The army grows...

Whaddup, peoples???

Okay, okay, I really need to make my posts less sporadic. It's true. I just figured I'd successfully bought myself some time by dropping the big production AshuraShine news last time! :P But I guess that cred has long since run out, huh? LOL

Aiight, well, here's hopefully a proper update!

Yes, AshuraShine "mass production" is in full-swing (heh)! This is happening...no busters over-promising and under-delivering. What can I say? Alec is The Man. Working with him has been a breeze. And it hasn't been ALL "work" either: besides production AshuraShines, we've been putting our diabolical minds together for some bizarre experiments. So not only are standard pink figures on the way, but there'll definitely be some runs of figures featuring bizarre effects! Check out the prototype posse:

A couple of the white figures feature color-changing powders from Wolf Voigt's SolorColorDust.com site! I didn't get a chance to shoot any outdoor pics of 'em, but just watch that youtube video...this stuff's no joke. Alec hadn't worked with Wolf's powders before, so it was a little bit of a learning experience. Let's just say they WORK! So after the first waves of pinkies go out,we're gonna have some fun!

Next up, we messed around with translucent dyes. Nothing mind-bending here, but c'mon...that's dope! You almost wanna pop him in your mouth (please don't! I ain't trying to mess with any lawsuits! :P )...

And then we tried pouring gold glitter into the clear/amber rubber concoction. Absolutely wild! All the gold settled to the "bottom" during cure (really, the top, since the figures are cast upside-down). It's really hard to make out the detail in the photos because the light reflecting off all the gold glitter is scattered in so many different directions...but that sharp detail is all there...

Y'know, I think the best part of all this testing has actually been seeing how damn durable these toys are! Remember before the LRG fellas hooked me up with Alec, I'd not only never handled a rubber-cast toy...I'd simply *never heard of* rubber designer toys! As far as I was aware, underground/DIY folks were casting their own stuff at home in resin. And resin can be pretty strong...but it's just not Onell-tough! This rubber? Onell-tough! [Yes, I just wanted an excuse to post those youtube videos we made years ago! :P ]

And it only gets better: I've noticed that the addition of powders actually has NOT made these lil figures more brittle or otherwise susceptible to breaking. See, conventional wisdom says that if you mix a bunch of powder (glitter, coarse glow powder, fine thermo-/photochromic powders, whatever) into a binder or matrix, well, you have less of that actual structural stuff per unit volume to hold the thing together. So a rubber toy *with* lots of powder in it should have LESS RUBBER than the all-rubber version, right? Well, since the rubber's spread a lot thinner in the powder-infused toy, it should theoretically be a lot more prone to tearing.

Well, I'm happy to report that I've been carrying around one of the white AshuraShine prototypes (infused with photochromic powder that turns deep indigo in the sun!) in my pocket for several weeks. Besides getting a bit dusty, he's survived getting shoved in and yanked outta my pockets hundreds of times, I've thrown him against the pavement here and there, and I even tried to rip one of the arms off (lightly, of course--I'm trying to simulate rough play, not a fight with my ex!). Not a scratch! I'm sold, y'all. Rubber's what's up.

Okay, more on MUSCLEs next time. Alec and I have plenty more ill stuff planned for y'all, so stay tuned. AshuraShine's just the beginning!

And before signing off, I just wanted to post a quick Gin Gin update. The saga continues. I've talked to Walker a bit more about the problem. As it turns out, it ain't the paint. In fact, if the toy were to be *fully* painted, we'd probably be done by now. We'd probably have been done by 2012! Apparently, all this time has been spent wrestling with the stickers--specifically on the shields. Lots and lots and lots of wasted vinyl decal. No luck yet. So Walker's down to a couple final tricks up his sleeve to try to get them to work...but if all else fails, we're actually going BACK to the early (think Yojimbo) style arm shields with engraved/embossed details that we're just gonna hand-paint. We'll see what happens!