Winslow Schott

The Toyman

## Biography

### Early Life

Winslow Schott had a childhood that most could only dream of. His parents ran one of the most prolific toy companies in the world: Schott’s. They were behind iconic toys and founded the company on brick-and-mortar stores and quality craftsmanship. However, as the 90s gave way to the 2000s, and interests shifted to the digital landscape and VR, Schott’s struggled to make the transition.

The family company filed for bankruptcy while Winslow was in MIT. With the loss of the family fortune, he was forced to drop out while in the trenches of his thesis project - which was centered on recreating his childhood toys with robots to help with everyday life. He believed it was the key to saving his family, but without their wealth, he lacked the resources.

Winslow was clever, though, and he managed to steal supplies from the student labs, as well as raiding a police armory using a homemade bomb. He continued to design the robots, not giving up on his goal. Eventually, his suspicious activity was noticed, and he was arrested on theft charges and for suspicion of terrorism.

### The Toyman

While imprisoned, he was visited by Gretchen Goode, owner of Goode World Studios, who was seeking to create VR headsets. She offered to sponsor him for a lucrative, secretive, work release program that would quietly exonerate him thanks to GG’s government connections. Plus, along with it would come a hefty payment. He would’ve been a fool not to accept.

However, it was all a trick. While he was released to Gretchen’s custody, the VR headsets he was creating were not for Goode World Studios. Instead, he was essentially sold into slavery to the alien trafficking ring Intergang. He did create the VR headsets and watched them be bastardized and used to hypnotize and incapacitate trafficking victims.

Only known as the Toyman, he reached the top of the FBI’s most wanted, as Intergang would pin most of their crimes on him. However, his identity remained secret, they did not know who they were searching for. One of Intergang’s rivals, the 100, started turning up with similar weapons. Bruno Mannheim believed Winslow to be a traitor, and so he cut off his hand.

Winslow was disgraced and on his own on the streets of Metropolis’ Suicide Slums. He set up shop in a small salvage yard, where he used tiny spy robots to track down the supplier of the 100’s weapons, a young boy named Jack Nimball. He recruited Nimball to his side, both united by their love of toys.

Schott witnessed Intergang sell his inventions to the cruel Ibac the Second of Kahndaq, where it was used to murder a refugee camp. He would not stand for this, instead vowing for the downfall of Intergang. They planted explosives that wrecked several Intergang storehouses, which then forced them to go underground.

Taking the name of Harold Kripstly, Schott started working at STAR Labs with a fabricated background. He ended up meeting a girl, Maddie, and married her, and had a son, Anton. However, all would not remain happy for them. He discovered that Nimball, under the alias of Walter Dunhill, had started selling their designs, and cut Schott out of the profit. But, thanks to his meddling, now Intergang and the 100 were after them, and they were closing in.

Nimball ended up storming into STAR Labs and forcing Winslow out by gunpoint, leading to a prolonged chase from the Metropolis Police Department, which drew Intergang’s attention. Intergang helped dissuade the MPD, but captured Maddie and Anton, holding them hostage and forcing the two men to turn themselves in. Nimball refused to go with Schott, who was prepared to turn in his life.

Winslow came back to Intergang, who returned him to his former employment, while holding his family hostage to keep him working. One day, Winslow was shocked when a reign of explosives came down, and Nimball, outfitted in a suit of armor, had come to rescue him. Winslow begged Nimball to leave, but he refused to leave without Schott, having come to love him like a father. Schott agreed to leave, but forced Nimball to help him find his wife and child. However, by the time they reached their chamber, they had been slaughtered and dismembered. Schott tried to turn a gun on himself, but Nimball pulled him away at the last moment and forced him to escape.

While hiding out in Nimball’s workshop, Schott had a psychotic break, blaming Nimball for the death of his family. He secretly drugged him, and while Nimball slept, Schott went to work. He surgically removed his arms, legs, and the top of his skull in his sleep, replacing them with mechanics and turning Nimball into, essentially, a human puppet.

With this, the world became Winslow’s toybox. He would create fantastical, violent inventions, such as gigantic nutcrackers, and release them on Metropolis, with Jack inside to take the fall (but always able to evade capture). This went wrong, when one day, Jack went limp in the middle of a supply run on STAR Labs. He was finally captured by the MPD, where they declared Nimball braindead. It was at long last believed that Winslow Schott was dead.

But, by night, when the moon comes out, it is believed that Winslow lives once again. A strange phenomenon has been occurring in the bedrooms of children in Metropolis. Their toys come to life, sometimes wielding weapons, and on occasion, violence has resulted. For those who believe in the occult, they now suspect that the ghost of Winslow Schott inhabits the toys he loved so dear to continue his violent reign.