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Four Horsemen Toy Design Studios
Company typePrivate corporation
IndustryToys
Founded1999
FoundersJim Preziosi, Eric Treadaway, H. Eric “Cornboy” Mayse, and Christopher Dahlberg (who is no longer a member of Four Horsemen Studios)
HeadquartersLittle Falls, New Jersey, US
Number of employees
6 (2013)
Websitewww.sourcehorsemen.com

Four Horsemen Studios is a collectible figure design studio and manufacturer, specializing in creating sculptures of toys and action figures. The company was founded in the late 1990s as a contractor to Mattel, and have since grown to an independent studio creating their own lines of figures as well as manufacturing third party designs under license.

History

The current members and co-owners of Four Horsemen studios are Jim Preziosi, Eric Treadway, and H. Eric “Cornboy” Mayse. The three met while employed as figure sculptors at McFarlane Toys. In September 1999, the three left McFarlane to found Four Horsemen Studios along with former partner, Chris Dahlberg, where, in a partnership with Mattel, they created hundreds of figures for Mattel's Masters of the Universe, The Dark Knight, Harry Potter, DC Universe Classics and Man of Steel toy lines, among others.

In 2005, Four Horsemen Studios began creating their own properties and designing and manufacturing the toys to support them. The studio has developed several in house properties including: Seventh Kingdom, Gothitropolis, Magma Corps, Symbiotech, and Mythic Legions

In early 2010, the Horsemen made the leap into licensed action figures. The studio signed a deal to produce figures based on the 1960s sci-fi toy line The Outer Space Men. A second license, 1980′s brand The Power Lords, was purchased in 2013.

Original lines

Seventh Kingdom

The first original line to make it into production, Seventh Kingdom's Xetheus won the first Fantastic Exclusive competition in 2005.

Magma CORPS

Magma CORPS was the second original line to see actual product. A vinyl figure of Argus a leader within the Mercury City police force was created in 2006.

Gothitropolis

The third original line to actually be produced as figures, Gothitropolis includes Scarabus, the Time Keepers, and all the members of the Raven Flocks via two kickstarters.

Symbiotech

The fourth original line, Symbiotech has yet to see any actual production but has down quite well over the years in Fan Ex voting. The line was announced as the next to go into production but has since been put on hold while licensed lines take precedence.

Symbiotech designs that have been shown to the public suggest a humanoid and beast character in symbiosis with each other. Each design had two figures that could combine or interact.

Mythic Legions

Mythic Legions is a fantasy line of action figures from Four Horsemen Studios. "The action figure line consists of an endless variety of characters ranging from heroic knights and dwarves to evil orcs and skeleton soldiers."[1] The property started with a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2015 after the success of a campaign for Gothitropolis.[2] Initially planned as a 1/18 scale line using the Glyos system of swappable parts, the line was changed to 1/12 scale, and the studio worked hard to maintain that interchangeability.[3]

Wave 1

At San Diego Comic-Con 2015, Four Horsemen Studios revealed the prototype of a Troll deluxe figure for Mythic Legions.[5]

Wave 1.5[6]

Wave 1.75 - Covenant of Shadow.[7]

Four Horsemen Studios also released a wave of avian warriors, called Eathyron's Dozen.[8]

Four Horseman Studios launched a second successful Kickstarter campaign, Mythic Legions: Advent of Decay, in 2017.[9]

Wave 2 -Advent of Decay

Other Original Lines

Other lines that have been shown during Fan Ex voting but have not had any other information about the made public at this thine include:

Licensed Lines

The Outer Space Men

Licensed from their original creator, Mel Birnkrant in 2010, The Outer Space Men take a new look at the 1968 action figure line by the Colorforms company. Using Mel's designs and a new joint technology created by Onell Designs called Glyos, Four Horsemen Toy Design Studios produced a new line of figures with interchangeable parts.

Power Lords

The Power Lords license was acquired in 2012 and the first figures went into production in 2013. Working again with the original designer of a classic toy line (this time with Wayne Douglas Barlowe) and the Glyos joint system from Onell Design, Four Horsemen Toy Design Studios added to both giving us new characters and the expanded Glyos joint system.

Work For Mattel

DC Comics Lines

Mattel has commissioned Four Horsemen Studios for most if not all the figures in the DC Comics lines including Man of Steel, Dark Knight Rises. DC Universe Classics, and Young Justice.

Masters of the Universe

Four Horsemen Studios were responsible for the figure sculpts of the 200x re-imaging of Mattel's Masters of the Universe toy line and helped bring about the Masters of the Universe Classics, an Adult Collectors figure line. They will continue to work for Mattel in the new 2015 Club 200X line.

Thundercats

4H Studios are currently sculpting all the figures for Mattel's Thundercats line, which is being sold exclusively on Mattel's direct-to-consumer site MattyCollector.com. The characters are in scale with Mattel's Masters of the Universe Classics figures. Thundercats is licensed to Mattel by Warner Bros.

Max Steel (Overseas Figures)

Many of the Gigantor figures that were part of the Max Steel line in Europe and Latin America are sculpts by members of Four Horsemen Studios

Work For Others

NECA

NECA Four Horsemen Studios were contracted to sculpt the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line in 2008.

Toy Biz

Several figures that were part of the Toy Biz Marvel Comics lines from 2001 to 2005 were sculpted by Four Horsemen Studios

The Fan Ex Project

In 2005 Four Horsemen Studios created a whole new way to interact with their fan base and let those fans participate in the design process called the Fantastic Exclusive Project, quickly shortened by the fan base to be called the Fan Ex Project. They started by giving the fans several original line names and brief descriptions than let the fans choose which one would be made into actual figures. Once the line was chosen fans would then decide which figure, then scale, articulation, accessories, and even repaints. The final choices would be combined into a figure and sold by the studio.

Fan Ex 2005

The Seventh Kingdom line was the winner of the first vote in the newly created Fan Ex. The character the fans chose was Xetheus, the Champion of Mynothecea, a Minotaur from the Animal Kingdom. There were 7 variations of the figure produced in very limited numbers. There were about 250 of each figure with Xetheus himself getting around twice that.

Fan Ex 2006

For the second year of voting Seventh Kingdom again and this time Ramathorr, Captain of the Anitherian Guard. Also from the Animal Kingdom Ramathorr was an Elephant and there were a total of nine figures offered. 4 Elephants, 2 Mutants, 1 Rhino, 1 Hippo and 1 Boar. Unfortunately production issues left many of the original figures with breakage issues. Four Horsemen Studios paid for a second production run to make sure fans ended up with quality product.

Fan Ex 2007

In the third year a new line won the first round of voting. Gothitropolis took the stage and the big bad of the story line, Scarabus. 10 figures would be released in this year but production issues (rising costs at the Chinese factories) pushed the actual sales of these figures to 2010. In between Four Horsemen Studios offered The Time Keepers, also from Gothitropolis 2008 and Queens court, 11 ladies representing 5 of the seven Kingdoms.

Fan Ex on Kickstarter

The Fan Ex project moves its fulfillment to Kickstarter

Members

Awards and honors

Poppies Toy Industry Awards:

See also

References

  1. ^ "About." Mythic Legions. Retrieved 13 February 2017.
  2. ^ "Mythic Legions Action Figures by Four Horsemen Studios." Kickstarter. Retrieved 13 February 2017.
  3. ^ "Mythic Legions action figures from Four Horsemen Studios". www.sourcehorsemen.com. Retrieved 2021-04-14.
  4. ^ K, Matthew. (13 September 2016). "Four Horsemen Studios: Mythic Legions Vorgus Vermillius. The Fwoosh."
  5. ^ "(16 July 2015) "HUGE POST-SDCC 2015 UPDATE!!". / Mythic Legions. Retrieved 13 February 2017."
  6. ^ (19 February 2016). "NEW MYTHIC LEGIONS PRE-ORDERS BEGIN NEXT FRIDAY!!" Mythic Legions.
  7. ^ (15 July 2016). "MYTHIC LEGIONS: COVENANT OF SHADOW ALL-IN SET Archived 2016-10-21 at the Wayback Machine."
  8. ^ "EATHYRON’S DOZEN & MORE ON STORE HORSEMEN NEXT FRIDAY!!"
  9. ^ "Mythic Legions 2 Action Figures by Four Horsemen Studios." Kickstarter. Retrieved 13 February 2017.

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