Interview: Phil Sklar of ROCKY HORROR at Twin Cities Theatre

Phil Sklar, co-founder and CEO of the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum, about a new collection celebrating The Rocky Horror Show.

The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum is launching a Kickstarter for the first-ever Rocky Horror Show bobblehead collection, featuring Dr. Frank N Furter, Janet, Brad, Rocky, Riff Raff, Magenta and Columbia. There’s also a Kickstarter-exclusive Dr. Frank N Furter bobblehead.

And with Rocky Horror events coming up here in Minneapolis at the State Theatre and the Parkway Theatre, it’s a fun time to talk about the show, its characters and the fans who have kept it going for more than 50 years.

What made you decide that now was the right time to create a Rocky Horror Show bobblehead collection?

Honestly, the better question is why it took over 50 years for someone to make Rocky Horror Bobbleheads! Rocky Horror has one of the most passionate, most costume-and-ritual-driven fan communities in entertainment — exactly the kind of built-in audience that makes a bobblehead line a no-brainer. We were connected with the licensing agency earlier this year, and when the timing lined up with the film's anniversary window, it felt like the right moment to finally make it happen. We wanted to launch close to the September 26th anniversary of the film's release, and close on Halloween — it's hard to think of a more fitting bookend for a campaign like this.

The characters from Rocky Horror have such iconic looks. How did you decide which details were most important to capture in each bobblehead?

With a show this visually iconic, the challenge isn't finding details — it's choosing which ones read instantly, even at bobblehead scale. For Frank N Furter, it's the corset, the pearls, the makeup. For Riff Raff and Magenta, it's that pale, angular servant look. For Rocky, it's the gold trunks and the physique. We went through several rounds of sculpt and paint approval with the licensor on the Frank N Furter Bobblehead to make sure every detail was perfect and we'll do that for all of the other characters if the Kickstarter Campaign succeeds. Kickstarter Backers will even get updates to see mold pictures and pictures of the bobbleheads before the public! All of the styles used for these characters were created based on the original characters by Rocky Horror Show.

Tim Curry made Dr. Frank N Furter such an unforgettable character. What does it mean to have this bobblehead serve as a tribute to him and the role he made famous?

Frank N Furter is one of those performances that's inseparable from the actor who created it — Tim Curry didn't just play the role, he defined it. Being able to put an officially licensed bobblehead of that character into fans' hands, for the first time ever, feels like a genuine tribute to what he built. It's the character piece we knew fans would be waiting for most, and we wanted to make sure it did that legacy justice. The other special aspect is that the Dr Frank N Furter Bobblehead that is the headline of the Kickstarter Campaign will only be available during the campaign. If people don't back the campaign, there will never be a second chance to obtain one aside from the secondary market like eBay. If the Campaign is successful, we'll have a different version, but never this one.

Why did you decide to use Kickstarter for this collection, and what are you hoping to see from fans during the campaign?

Kickstarter lets us pre-sell the line so we can gauge demand, rather than guessing about how many characters to produce and the level of demand for each character. It also puts the fan community in the driver's seat — through stretch goals, they get to help decide how big this collection grows. We're hoping to see the same energy fans bring to midnight screenings and shadow casts show up here — that's exactly the kind of enthusiasm that gets stretch goals unlocked.

You've created bobbleheads for so many different people and parts of pop culture. What makes Rocky Horror and its fans stand out to you?

We've made bobbleheads across sports and pop culture, but there aren't many fandoms where the audience is as much a part of the show as Rocky Horror's. Fans dress up, they talk back to the screen, they've turned watching it into a ritual that's lasted over 50 years. That kind of devotion is rare, and it's exactly the kind of community we love building collectibles for — people who don't just watch something, they live in it.

Thank you Phil for your time! For more information click here.