Interview - DST Marvel Select line : Let's talk with Zach Oat

By Mulder, New York, 07 april 2017

Q: Hello Zach, What can you tell us about your background and about your work as a the marketing supervisor at Diamond Select toys and Collectibles?

Zach Oat : Well, I first met the DST team when I was working for ToyFare Magazine. I started out as a copy editor, but each staff member had certain toy companies they would stay in regular contact with. I would communicate with the DST marketing team and arrange first looks in the magazine, and I would visit their show room at the New York Toy Fair each year. Now I’m on the other side, and I talk to the press for DST, but I also handle pretty much all public relations and communications. So I write blog posts, advertisements, packaging, catalogs, press releases… anything that needs to be written about our products. I also go on forums, post on social media, maintain the web store, host panels at conventions, anywhere we need to talk to the fans. I am DSTZach on most forums, but I also go by MSWord.

Q: What can you tell us about Diamond Select Toys?

Zach Oat : DST was founded in 1999, by our sister company Diamond Comic Distributors. Its main goal was to create products specifically for collectors in the comic specialty market, which includes all comic book stores and specialty toy stores. We started out with smaller licenses that were not well-represented in toys at the time – Chaos Comics, Monty Python, Vampire: the Masquerade, etc., but we’ve since expanded our scope to include a variety of mainstream properties, and we now also sell to several mainstream outlets, including Toys”R”Us, Walgreens, GameStop and Hot Topic.

Q: One of our favorite line of toys is the Marvel Select one. What can you tell us about the history from 2002 to 2017?

Zach Oat : In the beginning, we partnered with Toy Biz to create a series of figures for collectors, with limited articulation plus a second figure or a diorama piece. The Toy Biz team actually executed the first several figures for us, and we decided to include as much as we could for the chosen price, which led to the creation of the traditional Select packaging, with an oversize blister and side-panel artwork. Since then, most MS figures have come with either a second figure, a diorama piece or various interchangeable parts, and the “Select” format has expanded to other licenses, including Muppets, Gotham, Ghostbusters, Star Trek and Jay and Silent Bob.

Q: Originally this line was only on the Ultimate Marvel and Marvel knights characters can you explain us why?

Zach Oat : Remember, we were originally making products only for comic shops and specialty stores. With Toy Biz making the core Marvel heroes for mass retailers, DST would focus on the characters that might not be as recognizable at those locations, but were known in comic shops. Marvel provided a list of characters for us to choose from, one that focused mainly on those two areas of the Marvel Universe. As we extended the contract, the pool of characters grew, until we eventually had most of the MU to choose from.

Q: How many figures compose this line of toys actually since the first one, Ultimate Spider-man?

Zach Oat : Wikipedia’s Marvel Select page maintains a complete list, which currently stands at 141. That doesn’t include some of the one-per-case variants we offered to retailers back in the early days of the line, but most of those were simple costume variations.

Q: What can you tell us about your collaboration with Marvel Comics concerning this line of toys?

Zach Oat : We work with Marvel Comics on each figure at every stage, whether it’s from the comics, the movies, or now the Netflix TV shows. They approve the character selection, concept artwork, initial sculpt, paint applications, and packaging. If the figure is based on an actor’s likeness, then the actor has approval, as well.

Q: What can you tell us about the next figures concerning the Guardians of the Galaxy (Starlord, Groot ,Drax, Gamora & Rocket Raccoon)? Can you tell us when and where they will be available?

Zach Oat : The comic versions of the Guardians of the Galaxy are exclusively available at the Disney Store, including European Disney Stores, and they are in those stores now. They are also currently available on the US Disney Store and Marvel Shop websites, and should appear on European Disney Store sites at some point.

Q: How do you explain the success of this line for more than 15 years?

Zach Oat : I think it’s a combination of evolving with the times and remaining consistent. At first, we were making characters that other companies were not making – Ultimates, Marvel Knights, Marvel Zombies. Then we were releasing larger characters that would not be possible in other toy lines, like Juggernaut and Abomination. Then we started releasing mainline team members, like the X-Men and the Avengers, and people started to see Marvel Select as a coherent collection, and not just a series of high-quality individual releases, or even supplementary figures. Increasing the amount of articulation has also increased our appeal with collectors who value poseability alongside detail. Through it all, we’ve maintained our general price range, even as other toy prices have increased sharply, and the packaging has remained the same, which makes for a unified collection. And I think most would agree that the line has always had a high level of detail – we work with some of the best sculptors in the business.

Q : What can you tell us about the exclusivity with Disney store figures?

Zach Oat : As our current license only allows us to release a certain number of figures to the specialty market each year, we are happy to work with the Disney Store on additional releases, which would otherwise not be possible. While they do sometimes take variants on our specialty market figures, frequently they request exclusive characters and costumes, and those are their exclusives for as long as they wish to offer them. In some cases, when they have retired a figure from their stores, we have been allowed to offer it to the specialty market.

Q: Concerning the San Diego Comic, do you think that there will be some exclusives versions of Marvel Select?

Zach Oat : We do not have any plans for any convention-exclusive Marvel Select figures, as we want each release to reach the widest audience possible. But exclusive Marvel Gallery PVC figures and Marvel Minimates are usually a guarantee, as well as 7-inch figures from other Select lines.

Q: Which figures will be the next ones to come?

Zach Oat : Next up are Lady Deadpool and Spider-Gwen from the comics; Spider-Man from Spider-Man: Homecoming; Star-Lord with Rocket and Drax with Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2; and Daredevil from the Netflix TV series. There wil be a few more announcements for 2017, but I do not know when they will be revealed, exactly.

Q: Can we expect one day to have some Netflix Marvel characters figures?

Zach Oat : Yes, Daredevil will be our first, and he will hit this fall. Other Netflix characters are certainly possible!

Q: Can we expect one day to have a Galactus, or old man Logan figures?

Zach Oat : We have no plans to make a figure that is larger than our current Marvel Select packaging, so I do not foresee us making a Galactus, but we never say “never.” As far as an Old Man Logan figure, we have made a few Wolverines, and people are always asking for more, so anything is possible. Our recently unveiled Marvel Gallery Old Man Logan PVC figure received a favorable response.

Q: What are for you the best Marvel comics adaptation films and why?

Zach Oat : I love all of the Marvel Studios films, but I’m a big fan of Captain America and Iron Man. I thought Captain America: The First Avenger was an action-packed origin tale, and the Iron Man films are hilarious, but the first Avengers movie is pretty amazing from start to finish, with big action, amazing comedy bits and some great character moments. I’m a big Joss Whedon fan, so that may explain it.

We sincerely thank Zach Oat for answering our questions

Official website : http://www.diamondselecttoys.com/ and Facebook page and Twitter account