If you walk down the aisles of most toy stores today, you'll likely find no shortage of action figures based on video game characters: from toys modelled after Fortnite, Minecraft, and Five Nights at Freddy's to other perennial favourites like Mario & Sonic. But this wasn't always the case.
In the early to mid '90s, most toy manufacturers had yet to capitalize upon the explosive popularity of the medium, considering action figures based on video games to be just another novelty that wasn't worth the time and investment. This attitude quickly began to change, however, over just a few short years in the late '90s, when several companies (independently of one another) started to release their own lines based on some of the biggest titles in gaming, proving once and for all that kids didn't just want to play with their favourite video game characters on a screen, but occasionally wanted to unplug and concoct brand new scenarios that the developers had never imagined with their own private collection of figures.
Out of all of the companies that were around at the time, the North American manufacturer Toy Biz was arguably the one that was leading the charge. In the space of just a handful of years, it released a bunch of exciting lines based on popular video game properties, including games such as Resident Evil, Darkstalkers 3, Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Superheroes, Tomb Raider, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Mario Kart 64, and Diddy Kong Racing — most of which proved to be popular with fans of the original titles.
Having grown up seeing these lines in video game magazines and on store shelves, we've always been curious to learn more about what went into making them, and what it was like working with the licenses involved. So we tracked down Phil Ramirez, a sculptor for the Video Game Superstars line, to hear the story of how this line came to be, and his memories of the toys all these years later. You'll find our conversation below (slightly edited for clarity and length).
Time Extension: We'd love to know — how did you get started designing toys? We've read online that the first place you worked at was Varner Toys.
Ramirez: Yeah, so when I was 17 years old my brother's best friend lived next door to a guy who made toys and I was, let's just say, a little halted in adulthood. I still loved toys and drew. I painted lead miniatures and played D&D and s**t. So I ended up getting a tour of [this place called Varner Toys] because of a guy named Ed Mosqueda.
He ended up saying bring your stuff — everything you've drawn or painted or whatever. And I did that and got a job as like essentially a janitor and a mold maker, but they said they would try me on certain things here and there. I got to design Ninja Turtle weapons and occasionally paint stuff, but one day they had nothing for me to do, so they said, 'Do you want to try sculpting?'
They had a Toxic Avenger mask, the one that they wore when they would do press. So they said to me, 'Can you make this this big?' And I said, 'Yeah, sure, I'll give it a try'. And the first thing I did was like first-round approval. It turned out that sculpting just made perfect sense to me. I didn't go to school. I had no education. But I just understood it. And then when I did that, they were like, 'You're a sculptor now.' So that was when I had just turned 18.
Time Extension: How long did you stay at Varner? And what kind of toys did you work on there?
Ramirez: I worked on a ton of Ninja Turtles. Anything that was Disney for the McDonald's premiums.
So yeah, I just like was pounding out clays, like the rough clays, which was then taken to wax, and then someone else would clean them. But I'd give them all the form and the mass and everything and everything would be in the right place. I also did Earthworm Jim and Wild C.A.Ts — there was a lot. Varner was a very busy guy.
Time Extension: After that, you started freelancing for McFarlane Toys and that's kind of what set you on the road to working for Toy Biz as well. Could you tell us a little more about that? Like how did you initially get the Toy Biz connection?
Ramirez: So my best friend at the time — who ended up becoming my business partner — he had connections because he worked at a comic book shop. So he knew Jim Lee and he knew all these guys, and he got us a meeting with McFarlane because he heard McFarlane was making toys.
So we basically got a meeting, the two of us, and they said, 'We're gonna go with you guys, we're gonna give you guys some figures, and see how it works out.' So we were basically working at Varner and freelancing at the same time. We got one job from McFarlane, which was the very first Anti-Spawn. But what we didn't realize at the time was that our bosses [at Varner] had also been trying to work for McFarlane. When they found out, we were fired. And then my friend and business partner died at the age of 25.
Time Extension: Wow. I'm really sorry to hear that.
Ramirez: So, after that, I ended up doing some more work for McFarlane. And then one year it turned out they needed some help for the ToyFare so they flew me out to New Jersey. And when I was there, I took a portfolio with me — I mean, it was janky as shit, as you can probably imagine. I was a 24-year-old/25-year-old at the time and I literally knew nothing. But I took a portfolio and anyway, I got a chance to tour Toy Biz and meet Jesse Falcon [the director of product development at Toy Biz], who introduced me to Joann [McLaughlin, the senior vice president].
Jesse's my best friend to this day and so is Joann, so basically they gave me a chance, and I immediately was like, 'This is what I really want to do. I'll stop working for McFarlane.' So I just told them, 'Give me everything you can. I'll not sleep, I'll just do it all.' And they kept me very, very busy.
Time Extension: So that's when you started doing the Spiderman lines for them?
Ramirez: Yeah. So you can definitely see when I came on. It's very evident. It started to change when I came on. And then they got on some other guys that were just as good as me. One of them was even better — Dave Cortes. Do you know him?
Time Extension: Yeah, we may have actually reached out to him. When we were trying to find out who made the Resident Evil/Video Game Superstars figures, we were basically contacting anyone we could find who had worked for Toy Biz. It was only later that we came across a ToyFare interview you did where we found your name. That is one of the difficult things with toys, there are no easy ways of finding out who actually worked on what unless you already know where to look.
Anyway, in that interview, you said that you pretty much did everything for the Resident Evil toy line, except for the bodies of Jill, Chris, and one of the zombies. Is that correct?
Ramirez: Yeah, so for that first run I did pretty much everything. Steve Kiwus did the two humans but then I ended up redoing Steve's heads.
Time Extension: So the heads were something we were going to ask you about. At the time, Resident Evil was kind of inconsistent with how it portrayed its characters. There was the in-game model, the concept art, and the live-action actors. We're wondering — what was the reference material that you were told to use? Was it a mix of all of the above? Or just the concept art?
Ramirez: So the manga art is what we were told to follow.
It's funny because I'm actually doing a job right now that's based on a not-so-old video game and when I saw it, I was like, 'Dude, this is going to be a problem because there's the cut scene art, the gameplay art, and then there's the concept artist's version. So what do they want me to do?' And it fell on deaf ears. Now I've been working on this project for like three months because every part of the game team has gotten their own swipe at it. So it just keeps changing and constantly morphing into this amalgam. But no, here they wanted the manga art. That's what we were being told to follow.
Time Extension: Besides the official game art, you also mentioned in that ToyFare interview that you pulled inspiration from some other surprising sources, particularly for the undead characters, including dermatology books and a mummified cat. We have to ask you — what's the story behind the mummified cat?
Ramirez: I have a mummified cat (laughs). I went to a curiosity shop and they had it and it looks horrifying. It just looks so f**king scary and weird that I bought it. I actually still have it. I don't have it up but I still have it; it's in the studio somewhere.
But yeah, those were the ones that they let me go on. But you have to remember that this is like 1997 when the tooling and all the manufacturing were nowhere near what it is now. Back then you had to kind of overdo the detail for it to even come through in the final toy. So if I looked at dermatology stuff, I'd do a cartoon big thick version of it. But like in terms of the design, the one that I basically went for it on was the zombie cop. The cop is all me. I had literally had nothing to go on.
Time Extension: What was more interesting for you to make? The humans or the monsters?
Ramirez: I love making monsters, man. I'm currently making my own toy line of monsters, and then I'm designing another toy line of monsters.
Some guys are like really great at the female form. Some guys are really great at doing likeness work. But I love making monsters. And Jesse and I were also playing all the games, so we were big fans. That's why they got the license because Jesse was playing the game and he pitched it to them. It was Jesse's idea.
Time Extension: Did they have to go through Capcom USA at the time?
Ramirez: No, it was going through Japan. It had to go through Japan.
Time Extension: Besides Resident Evil, you also got to work on a toy line based on Darkstalkers 3. What was that experience like? Was that any different in terms of the kinds of reference material you used?
Ramirez: Again, they had absolutely specific art in mind. So I was just trying to make it look like that. if you've got good art, your job as a sculptor is to make it look as close to that art as possible. I didn't wanna take it and like, put some sort of creative twist on it. I wanted to make it look like the art and I hadn't seen that a lot.
Time Extension: And just as a final question, do you have any other memories of the rest of the Video Game Superstars lines? At the time, Toy Biz also did lines for Mario Kart 64, Zelda, Marvel Vs. Capcom: Clash of Superheroes, and Lara Croft too.
Ramirez: Yeah, so the Lara Croft one was difficult because it was such pixelated art. And they wanted it to look like that. So that one was odd. But I did it. I mean, I did the lion's share of all the video game stuff.
I also did Banjo & Kazooie. So, in my studio, I just have boxes of prototypes. So I have Mario and Yoshi. That's probably the first one of the first Marios ever sculpted in America. I still have that and it's decently on model. When they came out, I actually asked for a box. Like they sent me a product box. So I have like two sets in there. And then I have the first shots too. I only have them all here now because I love that line. That was one of my favorite lines.
Jesse just went on a tear and bought them all and he spent a grip of money doing it. He called me one night and said, 'Can you believe we got away with this?'
Now it's like everybody's doing it. But Jesse had the foresight to bring it to them and say, 'Hey, look this is what's gonna happen.' And it did. And geez, now I think the biggest money being made right now from Jakks is like all the Mario stuff. They have the master Nintendo license.