FEARnet recently had the opportunity to chat with the genius and maniacal minds behind the indie toy company October Toys, makers of the Gwin line of vinyl collectibles, the gothic Posiez, and the Z.O.M.B.I.E. line of tiny, collectible plastic mutant zombies!  Read on to learn how the company got started, where the lines originated from, and how one member of the team may or may not actually be a robot sent from the future to teach other robots how to dance!

Tell us a little bit about yourselves, your roles in October Toys, and how October Toys came about? 

Matt: Myself? I'm a robot sent from the future. Not to destroy the human race, but to teach other robots in manufacturing jobs how to dance. See in the future all of the worlds problems have been solved - starvation, global warming, Ryan Seacrest. The only thing humanity has to talk about are tv dance competitions. It all comes down to humans dancing the robot and robots dancing the human. That's it. No really. Seriously. Weird no? 

Ayleen: October Toys was born out of our collective desire to create fun, artistic toys. It began as a part-time endeavor to help distract us from our day jobs and has grown into our full-time business, which has been an amazing transition.  Since we're a small company, we all have a hand in just about every part of the business, but in general, I handle the business side of things while George and Matt deftly take care of the sculpting. I'm just thrilled that I am able to wake up every day and do something I love. I mean, come on! What could be more fun than making toys?

Where does the name October Toys come from?

Ayleen: We landed on October Toys after a lot of brainstorming for company names.  We knew we wanted "toys" in the name because that is, after all, our focus.  October was thrown in as our favorite month and voila! 

The Z.O.M.B.I.E. series is an interesting take on the shambling dead. What influenced their design? 

Matt: Reanimated corpses. 

Ayleen: We are all fans of the M.U.S.C.L.E. and Monster In My Pocket figures from back in the eighties and we wanted to capture some of the magic that only comes from awesome little figures. Zombies were a natural choice as we are fans of the horrific yet campy creatures. 

Was there ever a debate as to what size the Z.O.M.B.I.E.s should be? Why go 2"? 

Ayleen: No debates.  We talked a lot about our inspirations (like M.U.S.C.L.E. and MIMP) and roughly based our figures on those dimensions, then Matt went to town with them. 

The Posiez dolls definitely seem Goth culture based, how did they come about? 

Matt: My super cute girlfriend Queenie had been drawing the Posiez for some time before we finally got to bring them to life.

Ayleen: Queenie's characters were a natural for making the transition into toys.  They're delightfully dark and have a unique style that lends itself well to 3D. We look forward to working with her on more of her Posiez from http://www.pocketfullofposiez.com 

The Gwins don't seem, at first glance, to have much horror influence, butmany of the artists designing them draw on horror elements (i.e. Night ofthe Living Gwin, Ghost Gwin, etc.).  Why do you think this is? 

Matt: Because most artists who collect/customize our fine products aresycophantic lunatics bent on destroying humanity and our chance at a robotfilled, dancertainment filled future.

Ayleen: That sounds about right.

What present or upcoming projects are you most excited about? 

Ayleen: Z.O.M.B.I.E. Series 2!! 

What's next for October Toys? 

Matt: The future!!!!! 

Ayleen: We're working on expanding our Z.O.M.B.I.E. line with a bigger second series and possibly looking at some zombie inspired plush projects. We're also still accepting designs for Gwin Series 4 we hope to have available early next year.

And finally, because we are FEARnet, we like to ask all of our interviewees. What's your biggest Fear?

Matt: Getting permanent Cheeto finger. 

Ayleen: Spiders in the shower. I'm a big fan of scary movies, but I musthave seen Arachnophobia at an impressionable age and it scared the crap out of me. Animatronic dinosaurs freak me out, to