With The Venture Bros.' epic renewal for two additional seasons, as well a 60-90 minute special and an additional short on the way, UGO had a chance to speak with series creators Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick about not only the upcoming seasons, but their toy lines and all things pop culture as well!
In part four of our five-part interview series, we got the boys to tease a few hints about what's next for the Bif Bang Pow! Venture Bros. toy line, and even delve into their own favorite playthings as children!
What kept Doc and Jackson's imaginations running through playtime? Find out below, and don't forget to stay tuned for the final new piece of our interview series tomorrow!
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UGO: So I know things are pretty tight-lipped, but what can you tell us about what you have in store for the Venture Bros. toy line?
Jackson Publick: Yeah, we're not supposed to say. I know that we have the next wave coming out soon, and I’ve seen prototypes for the ones they’re going to be showing off at Comic-Con, and I can say that there will be some special packaging for one of them.
Doc Hammer: We have the "Hank Venture Medical Kit," we have the "Dean Venture Greedo-Killer Gun," which is very expensive, but it’s spot on to the television show. It’s like a $500 gun that Dean used to kill Greedo.
Jackson Publick: Greedos, man.
Doc Hammer: Yeah, he was killing Greedos with it. I’ve discovered the episode where a whole bunch of Greedos are up on Dean’s ass, and Dean just laid into them with the Greedo-Killer, so we have that gun coming out. Yeah we don’t know exactly, but we’re excited about getting free ones and then playing with them.
UGO: Ha, fair enough. So then what were some of your favorite old toys to play with as a little kid?
Jackson Publick: AT-AT Walker.
Doc Hammer: I didn’t get an AT-AT Walker until two months ago! I never had that.
Jackson Publick: I got one for my ninth birthday, and it's still the best present I've ever gotten.
It really is.
Doc Hammer: My parents were into education. That was their bag, and they kept toys to a minimum so I could become more creative and look, hey! It worked! You know what I had a lot of? Those quirky, dinky, die-cast metal toys for TV shows that I’ve never seen. They’re British TV shows that were cancelled about 20 years before I got the toys, so I had no idea what these f*cking things were, and I had to make adventures—
Jackson Publick: Paladin!
Doc Hammer: Yeah, UFO, two shows that I’ve never seen but I had the toys. The Shadow, and UFO.
Jackson Publick: Wild Wild West. The scene.
Doc Hammer: So I played with a lot of toys that I didn’t know what their backstory was, so they could work seamlessly into being chased by a crayon, which was the other toy I had. A crayon, or I had a block of wood with a nail driven into it that looked like a walkie-talkie. I made that myself, I liked that toy. I also made my own hand-phaser, I think it was a type-one that clicked into the larger body. I had the small one from Star Trek: The Original Series.
Jackson Publick: I had a board game called Dark Tower that I thought was the greatest thing ever.
Doc Hammer: Did you ever play the game?
Jackson Publick: I played the game, it’s not as good as the tower. I think Orson Welles did the commercial for it too, and that left a big impression on me, because I knew he was somebody that was supposed to be important, but you never knew why.
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Tune in tomorrow for the final installment of our five-part Venture Bros. interview series, where Doc and Jackson lay out their plans for life after The Venture Bros., and what Hollywood properties they'd love to take over for themselves!
For more dedicated Venture Bros. news, episode recaps and more, be sure to check out The Mantis-Eye Experiment and The Venture Bros. Blog!
And don't forget to pick up a copy of The Venture Bros. Season Four on Blu-Ray, and Season Four, Volume Two on DVD, both available now! Why not get both?!
