Catching up with Terry Lattimer, the man behind BCA

I've found Terry Lattimer.

Okay, well, technically he found me (via e-mail).

Regardless of who found whom, I was able to get in touch with the man himself and he was so gracious to respond to my inqueries.

I'll paraphrase what he wrote in passages below, but first I must thank him once again for coming across this blog and taking the time to share some of his story with yours truly.

Terry's association with Carl Macek provided him the opportunity to design Jakks Pacific's first line of action figures.

"Jakks wanted something unique," Lattimer said.

It was Terry's long-time interest in seeing the Barbie doll joints scaled down to an action figure that bore the creation of a new style for Jakks Pacific.

Not only would it have no visible joints, but Lattimer's proposal included an added feature of a ratchet click sound to represent, you guessed it, everyone's favorite "Bone Crunching Action."

That Terry Lattimer is a sick, twisted guy, what with the bones crunching and breaking underneath the surface of these new action figures, but that's why we love his work. And, apparently, so did Jakks.

Jakks loved his proposed "gimmick" feature so much that his team, affectionately known as the "Band of Mercenaries", were given the go-ahead to begin the design process.

"This was my first [action figure] line that I designed and sculpted," Lattimer said.

With the first series in production, Terry found that the Hong Kong manufactures re-sculpted everything 2-up (a term used for the hardcopy model cast twice the size of a regular figure) and then reduced it by 50 percent for the actual mold.

Terry emphatically states this whole process made no sense to him, especially considering the licensing approvals they had received for the sculpts in the United States.

"Sculpting 2-up of your own original a/s sculpt is a challenge for the sculptor/artist that did it," Lattimer said, "to have a sculptor with no pop-culture/WWF/action figure 'knowledge' results in a ridiculous counter-productive procedure."

As a result, Terry's original prototype casts and sculpts were exactly that, prototype casts and sculpts, since they were not adhered to for the actual final product.

For example, the bridge of Superstars Series 1 Diesel's nose was a gross miscalculation that caused Terry to protest at the time (although things got better between he and Jakks).

"The final product made him look like he had a broken swollen nose!" Lattimer said.

After working on the first three Bone Crunching Action Superstars Series assortments, Terry's good fortunes took him elsewhere, but he returned in time for the rise of the Attitude Era with the likes of Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, and D-Generation X.

Terry says he had a fun time during the height of the WWF phenomenon at the turn of the century.

"[The WWF's] popularity was spreading across demographics as everyone seemed to appreciate 'what the WWF was doing' with the (now much missed) 'rude, crude attitude' with arguably the coolest group of wrestlers (and personalities) ever," Lattimer said.

In that span of time, roughly three years, Terry and his fellow excellent artists (consisting of a Master Molder, Master Painter, Master Accessories Sculptor, and Master Genius Sculptor/Designer), with the assistance of the product manager at Jakks, produced 40 lines for the company.

Impressive as it sounds, but to hear it from Terry directly is enough to make you want to salute the guy.

"For a solid three years starting from around BCA's first series ('95-'96), we were on constant deadlines - designed and sculpted from 10 a.m. to 5 a.m., crashed for five hours, and then up and at it again - seven days a week, 52 [weeks] a year, really," Lattimer said.

Still, those early WWF action figures were good times for Terry, and even he thinks their goofiness added to their charm!

"I look back on them fondly, as well as that era," Lattimer said, "It was a wild, creative, lucrative ride. Good times!"

For what it's worth, Terry says he and his team accomplished a feat of being the only group of five people within the last 20 years to create, design, sculpt, and prototype multiple action figure lines.

I'd say that's worth a damn good amount.

Until next time, thanks for looking and have a nice day!

- Alex

P.S. If you like Independence Day the movie, actors Bill Pullman or Will Smith, or incredibly talented dudes who are mesmerized by alien space crafts, check out this story written by Terry Lattimer of his experience working on the ID4 figure line:
www.authorsden.com/visit/viewshortstory.asp?id=33810&authorid=55689