BOBBLE BEASTS scare up the holidays

By: Patrick Sauriol
Date: Wednesday, December 24, 2003

If you prefer scary little monsters instead of reindeer and elves, John Thomas has something to interest you in. Thomas is the creator of BOBBLE BEASTS, a new line of creepy bobblehead creations that he's just started to sell on his website, www.bobblebeasts.com.

Thomas is the latest independent toy designer to set out and try his own hand at manufacturing and selling his own product. After starting his first business making independent electronic music under the Optikon Rekords banner, Thomas decided he had the experience to venture into his second love, toys. "I decided to become a manufacturer as well as a designer for a few reasons," Thomas explains. "I always wanted to start my own toy company, it was just a matter of how. I wanted to do this for two reasons. So I could release my own characters upon the world and so I could make toys of characters that I wanted to see as toys but who haven't been made yet."

Thomas decided to start off his line of BOBBLE BEASTS with an initial wave of three designs: ROTKIN, the rotten pumpkin man, ZOMBEAST, the grave-digging zombie, and BIG OAF, the mutant ogre kid. He's keeping his initial run of each figure low and limited to just 500 units, making each a cool collectible already. "This has the potential to become a very collectible line as we are producing them in low numbers to get more characters out rather than high quantity of a few characters," adds Thomas. "So the range of characters, the amount of them, and the limited runs will give collectors something consistent to collect."


As for future series of BOBBLE BEASTS, Thomas has about 20 ideas for new creatures -- it's all a question of which he'll get to first. "Some of the other characters though are a Frankenstein type creature (the idea more than the appearance), a few different alien creatures that are big and gruesome, a cyclops creature, a vampire, another zombie design, a sea monster not like the Gillman though, maniacs, cyborgs, werewolves, insectoid humans. [There's] lots to come if the support is there."

Since Optikon is a new player in the toy and collectible arena, he's trying to compete with the bigger companies by selling the BOBBLE BEASTS for close to wholesale prices through his website. Each hand-painted 7" figure comes in its own case and sells through Thomas' website for $15.00, with all three figures sold together as a set for $40.00. He's hoping that he'll be able to bring the line to a larger audience through distribution one day, but for now he's working on developing brand awareness and creating a name for quality collectibles. "The toy company is a dream come true for me and I hope that the support will be there to keep it alive," adds Thomas.

You can check out more shots of the Beasts as well as place an order at the BOBBLE BEASTS website.


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