According to a post on comicbookresources, McFarlane Toys, a company owned by comic creator Todd McFarlane with a long history of revolutionizing the landscape of action figures quality and sculpts, is undergoing a third round of layoffs which is “far more severe than the previous two.”
The company is currently split into two, design studios in New Jersey and administration in Arizona offices. Reportedly, “The studios will see forty staff drop to thirteen. Major operations will be shut down, including the mold, paint, sculpting, and model departments.”
“The only department to survive will be the digital department, and only two of its members will be held on, and a couple of traditional sculptors are being trained up to handle digital sculpting.
The plan as it currently stands is that most new sculpts will be scans of actual people (posed standing up, making a T shape,) cleaned up digitally, armour and accessories assembled and added digitally (think Mr Potato Head,) mixing and matching from other sculpts, and then the files sent to China for 3D printing, cleaning, touching up, sculpting, articulation and the rest. New Jersey will only generate digital output from now on. This is still a very experimental process, however.
The New Jersey complex will be reduced from four buildings to one, with the equipment either being sold of shipped to China. As for Arizona, they will shrink from seventy people to around thirty-five.
The phasing out office staff will occur sometime between now and June, though no specific dates of personnel of departments have been given. When asked about severance, a human resources representative stated that ‘allowing you to work until June should be looked at as your severance package.'”