Winslow Schott Sr.

For other uses of Toyman, see Toyman (disambiguation).

"You are simply the best part of me."

—Winslow Schott Sr. to his son, Winn Schott^[src]

Winslow Schott Sr. (died April 2, 2018) was a former toy designer and the supervillain known as Toyman. He was also the father of Winn Schott, the husband of Mary McGowan, the mentor of Jacqueline Nimball, and the former owner of Slingschott Toys.

Winslow tried to kill his boss, Chester Dunholtz, for supposedly stealing his projects, but Dunholz survived while six innocents were killed and Winslow was sent to Van Kull Prison, where he was interviewd by Clark Kent. After learning what happened, his son, Winn, never forgave him. Years later, Schott escapes from prison and forces Winn to help him make another attempt on Dunholz's life, before he is ultimately apprehended by Supergirl. Eventually, Schott died in prison.

In the new multiverse, he digitized his consciousness and uploaded himself to the D.E.O. servers. Winn found the digital version of Winslow while attempting to stop the digital consciousness of a doppelganger of himself and reluctantly agrees to let Winslow help, and the latter sacrifices himself to delete the alternate Winn's consciousness.

Biography[]

Original multiverse[]

Early life[]

"You're father didn't go to sleep sane, and wake up crazy."

—Mary explaining Winslow's mind to Winn^[src]

Winslow met his wife, Mary McGowan at a toy shop she worked at and she later became his apprentice for some time before they became a committed couple. During this time, Winslow and Mary moved to Ivy Town, where they both attended Ivy University together. They later got married and had a son, Winn Jr. Soon, Winslow started to become a paranoid, abusive sociopath. When Mary tried to escape with Winn to a domestic abuse shelter, Winslow hunted them down and rammed them off the road, giving Winn a concussion. Afterwards, he threatened to kill his son if his wife ever tried to leave with Winn again.^[1]

To Winn though, Winslow was a family man, very close to him, with whom he used go to his workshop and build toys with. At some point, Winslow created the company Slingschott Toys, with the company eventually going bankrupt. When Winn Jr. was still young, his father snapped, and Winn Jr. was taken to a police station, his mother never came, and his only son was put in foster care.^[1][2]

Imprisonment[]

After his boss Chester Dunholtz stole his toy designs, becoming rich off of them, Winslow sent a teddy bear with a bomb to Dunholtz, seeking revenge. However, the package was opened by Dunholtz's assistant, killing her and five other people; partially making it her fault. Afterwards, Winslow was sent to Van Kull Maximum Security Prison, and gained the nickname "Toyman" as a result of his actions.^[2]

During his imprisonment, Winslow was interviewed by Clark Kent for the Daily Planet. As they conversed, Winslow insisted on being addressed as Toyman, embracing his moniker. When Clark wondered why he used toys in his gimmicks, Winslow reflected how toys invoke their users' childhood memories, which makes them perfect weapons for personal attacks. He then descended into maniacal laughter, prompting Clark to cut the interview short.^[3]

Escape and recapture[]

"I missed you. Did you miss me? Come meet me at our favorite place."

—Winslow's message to Winn

17 years later, Winslow escaped from Van Kull, killing 3 guards using a Yo-Yo blade that he had created. After escaping, he set up base at the Slingschott Toys factory, and he left a toy on his son's desk at CatCo Worldwide Media, telling him to meet him at their favorite arcade, and to come alone. Instead of actually going, Winslow created a toy version unidentifiable from himself. When Winn arrived, Winslow told his son that they were the same, and linked. He then questioned his son as to why he never visited, as he just wanted to know that he was okay. While the two were talking, the FBI came in, lead by Cameron Chase, shooting Schott, unaware that it wasn't actually him. Winslow was later tracked down to the Slingshot Toys factory, though he was able to trap Supergirl in an alphabet box filled with quicksand laced with thermite, making her think that there was a child in a box about to be dropped in an industrial shredder, when it was just a Supergirl doll he had created. He later abducted his son as the latter was leaving Kara Danvers' apartment. Equipping his son with a special gun he had made, Winslow faced him with the choice of killing Chester Dunholtz at the National City Toy Con or else he'd activate 10 bombs planted in 10 different toys at the convention. Though Winn almost went through with it, he instead fired the gun into another direction, promoting Winslow to set off the bombs. After the convention attendees were saved, Winslow attempted to run though he was caught by Supergirl, and sent back to prison.^[2]

At some point, he trained Jacqueline Nimball and told her to kill his son in front of his wife if she ever came into contact with him.^[1]

Death[]

Two years later, in early 2018, Winslow died in prison. However, he arranged for Jacqueline Nimball to blow up his coffin, much to the horror of Winn and Mary.^[1]

New multiverse[]

Return in the digital space[]

Having digitized his consciousness partially, Winslow uploaded himself to the D.E.O. servers following his son's doppelgänger doing the same. In order to help his actual son out, he played a song familiar to both of them. They eventually met face to face, and Winslow attempted to help Winn, but to no avail. Winn eventually went into the digital space, first meeting his father who was trapped. After a brief fight between the two Winns, the Earth-Prime Winn unlocked his father, who admitted his pride in how his son had turned out, and held the other Winn down as his son deleted both of the deceased men from the digital space.^[4]

Legacy[]

Even though he was a terrible father to his son, Winn was still devastated about his death as he did go to his funeral even though he was still angry at him for everything he did. After seeing his death, his wife went to her son so she could be a part of his life again and explain everything, unfortunately, before he died he trained another in his criminal ways called Jacqueline Nimball and he told her to kill his son in front of his wife if she ever came into contact with him.^[1] Ultimately, however, the Superfriends defeated Jacqueline, resulting in her arrest and rendering Winslow Sr.'s final wishes in vain.

Winn mentions to Kara and Alex when he returns from the future that he and wife Ayla named their daughter Mary after his mother, though it was a toss up between that, Kara, and Winnifred indicting they almost named the little girl after Winslow Sr. and Winn himself.

Winn ultimately chose to honor his father's memory by choosing to change his Legion callsign to Toyman ^[4]

Personality[]

"He certainly didn't teach you any of his showmanship."
"He taught me to always stick the landing."
"Really? What I got was "more is more"."

—Winn and Nimball debate over Toyman's preference for precision or flair

Winslow was apparently once a good father according to Winn, saying that they used to be inseparable but after his toy designs were taken from him he went insane and tried to kill his boss he had no regret or remorse for what he did. However, according to Mary, even before that, he was paranoid, delusional and controlling to the point that she tried to leave him with her son but failed. Despite claiming to love his son, Winslow will still use him to complete his plans like forcing him to shot the boss that took his designs away or he would trigger bombs that would kill everybody inside, or use him to punish his wife by killing him if she didn't stay away from him.^[2]

Befitting his moniker of "Toyman", Winslow always found a balance between theatrically and practicality with his dangerous toys; even his own son admired this, despite Winslow's psychosis. Winn noted that Winslow would have been disappointed in how Jacqueline Nimball had resorted to a basic gun to enact revenge on him and Mary McGowan, noting Winslow would have gone bigger and more elaborate.^[1] Proof of concept, Winslow always had bombs at every one of his target venues, disguised as toys to make it a scavenger hunt.^[2] Mary noted; "[Winslow] always did want to go out with a bang". To this extent, he had Nimball boobytrap his coffin with an explosive.^[1]

Despite his psychopathic nature, Winslow was not without limits, as he found Winn's doppelgänger's actions and goals as horrific. Also, during his time digitized, his small bit of decency as a father made him continue to watch his son through the D.E.O. files. Amazed at how much his son was able to stand on his own while turning completely away from his path, Winslow ultimately regained some morality to him from his newfound pride in his son. His love for his son was ultimately willing to sacrifice himself to stop Winn's doppelgänger.^[4]

Powers and Abilities[]

Former powers[]

• Digital form: After sending his conscience into the digital realm to escape death, Winslow became a digital being and gained powers.^[4]
  • Immortality: As a digital being Winslow was immortal and could never die, but he sacrified himself to delete the alternate Winn's consciousness.^[4]

Abilities[]

• Genius-level intellect/Expert tactician: Winslow is a very smart man, able to conceive dangerous devices and even elaborate trap to neutralize Supergirl for a time, using quicksand laced with thermite to nearly suffocate her or blow her up if she tried to destroy it with heat vision.^[2]
  • Expert engineer: Winslow is a brilliant inventor, as shown by the multitude of deadly devices he was able to create and effectively use, such as his yo-yo blade, the automaton version of himself he created, and the numerous bombs he planted in toys.^[2]
• Skilled hand-to-hand combatant: Winn was a capable hand-to-hand combatant, enough to hold his own against his son's doppelgänger.^[4]

Weaknesses[]

• Hacking: As Winslow was the definition of a computer program, he was vulnerable to hackers shutting his system down, and being erased. This lead to his final death (along with his son's evil doppelgänger) at the hands of his son.^[4]

Equipment[]

• Weaponized yo-yo: Winslow used a weaponized yo-yo to escape prison.^[2]
• Weaponized toy gun: Winslow gave Winn Schott a toy gun that shot real bullets that would not be detected by metal detectors to kill Chester Dunholtz.^[2]

Appearances[]

Supergirl[]

Behind the scenes[]

• Winslow Schott made his debut in Action Comics #64 (September, 1943), as the supervillain, Toyman, an antagonist for Superman. In his various crimes, the Toyman uses toy-based or toy-themed devices and gimmicks, which while sometimes comical, are also very dangerous. He was created by Don Cameron and Ed Dobrotka.
• Winslow was killed off due to the show moving locations; plus to wrap up the Toyman Legacy thread, as Winn was being written out in season 3.

References[]