Diamond suddenly going out of business just over a year ago was a real sudden blow, both to comic stores that depended on them as suppliers, and toy collectors who loved Diamond Select’s deep rosters of Marvel figures and busts, along with niche action figure lines like House of the Dragon and Kevin Smith’s Askewniverse.
NECA’s parent company, Ad Populum, bought the assets and have relaunched the distribution end of Diamond Brands — but not the toy company, Diamond Select, as yet. In the midst of much fan confusion, I tried to get some answers to common questions, as the new Diamond might have hinted at a way forward with a collaboration between Takatoku Toys and NECA that puts a Shogun spin on slasher movie killers Leatherface, Ghostface, and Jason. You can’t tell by the pictures, but they are in a NECA scale rather than a typically smaller Japanese style.
LYT: Now that Diamond and NECA are under the same umbrella, I just kind of want to know how that all works. What’s, are they running as separate companies? Are they integrating?
Henry Varona: Yes, everything is separated. Diamond Select Brands was acquired by Ad Populum last year, and we are now, I would say, further integrated into the larger ecosystem, but we are still a separate entity. We’re not directly affiliated.
We don’t use the same systems. We don’t have the same inventory or anything like that. We are a completely independent company from NECA, same with Kidrobot, same with all of these different companies.
But, you know, we’re all friends and we hang out.
LYT: Do you inherit any of the licenses or do those all have to be negotiated again? Like, can you still do Marvel Select and things like, or Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones?
HV: Any contracts that were held by Diamond Select Toys were held by Diamond Select Toys. We are a separate legal entity from that, so those contracts would have to be re-evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
LYT: Okay, so none of those are inherited. Tell me about [Shogun Horror], because as Blaine kind of confirmed, there’s some NECA influence.
HV: So this is a new line of products from Takatoku Toys. We are able to offer it exclusively to our retail partners through Diamond Select Brands. The Takatoku Toys products are available on their own website.
The Ghostface went up for pre-order this week, so he is now available and he should be hitting by the end of this year, beginning of next year. Same with this Mazinger figure from the Ghost Saga line. He is also available for pre-order now.
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These figures are available to retail partners through Diamond Select Brands exclusively. And further characters in the Shogun Horror line are being shown for the first time this weekend, including the Leatherface and the Jason figure, which we’re very excited for. Jason is in a very early stage of his development, but we were able to bring him to the show, which I was really happy about because we’ve had a lot of great response to the Takatoku Toys items.
LYT: So is Diamond Select Toys a separate entity that’s defunct?
HV: I would, I guess effectively you could say that. Diamond Select Toys was part of the acquisition process and it is no longer producing new items, but you never know what the future holds.
LYT: Okay, so a new Diamond Select could create new toys, but it wouldn’t be the same.
HV: Yes, Diamond Select Brands is an effective continuation of our retailer business. So we are a distributor and we work with many retail partners such as Medicom and Kotobukiya that we have on this side. We also have Boss Fight Studio. We have Joy Toy and many other licensing partners, just like the Diamond that people have known for decades.
LYT: So the product’s mostly going to be again in comic book stores, maybe Barnes and Noble, a couple of places like that?
HV: It’s available wherever retailers are interested. We are happy to work with any retail partner that is able to qualify for working with us. We’ve had a really positive response to our exclusive offerings such as Takatoku Toys.
I think that the future is bright because I know of some things coming down the pipeline that look really cool. For me personally, I’ll say that my favorite figures in the Takatoku Toys Shogun Horror line have not been revealed yet. They’ll be coming down the line.
LYT: So right now everything’s other companies, there’s nothing in-house, there are no in-house made toys.
HV: Diamond Select Brands itself does not manufacture anything. We are effectively, that is our distribution business. But we are the exclusive home for Takatoku Toys and other partnerships and you know those are each made by their respective creative design teams.
LYT: Tell me about WcDonalds if you can.
HV: So WcDonalds is a legitimate anime campaign that is through McDonald’s. Effectively in Japan there were many manga and anime that were using WcDonalds in reference to you know to skirt around copyright. McDonald’s actually decided that that was a really clever idea.
They embraced it and they launched an entire advertising campaign called WcDonalds and they produced their own anime series which we are playing one of the episodes of behind the WcDizer 3000 and the Wakudan display. The display is just for display purposes because it makes the figures look really cool but Wakudan and WcDizer 3000 are both in the early stages of development along with WcDonalds Bird. So that is something we’re really excited about.
We got really positive response from everybody here at the show and I am so excited to see what those guys look like once they’re brought to the market.
LYT: I’m happy to see it on McDonald’s part. They seem so controlling most of the time.
HV: I’m not involved in any of the production process like that but I’ll say that as a fan of the McDonald’s brand I am very happy. I’ve seen other McDonald’s products that have been released recently that I think are fantastic and I have a lot of friends who are diehard McDonald’s collectors so I think it’s really cool to see them connecting with the collector’s market.
LYT: All right, let’s take a look back over here. So we got Epic Hacks.
HV: Yeah we have the Epic Hacks figure from Boss Fight Studio which are some of my favorite figures that we have here. I got to set up all the displays. I had a blast posing these guys.
They’re really cool. We also have the Court of the Dead figures which I think have some incredible detail and articulation. I really like the Exalted Reaper who’s got, it’s hard to tell, but he’s actually got three arms on the right side of his body and they all fix into one shoulder joint but they’re independent.
Super cool release. And then we have the Immortal Champions line from Boss Fight as well as their upcoming Hellboy figures. A lot of these items are going to be coming to stores very soon and the Hellboy figures are a tiny bit behind that but they’re like about to hit so we should have those in hand very shortly.
LYT: And Toho Godzilla stuff too.
HV: Yes and those are for, so down here we have items from X Plus and the Godzilla does incredibly well. It is one of the most popular brands I think right now. I mean granted that’s a little bit of, you know, my opinion but I also just think that they’re really cool.
I mean it’s Godzilla. Godzilla, there are a few brands that have generations of fandom. Godzilla is one of them.
I point to James Bond as another. You know you see that with superheroes as well. Marvel Comics, DC Comics, generations of fans.
Anytime you can get a property like that I think that it yields some really cool items and I love that Destroyah figure. I think he is phenomenal. I just think it’s such a cool, the paint hits on that are amazing.
LYT: And yet James Bond action figures, we never see.
HV: Oh, I would love a James Bond action figure line. I know we get die-cast cars every now and then but give me a James Bond action figure line and I’ll probably be a completist and buy them all.
LYT: I think we got one Lego minifig. I think that’s the closest.
HV: I’ll take it. I’ll take whatever we can get.
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