Toy Molto is a supporting character that appeared in the futuristic Ballad of Halo Jones strip written by Alan Moore. She has short dark hair and is seven feet tall and is Halo Jones’ cabin mate aboard the star ship E.S.S. Clara Pandy. Jones describes Toy as “the toughest woman [she] ever met.” She and Jones are working as hostesses aboard the ship, and not much else is known about Toy’s background and she confesses to holo-soaps like “Hearts In Orbit” being a guilty pleasure because she’s “just naturally interested in people.”
Toy enlists Halo’s help to get dressed for a date with a male maintenance man and fails at persuading her friend to come along. When the date turns out to be disappointing, Toy returns to their quarters to find Halo being attacked by her robotic dog Toby (who’s revealed its true nature). Toy is instrumental in saving both of them from certain death.
The two women go their separate ways after Halo becomes distraught and angry with a friend she left on Earth. Halo spent the next few years roaming from job to job on various planets, and when she hits rock bottom is surprised to see Toy as part of a military recruitment effort that appears planetside. They go for drinks and Toy persuades Halo to enlist the following day. After training, the women are part of an occupation force sent to Lobis Loyo, a world whose people are primitively living in tribal groups. Six weeks into deployment, the women and the rest of Beta Platoon are out on their first night reconnaissance mission when their air carrier is wrecked by a mine as part of an ambush by the indigenous people. The skirmish is brief but deadly, leaving only Halo and Toy with a badly wounded foot and leg injuries. Delirious from pain, Toy collapses and confesses “I’m big and I’m lod and I never let anybody know what I;m feeling. Sometimes it’s so difficult…I..I really like you, Halo” while Halo constructs a stretcher. When Halo obliviously replies “I like you too, Toy. You’re my best friend” Toy feebly comments “Sure. Best friends. That’s what I meant.” Gathering her wits, Halo sets out pulling behind her the injured and babbling Toy. Alas, Halo’s efforts are futile as she realizes upon meeting another platoon that Toy has succumbed to her wounds.
Toy first appeared in The Ballad of Halo Jones (“A Postcard from Pluto”) which was a series that ran in 2000 AD #406.
Created by Alan Moore and Ian Gibson. Art by Ian Gibson.
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