| “ | Toybox is a black market organization. [...] Toybox sustained itself with barter, by moving frequently, operating between the scope of heroes and villains, and by selling less-than-legal goods to criminal groups. | ” |
—Miss Militia to Taylor, Cell 22.2 | ||
Toybox is a black market organization composed of Tinkers, acting as an enclave for them to build a reputation and acquire necessary tools.[1]
Modus operandi[]
Toybox is an underground organization comprised of Tinkers that wish to avoid forced recruitment or a life on the run, but also refuse to join the Wards or Protectorate. The members share technology and thirty-three percent of any proceeds with the group to keep others afloat, while individually working on their technology and establishing their reputation. Members of Toybox stayed as long as they needed to until they were ready to leave.[1]
Toybox sustains itself with bartering and selling illegal goods/services and one-off-constructions to criminal groups. They largely operate between the scope of heroes and villains, moving frequently to avoid the authorities.[1][2]
Structure[]
Their members vary over time, ranging from as low as four to as high as fifteen.[3] They were attacked and killed by the Slaughterhouse Nine in the end of June, 2011, with their projects and technology stolen by Bonesaw.[4]
Members[]
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Pyrotechnical | A tinker focusing on flame manipulation, special effects, and guns.[4] |
| Cranial | A tinker specializing in neurology.[4] Sold memories and skills on the black market, including bad memories, taking them from people wishing to be rid of them while giving them to people desiring to experience a trigger event. The latter was likely an unsuccessful venture, as trigger events did not work like that. Bonesaw used her technology to implant her clone army with memories.[5] |
| Big Rig | A tinker who built drones that built things in turn, particularly buildings.[4] |
| Bauble | A girl who specialized in glassworking and glassworking tools, including tools that could turn inorganic matter into glass.[4] |
| Dodge | A boy of twelve, who made devices creating pocket dimensions connected to Earth Bet. His dimensions are almost impossible to find without knowing the entry point first, and require a transporter device to enter.[4][6] |
| Toy Soldier | A powersuit user with a suit the size of a small building.[4] |
| Glace | A tinker specializing in cryogenics and stasis.[4] Their technology was used by the Slaughterhouse Nine to put their members in stasis,[7] and possibly later by Snowmann.[8] |
Trivia[]
- Faultline's Crew once had a job involving Toybox.[9]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 “Toybox is a black market organization,” Miss Militia said. “Tinkers who operate solo find life rather difficult, due to a lack of resources and the fact that gangs and government organizations are very, very persistent when it comes to recruiting them. Faced with the prospect of spending their lives on the run, trying to avoid being forcibly recruited into one organization or another, most turn to the Protectorate or the Wards. For those few who don’t, Toybox is… was a refuge of sorts. Tinkers would join, share technology, stay in the enclave as long as they needed to build up a reputation and whatever tools they needed, they would share thirty-three percent of any proceeds with the rest of the group, helping to keep others afloat. Toybox sustained itself with barter, by moving frequently, operating between the scope of heroes and villains, and by selling less-than-legal goods to criminal groups.” - Excerpt from Cell 22.2
- ↑ If you look at what toybox sells, you get into stuff like memory alteration, cryostasis, giant robots that make buildings, and hideaway portals. Beyond that, you have Pyrotechnical who can be excused away as just selling tinker stuff to other tinkers, and Big Rig, who couldn't practically sell anything to a non-tinker since he just has the one giant robot. - Wildbow on Reddit
- ↑ I could see the images, grainy black and white photos of various tinkers huddled together, or standing behind tables loaded down with ray guns and the like. There was a chronology of sorts, to the point that I could see the group evolve, some leaving as others joined, the enclave shifting from a group as small as four members to as many as fifteen. - Excerpt from Cell 22.2
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 “The Slaughterhouse Nine attacked them at the end of June,” Miss Militia said. “In doing so, they appropriated all of the tinker technology and all of the tinkers that were staying with the group. See page thirty-six and on.”
Mr. Calle paged forward until the images showed up.
Pyrotechnical. A tinker focusing on flame manipulation, special effects, guns.
Cranial. A tinker specializing in neurology. Brain scans, draining thoughts, recording thoughts.
Big Rig. A tinker who built drones that built things in turn, particularly buildings.
Bauble. A girl who specialized in glassworking and glassworking tools, including tools that could turn inorganic matter into glass.
Dodge. A boy, twelve, who made access devices for pocket dimensions.
Toy Soldier. A powersuit user with a suit the size of a small building.
Glace. A tinker specializing in cryogenics and stasis. - Excerpt from Cell 22.2 - ↑ They’d come out blank. Wouldn’t do. She had access to some of the toys they’d liberated from the Toybox. She’d have to put the new Slaughterhouse’s memories together herself. Brains. Memories, or things close enough to memories. She had notes and records, all of the bedtime stories Jack had told her as she drifted off to sleep these past few years. There was information saved on the computer. She could hodgepodge it together. This would be real art. How well could she rebuild them? Cranial had been selling memories on the black market, selling skills. She’d kept bad memories too, took them from people, even gave them to some people. Silly, really. A lot of them had wanted trigger events, except the trigger events didn’t work like that. This computer was only an access point. The other computers took up vast amounts of space, out of sight, out of mind. If something failed, she’d have to go fix it, but she would spend most of her time here, surrounded by her family, some she’d never met. - Excerpt from Interlude 25
- ↑ “Dodge’s devices only exit from Bet to pocket worlds he creates with his devices, back to Bet. We believe they exited somewhere on Bet, possibly in another state, then used another device to hide. Which would be where they are now. Without knowing where they entered that particular pocket, we can’t hope to find them,” Miss Militia said. “We know their patterns. They tend to cut a swathe of destruction across North America, and it’s rare for even a handful of days to pass without them taking any action at all. Between the PRT’s past experience with the group, our thinkers, and the fact that they haven’t made an appearance in nearly ten days, we believe we’ve worked out what they’re doing.” - Excerpt from Cell 22.2
- ↑ I stared at the laptop. It was still on the last page. Glace.
“Cryogenics,” I said.
“Stasis,” Miss Militia agreed. “The pressure grew too intense, with Defiant and Dragon’s pursuit, they weren’t recovering from losses fast enough. They’ve gone into hiding, and we think they plan to wait.”
Wait, I thought.
“How long?” Clockblocker asked.
“We can’t know for sure,” Miss Militia replied. “But if they’ve put themselves in a cryogenic sleep, they could wake and resume their normal activities days, weeks, months or years from now. Depending on the resources they have available, they might well emerge with clones of their current members at their side.” - Excerpt from Cell 22.2 - ↑ “Has to be Mannequin,” I said. “Or Sphere. Used to specialize in closed systems. It makes sense, on a level, but this isn’t in Mannequin’s usual repertoire. Maybe they stole it from… what was the name? Toybox tinker, Gelid? Glace, that’s it.” - Excerpt from Sting 26.3
- ↑ His brusque answer only stalled the conversation for a moment before Newter got it going again, “Okay, bro, tell these girls who we went up against last month.”
“The toybox job?” Gregor asked, “With the Tinker black market? There was nobody-”
“The other one. The job in Philadelphia.” - Excerpt from Interlude 5