Line #61 ComicBook/FallOutToyWorks


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fotwtropes_9374.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:"''Oh baby, you're a classic...''"]]
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4	A five issue ComicBook miniseries written by Brett Lewis (co-writer of the ''Film/BulletProofMonk'' comic and writer of The Winter Men) and with art by Imaginary Friends Studios. The initial concept was created by Music/FallOutBoy bassist/lyricist/frontman Pete Wentz with illustrator Nathan Cabrera and fashion designer Darren Romanelli.
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6	Taking place mainly in a {{Cyberpunk}} version of UsefulNotes/LosAngeles, the comic focuses on a robotic toy maker called [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep The Toymaker]] who is barely keeping his company, Fall Out Toy Works, afloat. Years before, he was in the forefront of robotics technology, now he's being harassed by lawyers. In comes Baron, the man who has Los Angeles in a vice grip, controlling all forms of industry and even the local weather. He's prepared to pay the Toymaker handsomely if he manages to do the impossible: create a female robot capable of loving another being.
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8	After a rough start, the robot [[{{Fembot}} Tiffany]] (named after an old song called [[Music/FallOutBoy "Tiffany Blews"]]) is activated. She needs to experience life in order for her programming to function properly. Baron, being the dominating figure that he is, won't be having any of that. Tiffany is implanted with other people's memories, averaged out to maintain a balance. On top of the Toymaker dealing with a failing factory and a robot going through an existential crisis living with a man she might not even want to love comes another complication...[[PygmalionPlot The Toymaker has fallen in love with his creation]]. She might just feel the same. With Tiffany caught in the middle of the Toymaker and the Baron, who ''won't'' come out worse for wear?
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10	With a story that explores WhatMeasureIsANonHuman, the [[WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove nature of love]], whether or not love is any less real if it's programmed (into a human OR a robot), and a very, ''very'', [[GainaxEnding weird ending]], Fall Out Toy Works manages to be nothing (yet everything) one would expect from a comic book based on Fall Out Boy. Much like ''Theatre/MyFairLady'' [[JustForFun/XMeetsY meets]] ''Film/BladeRunner'', but [[MindScrew weirder]].
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12	The entire comic through Atomeka Press in webcomic format [[http://fallouttoyworks.keenspot.com/d/20120326.html through Keenspot]] and in individual issue format [[https://www.graphitecomics.com/t/QR22kmFZw4 through Graphite Comics]]. Issues 1-5 were compiled into a trade paperback with bonus material. Individual issues of the comic were available through Comixology (with issue one for free)[[note]]Both the webcomic version, Graphite Comics version, and the trade paperback include a few additional pages in issue 1, but don't include the final page of issue 5. The webcomic version also has logoless/textless cover pages and doesn't include issue 1's stinger. Issue 1's stinger remains in the trade paperback.[[/note]] but are now mysteriously unavailable. Individual print issues and the trade paperback are no longer in print with no current plans for reprints or digital sales.
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14	A Motion Comic adaptation is currently in DevelopmentHell. If and when it does get released, it'll feature the voices of Patrick Stump (as the Toymaker), Pete Wentz (as Crybaby), Creator/AnnaFaris (as Tiffany), and Jaime King (as Gravity Welles). DevelopmentHell isn't new for Fall Out Toy Works as in its initial run, the releases for the last three issues took much longer than expected due to the writer being in a coma and Fall Out Boy going on break around the end of the series run. Ouch. The series was intended to expand further into a multimedia franchise with toys, fashion, and animated movies, with only the fashion component really being delivered on.
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16	These pages contain spoilers, some of which may be unmarked. Proceed with caution.
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18	----
19	!!Tropes:
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21	* AllThereInTheManual: A good portion of background info merely glossed over in the comic (Baron's rise to power, the Toymaker's previous involvement in an anti-Baron smuggling operation/art collective, the Second Industrial Revolution, etc.) was mentioned on the comic's minisite. The section the information was included on has been broken for a matter of years, but can be read in full on this [[https://blog.naver.com/cpgjk12/50069360244 fan blog post]]. [[http://hypebeast.com/2009/8/fall-out-toy-works-issue-1 A portion of the info on the minisite]] was made available in a promotional article on Hypebeast, but it only focuses on the Second Industrial Revolution and Baron's rise to power.
22	* AllJustADream: [[spoiler: The entire premise of issue 3.]]
23	* BilingualBonus: Some of the various Los Angeles street signs and Gravity's dialogue can be this way for anyone fluent in Japanese. Those who are paying attention to Toymaker gambling in issue 1 will notice he's actually in a Korean bar, complete with a Jinro soju sign, a guy cursing "shibal", and the Toymaker excitedly exclaiming "assa" while playing with hwata cards. In issue 5, among the English and Japanese Christmas greetings in the city, there's also some in Indonesian and Russian.
24	* SecondLawMyAss: Mr. Moth puts calls in from other people regardless of Toymaker's say-so in issue 2 and makes some questionably legal arrangements to get Toymaker into Baron's shindig in issue three [[spoiler: although Toymaker ended up dreaming all that up]].
25	* ContemplateOurNavels: Infrequently throughout the miniseries [[spoiler: and for the better part of the last issue.]]
26	* CuteMachines: The Toymaker excels at making these. See also, Crybaby.
27	* DeadpanSnarker: Even the robots get into it.
28	* EnfantTerrible: The kids whose father commissioned the Toymaker to make Crybaby for. They beat him with a baseball bat repeatedly and when the Toymaker comes in to fix him, their insistence on having their father buy Mr. Moth just so they could pit the two robots against each other was enough to make him take Crybaby back.
29	* [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep Everyone Calls Him Toymaker]]: Hoo boy. The comic synopsis for the second issue said his actual name was Jasper and one of the data files Mr. Moth brings up in the fourth issue has his name as [[HisNameReallyIsBarkeep "Chris Toymakeras"]]. [[spoiler: The final page of the final issue reveals his name is actually Alistair and brings up the possibility of his last name actually ''being'' Toymaker. This page isn't available in the webcomic or trade paperback versions.]]
30	* FakeMemories: Implanted in her by the Baron and his scientists to try and avert having her experience real life and to speed up her development. This leads to her becoming rather unstable to the point where [[spoiler: she purges herself of all of them, including some of the few actual memories she has]].
31	* FauxAffablyEvil: Baron makes himself out to be perfectly civil in his business dealings and even serves as a mall Santa for orphaned kids...but it's very much an act and only the most oblivious would be fooled.
32	* GainaxEnding: Issue 5. Long story short: [[spoiler: Implanting false memories into a robot instead of allowing her to live life freely does not end well for all involved, especially when you're forced to see ''exactly'' how it affects her processing.]]
33	* HesBack: Lampshaded by Mr. Moth and eventually carried out.
34	* HeroicBSOD: In issue 4 and issue 5, when Mr. Moth reveals that the real world experiences that Baron had agreed to let her pursue were actually FakeMemories taken in the same fashion as those that had been initially implanted into her. This breaks her down to the point where she chooses to hook herself into a machine that has FakeMemories ''mainlined'' into her.
35	** Toymaker, after the events of issue 3 when Tiffany is taken away from him (again).
36	* LoveImbuesLife: The setup for issue 3 had the Toymaker going to Paris to meet with Toymaker's old college professor to make this happen. They manage to get it to work, but it doesn't stick [[spoiler: considering it was AllJustADream]].
37	* MarsAndVenusGenderContrast: Discussed several times, though exclusively between the Toymaker and other male characters, with Tiffany's creation falling into stereotypes of women being mysterious and unpredictable. Tiffany and Gravity don't share the same attitudes towards men but have issues with getting the Toymaker and Baron to understand their perspective. Eventually Gravity gets fed up by Toymaker's obsession with Tiffany and being deceived by him. Tiffany ends up tired of both Baron and Toymaker trying to control her.
38	* MechaMooks: Baron has several, including one he changes into a MechanicalMonster [[spoiler: in Toymaker's dream sequence in issue 3.]]
39	** In issue 5, the Toymaker combines this trope with CuteMachines to storm Baron's compound.
40	* MegaCorp: Baron's whole set up that has a production stranglehold on the city of Los Angeles.
41	* NeuralImplanting: Of FalseMemories into Tiffany.
42	* OrwellianRetcon: The trade paperback and webcomic version take out the final page of issue 5, which changes the tone of the ending drastically.
43	* PlotHole: The {{Stinger}} for Issue 1 shows a clean-cut Toymaker working on Tiffany's heart with the caption "ONE YEAR LATER." The second issue contradicts this, with a struggling Toymaker only ''just'' getting the idea of making her a heart a year later, with someone else actually doing the work on it. This stinger is cut out of the webcomic version but is still in the trade paperback.
44	** The OrwellianRetcon of the final page of issue 5 in the webcomic and trade paperback version fixes the SurprisinglyHappyEnding that seemingly took the "bite" out of TheDogBitesBack [[spoiler: and Mr. Moth's death]], making it merely an AmbiguousEnding.
45	* RidiculouslyHumanRobot: Shown and lampshaded in issue 4 with Tiffany having a cooldown smoke after an argument with Baron.
46	** In the same issue, Mr Moth gets 3000 channels and apparently makes the most of them, what with comparing Toymaker's HeroicBSOD with George Foreman after his match with Mohammed Ali.
47	** Another lampshading in issue 4, when Tiffany finds one of Baron's MechaMooks tending to flowers.
48	* RobotBuddy: Now in convenient cellular SnarkyNonhumanSidekick flavor, as seen with Mr. Moth.
49	* RobotKid: Crybaby is a boy robot in a bear suit pulled straight out of the cover art for Music/FallOutBoy's ''Folie a Deux''. They also don't call him "Crybaby" for nothing.
50	* RoaringRampageOfRescue: Toymaker goes into mass production of a pack of toy robots (with weapons and jetpacks), calls for help from old friends, and storms Baron's zeppelin base to get Tiffany back.
51	* ShoutOut: As expected with a comic based on a Fall Out Boy song, there are FOB lyric references galore (most obviously to "Tiffany Blews"). Most obscure reference would have to be to their debut EP with issue 2's title: "My Evening Out with Your Girlfriend",
52	** Baron's [[http://cdn.fallouttoyworks.keenspot.com/comics/fotw20120502.jpg "phone with personality"]] has the appearance of [[Franchise/DragonBall Goku]] with wings and [[Film/DragonballEvolution brown hair]].
53	** The [[http://cdn.fallouttoyworks.keenspot.com/comics/fotw20121203.jpg toy robot attack]] on Baron's base features a toy that looks like a mix of the [[Anime/MyNeighborTotoro Catbus and Totoro]] and a Series/KamenRider toy!
54	** One of Baron's MechaMooks in the beginning of issue four takes to the roof of the zeppelin to [[Music/{{Eagles}} tend to]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_California_%28song%29 his colitas]]. "Tiffany-twisted", indeed.
55	** If one looks closely at the backgrounds, a billboard for the [[Film/BladeRunner Tanhauser]] [[TannhauserGate Gates]] shows up.
56	* SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence: Tiffany and Mr. Moth are somewhere between grade 3 and 4, Crybaby and some of Baron's suitwearing MechaMooks are grade 3, and the rest of Toymaker's creations and Barons MechaMooks are grade 1.
57	* TheDogBitesBack: In issue 5, Tiffany's anger at both the Toymaker and the Baron continually not allowing her to define herself leads to [[spoiler: her removing her FakeMemories, taking out Baron's airship, and escaping using Toymaker's mechanical wings]].
58	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The Rabbi who creates Tiffany's heart is confronted by one of Baron's MechaMooks and is never heard from again, though you can probably assume the worst, knowing the Baron.
59	* WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove: A common recurring theme, explored through Tiffany's relationships with Baron and the Toymaker.
60	* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Another common recurring theme, to a lesser extent than the above.
61	* WhatTheHellHero: Directed by Gravity to Toymaker, accusing him of RevengeBeforeReason and disapproving of him going to all that length for Tiffany for [[{{Robosexual}} less than pure intentions]].
62	* ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld: Baron's base of operations.

Context ComicBook / FallOutToyWorks