The Nacelle Company is broadening its toy division with the reimagined Great Garloo figure, a toy first made famous by Louis Marx and Company in 1961.
Known for its film and television properties including the must-watch series The Toys That Made Us and A Toy Store Near You, The Nacelle Company has more recently expanded into the world of toys and collectibles.
The company announced in 2022 its plans to reboot the classic toy lines Sectaurs (Coleco, 1985) and Robo Force (Ideal Toy Company, 1984). Brian Volk-Weiss, founder and CEO of The Nacelle Company, explained his vision for the foray into toys and collectibles:“Since junior high school I’ve always been very interested in world-building based on what I saw George Lucas do with Star Wars. So, with that in mind, I knew Nacelle needed to build its own universe and I thought it would be more efficient to buy existing characters and combine them rather than create new characters from scratch. What all this has led to is us buying and looking for copyrights to characters that are unique in their own way yet also work in synch with all the other characters we’ve been rebooting.”
With Statista forecasting that the worldwide toys and hobbies market could reach US$545 billion in revenue in 2023 combined with the seemingly perennial appetite for nostalgia, business could be fruitful for the new toy division.
Volk-Weiss shared his thoughts on the topic of nostalgia in an interview with Toy Tales in 2020: “To me, nostalgia isn’t necessarily about the toys but rather about who you were, who you are now, and being reminded of your former self; the self that didn’t have a mortgage, didn’t know about cancer, didn’t have credit card debt, and didn’t know what COVID meant.”
Original Marx toys are highly coveted by today’s collectors; the Nacelle Company acquired the license to the brand in 2021. Volk-Weiss reflected on the continued attraction to the classic brand: “What I worship about Marx, not just love, is the fact that the company represented the raw creative power of the American mind. Decisions were made that were extremely risky from a financial and engineering perspective yet that never got in the way of pushing the very concept of what a toy could be ever forward.”
Pre-orders of The Nacelle Company’s Great Garloo are expected to open on December 9, 2022. Learn more about The Nacelle Company and shop their collection.
Watch a classic commercial for Great Garloo from Marx on the Toy Tales YouTube channel.
