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A LITTLE BIT
Cathey with fans at Comic-Con International: San Diego in 2019 Source: The Loyal Subjects
Willy Wonka A LITTLE BIT ROCK ‘N ROLL
Jonathan Cathey talks founding, running, and expanding The Loyal Subjects. by Madeleine Buckley, associate editor
J
onathan Cathey is a man of many metaphors, which explains why he included this slightly unorthodox — but ultimately accurate — statement when describing his company: “We’re a little bit Willy Wonka, dunked in a Koonsian ether, topped off with some Iggy Pop. Voilà! The Loyal Subjects in a nutshell.” Cathey describes himself similarly, which makes sense because, in many ways, he and The Loyal Subjects — a collectibles and designer art toy company known for its articulated Action Vinyls figures — are one and the same. “Being that I started The Loyal Subjects, a lot of it has my personality,” he says. “And I guess if you look at my personality, some of it’s wacky and delirious and head-in-the-clouds, like Willy Wonka, and anything’s possible. Most of it is rock and roll spirit, which is Iggy Pop. Some of it’s juvenile, which is Sesame Street.”
$500 AND A LIVING ROOM Back in 2009, Cathey launched the company as a one-man show. He had just
$500, the living room of his small, West Hollywood bungalow, and his girlfriend at the time, who helped him pack boxes. He also came from a diverse creative background: a theater major, an artist, and a drummer with some experience in the toy industry. Flash forward more than a decade and Cathey still runs The Loyal Subjects, but now he does so from an office with a staff of 15 and more than $60 million in retail sales. The road to finding that Willy-Wonka-meets-Iggy-Pop vibe wasn’t perfectly straight: Cathey started out making designer toys before shifting to become a counter-culture toy company. Then, about seven years ago, The Loyal Subjects moved into licensed figures, starting with Transformers and G.I. Joe. “That helped bring in a new viewership,” Cathey says. “We weren’t just doing abstract designer toys or things where you only have editions of 200, 300, or 99 even. It kind of widened our audience … and we just started building
from there.” Through it all, Cathey has had a hands-on role in nearly every part of the company. (Perhaps, he admits, he was too set on learning how to do everything for the business himself in the early days.) While his day-to-day schedule at the office is as challenging as ever, over the years Cathey has carefully built a team to help him carry the workload. He likens this team, and the importance of choosing the right team Ghostbusters Action Vinyl | Source: The Loyal Subjects
72 | Issue No. 10 | THE POP INSIDER
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