>>9863475Back in the 90's, McFarlane's toys pioneered a lot of things for domestic toys. Todd himself was a bit of a rebel who always went against they grain and when people told him not to do things, or not to do things a certain way, you can bet your ass he did them exactly that way. That's how he was as an artist, and that's how he was when it came to his toys.
The 90s toys were pretty much the perfect balance between design, sculpt, detail, paint, articulation, etc. During that time, you'd have figures like all the Kenner (like Aliens, Predator, Batman, Terminator, etc) and Playmates stuff, like TMNT, which all had crazy detail and sculpt, but were lacking in things like paint and articulation.
Todd also pushed a lot of boundaries with toys, making lots of monsters, creatures, dragons, slasher movie villains and other horror icons, along with a lot of his Spawn (and other Image IP) stuff. The figures had meticulous detail and paint, and the engineering was leaps above most other stuff.
Problem was, that thick headedness that got him to that point caught up to him when he didn't really attempt to innovate much more once everyone else caught up to him. He maintained the high sculpt, detail, and paint, but started cutting back on articulation, and at that point, other companies (like Mezco and NECA) had come along and done a lot of the more adult-themed figures, and were often doing them better at that point.
Didn't really help that Todd also is a huge sports fan, and was heavily leaning into his sports lines, which also alienated the people who really enjoyed his toys even further.
