Patrick McHale’s animated miniseries “Over the Garden Wall” premiered on Cartoon Network back in 2014. Eerie and perfect for an annual autumnal watch, in the years since it aired it has become canonized as a modern classic – with its singular aesthetic, lovable characters and wonderful animation.
And nobody has kept the “Over the Garden Wall” flame burning quite like Mondo, who have released the soundtrack as a deluxe vinyl and who are now launching a series of figures – the first set, based on the first episode of the series, is available to pre-order now. There will be more sets in the future, too. As McHale joked, “The wait is over. After years and years of clamoring, fans can finally get their hands on a Larry the Skeleton figurine!”
We talked to the team at Mondo and McHale about these new figures, including information about future sets.
“There wasn’t much merch for ‘Over the Garden Wall’ in its early years, so it’s remarkable to see such wonderful collectibles coming out all these years later,” McHale told TheWrap. “It’s particularly exciting to see how Mondo is exploring the series episodically, with memorable bit-players from specific episodes brought to life as vinyl figures.”
“Everyone at Mondo is such huge fans of this amazing series. The figures are the first-ever licensed figures to come out for ‘Over the Garden Wall,’ however, Mondo has a long history of being at the forefront of celebrating this amazing property in the form of vinyl records and art prints,” said Hector Arce, Mondo Sr. Director, Creative and Product Development.
“Getting into figures was the next step in fully celebrating ‘OTGW’ here at Mondo, now across all our main categories. We’re such huge fans of Patrick McHale and the wonderful world he’s created, we’re delighted and honored that he digs what we’ve done with this figure set.”
Of the first set, McHale noted, “I’m most excited about getting my hands on the Dog with Beautiful Eyes. I’m also very intrigued to see what other episodes-specific characters Mondo may explore in the future.”
And speaking of future exploration, at San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year, there were additional figures from Chapter 2 of the series, “Hard Times at the Huskin’ Bee.” That’s right – all those pumpkins are coming to beautiful life and will soon be ready for your shelves. But Arce teased that there are also additional elements for the first series of figures.
“Another fun aspect we’re adding is that the Chapter 2 set will come with accessories that you can add to the first set consisting of Wirt and Greg. Fun things like the pumpkins that they step on, the ball and chains when they’re stuck doing ‘manual labor.’ Even a fun little Beatrice with a ball and chain all come in this set, allowing fans to continue to add on to their collection in a unique way,” he explained. “After that, we hope that we can produce every chapter in the series, touching on all the amazing moments from the show.”
But what exactly makes “Over the Garden Wall” such a good fit for Mondo?
“To me, what makes this release such a good fit for Mondo is that ‘Over the Garden Wall’ as a standalone piece of art in many ways aligns with Mondo’s core values as a company. It was clearly made by people who loved making the story, the animation and the music,” said Cameron Dean, record label manager at Mondo. “It’s all so wonderfully inspired from top to bottom and gives a familiar, cozy feeling to viewers and listeners upon the first watch, without feeling derivative in the slightest.”
