The dolls' creator, Steve Varner, plays an active role in talking to the fans and answering any questions on the forum concerning the dolls. His son, Stefan, has also joined the forum and is extremely friendly towards the forumites. It is Stefan who first mentioned the idea of producing gothic dolls to his father. Steve Varner explains this to Daniel Robert Epstein on the BEGoths site:
'Well I had been talking to my son, Stefan and everyone at the company about starting our own toy company for a long time. I'm in the toy business already and we sculpt toys for other toy companies. We did the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a lot of the Star Trek stuff and the giveaways for McDonald's. I have one company already called Varner Studios that's been around for 23 years. But I've wanted to do my own toys for a while. I've done some licensed stuff for Lara Croft and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Stefan went with me to a meeting last year where we talking to some people about buying some licenses. After the meeting he said why don't you do Goths instead? There haven't been any Goth toys which is odd because there are so many Goths out there. There are more and more people electing to get tattoos and piercings. These people aren't really represented. There is no real toy or figure for kids to look up to because maybe their dad has piercings. I have a lot of people who work for me who have tattoos and piercings. I see a lot of these people get discriminated against when I help them find apartments and things like that. They need representation because it's a subculture that isn't so sub anymore. There's a lot of Goths out there and they need to be validated.'
And so Bleeding Edge Goths was formed. They have become more popular, selling figures on leading sites and in shops across the world. The quality of the dolls has improved greatly since the first series was released as the company now has the ability to make their product better.
Another key element that makes the company so popular amongst their collectors is that they listen to the fans and have a very active relationship with them through the forum. An example of this is the way that the company improved the quality of their packaging after the forum members commented that the boxes were not overly strong.
Steve Varner now has his own section on the forum where fans of the dolls can talk to him directly. Go
here to find out more.
