So, for quite a while now, I’ve been working on creating my own toy line – the ZAGLORDS. Just a fun thing on the side and strictly pretend… obviously. I’ve watched and rewatched a ton of The Toys That Made Us, developed my own lore (woof), and even came up with an extensive backstory for the fake toy company making my fake toys, but that’s all a bunch of nonsense for another post.
This past December, I finally conceptualized the first in the line – a main protagonist I’ve named Kilroy. But what’s a hero without a proper villain?
So here he is – the evil corporate overlord whom I’m deciding to call SOLZAR THE ETERNAL!
In the He-Man episode of The Toys That Made Us, the artist who first conceptualized Skeletor talks about a moment that traumatized him as a child when he saw an actual human skeleton. It was probably just some malarkey to make him sound original in saying, “skeletons are spooky.” Nevertheless, it got me thinking – What frightens me?
I mulled it over for quite some time and eventually came up with a two-part answer. Number one is rich people, or rather corrupt rich people. The thought of these larger-than-life type personas with unlimited resources who, rather than use their powerful position to benefit the less fortunate, take advantage of others for their own self gain… and there’s seemingly nothing anyone can ever do about it because they’re just that powerful. That terrifies me.
I decided to have Solzar completely clad in gold – a bright and beautiful symbol of everything we think we want, exemplifying this notion that with wealth comes happiness and is therefore this goal that we must all strive to attain. All the while, there’s this fat, ugly monster underneath who only wants to consume more. Basically, a bunch of malarkey to make me sound original in saying, “the bad guy is greedy.”
And the second part of my answer is a T-Rex with feathers. Those things freak me out!
