| ToyFare | |
| Frequency: | Monthly |
| Company: | Wizard Entertainment |
| Founded: | 1997 |
| Finaldate: | 2011 |
| Country: | United States |
| Based: | New York City, New York |
| Language: | English |
ToyFare was a monthly magazine published by Wizard Entertainment that focused on collectible action figures, busts, statues, and maquettes. 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.
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.[1] The final issue published was #163.
The most popular feature in ToyFare was Twisted ToyFare Theatre (TTT), a humorous comic strip 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, 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 characters, such as Spider-Man (popularly known as "Mego Spidey")[2] and the Incredible Hulk. Twisted ToyFare Theatres popularity was such that Wizard Entertainment released several trade paperback collections of the strips.
The magazine added "The Monthly Rag", a feature similar to supermarket tabloids, presenting parody articles using various toy and pop culture references. (An example would be an article reporting on the intelligent design debate on the planet Cybertron, home of the robotic Transformers). 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 series' release on DVD, reported as "Shocking He-Man 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.
ToyFare featured mail-away offers for exclusive merchandise. At first it largely offered Toy Biz figures that had been repainted or slightly modified into other characters, though the magazine later went on to offer exclusive figures that ran the industry gamut, including figures from Jakks Pacific, Minimates, and HeroClix.
Several former ToyFare staffers, such as Doug Goldstein, Tom Root, and Matthew Senreich, went on to help create the Adult Swim program Robot Chicken with actor Seth Green, whose humor is in the same vein as Twisted ToyFare Theatre.[2]