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I had such a great experience meeting some of the people who work for FTC, that I wanted to make sure I shared those moments with everyone on the boards. But let me first preface this by saying everyone that we met were complete gentleman to both myself and my wife. FTC is not a store. It's very much a working series of offices and a bustling warehouse of goods. So the fact they agreed to let me stop in during their busy day was really appreciated and I made sure they knew that.
Figures Toy Company is nestled in a very busy business district of Tampa, Florida. Here's the front of their office. You can see one loading dock off in the distance with another to the right of my camera, just out of shot.
The moment you walk in those doors, there's little confusion about what it is they love or what it is they make. They have a front lobby that displays many of the items they make in addition to products that compliment those lines. If the North Pole had a greeting lobby just for our hobby, it would most likely look like this. My jaw dropped.
My apologies on this one coming out blurry, but I wanted to give you an idea of the lobby area so this is more informational than optically pleasing. My bad. I think I was beyond excited at this point so my wife noted this and took over shortly after. You'll see an improvement in the picture quality.
It's worth noting that if anyone thought Batman '66 was not a genuine love of FTC, think again. Their walls were lined... LINED... with giant framed photos of EACH of the Batman characters. If you go back to the first lobby pic, you can see down the hall. Note the pictures on the walls. They go all the way down and around the offices. FTC are not casual fans.
But if you walked down that hall, you would eventually find yourself in the warehouse area where they process orders. Folks...if ever I was at a loss for words, this was the place. Holy cow, it was full of Mego love at every turn. My bank account couldn't pay for what my eyes so gleefully stared at with astonishment. If this 51 year old could have another 8 year old moment on full throttle, this was it.
Then there were bins full of the individual pieces you can buy.
And in the midst of all this... "Uhm...Uhm...I'll take THAT! No...THAT!" Note the list in my hand suddenly got much bigger.
Suffice to say, it was a very cool day. There were plenty of other things I saw but I didn't feel it was my place to photograph them since it was in the business offices, which I don't think are meant for public consumption. They never said no, but then again, I was not going to cross the line of good taste either. They were gracious enough to allow me back into their operations, so I was doing my best to pay that forward. What I will say is that what you saw here was just a snippet of their love for this craft. I can assure you there is ZERO doubt these guys are aiming high for quality results. This is not a day job they forget about when they go home. You can see it's an integral part of their lives in a very personal way.
I'm glad FTC gave me this unique opportunity to step inside and see the pulse of their operations. These guys are working hard to make allot of dreams come true for Mego lovers, but it starts with the kid inside themselves. That's where all this hunger comes from and you can see the risk to get to that reward too. They are absolutely fans like all of us trying to make a really good product that we will enjoy. It was an eye opening experience. I only wish all of you could have been there with me. These guys are quite genuine and they care about what they're making. It's not every day you get to shop in Santa's work shop. Thanks FTC. I'll never forget it.
Figures Toy Company is nestled in a very busy business district of Tampa, Florida. Here's the front of their office. You can see one loading dock off in the distance with another to the right of my camera, just out of shot.
The moment you walk in those doors, there's little confusion about what it is they love or what it is they make. They have a front lobby that displays many of the items they make in addition to products that compliment those lines. If the North Pole had a greeting lobby just for our hobby, it would most likely look like this. My jaw dropped.
My apologies on this one coming out blurry, but I wanted to give you an idea of the lobby area so this is more informational than optically pleasing. My bad. I think I was beyond excited at this point so my wife noted this and took over shortly after. You'll see an improvement in the picture quality.
It's worth noting that if anyone thought Batman '66 was not a genuine love of FTC, think again. Their walls were lined... LINED... with giant framed photos of EACH of the Batman characters. If you go back to the first lobby pic, you can see down the hall. Note the pictures on the walls. They go all the way down and around the offices. FTC are not casual fans.
But if you walked down that hall, you would eventually find yourself in the warehouse area where they process orders. Folks...if ever I was at a loss for words, this was the place. Holy cow, it was full of Mego love at every turn. My bank account couldn't pay for what my eyes so gleefully stared at with astonishment. If this 51 year old could have another 8 year old moment on full throttle, this was it.
Then there were bins full of the individual pieces you can buy.
And in the midst of all this... "Uhm...Uhm...I'll take THAT! No...THAT!" Note the list in my hand suddenly got much bigger.
Suffice to say, it was a very cool day. There were plenty of other things I saw but I didn't feel it was my place to photograph them since it was in the business offices, which I don't think are meant for public consumption. They never said no, but then again, I was not going to cross the line of good taste either. They were gracious enough to allow me back into their operations, so I was doing my best to pay that forward. What I will say is that what you saw here was just a snippet of their love for this craft. I can assure you there is ZERO doubt these guys are aiming high for quality results. This is not a day job they forget about when they go home. You can see it's an integral part of their lives in a very personal way.
I'm glad FTC gave me this unique opportunity to step inside and see the pulse of their operations. These guys are working hard to make allot of dreams come true for Mego lovers, but it starts with the kid inside themselves. That's where all this hunger comes from and you can see the risk to get to that reward too. They are absolutely fans like all of us trying to make a really good product that we will enjoy. It was an eye opening experience. I only wish all of you could have been there with me. These guys are quite genuine and they care about what they're making. It's not every day you get to shop in Santa's work shop. Thanks FTC. I'll never forget it.
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