high up on the list to do and we almost did it in season three. Maude came to us with a pitch. We’re also working on a book together that’s coming out soon. For the first time ever, we had a book that acted like a blueprint for the episode. It is such a good episode.
CS: Besides Star Trek IP, what is another favorite, or another couple favorites of IPs that you have worked with?
Nacelle: I love everything we're doing, because we don't have to do it if we don't want to. And we need to love it. Making toys is awesome, because I love toys. But it is really hard to do well, and it is incredibly upfront cash dependent. Before we have a toy get to the port in Los Angeles, we could be out a quarter million dollars. Could be more than that. The reason why I'm bringing this up is, if we're not passionate, you're going do bad work. We wouldn't do Biker Mice if we weren't passionate. We wouldn't do RoboForce and all these things we're doing [if we’re not passionate]. RoboForce is not transformers, Biker Mice from Mars, is not Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. So we have our work cut out for us. I grew up on Biker Mice the show. I didn't grow up on anything RoboForce but I had almost all the toys but I didn't know what they were, because there was no cartoon. When we did our cartoon that came out in April, that was the first background of who these characters were. That's what excites us, because it's not just the toys, we're trying to replicate what was common in the 80s.
CS: How long does it take in the process from a toy idea into getting it on the shelves?
Nacelle: The best case scenario that is on the border of being unrealistic, but it can be done, is eight months - realistically, 14 months. We're not Hasbro. Hasbro probably has to move a little slower, because they're much bigger. We're 1% the size they are, 1/50 the amount of brands. We did do the eight months once.
Image Source: Looper
CS: Do you have any new items that you're excited about that are coming out soon?
Nacelle: We just announced today [at the panel] that Wave Two dropped for Star Trek line. [Wild West C.O.W. – Boys of] Moo Mesa, is almost here. New Biker Mice from Mars. We just revealed the Paint Master yesterday for Rim Fire. We've already shown Carbine, we've already shown Charlie and Limburger. That's all next year. This year was about 20% more than we did last year. Next year will probably be 200% more than what we did this year. We have three waves of Star Trek coming out next year. Two waves of Biker Mice, one wave of RoboForce, one wave of Moo Mesa, and The Expanse.
CS: Will you ever expand beyond doing toys? What does that look like?
Nacelle: We already are, it's just not public. But yes, we have and we have some pretty cool stuff we're announcing soon and then again at Toy Fair in February.
CS: Did you have anything else you wanted to share?
Nacelle: We’re very excited about Nacelle Minis. We've taken the leads of all of our properties and shrunk them down to three and three quarters and the price point is $5.99, which I’m very excited about. I am very cost conscious. We wanted a low price point so if somebody couldn't afford our $30 toys they could still afford something from our toys.
The Toys That Made Us has been renewed for season 4 and 5.
READ NEXT:
Latest News
Featured
