Today we are so lucky to be joined by the Fresh Monkey Fiction founder Bill Murphy. Bill along with his team at Fresh Monkey Fiction and with BigBadToyStore has launched an exclusive line of Eagle Force 40th Anniversary Action Figures, available from BigBadToyStore. We chatted with Bill all about the project.
Hi Bill, thank you for your time. We are so happy to have you here with us today.
Thank you, excited to chat with you.
Could you please tell us a little about yourself and also about Fresh Monkey Fiction?
I’ve been a toy collector all my life and always wanted to make action figures, but never thought it would be possible. When Kickstarter came around about 10 years ago I saw an opportunity and ran my 1st Kickstarter soon afterward. This was the start of FMF, which led me to start creating more action figure lines.
Could you tell us your personal history with Eagle Force action figures?
As an 80’s Kid I grew up on 80’s toys, GI Joe, He-Man, Thundercats and Transformers. I collected the full Eagle Force collection and I loved them. They were 3” military themed figures made of diecast metal with gold paint. Sadly the line was soon overshadowed by GI Joe and didn’t make it past the 1st wave.
When did you start this Eagle Force 40th anniversary project?
This is a continuation of our Eagle Force Returns line that we launched on Kickstarter in 2016. Eagle Force Returns focused on the new generation of Eagle Force, but many fans also wanted classic interpretations of the characters from the original 80s line. So as the 40th Anniversary of Eagle Force was coming up, we decided it would be a great time to revisit those classic characters.
What made the Eagle Force action figures so special?
I think what made Eagle Force so special in the 80’s was its diversity and its format of diecast metal. Today, we successfully brought back that diversity and grew the line so it touches on many diverse genres, including those outside of the military like Monsters, Super Heroes and Sci-Fi.
What are the major milestones that Fresh Monkey Fiction has achieved to get the project up to this point?
Our big one was deciding what characters we should make for our initial wave. We had lots of characters to choose from, but making action figures is sometimes more a science than an art. Especially with indie toy lines, as manufacturing costs are super expensive, so you need to be able to share parts across many figures. It took us a while to decide what was the right mix of character diversity and parts reuse to give fans the best characters possible.
Do you think that you have improved on the Eagle Force action figures in any way?
Well the original line is special in its own way, but diecast metal is not what the current market wants in action figures. So we’d tried to keep the nostalgic elements of the original designs but bring in more modern detail and articulation that the current collector market expects.
Can you tell us about the collaboration with BigBadToyStore?
BBTS has always been a huge supporter of our lines, even from our initial Kickstarter. They really wanted to help us make this anniversary special so they are sponsoring a month-long event and helping us get these figures to market without Kickstarter. Don’t get me wrong, I love Kickstarter, but having the support of BBTS will really help to scale the line as we grow.
Any message for the ComicBuzz readers?
Thanks for checking out Eagle Force, we’ve worked hard to create a diverse world of characters beyond just the toys themselves. Like many comic book stories we’re building a world, but instead of doing it through reading a comic book, we’re doing it via a toy line. I hope you’ll come on this crazy ride with us, it’s been a blast so far.
For more information and to check out the complete range of figures please check out: https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/brand/EagleForce.
https://www.freshmonkeyfiction.com/
We would like to say thank you to Bill and wish him and his team the best of luck with their campaign.
