Winslow Schott

Winslow Percival Schott is a fictional comic book super-villain featured in titles published by DC Comics. He is best known by his code name, the Toyman. The character was created by writer Don Cameron and artist Ed Dobrotka and was introduced in the first story in Action Comics #64 in September, 1943 titled, "The Terrible Toyman!". Since then, he has become one of Superman's most enduring foes and has made numerous appearances over the years.

Alternate media
The TV version of Winslow Schott was introduced as a live-action character on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Played by The Jeffersons star Sherman Hemsley, he first appeared in the 1994 holiday episode, "Season's Greetings". He also appeared in "Toy Story" in 1997, though this time he was portrayed by Grant Shaud.

Winslow Schott made his first animated appearance in 1996 on Superman: The Animated Series. This version of the character was a bit more eerie than previous incarnations, as he was presented as a consciousness living inside of an animated doll. Voiced by Bud Cort, he first appeared in "Fun and Games", and in "Obsession". As part of the greater DC Animated Universe, he also appeared in episodes of Justice League and Static Shock.

The character disappeared for some time after the discontinuation of most of the DC Animated shared continuity projects. He popped back up again years later in 2009 in the live-action action series Smallville. Played by actor Chris Gauthier, he was introduced in the season eight episode, "Requiem". The character made three appearances in the series in total.

Another animated version of the Winslow Schott character appeared on the Young Justice cartoon series. Voiced by Cameron Bowen, he appeared in the season two episode, "Intervention" in 2013.

On Supergirl, the character of Winn Schott is a regular on the series, and his name is clearly derived from Winslow Schott. Though fans speculated as to whether he was destined to become the Toyman, the series quickly answered that question midway through season one with the introduction of Winn's father, Winslow Schott, Sr. in episode 1x10, "Childish Things". Like all previous version of the charcacter, Papa Schott used gimmicky toys designed to harass, terrorize and even kill.

Lois & Clark
Winslow P. Schott was a former toy designer who had been fired from his job. Not willing to simply sit on his laurels, he did what any self-respecting disenfranchised toy enthusiast from a superhero TV series would do - he became a villain!

Schott designed a toy called Atomic Space Rats, which was being distributed through toy stores during the busy holiday shopping season. The toy released a chemical substance that caused all those exposed to it to mentally regress in age, taking on the behavior and maturity of a child. This condition quickly ran to epidemic proportions as the entire staff of the Daily Planet found themselves affected by Schott's toy - even Superman.

DC Animated Universe
Winslow Schott was the son of a kind and elderly Toymaker. The Toymaker, also named Winslow Schott made a deal with a man named Bruno Mannheim to finance the construction of a factory, which Schott dreamed would become the greatest toy factory in the world. Mannheim however, used it as a front for a numbers racket, and when things became too hot, he framed Schott for everything and the old man went to prison. Schott eventually died in jail, but he was survived by a young son, Winslow Schott, Jr. The physically unasuming and emotionally traumatized Schott, Jr. nursed an obsessive need to regain his lost childhood, and so he continued his father's work in creating elaborate toys unlike anything ever seen before.

Schott however, also held a deep-seated hatred for Mannheim and sought to avenge his father by going after him. Donning the guise of a creepy toy doll, he attacked Mannheim's goons at one of his organization's warehouses at 3rd and Shuster in Metropolis. He assaulted the armed henchmen with a bouncy ball that had enough tensile strength to make even solid steel buckle beneath its impact. Superman arrived and stopped the assault, but the Toyman was nowhere to be found. He later attacked Bruno Mannheim himself, sending a squadron of miniature toy airplanes to attack him at a park. Bruno ran for his life while Superman dealt with the airplanes, leading the Toyman to come at him directly. He used soap bubbles to ensnare Mannheim and took him back to his father's toy factory.

During this affair, Lois Lane wrote a scathing article about the Toyman, calling into question his emotional instability and his narcissistic antisocial paranoia. The Toyman abducted Lois Lane and brought him back to his factory as well. He had Lois dressed up in a doll's costume and kept her secured inside of a life-size dollhouse. Addressing Lois, he wanted her present for his pending execution of Bruno Mannheim, so that she could understand his true motivations.

Superman arrived to rescue both Lois and Bruno and had to fight up against an army of life-sized toy soldiers. During the milieu, an explosion tore through the factory, but Superman was able to get Lois and Mannheim outside. Though they suspected that the Toyman may have died in the explosion, they recovered fragmented pieces of his mask, noting that no body was ever found. The Toyman would return.

Smallville
Winslow Schott was a strange little man who was an M.I.T. graduate and came to work at Queen Industries as an engineer. Schott developed impressive designs for Oliver Queen, but his behavior steadfastly grew erratic when he began bringing toys into work and outfitting them with miniature explosives. This ultimately led to Schott's termination, and he developed an intense desire to avenge himself against Oliver Queen.

Billionaire industrialist, Lex Luthor, who had been critically injured and was on life support, wanted revenge against all of his enemies, starting with Oliver Queen. He hired Winslow "The Toyman" Schott, and had him place time bombs in key locations across the city, including the LuthorCorp board room, and the roof of the Daily Planet. He even had Schott sneak a bomb inside of a toy inside of a hospital room where Oliver was recovering from injuries. Queen evaded this attack and managed to turn the tables on Schott, securing him to the hospital bed. He left the hospital with the Toyman's bomb and used it in an attempt to kill Lex Luthor. Oliver's girlfriend, Chloe Sullivan found Schott in the hospital room, but he used a whistle filled with knockout gas to incapacitate her and make his escape.

After months of inactivity, Toyman resurfaced and took a group of people as hostages at a Queen Industries factory. He strapped one of his patented bombs to an innocent, which included a mask with a hidden timer. Clark Kent arrived and rescued the hostages. After researching the incident on his own, he concluded that Winslow Schott was back in the game. Schott continued his campaign of vengeance against Oliver Queen, which now included being framed for the alleged murder of Lex Luthor, who nearly died as a result of one of the Toyman's bombs. He created a pressure plate system which he placed on the podium of the Ace of Clubs where Oliver Queen would later stand to give a speech. He threatened to kill Oliver and everyone else in the gala if he did not confess to murdering Lex. Clark managed to get there in time to stop the detonation, only to find out that Schott was never at the gala - an exact robotic replica of Toyman acted as the detonator the whole time. Clark destroyed the replica using his heat vision.

Chloe Sullivan was able to locate Toyman, who had him arrested and sent to Stryker's. Tess Mercer later came to Winslow and shot him in the knee for trying to assassinate Oliver and said he was going to have much more time to play with a new toy. Tess then gave Schott Metallo's kryptonite heart and ordered him to determine out how it functioned, to the Toyman's awe and delight. As part of his imprisonment, Toyman was put in solitary but became connected with powerful allies, whom were actually foes of the Blur and his team of heroes. Together, they were known as Marionette Ventures. John Corben revealed to Lois and Lana in the process of joining Marionette Ventures, Winslow supplied John with a new Kryptonite heart which in turn could absorb meteor rock with no problem at all. However the job didn't work out the way Schott wanted it to, something that John was secretly glad of.

Toyman was approached by Courtney Whitmore who placed with a mind control device and used her to due his organization's bidding. When that failed, he was confronted by Lois Lane, who he convinced that if she didn't put on the device that he would send his evil companions to destroy Clark Kent.

He then sent her to kill the Blur. However, she failed and Clark met with Toyman face to face. Even though Toyman knew Clark's true identity, Clark knew he wouldn't reveal it to the public because the Toyman still had some "games" to play.

Supergirl
Winslow Schott was a toy designer and the founder of Slingschott Toys. He was the father of Winslow "Winn" Schott, Jr. Slingschott Toys eventually went bankrupt, and Winslow began working for a company called Dunholtz Toys, founded by Chester Dunholtz. Chester Dunholtz stole Winslow's toy designs, which caused something inside of Winslow to snap. Driven by revenge, he sent a teddy bear fitted with a bomb to Chester's office. It was actually Dunholtz' assistant who opened the package and the explosion killed her as well as five other office workers. Winslow Schott was charged with the crime and sent to Van Kull Maximum Security Prison. His actions garnered some level of infamy for Schott and he earned the nickname, the Toyman.

After spending years in prison, Winslow Schott decided that he wanted to reconnect with his son. He created a bladed yo-yo and killed several guards, then escaped. He took up refuge in one of his old Slingschott Toys factories and sent a message to Winn at CatCo Worldwide Media to come and find him at their favorite arcade.

The F.B.I. were looking to recover Winslow Schott and the investigation was led by Cameron Chase. Chase monitored Winn Schott's actions and tracked down his father. A gunfight ensued, and Chase believed that she had shot Winslow, but this proved to just be a clever ruse.

Schott's next big action took place at the National City Toy Con. He captured his son and told him that he had planted ten bombs throughout the city. Unless he murdered his old boss, Chester Dunholtz, he would detonate the bomb. Supergirl arrived at the Toy Con and managed to deactivate the bombs. Winslow tried to escape, but he was recaptured by the Kryptonian hero and sent back to prison.

Notes & Trivia



 * Winslow Percival Schott redirects to this page.


 * Although this character was introduced during DC Comics' Golden Age era, he has been re-imagined for subsequent continuities, including Earth-One (Silver Age) continuity and Post-Crisis (Modern Age) continuity.