n e x t i s s u e :

Behind the Scenes:

Toys! Toys! Toys! I LOVE toys, and I’ve collected quite a few over the past five decades—
including many I still have from childhood. As mentioned in the “Behind the Scenes” of
Issue #1, toys were the foundation of Underwhere -the spark for its creation. I love
seeing a child’s imagination at play, and with Underwhere’s play environment made up of
any area of any home anywhere in the world, I wanted the toys to be fully interactive—not
only for the young person playing with them, but for the environment they were playing
in.

The concepts designed here, based on many of my original sketches and the final ABC
television movie script—which had a more direct Wizard of Oz connection between the
real-world characters and all the key characters in the fantasy world—were rendered by
my friend Stephan Johnson, who did an amazing job.
 In the ABC version of the story, the device to help Jake travel
between worlds was a watch that his grandfather had given him,
which we tweaked to be a shield and sword he could also use once
he arrived in Underwhere. With that in mind, I wanted the toy
itself to come with an accessory kids could play with right
away—as you can see with all the characters featured here.
An awesome toy trend that became popular again in
the mid-nineties was the “mini playset,” which could
not have been more perfect for Underwhere. I loved
the idea that we could create a nearly endless array
of everyday household items that could be quickly
transformed into a play environment.
The tape dispenser and pencil sharpener
shown here are only a few of the many
ideas we had, which could easily connect
to larger playsets like Doc Static’s lair
below. Being a car nut, I also had to
work up a line of mini race cars! Yeah!
I hope you got a kick out of these. I love them, and
although the ideas here are over twenty-two years old,
I still think they would make wonderful toys for kids
of all ages to enjoy!

Next month, the next evolution of Underwhere—

animated film concepts by the amazing Blur Studios!

Cool Beans!
Kevin Eastman