Toymaster
by Scott Slemmons
Art by andi jones
Human male; 46 years old; 5' 8"; 125 pounds; graying black hair; brown eyes; dresses shabbily and wears a crumpled fedora.
ST: 11 [10]
DX: 11 [10]
IQ: 13 [30]
HT: 9 [-10]
Speed: 5.0
Damage: Swing: 1d+1 Thrust: 1d-1Advantages: Extraordinary Luck [30]; High Pain Threshold [10]; Strong Will +2 [8]; Unusual Background (Super) [50].
Disadvantages: Berserk [-15]; Delusion, Minor ("My toys are really alive.") [-5]; Megalomania [-10]; Paranoia [-10]; Skinny [-5].
Skills: Acting-13 [2]; Artist-13 [4]; English-14 [1]; Fast-Talk-12 [1]; Knife-12 [2]; Merchant-14 [4]; Scrounging-13 [1]; Sculpting-12 [4]; Sleight of Hand-11 [4]; Toymaking-16 [32]; Ventriloquism-13 [4]; Woodworking-12 [4].
Super Advantages: Catfall [10]; DR 6 [18]; Reduced Sleep [10]; Sensitive Touch [10].
Super Powers: Animate-16 (Toys Only: -30%; Area Effect: +50%; Extended Duration: +30%) [72+20=92 points]; Control Animated Object-15 (Toys Only: -30%; Area Effect: +50%) [43+16=59 points].
Quirks: Talks to his toys; Loves grilled-cheese-and-bacon sandwiches; Likes children; Dislikes any music released more recently than the 1950s; Never goes out without a hat.
Total Points: 350
Hollis Gennetti grew up in a close-knit Italian neighborhood in New York City, where his mental instability was ignored rather than treated. Luckily, his personal manias tended to be harmless -- he was obsessed with toys and toymaking.
Hollis was born a mutant, but he never had a clue that he was different from everyone else. He'd always imagined that his toys could talk to him, and the day they stood up and started moving around unassisted, he was hardly surprised -- he actually wondered why they'd taken so long to start walking on their own. He told people in the neighborhood that his toys could talk, but they just smiled and tapped their foreheads when he wasn't looking.
Nevertheless, his talents and skill as a toymaker were respected and moderately profitable for many years, but eventually his handmade toys and dolls fell out of favor with children who preferred the mass-produced toys advertised during Saturday morning cartoon shows. As his savings dwindled, he realized that his toys could help him strike back at the giant toy store chains that were driving him out of business.
Soon afterwards, he began robbing some of the shopping mall toy stores after closing, with the assistance of his homemade dolls. In addition to cleaning out the cash registers, he "liberated" as many of the stores' toys as he could, adding to a growing army of felonious action figures, fashion dolls, toy cars, and Baby Drink N' Wet dolls.
Nicknamed the Toymaster by the media after a security camera recorded one of his burglaries, Hollis has begun staging a few daylight robberies when he feels he and his toys have a good chance of escaping. Though he has had no difficulty dealing with normal guards and policemen, he has not yet faced any metahuman heroes -- if he ever does, he is likely to retreat as quickly as possible.
Article publication date: January 7, 2000
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