Buffy The Vampire Slayer

I always open my figures and the packaging just gets thrown out and adds weight to the shipping...so for me it is a little wasteful. Do you think it would be possible to maybe bag figures and accessories, and sell them direct from DST at a discounted price? Obviously, it would be a relatively small run of figures offered this way so I don’t know if it is feasible, but I would love it!

Nope, sorry...no plans for something like that. It’s a cool idea, though.

Is there a chance for more Cordelias?

We never say no around here...I think you all know that by now.

All DST developed Buffy/Angel figures are just straight vanilla poses. MAC did some stylized poses that were a little too extreme. Are future releases going to be in this "straight vanilla pose" style only? Is this a result of the computer scans or just the way the line is sculpted? Some of the Anya figures had a little more personality as a result of some slight poses, but for the majority of the releases I prefer the vanilla poses.

When we took over the line from MAC, we tried to both add some DST flavor and keep as much of the feel of what came before. They are not really DST style, but we wanted them to be able to be displayed with MAC as much as possible. The DLX line is something that’s more of our feel. As long as we’re doing what everyone here calls the MAC style, they’ll pretty much have the feel of the current lines.

When will you announce the next line of Deluxe figures? When do you plan to release them? Sooner than Summer 2007? Can you describe the additional time and work or tooling required for the Deluxe line over the standard line?

Not 100% sure when we would release DLX 3, but if plans hold true, summer 07 seems about right. They do take a little more time at each stage...especially QC.

Were the Cordelia and Xander figures created using scans of the actors, or were they completely sculpted? Each Cordelia face has a different expression, while all the Xanders appear to be the same. If they are scans, do you have scans of different expressions?

Cordy and Xander are 100% free sculpts. When we do scan, though, we get as many expressions as we can.

Will Princess Cordelia have upper arm swivel joint like the other two Cordelia figures appear to have?

None of the articulation on that line is 100% yet. We’re just at that stage literally now.

I was lucky to get the recent Toy Fair Cheerleader Buffy. The scale of the figure in comparison to other Buffy releases is just about perfect. After the Fred/Illyria scale issue, is DST more observant of the scale issue?

We spend a scary amount of time around here trying to keep the figure in scale as much as possible, so we’re not more observant now then before. The Fred issue was out of our control ,and we caught it as soon as possible and made as much of an adjustment as we could. The factory, however, is VERY much more ware of the problems we had with Fred.

Do most all of the actors of Buffy and Angel have likeness approval on their figures? Does it make things much faster if you don’t have to go through that extra step? Do you have to have FOX’s approval on every figure and variant?

Fox approves EVERYTHING we do with Buffy & Angel and are very co-operative. I’d say more then half the cast is involved in at least some level of the approval process. Most...heck, all of them have been very helpful and supportive. It does take longer if it has to go to them, but that’s because it ads another step...not because they are problems to deal with. Most of the response time, to be honest, is based on their schedules. Seth is great, BUT he’s always somewhere filming something, so we have to wait for Fox to track him down. Make sense?

Will Cheerleader Buffy ever smile again?

The expression you see on the Toy Fair figures is the final expression.

What would it take to get figures of Gunn, Harmony, and Drusilla made into a line? If say the demand for these figures was very high or the sales of Sideshow Dru did well?

We’ll just have to see what comes...

Would it be likely to have Lindsey, Lilah, Riley, or Connor in future boxset?

See above.

I’m not sure how things would work if the actor is dead. Since Glenn Quinn is gone does that mean that a Doyle figure will never happen?

We have not had him on any line plan we’ve sent to Fox, so I can’t positively answer that, but I see no reason we’d have an issue if we wanted to do a figure.

It is probably too late for the Buffy/Dawn line, but is there any chance that you could bring back the peg-holes on the figures, seeing as my Angel is always falling off his base?

We bounce that around just about every time we do a new release. So far we’re sticking with no pegs.

Who is the exclusive holder of "The Prom" 2-Pack. And why is it’s release date (as shown at Toy Fair) is September when even Cordy & Xander ship much earlier?

That’s a Previews exclusive, and the two-packs don’t have to come out at a specific time or with a specific line. That’s what makes them so cool.

Will we ever see an Andrew figure?

Never say never.

Have you ever considered creating a line of figures with interlocking bases that create a scene?

We’ve done that with resin, but not figures. However, several of the wall style bases we’re doing now will connect to make a larger piece of the wall.

When will the next line be announced?

I think in about a month or so.

Will the next line be out late this year or not until next year?

Do you mean after Buffy Dawn? Xander Cordy is August, and the TBD wave is November.

How many waves do you plan on making for next year?

You mean for 07 or 12 months from this date? For 07 we’re really not sure but 3 or 4 releases seems about right.

How many ornaments will be based on the Buffy/Dawn line and how many will be based on the Xander/Cordy line?

We just set that line plan today. We’ll be announcing it soon.

When will the library be released?

We hope May.

Do you have any other playsets in the works or are you waiting until you know how well the Library sells?

No other play sets planned until we see results from the library.

Will you ever consider changing the bases so that other figures can be displayed behind each other to save room, rather than to have to display them next to each other?

Each line is a new decision, so we’ll just have to see.

Will there be any more villain figures planned in the near future to be included in future 2 packs and box sets?

I guess that depends on how strictly you define "villain."

 CMK