| From
the first time we saw Gears of War, we all have been waiting
for some collectibles of the game to adorn our cubicles. Although
the toy rights for Gears were granted over a year ago, we haven’t
heard anything about Gears of War action figures until last
month, when the National Entertainment Collectibles Association
(NECA) revealed the first wave of Gears of War action figures.
We had the chance to talk to Randy Falk, Director of Product
Development at NECA, to learn more about the first wave of
Gears of War action figures and the company’s plans
for future products of the franchise.
We also got the first images of weapons models, including
the Lancer, the Hammerburst and the Hammer of Dawn, plus images
of the clay sculptures used to create the final models.
Can you tell us a little bit about the National Entertainment
Collectibles Association, its origins, and the Reel Toys division?
Randy Falk: NECA started in the late 1990s
manufacturing a variety of music related merchandise such
as autographed lithographs, guitar picks, drumheads, etc.
Gradually NECA acquired some movie licenses for gifts and
accessories and got its feet wet with some bobble heads, cookie
jars, mugs, lunchboxes, and the like. At the start of 2002
I joined NECA and began to build a fantastic team of artists
and sculptors and the Reel Toys imprint came out of that.
We wanted to make very realistic toys and action figures and
re-define NECA’s identity and place in the market.
Gears of War is not your first
video game license. How and why you started producing action
figures based on video games?
Randy Falk: I am a
huge video game fan and as a child of the 70s I was a total
arcade and Atari addict. Then a complete NES and SNES freak.
I always kept up with the latest consoles and subscribed to
magazines like EGM and Nintendo Power so video games have
always been important to me. NECA had never done any video
game licenses with the exception of the Disney Tron 2.0 for
PC. When I played Resident Evil 4 for the first time I was
hooked and had to acquire the license. A chance meeting with
Capcom’s licensing agent at an industry dinner opened
the doors and we’ve been going strong with Resident
Evil and many other licenses ever since.
Why did NECA sign
with Epic Games to get the Gears of War license? Why this
franchise specifically and not other from Microsoft Game Studios
or even Epic Games, such as Unreal?
Randy Falk: We looked
at what games were out there and doing well that made sense
as action figures. Gears has a rich story with great characters
and villains and it just makes sense as toys. The game was
selling strong and was tops on XBL so we knew it had the built
in audience. Plus the design and environments were so cool
that we knew even non-gamers would respond to how cool these
characters are. Another important factor was that it was new
and it had not been licensed before. The market was wide open
and we knew the franchise was going to grow and expand.
Are you a gamer yourself? Did you play Gears of War
before getting the rights from Epic?
Randy Falk: Yes as
mentioned earlier and I was aware of Gears from the E3 buzz,
the leading websites and magazines and as a diehard heavy
metal fan I was into the cross-promotion thing they did with
Megadeth with the song entitled “Gears of War.”
I couldn’t wait to play it when it came out and I hoped
that someone was going to make figures – hopefully us!
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