''ToyFare'' was a monthly

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

published by

Wizard Entertainment Wizard Entertainment Inc., formerly known as Wizard World, was a producer of multi-genre fan conventions across North America. The company that became Wizard Entertainment began in 1991 as Wizard Press, the publisher of the monthly magazine '' ...

that focused on collectible

action figure An action figure is a poseable character model figure made most commonly of plastic, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, military, video game, television program, or sport; fictional or historical. These figures are usually ...

s, busts,

statue A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or Casting (metalworking), cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to ...

s, and

maquette A ''maquette'' is a scale model or rough draft of an unfinished sculpture or work of architecture. The term is a loanword from French. An equivalent term is ''bozzetto'', a diminutive of the Italian word for a sketch. Sculpture A maquette ...

s. 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

The magazine began publication in 1997, initially borrowing many features which first appeared in its sister magazine, '' Wizard''. It maintained a steady monthly schedule, reaching its 100th issue in December 2005. ''ToyFare'' featured alternative covers, first with issue #20, and subsequently was used with almost every issue after #57. Along with its sister publication, '' Wizard'', ''ToyFare'' ceased publication on January 24, 2011. The final issue published was #163.

''Twisted ToyFare Theatre''

The most popular feature in ''ToyFare'' was ''

Twisted ToyFare Theatre ''Twisted ToyFare Theatre'' (''TTT'') was a popular, humorous comic strip in the monthly magazine '' ToyFare''. Publication history Originally titled ''Twisted Mego Theatre'', it predominantly featured scale action figures made by the Mego Cor ...

'' (''TTT''), a humorous

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

done by photographing toys on sets built by the magazine's staff (this technique was likewise used for covers for much of the magazine's earlier run). The strips predominantly featured action figures produced by the

Mego Corporation Mego Corporation () is an American toy company that in its original iteration was first founded in 1954. Originally known as a purveyor of dime store toys, in 1971 the company shifted direction and became famous for producing licensed action figu ...

, toys popular in the 1970s, during the childhoods of much of the magazine's staff. Most of the regular figures/characters featured in the strip were

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

characters, such as

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appearance, first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in ...

(popularly known as "Mego Spidey")Thomas, Jr., Dr. Ronald C. "Playing with Themselves: ''Robot Chicken'' and 'Twisted Toyfare Theatre,'" ''The New York Review of Science Fiction'' (Oct. 2010), pp. 17-19. and the

Incredible Hulk The Incredible Hulk is a fictional character of Marvel Comics. The Incredible Hulk may also refer to: Comics * ''The Incredible Hulk'' (comic book), the main Hulk comic series (1963–) * ''The Incredible Hulk'' (comic strip), a comic strip ba ...

. ''Twisted ToyFare Theatre''s popularity was such that

released several trade paperback collections of the strips.

The Monthly Rag

The magazine added "The Monthly Rag", a feature similar to

supermarket tabloid Tabloid journalism is a popular style of largely sensationalist journalism, which takes its name from the tabloid newspaper format: a small-sized newspaper also known as a half broadsheet. The size became associated with sensationalism, an ...

s, presenting parody articles using various toy and

pop culture Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art pop_art.html" ;"title="f. pop art">f. pop artor mass art, some ...

references. (An example would be an article reporting on the

intelligent design Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins".#Numbers 2006, Numbers 2006, p. 373; " Dcaptured headlines for it ...

debate on the planet Cybertron, home of the robotic

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons, two Extraterrestrials in fiction, alien robot fac ...

). 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 ''He-Man and the Masters of the Universe'' (often referred to simply as ''He-Man'') is an American animated television series produced by Filmation based on Mattel's toy line ''Masters of the Universe''. The show was one of the most popular an ...

'' series' release on DVD, reported as "Shocking

He-Man He-Man is a superhero and the protagonist of the sword and planet ''Masters of the Universe'' franchise, which includes a toy line, several animated television series, comic books, and a feature film. He-Man is characterized by his superhuman s ...

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

* Monthly

horoscope A horoscope (or other commonly used names for the horoscope in English include natal chart, astrological chart, astro-chart, celestial map, sky-map, star-chart, cosmogram, vitasphere, radical chart, radix, chart wheel or simply chart) is an ast ...

s with ridiculous or nonsensical predictions, supposedly written by

Cobra Command COBRA (sometimes referred to as Cobra Command) is a fictional terrorist organization and the nemesis of the G.I. Joe Team in the Hasbro action figure toyline '' G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' and '' G.I. Joe: Sigma 6'', as well as in related ...

hypnotist/interregator Crystal Ball (billed as "psychic to the famous toys"). * An

advice column An advice column is a column in a question and answer format. Typically, a (usually anonymous) reader writes to the media outlet with a problem in the form of a question, and the media outlet provides an answer or response. The responses are w ...

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 Darth Vader () is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He was first introduced in the Star Wars original trilogy, original film trilogy as the primary Antagonist, antagonist and one of the leaders of the Galactic Empire (Star W ...

, 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 Classified may refer to: General *Classified information, material that a government body deems to be sensitive *Classified advertising or "classifieds" Music *Classified (rapper) (born 1977), Canadian rapper * The Classified, a 1980s American ro ...

section featuring ads supposedly placed by various fictional celebrities, such as movie or TV characters and

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a fictional character who typically possesses ''superpowers'' or abilities beyond those of ordinary people, is frequently costumed concealing their identity, and fits the role of the hero, typically using their ...

es. * The "Page Sixteen Girl", a photo on said page of a "sexually appealing" female action figure, a parody of the

Page Three Girl Page most commonly refers to: * Page (paper), one side of a leaf of paper, as in a book Page, PAGE, pages, or paging may also refer to: Roles * Page (assistance occupation), a professional occupation * Page (servant), traditionally a young mal ...

, a feature originating in the

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...

-owned

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

tabloid ''

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

''. * 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 The Masters of the Universe, Masters of the Universe franchise, created in 1982 as a toyline by United States, American company Mattel, contained many characters in its various incarnations as a toyline, the television series ''He-Man and the Maste ...

from the

Masters of the Universe ''Masters of the Universe'' (sometimes referred to as the ''He-Man'' or ''She-Ra'' series) is a sword and planet-themed media franchise created by Mattel. The main premise revolves around the conflict between He-Man (the alter ego of Prince A ...

mythos into a setting similar to that of the comic strip character

Garfield ''Garfield'' is an American comic strip created by Jim Davis (cartoonist), Jim Davis. Originally published locally as ''Jon'' in 1976 (later changed to ''Garfield'' in 1977), then in nationwide Print syndication, syndication from 1978, it chro ...

(with He-Man in the role of

Jon Arbuckle Jonathan Q. "Jon" Arbuckle is a fictional character from the ''Garfield'' comic strip by Jim Davis. He also appears in the animated television series ''Garfield and Friends'' and ''The Garfield Show'', two live-action/animated feature films, a ...

Connection to ''Robot Chicken''

Several former ''ToyFare'' staffers, such as

Doug Goldstein Douglas Goldstein (born September 12, 1971) is an American screenwriter and television producer and director, primarily known for his work as co-head writer on the late-night animated series ''Robot Chicken''. He won three Emmy Awards for episode ...

Tom Root Thomas R. Root (born September 20, 1973) is an American screenwriting, writer, television producer, producer, television director, director and voice acting, voice actor for ''Robot Chicken''. Early life Root was born in Iowa City, Iowa, Iowa Ci ...

, and

Matthew Senreich Matthew Ian Senreich (; born June 17, 1974) is an American screenwriter, television producer, director, and voice actor best known for his work with animated television series ''Robot Chicken'', which he co-created with business partner and close ...

, went on to help create the

Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representativ ...

and s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...

program ''

Robot Chicken ''Robot Chicken'' is an American adult animation, adult stop motion, stop-motion animated sketch comedy television series created by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich for Cartoon Network's nighttime programming block Adult Swim. The twelve-minute ...

'' with actor

Seth Green Seth Benjamin Green ( ''né'' Gesshel-Green; born February 8, 1974) is an American actor. His film debut was '' The Hotel New Hampshire'' (1984), and he went on to have supporting roles in comedy films in the 1980s, including '' Radio Days'' ( ...

, whose humor is in the same vein as ''

''.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Ed Johnson Presents SUFFIX STORIES - Action Figure Webcomics FANSITE
Monthly magazines published in the United States Defunct magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1997 Magazines disestablished in 2011 Magazines published in New York City Satirical magazines published in the United States