This week I decided to delve into the creature hero know as Hellboy. Hellboy started as a black and white illustration at a comic convention in 1991. Mike Mignola displayed this demon character which bore the name "Hellboy" on his belt. This was the starting point for our cat loving, filed-horned fighter of the supernatural we know and love today.
Mondo has gone back to the beginning with their upcoming release of their 1/6 scale Baby Hellboy figure. There will be a normal and exclusive Mondo release.
"Summoned to Earth on December 23rd, 1944, the half-demon child known as Anung Un Rama was intended to change the tide of WWII in Germany's favor. Instead he was discovered by US soldiers, given the name Hellboy, and would go on to fight the forces of evil as an adult." -Entertainment Earth
I got a chance to ask sit down and ask Brock Otterbacher, who heads up Mondo’s collectibles division about their reasons for choosing Hellboy for Mondo to produce.
" Baby Hellboy was a choice made as both a fan (I love the lil guy!), and to test the waters for some high-end Hellboy figures. The idea is that if the baby version does well in 1/6 scale, then an adult version should do even better! Add to that that we worked directly with Mike Mignola on the design, which is always a pleasure. Nothing like getting feedback directly from the person who created the thing you're working on!"
The figure features 6 points of articulation (neck, tail, shoulders, right elbow, and right wrist), and has a cutest face for a baby,for a baby from Hell! The Mondo exclusive version was only available for 24 hours in December and included the removable Crown of the Apocalypse! The normal release will be available later this year minus Crown of the Apocalypse.
Mondo describes their company as follows...
"While we are a company producing products to sell, I'd like to think that we put as much fan/artistic passion into each product, as we do energy in bringing them to market, if not more. There's nothing more satisfying than seeing something we put out being well-received by fans, as it's a reminder that there are other people out there on the same wavelength as you!"
Mondo has released some very cool figures and statures in the past such as The Iron Giant figure which came out mid 2015, and many Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figures such as Lil' Mikey Vinyl Figure by Mike Mitchell.
Their upcoming releases include 1/6 scale collectible Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, that to me personally look to be my favorite out of any of the past releases of this property, bar none. A trio of Madballs are also in the mix for Mondo this year. If you don't recall Madballs were a series of toy rubber balls created by AmToy in the mid-1980s. The toys tried gross-out humor and odd packaging trying to build on the popularity of the Garbage Pail Kids. Each ball had a character synopsis and an odd name. They later spinned this popularity into a short lived cartoon series before disappearing for decades. Mondo is bringing them back with a vengeance with their 4" Madballs Series 1 Vinyl Figures, designed by Ramirez Studios. Madballs include such names as Hornhead, Skullface and Slobulus.
GOFN: As a company how do you pick and choose projects?
Brock Otterbacher: The million dollar question. This comes down to a lot of different things- taste, opportunity, a specific void in the marketplace, etc.
For something like the Iron Giant Deluxe Figure, which is just getting ready to ship, there hadn't been any high-end Iron Giant product on the market for year, much less a high-end articulated one, so being fans of the film made jumping on that project easy.
For our Madballs collectible vinyl figures, which just went up for pre-order a week or so ago, same thing. Being fans of the old balls, we wanted to do update versions that not only riffed on the old designs, but took the sculpting and paint to whole new levels.
For our 1/6 scale TMNT line, which we've had up for pre-order for several months, and the upcoming Masters of the Universe 1/6 line, there had been plenty of great figures and statues for the properties, but never anything like the style of figures we decided to do.
With any product we do, the things that we hope make them unique are us coming at them with the Mondo point of view. It's always "what would Mondo do?"
Otterbacher finished our conversation with this closing comment "If anyone is a fan of Hellboy, and would love to see a 1/6 scale adult version, pre-order Baby Hellboy now at www.mondotees.com, and show your love for all things hellish!"
So keep an eye out for Baby Hellboy, Turtles and Madballs all later this year. Thank you very much Mondo and Brock Otterbacher for sitting down with me today.
Later Eh!