At IGN Live on Sunday, Todd McFarlane stopped by to show off some of the upcoming figures from McFarlane Toys. The focus was on characters from the Fallout franchise and Helldivers 2, as the company continues to bolster its video game-based releases.
First up was the Paladin Danse figure from from Fallout 4, which is part of the Elite Series, or as McFarlane jokingly referred to as “the Cadillac model,” as it allows for more complicated sculpts, more paint, and more accessories. However, he stressed they always wanted to have different lines at different price points, knowing everyone wouldn’t want or be able to afford the more high end versions.
McFarlane spoke about how not only had video game characters in general been q growing component for them the past few years, but that “Fallout caught us by surprise,” saying when they first took on the license it was more of a “let’s see how it goes” situation. Quickly, fans were asking for more, and McFarlane noted, “We’ve had a lot of success with Fallout, not only with the new games they have, but they’ve opened up their library.”
While showing off the figure for Joshua Graham from Fallout: New Vegas and the Fallout 76 T-45, McFarlane went more into their philosophy on which characters they choose to produce for each wave, saying they usually break a wave up into what McFarlane referred to as the A, the B and the C characters, in terms of popularity. Which isn’t to say the B or C characters are bad — in fact they could be cult favorites — but it’s the A characters everyone usually wants.
The way McFarlane saw it, even though he knew fans would ask for the most popular characters up front, “You don’t want to burn all the A characters right out of the gate” because they are the ones that ensure fans come back for each new group of figures – allowing the line to last longer and for the fans of the less high profile characters to have a chance to grow their collection further than they otherwise would.
Lastly, McFarlane displayed a couple of the Helldivers II figures his company is making, including the TR-40 Gold Eagle and B-01 Tactical Elite Edition figure. These figures include wired capes, along with patterns on those cape, which isn’t something they’ve done a lot of previously.
The B-01 Tactical Elite Edition figure also has tons of accessories, including — among the multiple hands available — one that is doing the Shaka, just as you would hope.
For more with Todd McFarlane, be sure to check out our full video chat with him at the top of the page.
And be sure to keep up with everything we learned at the jam-packed IGN Live 2026!