About BlackOpsToys

What We Do

BlackOPS|Toys was founded as an eBay hobby on June 1, 2004 by friends, Brian Sullivan and Brian Lowy. The story goes something like this:

After an accident that led into an extended hospital stay, Brian some action figures to work with, to keep him busy and pass the time. Soon Brian was making custom figures and buying more. But custom figures led to an excess in pieces and parts and so Brian went on eBay to sell off the extras. Soon Brian was buying and selling on eBay and having a lot of fun. And so it goes.

And that is how BlackOPS|Toys began. Lemons out of lemonade and all that.

Who We Are

Brian Sullivan - Executive Director

Brian has been collecting action figures all his life. His parents and grandmother's garages were full of them and the last time he moved it took three U-Haul truck loads and a full day to move. He graduated from high school in Portland, Oregon in 1993 and graduated from University of Oregon in 1998 with a degree in Psychology. He spent three months backpacking around Europe the summer before his college graduation and spent a year and a half teaching English in Japan in 2002 and 2003.

He has worked as a salesman most of his adult life. He's sold copiers, insurance, televisions and, of course, action figures. He recently left his 40-hour-week job in Big Box retail and took the leap. He now works for BlackOPS|Toys full time and aims to be the premiere provider of 1/6 scale loose parts in the world. He will accept no less than global domination.

In his spare time, Brian plays his xBox 360 and Company of Heroes online, he plays StarCraft II online, enjoys watching movies, walking and spending time with his friends. He loves to travel, ride rollercoasters, camp and listen to books on CD. He has been known to disappear for hours in Powell's City of Books. You can visit him on his Facebook and on occasion he posts on the 1/6 Warrior Forum and the One Shots World forum.

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Jennifer Sullivan - Executive Technology Director

Jennifer was new-ish to the action figure business when she met Brian. She is entirely familiar, however, with collecting things and understands how much fun and how much work it can be. She has an X-Files magazine collection, a Farscape action figure collection, a U.S. quarter collection, well, you get the idea. She graduated from high school in small-town Montana in 1987 and quickly got married and had three children. As a young mother, Jennifer got her Bachelor's in Anthropology from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, which was quite an experience considering she made her way out of the Mormon church while at BYU. She is now attending Walden University getting her Master's in Nonprofit Management. She lost her job during the summer of 2010 when the owner of the company she worked for went to work for Facebook (yes, you did read that right).

Jennifer's children are now almost grown up and in her spare time she practices Bikram Yoga, reads books of all genres, oil paints, enjoys walking and hiking and camping. Jennifer loves to travel and ride rollercoasters (is this sounding familiar...ah...there is a reason). She enjoys playing Mah Jong, Age of Empires and StarCraft II. She enjoys building websites, maintains a blog that, while not meant to be an ex-Mormon blog, is one of the most popular exmo blogs in Google's search results, that has landed her notoriety in the Ex-Mormon community. The BlackOpsToys website was one of the most challenging sites she has put together.

She shares her life and love of travel and love of books with Brian. They met six years ago while working at the same Big Box retail store in Beaverton, Oregon and they were married this past summer in Hillsboro, Oregon.

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Mike Teske - Shipping & Auctions Manager

As you can tell from his photo, Mike is an enigma. Brian and Mike met years and years ago working at the same Big Box retail. They were friends long before Mike began working for BlackOps|Toys.

Mike started listing products on the BlackOps|Toys web site in the spring of 2010, more to just help out a growing business and supplement his income, but over the last two years, he has become a full-time employee. Mike created our new catalog listing system, has given almost every product a stock number which helped with the move into the warehouse, and in his new position as Shipping and Auctions Manager, Mike has overhauled the picking and shipping process.

In his spare time Mike enjoys listening to music, going to concerts, seeing movies, following the trail of the best burgers in Portland, likes long walks on the beach, plays Hanging and Words with Friends, he recently bowled a 250 and his life-long dream is to go to Candy Mountain with Charlie.

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Dan Bisbee - Warehouse & Products Manager

Dan's action figure customizing hobby began after he moved to the Salem area from Sacramento, California in the third grade. His first figure was made using the body of the 1994 version of a G.I. Joe Metal-Head figure with the head of a Stargate Daniel Jackson figure. In Dan's mind at the time, he was an original super-hero called "Zapper". Unfortunately, after a tragic landslide in his Grandmother's backyard, Zapper went MIA and his body was never recovered.

Fast-forward five years. Dan was now in the eighth grade and still customizing G.I. Joes, Star Wars, and Marvel toys to make his own original characters for short stories he and his friend Dallas would write. One day, after catching flak from some friends for his hobby, he asked his mother, Teresa (no relation to the famous nun), if he was too old to be collecting still. She told him that he would know when he too old. Well, that obviously never happened. That was also the same year that Dan sold his first figure on eBay for $45.00! He had made a Star Wars Mandalorian mercenary from various parts he had laying around. The feeling of making and selling his own pieces was exhilerating, and he did it several more times throughout his career at Cascade Highschool in Turner. He even did a class presentation on how to "Boil-and-Pop" parts and mix them around!

In his spare time, Dan enjoys spending time with his beautiful wife, Caitlin, writing sci-fi and fantasy stories, and playing video games. In the seven years since graduating from high school in 2005, Dan has held a number of jobs, including lab assistant, customer service, sales, and carpet cleaning. Working with Brian, Jen, Mike, and Peter at BlackOps|Toys has been a dream come true for Dan. He never imagined that he would be able to use his passion and talents at a real job. So far, he's loving it and is looking forward to a long and prosperous career with the great guys n' gal on the BlackOps|Toys team.

"Live Long and Prosper" or "May the Force be with You"

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Peter Schnacky - Warehouse & Products Manager

Peter went from working as a nutritionist for animals to warehouse management at a grocery store to BlackOps|Toys.

Now Peter spends his days assisting the BlackOps|Toys crew.

When not at work, two needy dogs take up Peters spare time. As a typical Portlander Peter prefers the bicycle to a car and loves to hike, kayak and has a fixation for World of Warcraft. Peter's also in the process of learning and experimenting with home beer brewing.

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Michael Skram II - Embedded Reporter and Creative Director

I first got my start with customizing and kit-bashing/scratch-building around the age of nine. I had just seen the first Star Wars, and was fascinated with the miniatures - especially the ships. I had read in an interview that the special effects people had used off the shelf model kits to build these ships, and I started trying to do the same thing myself. Many years later I picked up a 21st. Century Toys base figure, and my interest in customizing was rekindled. I have since collected and customized hundreds of 1/6 scale figures from various manufacturers. Even though the quality and level of detail have progressed since the first 21st. Century Toys figures, I still like to use the older stuff in work. Nothing beats a classic.

I have recently worked on some miniatures for a television project that will air in the fall of 2010. This is not only a dream come true for me, but it is a full circle throwback to what got me involved in customizing in the first place. I hope that this will be an opportunity for me to do more work in the television ( and film ) medium in the future.

I have to touch on the importance of the boards as well. OSW ( onesixthwarriors.com ) and other various boards as well, have been an invaluable resource for meeting other hobbyists, and seeing their work. I have also been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to display my own work as well. The friendships that I have formed through these boards have been lasting and rich, and the people are the best you could hope to meet.