Rochester’s Skeletron rocketed from the toy shelves onto a real NASCAR racer – Post Bulletin

ROCHESTER —

After conquering the toy universe with their Roboskull “spaceship”

and line of action figures, Rochester-based

Skeletron

recently introduced its brand to the NASCAR world on the Darlington Raceway.

Toy maker Skeletron’s distinctive black and white flaming space skull logo was emblazoned on the hood of a car driving in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race in Darlington, S.C. While the car driven by Timmy Hill didn’t place, partners Mark O’Byrne and Ben Conway say it was a big win.

“It fulfilled a lifelong dream for us,” said O’Byrne. “We knew going in that this car wasn’t a playoff car, but we also knew that it was just a really great opportunity for us to learn about NASCAR sponsorship, have a good time and just get some good brand exposure.”

How does a small toy company in Minnesota end up on a race car in the Southern 500? Appropriately, it happened fast.

As a NASCAR fan, O’Byrne follows many teams and drivers on social media. He noticed Garage 66/MBM Motorsports announcing a sponsorship opportunity for the popular race in Darlington. After a quick exchange and payment, Skeletron sent over its logo to MBM.

“It all happened at the last minute,” said O’Byrne. He and his daughter, both avid NASCAR fans, flew to South Carolina and watched the race from a pit box with VIP passes amid a garage team wearing Skeletron hats.

Contributed / Skeletron

It isn’t clear yet if the sponsorship helped Skeletron reach a new market for its G.I. Joe-inspired toy line. However, O’Byrne is certain that the appearance on a racecar was a big hit with people who already love the Skeletron toys.

“It’s still a little early for us to know about sales, but the response from our current customer base has been nothing but excitement. It really energized our current Skeletron base. Seeing the brand getting more exposure created a lot of buzz and excitement for us within our current base,” he said.

As a pair of G.I. Joe action figure collectors, O’Byrne and Conway started Skeletron in 2021 with a

Kickstarter campaign

aimed at “… lovers of ’80s toys, heavy metal, robots, spaceships, and skulls” to recreate and update the cool toys from their youth. The campaign went supernova as toy fans excited by their vision blew past the goal of $78,000 to give them a staggering $609,878.

The toys were immediately reviewed as some of

the best toys of their kind produced in years.

Hats, shirts, a coffee table book even a vinyl record of music soon followed the initial toys

Now that Skeletron has hit the NASCAR circuit, will toy race cars be added to the selection of spaceships and action figures sold at

Skeletron.com

and on the shelves of Midwest Vintage Toys in downtown Rochester?

“We’re definitely going to explore getting a die cast made, because we loved it. It was such a cool look on a car. While nothing is certain, we’re definitely looking at the possibility,” said O’Byrne.

Contributed / Skeletron

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