If you know me, you know how much I love G.I. Joe and horror movies. Well, this new toy line is perfect!

Let Grindhouse Toys tell you all about it!

“World War HELL is a vintage-inspired 1/18 World War II horror O-ring action figure line. Combining the nostalgic fun of Friday nights at the video store, 3-3/4 action figures and ridiculously over-the-top low-budget horror movies. Featuring classic O-Ring construction with a twist. Extra articulation, killer sculpting, highly detailed interchangeable accessories, all with premium deco. Incorporating a VHS-style packaging design, every figure comes in a slipcase box that beautifully showcases the movie poster artwork. Our team has spent the last year and a half designing, sculpting, fabricating and painting to create these incredibly detailed prototypes.”

World War HELL tells the story of an alternate history World War II. An apocalyptic world filled with skeletons, demons, corpses, ghosts and all manner of hell beasts. CERBERUS (The Allied department of supernatural and occult) is fighting a losing battle against COLONEL MALLUM and THE REVENANT, to keep the 9 circles of hell closed. Spearheading the ground assault is SGT. GRAVES and THE DEVIL’S REJECTS. A highly trained special forces unit made up of questionable heroes.

World War HELL: Series 1 is coming, and hell is coming with it. Each character is armed to the teeth and includes multiple interchangeable parts, so that you can build your army the way that you want. These are all of the rewards available on launch: CORPSE, SGT. GRAVES, SGT. SPECTER, CERBERUS TROOPER, and the GREEN ARMY MEN FROM HELL!

I had the chance to speak with Chris Scott, the creative powerhouse behind this line. He has worked on multiple toy lines in the independent toy industry, including but not limited to: Operation: Monster Force, Eagle Force Returns, The Naughty or Nice Collection, Skeletron Red Shadows, Operation Recall, The Prisoner, Nancy Drew, Longbox Heroes, The Fresh Monkeys, and Soldiers of Fortune. Grindhouse Toys has also released two highly sought-after and now sold-out action figures. The Multiverse Massacre D.R.E.A.D. Trooper and Necromancer.

B&S About Movies: How did you make the jump from collecting toys to making them?

Grindhouse Toys: From collecting toys, I got into customizing as well. I had been doing a lot of Marauder (a line of customizable figures you can find at this link)stuff, but I was intimidated about painting them. But then I started doing a bit of it and took a few classes at Joefest, and I got good at it quickly. I started building up a little bit of custom work and working with different people. My friend Ed Hellman actually recommended me to Bill Murphy, who is in charge of Fresh Monkey Fiction — he does Eagle Force and Operation: Monster Force — and he needed a painter to work on Monster Force. He reached out to me and said, “Hey, do you want to do paint masters?” The line combines G.I. Joe and monsters, so I said, “Absolutely.” Beyond just choosing the colors, I also get to do the art direction. We’re now in wave four of those figures.

I started painting on other stuff for Bill. He gave me numerous opportunities to work on other lines like Long Box Heroes, which were Super Powers-style action figures but instead of batman and superman it was The Rocketeer and The Goon. I worked on the Naughty or Nice collection, which is the Santa Claus action figure line that Arlen Pelletier and Bill produce, and they just had me doing all kinds of stuff. I’ve also worked for several different companies, and I’ve been wanting to do my own thing for a while. It was fun to work on all that, but I can do my own. I want my own IP, my own stories, and it’s been pretty cool to get to this point already.

B&S: There have been so many toy Kickstarters over the past few years, but what’s really unique about your stuff is that there’s a unique vision and that you can tell that, like, it feels like the story comes first.

Grindhouse: Yeah, that’s what I wanted. Something to like really connect and you know — I’ve always been big into movies and storytelling. It goes hand in hand with the toys that we collect. I wanted to bring that to what I was working on.

B&S: It feels like Mars Attacks! in that it’s humans against the undead.

Grindhouse: As I came up with this line, one of the hardest things to do is- it’s so expensive — to tool the parts (mold the parts) in China. You know I can’t come up with a bunch of uniquely sculpted figures. It would not be a viable, so I started brainstorming around the idea of shared parts. I got into the concept of World War II being at the edge of modern technology; it’s a diesel punk time where we don’t have computers yet. I did the Multiverse Massacre figures with Bill — the D.R.E.A.D. Trooper and Necromancer — and when we got the figures back from the factory, they were just in plastic bags. That’s not packaging! I found someone who had clamshell boxes, and we made that into something different. Giving them VHS style packing.

For this line, instead of a modern body, I wanted to go back to O-rings. There’s something about 1980s G.I. Joes and renting horror VHS tapes that just seems to go together.

B&S: But you’ve taken the articulation beyond what we had as kids.

Grindhouse: Everybody’s doing really cool stuff already. We’re in an O-Ring renaissance. Delta-17, Operation Recall, Callsign Longbow, Skeletron, Strike Force Alpha — you know all of these different companies have done extraordinary things with O-ring. They’re creating fantastic items that complement our old Joes. I said, “Let’s go a different direction and update the articulation.” Adding articulation in the neck, ankles, wrists. Adding an overlay, which was former Hasbro sculpt supervisor James Carter’s idea, is a second piece over the body that adds a whole new dynamic. I wanted to add G.I. Joe Classified-style quality sculpting to this world.

B&S: What movies influenced these figures?

Grindhouse: I’m a big fan of Evil Dead, especially Evil Dead II, so I didn’t want it to be too serious. I wanted it to be both scary and ridiculous. That’s why it works so well as an O-Ring figure: you have this over-the-top gory corpse with its head exploding and you still see where the rivets go and the goofy O-Ring construction. I also love The Thing, and Aliens is one of my all-time favorite movies. I didn’t want the science fiction of Star Wars. I wanted it to be scary when I was a kid! (laughs)

Those are the big three there, but I also love all the ’80s action movies with their goofy taglines. I mean my phone case is John Matrix from Commando holding his giant rocket launcher utilizing the camera phone.

I did try to make some things realistic — the guns are especially — but these are Nazi experiments with zombies, so it can be goofy, like something Troma could have made.

B&S: Have you had a good reaction with the VHS cases?

Grindhouse:Oh yeah, yeah, so people love that. I want to go for a horror exploitation feel. The packaging is so important — just look at the G.I. Joe toys we grew up with, the paintings that Hector Garrido created for them. Plus, you have the file cards, the comic book, the cartoon…the world building.I wanted something special so Brian Sauer and I created the VHS packaging, and even won a best of category packaging award by the Art Directors Association of Iowa for the Necromancer VHS packaging.

B&S: Do you have plans for more after the Kickstarter?

Grindhouse: Oh yeah, absolutely. I have so many more ideas coming. And I did these at 3 3/4″ because I want vehicles and army building to be part of World War Hell. We need a tank. (laughs)

I have tons of ideas. There’s a lot of cool characters. Even though this is supposed to be a World War II movie, the sky is the limit. Ash goes back and forth in time, after all. My characters can too. No real rules and nothing is holding me back.

I’m so excited about these toys! Chris is a great guy and deserves your support and money!

You can support this Kickstarter now.

Click the link and be sure to do it in the next 5 days!

You can also learn more at the official Grindhouse Toys website.