Buffy The Vampire Slayer

The Men Behind the Curtain at Diamond Select Toys

This past week AFI had the opportunity to track down and talk to Chuck Terceira and Mike Leavey from Diamond Select Toys. Anyone that reads the front news page of this site knows that DST is going gangbusters with great product and announce something cool almost every other day. They continue to pick up great licenses and make great product around them. Their products have spawned so much discussion on our forums that last week we added a specific board just to talk about DST product.

For anyone that has ever been to Comic Con or several of the big Wizard World cons you have met Mike and Chuck. They are always on the front lines of the DST booth, answering questions, interacting with fans and selling great convention exclusives. Chuck has been a panelist on my Comic Con panels several years running, and Mike has been a great friend to this site since our opening keeping us up to date on all DST news.

So, I thought it was high time to find out a little more about the men and women that make up Diamond Select and what they have in store for some of my favorite properties. And.. if you are paying attention in the course of the interview you will find some first ever reveals.. such as the next Marvel Select figure...

AFI: I don’t think a lot of the fans know a lot about the gang at Diamond Select Toys.

DSTChuck: Can one man ever truly know what is in another mans heart.

AFI: Let’s get a few details from you guys:

Name and title?

Mike Leavey - Marketing and Sales Supervisor

Chuck Terceira - Director

AFI: How long have you been with Diamond Select?

Mike: About 2.5 years

DSTChuck: 6 years

AFI: What does a typical day look like for you?

Mike: There is no typical day, so I am not sure how to answer it... with the amount of products that we are releasing on a monthly basis I think that most people here would agree from the moment we walk in to the moment we leave each day our heads will be turned upside down a couple of times ... mostly due to Chuck. We may even here some screams.

DSTChuck: I come in and immediately begin plotting how many things we can do at DST that will truly upset as many customers as I can. :) I get in the office about 8:00 and answer email for about an hour, then I take staff meetings and that brings me to late AM at that point its putting out fires until lunch. After lunch I do as much product development as I can and each afternoon I have a conference call with one of out outside development houses like GG, AA, Plan B etc.. During the day on and off I review, sculpts,paints, 2D, ads, packages, text, web updates etc...

Mike: and scream...

AFI: What is your favorite product that you have worked on?

DSTChuck: Since I was 5 years old I’ve been a Spider-Man fan so one of the thrills was that first Spider-Man bust that Sam Greenwell sculpted. I also was very proud of our Dark Alliance figures - our first action figures. Of late StarGate has been a REAL blast for me as well as planning all the BSG Minimates with Robert and Donna at AA- but don’t get me wrong I still love Marvel and the new Zombie stuff we’re doing has been cool!

Mike: The BSG figures are going to be a lot of fun. I am a huge fan of the show (as most are) and this is a chance for us to really have fun with the license!

AFI: What is the one license that you would love to have at DST? Mike: There are a ton... probably too may to list but Star Wars always is at the top.

DSTChuck: Yea I guess StarWars I mean who wouldn’t want to work on that, but also some oddball stuff would be cool if we thought it would sell, I mean I loved Buck Rogers as a kid and 6 Million dollar man and don’t snooze on Rom. I always wanted that toy when I was a kid!

AFI: Is there anyone else on your crew that we should know about? Mike: No... I keep them locked in a dungeon. There are about 10 people at DST... a rather small staff, so you can imagine that we all have a large part of what the fans see.

DSTChuck: No come on Mike just because they don’t have windows and dine on raw meat doesn’t make it a dungeon. We have Chris Myers, he’s one of our marketers and handles trade shows for us so most of you would have met him. We have Matt Peck our resident fan boy master of all things Buffy, that helps with PD and marketing. Jason Whitney that handles Licensor approvals and our outside contractors. Ryan Hatfield works with our factories. Steve Rowan leads the design team of Est i Gerson and Jen Lleras handle our packages and ads and all things graphics. I think that’s all of them.

AFI: What is Kim Mattison (formerly of Palisades) doing for you guys?

Mike: Kim is a Project Manager here, and is working mainly on replicas. DSTChuck: OH yea, Kim I forgot her, sorry. Yes she heads up replicas as well as works as PM on a couple top secret big projects we’re working on for the end of the year.

AFI: What sculptors are you frequently using right now?

Mike: Jean St Jean Studios is working on both the Stargate and BSG figure - and has done an absolutely amazing job with both. Art Asylum still works on the Trek figures and other than that we do have a couple sculptors on staff now including Rudy Garcia, who has sculpted a lot of our recent Marvel Resin and the Office Space line.

DSTChuck: We’ve also got Gabriel Marquez, Bill Mancouso, and Sam Greenwell doing work for us right now. From the start DST has been VERY lucky to work with the talented people for sculpting, painting and casting.

Buffy/Angel

AFI: Is the closing of Tower Records going to slow this line at all? Mike: There are a lot of great things going on right now for Buffy including Dark Horse publishing the Season 8 Comic but the Buffy line over the next couple of months will take some drastic turns. We think that once the fans hear and see hat we have in store it will breathe new life into the franchise and line.

DSTChuck: The closing of the Tower stores was unfortunate for lots of people for lots of reasons..including losing a very progressive outlet for specialty toys and while they were a big supporter of the line other have stepped forward and now carry the toys. I have to be honest though the slow down maybe just a maturity for the license. Like Mike mentioned we’ve got something that we hope fans will view as aggressive and innovative ideas for a new direction.

AFI: Is it more difficult to get actor sign-off on sculpts now that the show it no longer in production? Mike: The actors have been generally easy to work with - whether or not the show is in production.

DSTChuck: Yea most of them have been super cool, approvals are more case by case based on their schedules, I mean if they are in the middle of filming or on vacation or on location in another country. All of them are still VERY supportive of their time on Buffy. Some are surprised that people even still care enough to buy products based on a show that’s been off the air as long as both of these have been.