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YOUNG ARTIST LANDS DREAM JOB AS LEAD TOY DESIGNER FOR NECA!

What started as a joke to make his fellow action figure collectors laugh ended up changing a person's life entirely. This is the story of Daniel Pepall, who started making mash-ups of popular action figures just for fun, until one day, the American toy maker NECA flew an helicopter to his house with suicases full of money, and offered him his dream job.

ToyFarce News managed to get an exclusive interview with the next big thing in the world of toys and collectibles.

ToyFarce News:

Hi Daniel, and thank you so much for allowing us to chat with you. We understand you're pretty busy now. By the way, congratulations on the awesome job at NECA! You must be pretty excited!

Daniel:

Well, yeah! Some guy called Randy turned up at my door with a face mask on and said that he owned NECA. I thought he was going to file a legal case against me, as it's not often a helicopter pulls up outside your house, and he looked pretty angry, but that was just because I tried to shake his hand and he was practicing social distancing... He said he was a huge fan of my Work, he asked me if I would tidy up the design of the boxes of the new 'Turtles in time' line, as everyone thinks they suck. Then, he said he liked my fresh hip hop happening toy ideas and offered me a job with a pretty large wad of cash up front (I plan on spending it on neca Figures anyway, as I get a 5% staff discount on them now). So that was cool!

TFN:

Let's rewind a little if that is okay with you: How did you get started on those 'figure mash-ups'? Where did your inspiration come from?

Daniel:

NECA keep remoulding, rebranding and repainting old lines, so I thought it would be funny to come up with mash-up designs mocking the NECA way... though Randy said he only did that to make extra cash in order to buy up more franchises, and also because he and his team have become pretty one dimensional when it comes to ideas... His words, not mine!

TFN:

Now that you are taking over, what are your plans for NECA action figures in the future? Are there some wacky, fun ideas on the horizon, or should we expect them to still only rely on old Kenner designs? They haven't made the Flying Alien Queen or the Aliens Space Marine ATAX with Alien Disguise Gear yet...

Daniel:

I have been told that we have to continue with the Kenner line. However, he didn't say which Kenner line, and Star Wars was obviously the best line kenner ever did, so I think we will be doing a bit of Star Wars/Alien mash-up, and also a Predator/Star Wars mash-up line... We're also going to be releasing some figures from the classic movie 'Hook', starring Robin Williams... 

TFN:

We would love to see a Dustin Hoffman 'Captain Hook' figure from NECA!!

Daniel:

Also, the 'Golden Girls' line was so successful that there is going to be a 'chick-flick' line, so you can expect figures from 'Pretty Woman', 'The Bodyguard', 'Coyote Ugly', 'Dangerous Minds', 'When Harry met Sally' and 'Bridget Jones', to name a few. Randy said he loves those films and feels those lines will sell well. Although, with me in there, I hope to be able to release some cool stuff that nobody has thought of going after the rights on, but I will keep those quiet for the time being...

TFN:

Final question, as we wouldn't want to take too much of your valuable time: Which one of your mash-ups was your favorite? 

Daniel:

I think I would like to own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Gremlins figure, personally... I just love the Ninja Turtles and Gremlins!

TFN:

We personnally loved the Gremlien! Such a concept! "In space, no one can hear you scream GIZMO, CACA!". Brilliant!

ToyFarce News would like to thank Daniel for this interview and can't wait to see what figures will be announced next! You can find more of Daniel's work on the Facebook group: "neca N.e.c.a fan and social group".

More news at 11:00...

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