How the viral Steely Dan action figures were made
Santa’s workshop has nothing on custom toymaker Dano Brown.
Before he became a full-time toymaker, Dano Brown worked in a warehouse. During his off-hours, as a hobby, he began making custom action figures, meticulously mashing up plastic parts from thrift-store G.I. Joes and Star Wars characters (what’s known as “kitbashing”), going so far as to replicate the packaging of brands like Kenner and Hasbro. The Nintendo lover’s first creation was Little Mac from the classic game Punch-Out!!. His designs would quickly turn toward the absurd, including “Funeral Edition” Donny from The Big Lebowski, which consisted of a miniature Folgers coffee can.
In 2018, Brown’s life changed overnight in one of the silliest ways imaginable. An 11-year-old boy named Mason Ramsey yodeled “Lovesick Blues” by Hank Williams in a Walmart in southern Illinois. The video of the performance went viral. “It kind of took over my brain,” Brown says. “I joked with my buddy that I should make an action figure of the yodel kid. He was like, ‘Do it. You’ll be famous.’”
He was right. Brown posted a photo of the Ramsey figure (“Cowboy Hat Included”), and it was quickly blasted around the globe by clout-heavy social channels from Barstool Sports to WorldStarHipHop. Forbes and Vice soon requested interviews with Brown. Before long he began receiving lucrative commissions to make one-of-a-kind action figures of film, TV, and video game characters. Some customers wanted to honor family members with toy likenesses.
“It was a domino effect,” Brown says, “until I couldn’t find time to go to the warehouse anymore.”
The 41-year-old father of three spoke to Expanding Dan from his home in Victorville, California, chiefly about what he calls one of his proudest creations: Aja-era Walter Becker and Donald Fagen action figures. The toymaker talked about his painstaking process, the waves of attention he’s received from Danfans, and the reason why he’ll never repeat the design.