The best toy that inspires creative play through various forms of activity. Toy of the Year | Activity Toy | Boy Toy | Educational Toy | Electronic Entertainment Toy | Girl Toy | Game | Infant/Preschool Toy | Innovative Toy | Outdoor Toy | Property | Specialty Toy TOY OF THE YEAR While at Hasbro toys I usually oversaw the sculpting process as well as the choices of color for paint on the models. I will create highly detailed drawings of the character, accessory or vehicle from multiple angles so that the sculptors and model makers can create 3-dimensional versions of the toys I have designed. Many times I will be called on to create style control drawings, (often referred to as schematics or orthographic views) of the toy and it’s various parts. It more than likely then moves on to the prototype or model stage. If the design makes it through the many in-office product reviews, concept and licensee approvals. When my concept roughs are approved, I then move into more finished designs, many times moving into color. What was your involvement with the 80's line?Ī lot of times I will brainstorm with other artists and creatives working on the line, or I just sit down and start jotting down ideas and thumbnail drawings. You see, AG is mostly known or cute and cuddly critters like Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake and Holly Hobby, so working on something as irreverently horrific like Madballs was a form of therapy for some of us.īLARGHHH -You worked on BOTH lines of Madballs (80's and 00's). comics, Eerie and Creepy horror comics with a wink to Big Daddy Roth. Most of the artists working on the balls at that time were quite talented illustrators who drew from their knowledge of E.C. This seemed to click with everyone, and before long the concept had jettisoned it’s hot potato origins and evolved into the horrendous monstrosities that we have come to know and love. Some designers at AG started drawing the toy potatoes with goofy faces on them. The idea of Madballs seemed to come from a toy concept based on Hot Potato. GROMAN - I was originally hired at AG because my style seemed to be a good fit for the work being done on Madballs and a couple action figure lines they were working on. He was kind enough to answer a few questions via email (please excuse the robotic tone of my questions) and add some insight into the world of monster faced balls.īLARGHHH -Let's start with a simple introduction. An amazing illustrator, James has been designing toys for 20 years and worked on my favorite line of all time, Madballs. One name that I kept running into was James Groman. As an adult (now an illustrator myself) I've done research as to who's broken brain spews this sweet stuff out. Like if anything, Mattel had three creepy dudes locked in a basement that just worked on their stuff. It also never occurred to me that one person could cross over. One thing I never considered as a kid was who the hell was designing these things. Cobra over G.I.Joe, Deceptacons over Autobots, and I always wanted the Mutores to triumph over the Earth Corps, because then we'd live in a monster utopia where everyone looked cool and ate trash. The toys I loved as a child were always the bad guys or the creatures with snarling faces and multiple eyes.
#Grossout doodle monster series#
It is a very informative interview for Mad/Sadball collectors, but I think any hopes of a Madballs reboot series three have been dashed in the 2 years since he and I originally corresponded.Īs a collector of toys, I gravitate towards things that are gross and monstrous. I never got his permission to use art, and I don't want to overstep my bounds and just assume he'd be ok with it (having had my own art pilfered on the internet dozens of times), so I just sprinkled pictures of some of my collection to break up the talk. Well, I think, rightfully so, he forgot and then so did I. Since he's an extremely busy dude, making some extremely awesome work, I decided to not bother him and let him contact me in his own time. I was going to post it right away but had to wait for some follow up question answers and permission to use some of Mr. Groman was extremely kind and awesome about it. I did this interview almost two years ago.
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