THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE TOYPOCALYPSE & THE POWER LORDS’ SECOND COMING
Remember Eric Treadaway, the Power Lords fan turned toy creator who could never stop thinking about Power Lords?
Treadaway and his partners at Four Horsemen Toy Design (aka The Four Horsemen of the Toypocalypse) are the talents that have been behind the return of a number of iconic and beloved toy lines for adult collectors, including the amazing Masters of the Universe Classics line, and a reboot of DC’s Super Powers line called DC Universe Classics. The Horsemen also successfully brought back the much-venerated Outer Space Men line (originally made by Colorforms) more than 40 years after it was initially introduced.
So it turns out that the whole time that Treadaway and Four Horsemen were bringing collectors these wildly successful and mind-blowingly cool incarnations of our favorite childhood characters, Eric Treadaway was also dreaming about bringing back the Power Lords and launching them back into the universe so that they could capture the imagination of others the way they had captured his.
Treadaway had tried to track down and acquire the rights to Power Lords for years, but hadn’t found it easy. The Four Horsemen contacted Wayne Barlowe, but Barlowe told them he did not know who owned the rights to his creations. To make things worse, the Power Lords trademark had lapsed and both legendary toy creators Ned Strongin and Len Mayem had passed away. Treadaway kept running into brick wall after brick wall.
Finally after considerable research that involved scouring government websites and making dozens of phone calls to lawyers and law firms listed on the three-decade-old trademark applications, a search of public records yielded the name and phone number of someone believed to be connected to the Strongin family.
After more detective work, the Four Horsemen were able to get through to Attorney Michael Strongin, Ned Strongin’s son, who helped track down the Mayem family and work out the deal that would bring the Power Lords roaring back to life. With that deal in place, Wayne Barlowe was quickly signed on as a creative consultant so that he could add his talents to the mix.
As you can see, the Four Horsemen have gone through a lot of time and effort to resurrect that long-dead toy line that had left such an indelible mark in young Treadaway. They plan to bring back the line in all its glory, starting with a 3-3/4 inch scale line that will include a mix of traditional articulation & Glyos-compatibility. The Glyos system allows fans to mix and match parts with the Four Horsemen’s Outer Space Men line as well as with the whole world of Glyos-compatible toys created by Matt Doughty and expanded by Callgrim creator Jesse Moore and Spy Monkey Creations, creators of The Weaponeers of Monkaa line.
With the Four Horsemen at the helm and with Wayne Barlowe contributing and Eric Treadaway bringing his life-long love of the property and his world-class sculpting skills to the table, these figures are sure to be amazing.
There should be other Power Lords-related projects and merchandise in the works, so stay tuned. A fantastic new backstory has been developed, including cool new characters and a comic book is being conceived. And finally, if all goes right with negotiations that are currently in progress, The Four Horsemen just might play a role in bringing the world that animated TV show that the original Power Lords toy line so richly deserved, but didn’t get.
So if you missed the Power Lords the first time, don’t miss them this time, because I’m betting that even after 30 years, they still have the power to transport your imagination to alien worlds and bring endless possibilities to life.
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