Starkville’s House of El Podcast

Here with another installment of the SHoE Files, we are going to take a historical look at The Toyman. Hopefully you have watched “Echo” by now and nothing that I might say should spoil you. Up until this episode, Winslow’s only beef has been with Oliver since he had never even met Clark.  So sit back, get your scroll wheel ready, and lets set the WABAC machine to September 1943….

There are actually three people who have donned the “Toyman” name. Winslow Schott, Jack Nimball, and Hiro Okamura all have been called “the Toyman” in the DC Universe. With Nimball being a short-lived incarnation of the character.

In september 1943 Winslow was introduced in Action Comics #64. His appearance in the issue was that of what one might think a toymaker was to look like. A bit Ben Franklin, a bit PT Barnum, and totally insane. Using life-sized toys equipped with dangerous implications like bombs or real guns. Using these types of ploys he was a thorn in the side of Superman, but usually it did not take much for Superman to foil his plans. Winslow appeared numerous times until the 1950’s when his appearances became less frequent. It was not until the 1970’s that we get to see a different version of the Toyman. With Winslow retiring from his life of crime, a character by the name of Jack Nimball took up the Toyman name. He appeared in Action Comics #432 and had the look of a Jester. He used the same methods as Winslow to engage in criminal activities. Superman v1 # 305 marked the end of  Jack Nimball, with Winslow coming out of retirement and killing Jack.

The look of the Jester however would remain in different media. In ” Challenge of the Superfriends” we saw a Jester-like toyman align himself with the Legion of Doom. This is the look I can mostly remember growing up in the 80’s and watching Superfriends quite frequently. There would be more changes in the comics since this time that would influence various different looks leading to a more modern Toyman…or Toymen.

In 1985 after “Crisis on Infinite Earths”  and “Superman: Man of Steel” The Toyman received a revision. This is a place keeper for a lot of character’s and their histories and is often referred to as post-crisis in the DC Universe.  The post-crisis Toyman made his debut in Janruary 1988 in Superman v2 #13. Winslow Schott was an unemployed British toymaker who blamed Lex Luthor for being fired from his job. In his efforts to seek revenge on Lex, he uses children’s toys armed with lethal weapons to destroy Luthor. This often caused his plans to be thwarted by none other than Superman.  For the following years Winslow re-locates to Metropolis and becomes quite a nuisance to Superman and starts abducting children as a part of his schemes.

The Toyman would become quite more sinister in the Superman storylines once he learned that a line of Superman action figures based on his villains would be made and the Toyman was not a part of this line-up due to him not being “edgy” enough. This contributed to a psychotic break that would lead to him abducting many children. Most notably the son of Daily Planet reporter Cat Grant. Not only was Adam Grant abducted, but the Toyman murdered him by stabbing him repeatedly. He chose to murder Adam because a group of the captive children tried to escape and Winslow thought Adam to be thier leader in the escape attempt.  This caused him to develop a hatred for children, beliveing that they did not appreciate his old-fashioned toys. When Cat Grant confronted Winslow in prison, he told her” you were a bad mommy, I am glad I killed your son”.

After showing Toyman that children did in-fact appreciate his toys Superman believed him to be cured and was able to arrange his parole to be served in an orphanage. This was not the case as his “cure” was just an effect of  Zatanna using magic. It was not long before Winslow returned to his life of crime abducting children.

Most recently Geoff Johns revised the story of the Toyman, and explained that the Toyman who killed Adam Grant was a robot created by Schott in the event he was ever incarcerated. He was depicted a married man, owning a small toyshop. He was approached by a businessman who wanted to buy his shop and make his toys available to children everywhere. Winslow refused but following the death of his wife in a car crash, agreed to sell his toy shop. The businessman was less than truthful and after learning that his advanced toy designs were sold to arms manufacturers. Winslow then bombs the business with an explosive teddy bear.

The only other significant version of The Toyman was brought to us by the way of “Superman: The Animated Series” and had a very different but still very creepy look.

This was actually Winslow Schott Jr. , his father was a toymaker who was framed for murder and Jr was placed in foster care for most of his childhood. By the time he reached adulthood he was quite mentally ill. Using his natural ability of mechanics he devised less flamboyant weapons to make up for his childhood and terrorizing Metropolis. His weapons were rubber balls that could smash concrete and an ‘”inescapable bubble blower”.  This is the same version of The Toyman that can be seen in the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited cartoon series that aired  2001-2006.

There is another person unrelated to Winslow Schott that shares the same name. Hiro Okamura debuted February 2002 in  Superman #177, going by the name Toyman. Hiro is a mechanical genius who belives his grandfathers plans were stolen to create Metallo. In “Superman/Batman: Public Enemies” Hiro comes to the aid of Superman and Batman to help destroy a Kryptonite meteor that is on a collision course with Earth. Hiro has been seen various times in DC storylines as an ally to the hero’s rather than a villian. He often appears to help Batman creating highly advanced gadgets for Batman’s arsenal. In Action Comics #865 Hiro is shown to be one of Schott’s androids.

We now move on to the Smallville version of Winslow Schott. Slightly different, yet very familiar, Winslow is a employee of Queen Industries who loses his job because of his development of very dangerous toys. This causes Winslow to attempt to kill Oliver and Tess, following the orders of Lex.  After failing to kill them Oliver uses Winslow’s own toys against him by killing Lex and framing Winslow for the murder.  The Toyman resurfaces in “Echo” trying to clear his name and punish Oliver in the process. Due to Clarks new found ability, his plans are thwarted once again and we get the first meeting of “the Blur” and “the Toyman” . He is arrested, but before going off to prison, he is visited by Tess who shoots him in the leg and offers to help him if he can help her. Tess gives Winslow the kryptonite heart from Metallo and wants him to figure out how it works.

Toyman has a very good foundation in Smallville so far and I think we could be seeing him again before season 9 wraps up. I hope you have enjoyed this character history and there is more to this character than what I have talked about in this article.  Visit our forums and start a discussion!

This entry was posted on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 1:18 pm and is filed under Character History. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.