10 Aug 2026
A St Albans creative who has spent the past decade shaping a multi-media universe which he describes as “a modern fairytale” is preparing to unleash his project on the world.
The Toymaker’s Key has grown from an original graphic novel into a 73-minute cinematic motion comic film, three original soundtrack albums, 13 music videos, a jewellery range, cosplay outfits, prop-quality models, a seven-minute live-action short film, and a live experience format.
All elements of The Toymaker’s Key have been produced by creator and director Andy Turner’s independent company, AT Creates Studio, and now he is ready for the next phase: its full public debut at MCM Comic-Con – one of the UK’s biggest pop culture events – in the autumn.
Ahead of this milestone, he wanted to share his story exclusively with the St Albans Times, offering a remarkable opportunity for us to officially launch the brand to a wider audience.
Set against the backdrop of World War II, The Toymaker’s Key begins with Charles Hargreaves, a legendary toymaker whose creations have enchanted countless lives. When grief over the loss of his wife takes hold and his son Tommy prepares to march to war, Charles disappears without a trace into a world of his own making.
Desperate to find him, Tommy follows a mysterious key through a shimmering portal into a realm born of childhood imagination: a world where toys breathe, memories pulse with life, and his father’s greatest creation is now on the brink of destruction.
What was once a utopia is now under the control of a dark tyrant. To save this world and bring his father home, Tommy must believe in the impossible…
A St Albans resident for 13 years, Andy explained the reasoning behind the project: “As humans, we connect to human stories, something you can relate to. This is a story about grief, about a family, about the sudden passing of a mother and how the father and son are divided because of this tragedy.
“I wanted to create a story that gives you an insight into life, that’s about believing in your friends and family, and how anything can be overcome if you work hard enough and believe in it.
“At its heart, The Toymaker’s Key is a story about what fathers build, and what sons carry forward.”
Originally from Sheffield, Andy grew up in Holmfirth, Yorkshire, famously the location of sleepy Sunday comedy classic Last of the Summer Wine, where he made a Billy Elliot-style move into ballet.
“I was diagnosed with dyslexia when I was 16, and my education was proper old school with remedial classes, which meant I had two options: doing art or drama. I went and did drama at college, and for some reason I really got attached to the movement class, so dance came to the forefront.”
He gained a placed at the prestigious Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, and following training at the Northern Contemporary School of Dance, went on to enjoy a successful career as a professional dancer.
Andy went on to work in creative direction, choreography, production and stage direction, working on projects including The Clothes Show Live, Goodwood Revival, Hairy Bikers, Sky Arts Awards and the Special Olympics opening and closing ceremony.
“I always wanted to create stories, and I had the opportunity to create a show for a Zurich-based brand called NRJ. For its annual Fashion Night, I created a two-hour live show called Fashion Freaks, which was a mix of music and fashion where various characters emerged from a mysterious box.
“I thought, there’s something in this, and it started me off thinking about what would later become Toymaker’s. But although people were telling me it was a great idea, I realised that I would have to do it myself because nobody was going to do it otherwise.
“Originally it was going to be a film and a live show, it didn’t have anything to do with comics or animation.”
But then Andy met Drew Casson, a director, filmmaker and animator who had worked on the likes of Netflix’s The Last Bus and the WWII drama World on Fire, and was inspired to expand upon the concept.
“We shot this trailer over three days, which then turned into the seven-minute short when we reviewed the rushes. The first location was in Kent; for the war segment, a section was shot at a complex in Harefield, followed by a green screen shoot. That was what initially got the first investment in Toymaker’s.
“Then Covid hit, and all of a sudden there were no live shows and no film industry.
“Then a strange thing happened. Drew’s friend, Jamie Christofersen, who is an actor and writer, heard about The Toymaker’s Key and the plan to create both a comic and a motion comic with original music. Jamie became the writer of The Toymaker’s Key and also set up a call with his ex-girlfriend’s dad, who turned out to be Andy Lanning.”
Andy Lanning is a comic book writer and artist who has worked for both Marvel and DC, Andy co-created the version of the Guardians of the Galaxy which went on to appear in three blockbuster movies, and by coincidence had just been made redundant from his latest project.
“He said, ‘I’m available, I’m here to help you. I can do your script adaptation, bring you artists and help put it all together’. So he started to contact artists and tell them it wasn’t for full pay, but as it was during the pandemic everybody was happy to have work and to be involved in a promising project.
“So it then became a case of this is what we want to do: we’re going to create this comic, we’re going to animate it, we’re going to do voiceovers and write original music, and then we’re going to pull it all together and eventually get it to market.
“But we’ve no idea how it’s all going to happen!”
What turned out to be different about The Toymaker’s Key graphic novel was that every page had to be drawn in around 40 to 50 layers to provide the depth required for animation: “So it’s a 2D animation in a 3D space,” Andy explains.
The artists were Ant Williams, who has drawn the likes of Spider-Man, X-Men, Batman and Ghostbusters, and Judge Dredd and Titan Comics illustrator Conor Boyle, who worked from Andy Lanning’s adaptation of Andy Turner and Jamie’s script after he made it fit the comics medium.
“There were so many things about comics which I didn’t know, whether that’s how many words there should be in a speech bubble or how to let the imagery tell the story.”
The voiceover cast was largely made up of friends of Andy, Drew and Jamie, many doing multiple characters, with the starring role going to Harry Shotta, a renowned UK rapper and Drum & Bass MC, who holds a Guinness World Record for the most words rapped in a single track.
Andy laughs: “I couldn’t afford to get 30 different voices, but we’ve got friends!”
The whole process is constantly evolving too, with updates to improve things like synchronising the dialogue with the animation of the mouth, all the while ensuring the finished product has a cinematic feel.
“For me, the music is just as important as the story, because it comes with a lot of emotion. In my world, music is sculpture which you create and edit, then colour it with movement to build up the narrative.
“Des [Lambert] is this amazing, talented guy, and as soon as I told him that we needed 13 different character tracks, Covid hit, so he went back to his second home in Ireland, hired a studio, and we began creating.
“I was learning to play the hang drum, recording little bits of melodies on my phone and sending them to Des, and we started to create the first track, which was the Toymaker’s Key Theme.”
The Toymaker’s Key Theme was the first track that ATdL MUSIC (Andy Turner and Des Lambert) wrote for the production. It was then sent to Harry to write the lyrics, which further shaped the creative journey.
“After we started working with Harry, together we started to create, write and build up the music, and then Des and I thought to bring in Kele Le Roc, who we’d both known for a long time. Kele was famous in the ‘90s with Basement Jaxx, but she’s re-energised her career and is massive again now.
“She’s a lovely, lovely person, amazingly talented with an incredible voice, and she started to come in and work with us, so the music thing grew and grew, and she eventually became a character in the comics and played iO.
“[Pussycat Doll] Kimberley Wyatt [who plays MaNa] and I had worked with on Clothes Show Live, and we always kept in contact, so when this all came together, I said to her, ‘Kim, would you like to play the character of Mana, and we will write you a track?’”
With the talent in place, things began to move fast, and as initial prints of the graphic novel were produced, Des then serendipitously met the vice president of Columbia Pictures at a wedding, who he introduced to Andy afterwards.
“We started this dialogue on email, which was pretty bonkers, but she was very supportive and urged me to keep going and stay independent.”
Earlier this year an immersive presentation of The Toymaker’s Key was premiered to a small audience at London’s Science Museum and Regent Street Cinema, featuring a screening of the cinematic motion comic film for the first time, cosplayers performing as characters, and followed by a live Q&A with Andy, Drew, Harry and Des.
Live and digital realms, original orchestral compositions surrounding the space, and the immersive arrival of the story’s villains gave audiences their inaugural encounter with the world that has been evolving for a decade.
“We partnered with this brand-new independent distribution company called Underground Slate, who saw the motion comic and thought it was amazing!”
The company’s remit is to help independent films connect with audiences while empowering creators to maintain control of their work.
“They take an independent brand and get it into theatres, and this opportunity came up to put on a show in this immersive room at the Science Museum.
“We wanted to show that this opportunity is vertical. You can dip your toe into the comic, the film, the music, the live show, the merchandise, but we wanted to create an experience where people would feel they were in the world of The Toymaker’s Key.”
Andy has steadfastly refused to simplify his vision, something he attributes to his dyslexia: “Dyslexic thinking is non-linear, associative, imaginative. It doesn’t fit in a single format. Neither does this project. That’s the point.
“The Toymaker’s Key was never going to be one thing. It’s a world, and you can’t put a world in a box.”
Another of Andy’s old contacts was Liza Abbott, who had worked on the Twilight movie series and lived next door to celebrated comic creator Mark Millar, writer of Kick-Ass and The Secret Service [filmed as Kingsman].
“He gave me some really good advice. He said the product’s beautiful, it’s high end and you could try and take it to publishers, but it’s all about making it different, and that’s what it is now.
“It’s a fusion of different art forms that have come together to create something that is there for everybody. If you like merchandise, if you like posters, T-shirts, comic books, film, if you’re into music, computer gaming, it’s all this and more.”
Some of the other products include high-end sound systems, detailed cosplay outfits and beautiful mechanical butterflies in glass bottles, highlighting the range of items which will become available under the brand.
The Toymaker’s team will be appearing at Comic-Con in London on October 24 and 25, but have ambitions to take the show to San Diego, Los Angeles and London, but it’s here in St Albans where it all began.
“This is literally the start of everything. If it takes off, and does well, then it will be a game changer for us all.”
Find out more at https://thetoymakerskey.com/
