ToyFare
 |
 Cover of ToyFare #80 (Feb. 2004) featuring Teen Titans action figures | |
| Frequency | Monthly |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1997 |
| Final issue | 2011 |
| Company | Wizard Entertainment |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | New York City, New York |
| Language | English |
ToyFare was a monthly magazine published by Wizard Entertainment that focused on collectible action figures, busts, statues, and maquettes. It previewed new and upcoming lines and figures each month, as well as providing a price guide for toy lines, both new and old. ToyFare was also known for its satirical humor.
Publication history
[edit]The magazine began publication in 1997, initially borrowing many features that first appeared in its sister magazine, Wizard.[citation needed]. Over the years, ToyFare gained a strong following due to its focus on collectible figures and its unique blend of humor. A report by highlights how ToyFare became a staple in the collectible toy industry, particularly through its coverage of new action figures.
The magazine reached its 100th issue in December 2005, an achievement celebrated by both fans and critics. However, like many niche publications, ToyFare struggled with market changes and eventually ceased publication in 2011. Wizard Entertainment closed both ToyFare and Wizard following a shift in the publishing landscape. Reviews the broader impact of these closures on the collectible magazine industry.
Twisted ToyFare Theatre
[edit]The most popular feature in ToyFare was Twisted ToyFare Theatre (TTT), a humorous comic strip done by photographing toys on sets designed by the magazine's staff. This feature gained a cult following, with discussing its influence on later comedic projects like Robot Chicken. The strips often featured action figures produced by Mego Corporation, toys popular in the 1970s, during the childhoods of many staff members.
In addition to its toys, TTT explored the absurd and the satirical. According to , the strips allowed ToyFare to stand out as a pop culture commentary disguised as a toy magazine. Collections of the strips were released as trade paperbacks, a decision that reflected both the feature's popularity and the shifting market for toy-related media.
The Monthly Rag
[edit]The magazine added "The Monthly Rag", a feature similar to supermarket tabloids, presenting parody articles using various toy and pop culture references.[citation needed] (An example would be an article reporting on the intelligent design debate on the planet Cybertron, home of the robotic Transformers). Originally, this feature's main articles were humorous exaggerations of actual toy-related stories (such as news of the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series' release on DVD, reported as "Shocking He-Man Footage Made Public!"), and a sidebar column would appear somewhere within the "Monthly Rag" section with short summaries of the real news behind the exaggerated articles.
Regular features
[edit]- Monthly horoscopes with ridiculous or nonsensical predictions, supposedly written by Cobra Command hypnotist/interregator Crystal Ball (billed as "psychic to the famous toys").
- An advice column headed by a fictional character who, because of a specific situation or certain quirks in their personality, gives advice that ranges from useless to extremist to outright non-sequiturs. An example would be "Ask Anakin Skywalker, Burning in Lava" (a reference to the character's horrific fate at the end of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith); all of Skywalker's responses were non-sequiturs, primarily cries of pain and lamentations about his fall from grace.
- A classified section featuring ads supposedly placed by various fictional celebrities, such as movie or TV characters and superheroes.
- The "Page Sixteen Girl", a photo on said page of a "sexually appealing" female action figure, a parody of the Page Three Girl, a feature originating in the Rupert Murdoch-owned United Kingdom tabloid The Sun.
- Parodies of comic strips, primarily drawn by Ryan Dunlavey, usually placing toy or other pop culture characters in the roles of an established comic strip, such as "Cringerfield", which placed the feline character Cringer from the Masters of the Universe mythos into a setting similar to that of the comic strip character Garfield (with He-Man in the role of Jon Arbuckle).
Exclusive offers
[edit]ToyFare featured mail-away offers for exclusive merchandise. At first it largely offered Toy Biz figures that had been repainted or slightly modified into other characters, though the magazine later went on to offer exclusive figures that ran the industry gamut, including figures from Jakks Pacific, Minimates, and HeroClix.[citation needed]
Connection to Robot Chicken
[edit]Several former ToyFare staffers, such as Doug Goldstein, Tom Root, and Matthew Senreich, went on to help create the Adult Swim program Robot Chicken with actor Seth Green, whose humor is in the same vein as Twisted ToyFare Theatre.