Anthony Watts
Born in the 1900s, Anthony spent most of his time playing D&D and dismembering He-Man toys on his bedroom floor. Later he got good at drawing dragons, painting miniatures, doodling in class, and playing with toy soldiers. Now 40+ years later, nothing has changed.
- "Official" Role: Designer
- Code Name(s): TBD
- Super Powers: Cold Resistance, +1 Charisma
- Vulnerabilities: Miniatures, Paint, Kitties, Cheap Coffee, Dad Jokes, Vespas
- Past Toys: Star Wars, Masters of the Universe, Lego, Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer, dirt, sticks, rocks
- Junk Foods: White Cheddar Smartfood, Doritos, Rosebuds, Nachos, 70s inspired desserts, leftovers
- Quotes: "No problem"; "Word"; "I'll figure it out"
- Previous Jobs: Popcorn Maker, Art Gallery Attendant, Weed Killer
- "Education": Ontario College of Art, YouTube, People Smarter than Me
- Social Media: If you are nice you can friend me on Facebook
Stephen Burling
Stephen grew up in many fantastic worlds.... his formative years were spent in the mystical kingdoms of Eternia and Etheria. He went on to fight crime with mutant ninja turtles and gargoyles, hung out with misunderstood mutants born with incredible powers, joined forces with ordinary citizens utilizing gadgets to take on injustice, and went on all sorts of high flying adventures with ducks in Calisota and a trio of trouble making chipmunks. Everything was magical and everything was possible, and these worlds live on through his passion for movies, TV, comics and video games. He enjoys food-related nourishment - especially things with cheese, salt, all the sauce, or sushi. Most of all, Stephen loves hanging out with friends and family, and laughing and laughing... and more laughing.
- "Official" Role: Director, Partner Happiness and Development
- Code Name(s): High Level, Fred (don't ask)
- Super Powers: Dog whisperer, euchre master, shuffleboard shark, office decorating, interpersonal, time management, solutionizer, making funny (probably annoying) sounds when reading e-mails, zoning people out (and then getting scared when someone gets his attention), creating happiness
- Vulnerabilities: Video games, comics, loot and collectibles, anything deep fried, soft things, shiny things, dogs, an excel challenge
- Past Toys: Toybiz marvel legends, ghostbusters/tmnt/he-man action figures, mighty max, pogs, micro machines, troll dolls, etch a sketch, lite-brite
- Junk Foods: Cheez-its, cheesies, cheetos, anything cheesy, oatmeal peanut butter pirate cookies, chips, dark chocolate, coffee Ice cream
- Quotes: "It don't matter"; "Can we look at this high level"; "Wait a minute..."; "You royal boob!"
- Previous Jobs: McDonald's burger flipper, security guard payroll helper, art store crafty things seller, book recommender, EB Games fanboy, felt a touch of the dark side at Hot Topic, served fancy people fancy foods at fancy functions, experienced corporate culture at Sears and Joe Fresh head offices, procured loot and collectibles and spread geek happiness via Nerd Block
- "Education": Dabbled in graphic design and business; Fashion Business Industry at George Brown
- Social Media: LinkedIn
Bryan Aguilera
In west Philadelphia born and raised on the playground is where he spent most of his days…ok not exactly. Bryan Aguilera is a French Canadian designer/artist who has lived in Montreal, Toronto, and Paris. His early influences came from watching Disney classics and Saturday morning cartoons. The brainwashing took effect, and an insatiable yearning for toys and sugary cereal ensued. In his formative years, he developed a dependency for music and started a synth/guitar band with a buddy, but the fame and money tore the duo to smithereens. So he enrolled in art school and graduated from Industrial Design. Bryan’s personal artwork is influenced by fashion and street art, and has been described as being figurative and sketchy. Oh yes, and he enjoys conversing, stormy nights, and travel.
- "Official" Role: Happy Production Manager
- Code Name(s): Tabasco cat, Bry, B-boy, B
- Super Powers: More of a Batman type he uses gadgets to solve mysteries and such; speedy sketching, yoga positioning, art trolling, going through fine details with a fine toothed comb, toy perfecting, sugary treat resistance
- Vulnerabilities: Daylight, spellcheckers, toys, hammer frisbee throwing, feline gender identification
- Past Toys: Ghostbusters, Transformers, the occasional Barbie, SNES
- Junk Foods: Pizza, chips, carni burgers; traditional Bolivian meals
- Quotes: “Aye caramba!”
- Previous Jobs: Senior Designer for Spin Master Toys, Product Designer for Mega Bloks, phone rep
- "Education": Industrial Design, Dawson College
- Social Media: LinkedIn
Shirley Yee
Shirley grew up in a small town in Northern Ontario, and her formative years were fairly typical: summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. Besides creating toys she also paints and writes. Some of it's actually good. (Note: but she didn't write this!)
- "Official" Role: Co-Founder & Strategist
- Code Name(s): Master of Elective Operations, Ms. Happy Worker, SuperMommy
- Super Powers: Able to make anything & everything better; Is Never Wrong; Internet surfing record holder; Master case packer; Child wrangler
- Vulnerabilities: Caffeine and sugar, Sleep, Want it all attitude
- Past Toys: Etch a Sketch, Barbie-look-alikes, Smurfs, Lego
- Junk Foods: Slurpees, potato chips, cheesecake, swedish berries, homemade desserts, and any junk food that Kris has bought for himself
- Quotes: "What if we do it this way?"; "Where's the magic 8-ball?"; "I'm going to Google that."
- Previous Jobs: Web developer, spud researcher (potato geneticist), Ice cream server at Denise's Dairy Delights
- "Education": B. Sc. in Biology, McGill University
- Social Media: LinkedIn
Kris Schantz
Kris was born and raised in Calgary, and as he grew up, he never grew out of his toys. Over the years Kris played trumpet, piano and drums... and even went to band camp. Several times. He enjoys hiking, except when he gets marooned on mountain peaks overnight. A learner and a sharer, Kris is intrigued by pretty much everything. He's shared his love for toy design and toy making on panels at San Diego Comic-Con and New York Comic Con. And beyond his own fun adventures in creative entrepreneurship, Kris enjoys supporting passionate young entrepreneurs.
- "Official" Role: Co-Founder & Catalyst
- Code Name(s): Mr. Happy Worker, Perfectionist-in-Chief, Bonne Chance/Schantz
- Super Powers: Constant curiosity; Is Always Right; Bad pun making; Super tasks juggler; Crazy ideas generator; Problem zapper; Just-in-time timeliness; Idealistic optimism; Honorary Asian
- Vulnerabilities: Junk food, Bad movies, Video gaming addiction, Pizza, Random acts of kindness
- Past Toys: Lego, He-Man, G.I. Joe, various board games, Atari, Apple ][, NES, PCs
- Junk Foods: Gummi bears, gummi worms, gummi coke bottles, gummi fish, gummi berries, chocolate bars (all), jalapeno chips, jello, homemade chocolate chip cookies, ice cream floats, chocolate cake, and, well, you get the picture
- Quotes: "If it's easy to do, it's not worth doing"; "You can do it!"; "That's not a problem."
- Previous Jobs: Web product manager, mad science guy (chemistry research assistant), pizza dough maker, farm hand, paperboy, lemonade stand proprietor
- "Education": B. Sc. in Biochemistry, McGill University
- Social Media: LinkedIn Twitter
