Indie Spotlight is the line of figures produced by Shocker Toys. A lot of things have happened over this year that have resulted in Geoff Beckett, the founder of Shocker Toys, to branch off into his very own toy company titled GBJR Toys (no surprise what the letters stand for). Indie Spotlight is one of those figure lines that has a lot of fans, but also has encountered a lot of problems with distribution and online orders. All of that should change soon with the company’s rebranding and passion to move forward and keep making toys.

To help with that, Geoff Beckett has launched an IndieGoGo campaign (similar to Kickstarter) to help raise funds to produce a second run of Indie Spotlight Series 2, as well as lock in money for new tooling for future Indie Spotlight figures, and produce new body types for the figures. There are lots of cool incentives, such as getting your very own character made into an Indie Spotlight figure (if you can shell out $11,000), and even a trip to Toy Fair 2013.

In addition to this, I had a very brief correspondence with Geoff Beckett to answer just a couple of questions some fans might have regarding the rebranding.

Continue after the jump for the correspondence, a full description of the IndieGoGo campaign, and some cool pictures too.

What does the IndieGoGo campaign mean for people who have already pre-ordered some of these figures from the Shocker Toys website?

GB: People who have pre-ordered which is now a smaller amount since we took over the line will be getting the figures they ordered. This is a goal with stretch goals to make a new run of Series2 along with the new body system and Series3 along with Golden Age series1. We hope to reach the goal with everyone’s help and keep the line going the way it should have been done from the start. Also if anyone who Pre-orderd wanted to pledge we would make sure to give and extra reward for the original pledge (Pre-Order) with Shocker Toys.

So is Shocker all but defunct? You guys were going strong with series 1, what happened after that?

GB: I left Shocker to start GBJR Toys. Things were strong with Shocker but they encountered a problem with a crooked agent overseas and some lack of managment. I have started GBJR Toys to get things back on track and do what I love make toys I love.

Full description of the IndieGoGo campaign:

Indie Spotlight Comic Book Heroes!

Remember the fun of picking up a comic book and liking it so much you had to have the action figure? So do we! That’s where GBJR Toys steps in! We are proud to present: Indie Spotlight – action figures from the comic book pages of old to new!

This project originated from the love of comic book characters and indy comics and their creators. GBJR Toys was fortunate enough to obtain the ever popular toyline Indie Spotlight from another company who grew the line and with that deal has created an action figure body system that will improve and make action figure production faster and full of more choices per series. The Indie Spotlight line, when launched in 2006, was bold and well received as indicated by reviews online including their shining achievement: the Maxx action figure complete with Isz minis. The figures were also praised by collectors to be the first to feature re-sealable collector packaging. Over the course of several months, planning went into improving the existing action figure system that was created for the toyline Indie Spotlight. We wanted a system design that we could call our own and one that would rival even some of the best companies out there. Once that was completed, we took the line up for a full 3-series design and are now ready to put them into action figure form sure to please collectors and comic fans alike!

We will be using the $30,000 to produce a new run of the Series2 Indie Spotlight action figure line as well as an exclusive Indiegogo Maxx version for contributors who choose it as a reward. All of the Series2 and beyond figures that are sent as incentives will be marked as Indiegogo exclusives as a special thank you to our generous contributors.

The peviously released Series1 action figures consisted of characters (The Maxx, Kabuki, Katchoo, Shadowhawk and Scud) which can be found online in many reviews and available in limited numbers on Amazon.com, Hastings and Toys R Us.

The Proposed Indie Spotlight Series 3, including Grendel Prime, Nira-X, The Phantom, The “Z”, and Fist of Justice

The Proposed lineup of Indie Spotlight Golden Age Series 1, including Centaur Publications The Arrow, Fox’s comics The Blue Beetle, Lev Gleason’s The Daredevil, Nedor comics The Black Terror, and Hillman Periodicals The Heap.

I do wish Geoff Beckett the best of luck with his campaign. I’ve loved the Indie Spotlight figures since they were first announced. They’re very much in the same vein as the Legendary Comic Book Heroes figures Toybiz produced years ago. I love seeing indie comic book characters done so well in action figure form.

If you’d like to contribute, just follow this link to their IndieGoGo page. I don’t know about you, but I’m very excited to see what’s to come for this line of toys.