It was years ago before Little Wonder Studio started as a company. I was VP of creative development for another product development company.
My wife and I were at a dinner party at the home of some friends in Sherman Oaks and because this is Los Angeles and because everyone in Los Angeles is in the film industry or knows someone in the film industry the conversation went like this:
"Oh, you're in the toy industry? My uncle is producing a cable show with that makeup guy Stan Winston and they were talking about having toys made... you should call them".
After a short phone conversation the next day the door to one of the more interesting chapters of my career opened.
Stan Winston was indeed interested in creating a line of toys. The show he was working on was "Creature Features" and since his staff and he created and owned the rights to his monster designs Stan thought it would be great to make a line of action figures to go with the show.
I became "The Toy Guy" who would visit Stan and his second in command John Rosengrant and the rest of the sculpture team at their double warehouse sized studio. I would walk past robots, dinosaurs and even mechanical ducks to get to the room the sculptors worked in. My job was to review their designs, and sculptures and make comments on what was manufacturable and what wasn't.
Stan was a stickler of detail. He made it really clear that he wanted his toys to be great. They had to have great detail, great paint, great everything.
His staff delivered magnificent prototypes and left it to me to translate all this great work into toys. GULP!
I spent weeks on the phone with factories in China. I reviewed hundreds of photographs or works in progress, I made pages and pages of notes commenting on every detail. I didn't sleep much.
Finally the painted first shots arrived in Los Angeles. I drove to Stan's studio and was instructed to set them up in his office for a review. I quietly unpacked my boxes. I placed figures on bases, I placed accessories in the hands of the figures who were supposed to hold them and just as I finished Stan and John burst in the room.
"OK Robert , where are the toys?"
"They're behind you Stan, I set them up on the table there"
"I see our paint masters there, where are the toys?"
John Rosengrant picked up one of the figures, "These are the toys Stan".
Stan smiled. He picked up one of the figures and gave it a look. He smiled again. The rest of the sculptors came into the room and were happily talking as they examined how carefully and truly their work had been reproduced in plastic. Stan held out his hand for me to shake and said "Well, you're not an asshole!"
The toys went on to be distributed exclusively by Toys R Us. We did 4 lines of product together and then something went wrong with their deal. Stan and Toys R Us had a disagreement and that was that.
Stan went on to make a few more lines with Randy Falk ( A really nice guy who I spoke to at length that year at Toy Fair) and NECA using their distribution connections.
In the years since I've never forgotten the time I got to spend with Stan and his team. I always admired the way he had turned his form of art into a business. I always admired how he surrounded himself with the best talent and how together they created magic for the rest of us.
In a time where everything and anything can be created digitally, Stan and his guys gave us fantastic characters, creatures and monsters the old fashioned in your face way.
He was an inspiration to me and the hundreds of people out there who also wanted to make movie magic.
Goodbye Stan, you will be missed.
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