Neglected child

That's what this blog feels like sometimes! I'll bring home a present or something to smooth things over...but *know* that junk ain't gonna work! Heh...oh well...

But enough about that! The East Coast Chogokin Summit was last Saturday, and as usual, it was glorious. I'm not going to dwell on it too much here, but if you get a chance, look it up on facebook (and soon on CollectionDX). There ought to be plenty of pics out there...along with some suitably embarrassing video of yours truly!

Suffice it to say that a great time was had by all. Every year, the number of attendees keeps on growing, and it's just exciting to watch this crazy thing evolve!

Anyway, let's get back to business. First, if anyone was interested in how last month's Lament Configuration turned out...well...the news ain't so good! See, the whole impetus to design the damn thing was that the hand-finished ones online cost $400 and up. Ouch! Well, even with 1.5mm walls, it's still $175 in polyamide from Shapeways! Guh. Yeah, not so fantastic. So I dunno...maybe I'll make a chisai keychain version or something. Who knows. At least the mechanism worked beautifully!

Gin Gin news? Well, things are accelerating in the right direction. I met with our intrepid paint master, Matt Walker, last week to go over some things. We're definitely on the right footing to get an actual working, properly-colored figure within a reasonable time frame.

I don't have any pics to show, but two major things need to be settled at this point. First, the production parts: I'm sending my local metal caster a new body made from polished alumide this week. Hopefully, this will be *it* for the body. The head is something I'm actually on the fence about. We can either continue to have it cast in pewter...or we can go with polished polyamide--the same stuff the arms will be done in. The latter would be more "authentic", because classic chogokin always had plastic heads...but the irony is that casting it in metal may actually be cheaper than 3D printing! We'll see. And finally, the aforementioned arms will be printed in polished polyamide coming from either Shapeways or i.materialise. It's a coin-toss right now because Shapeways' customer service is horrendous and their polyamide quality has been questionable as of late. On the other hand, i.m can only become remotely price-competitive IF you buy in bulk (~10-20 sets of arms per order). Again, we'll see...

And second point to settle is the paint itself. Some of the colors on the paint master were off. Blues were too light, greens were too dark. Y'know...that sort of thing. The biggest issue was actually the color mapping. I guess there was some miscommunication at some point, and the color map we were looking at was an older, more complex version. I had since redefined the map to 1) cut down on work for us, and 2) bring the toy more in-line with the clean, simplified look of Popy ST's. Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, we're going to iron out all these details while I tighten up the packaging details with my printer.

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AshuraShine is still going strong. The end of the LRG preorder tunnel is in sight: once Alec and I get to the end of the list, I'm going to start advertising and selling on other sites.

Again, I don't have any pics to show yet, but I got some special figures from Alec to show off some fantastic colors! Among them are crystal clear and hot pink...and lemme tell ya: they're absolutely killer. I sold some of each at the Summit, but I've got a few left. I'll probably photograph them and post them for sale soon!

And now for this month's big news! My next MUSCLE design, Spinning Head Sunshine (SHS)! Now, this requires some 'splainin', so check this out. Above, you see good ol' MUSCLE #195, Sunshine (f) or "Spinning Top Sunshine". As y'all know, I've always loved Sunshine and all the weird shapes he could morph into. Well, the problem with this particular version of him is that, well...he can't exactly stand on his own.

In fact, he looks kinda like a doofus just sitting there on his ass. So the idea was to give him a bit of an upgrade! Peep this:

Yes--basically brick power armor for your #195! As you can tell, it's super-chunky...and I kinda dig that. What's cool in my opinion, though, is that it's actually no taller than your average MUSCLE. Anyway, these suits will obviously be cast in rubber by Alec. As such, the shoulders can flex apart as you stuff your Spinning Top Sunshine into the central cavity. The effect should be pretty killer!

But wait! There's more!

See, when I was talking to Alec about this design he brought up some important caveats. First of all, he'll be casting SHS in the same color and consistency across the board, right? Well, people's #195's may vary quite a bit. Remember--these toys are close to 30 years old! Some have been left out in the sun, some of them have been microwaved, some of them have been up kids' butts (yes, look twice at that lot of loose MUSCLEs you just scored offa eBay!). The colors--and sometimes, even shapes--may have changed with age. Or who knows: maybe it was a bad day at the factory and the color mix was off for that batch. Or maybe the figure was yanked from the mold before the PVC could set properly.

Either way, there's a chance your pink MUSCLE may not match Alec's pink SHS perfectly. And, hell--what about folks who don't even have a #195 but still want the suit??? So Alec's suggestion was actually to offer a replacement Spinning Top Sunshine! Thus, the birth of Spinshine:

SHS and Spinshine basically comprise "part 2" of my Sunshine trilogy, but honestly, I'm already getting a little sick of all these bricks! :P So with Spinshine, you can see that I decided to stretch my CAD muscles a little bit further than usual and come up with something more creative. Those familiar with Spinning Head Ashuraman--my source of inspiration with this toy--can immediately see the similarities. Spinshine's tri-face/symbol design is quite a bit more complex than AshuraShine. Check it out:

He's designed to fit SHS perfectly, and obviously, Alec will be able to match the colors precisely. AND we'll be able to pull off crazy colors/effects, instead of being stuck with folks' stock #195's. Like, can you imagine a crystal-clear SHS with a glow Spinshine in the center?? Dope.

As you may have noticed, Spinshine's head (heads?) is a bit bigger than the stock #195's head...but I think it fits in better with the combined Spinning Head Sunshine look:

These images will likely find their way to LRG soon, but let me know what y'all think! I can't wait to get feedback on this figure. As for taking orders, we're still a little ways off--the master prints from Shapeways (in 3D Systems' hi-res polymer) will probably arrive in a week or so...then off to Alec for molding and review by me. Stay tuned, of course, for more info! ;)

Oh, I have such sights to show you...

Heh...so check this out. A couple weeks ago, I was chilling with Nekrodave formerly of CDX, TBDX, UMA, and other unholy places on teh internets. Among the many cool things we were watching on his new HD projector, we decided to throw on the latest direct-to-video Hellraiser (part 9; "Revelations"), which neither of us had seen yet. It was...meh.

The plot/concept was actually pretty solid...but the subpar acting and utterly uninspired directing really kinda ruined it. Oh, but the most notable flaw was that they got some new jamoke to play Pinhead. No Doug Bradley = FAIL. It's science.

But whatever. It was worth checking out...

The one thing I sorta recalled, however, was that I've always wanted a working Lament Configuration, the puzzle box Lamarchand constructed to open a pathway to Leviathan's realm (uh...Hell? whatever--I'm not Christian). Dave didn't seem interested 'cause he's not into collecting stuff from modern horror flicks...but I just knew *someone* had to've made a damn working Lament Configuration.

And someone did. Oh boy, they did. In the US and in Germany, in fact. But both at over $400...eh...just not the kind of investment I wanna make. Granted, both of those prop replicas are hand-made from stained wood and brass...so they're likely worth ever penny. But you know me! ;)

Yeah, it was pretty obvious where this was going! Just as a fun side-project, I'm making my own "poor-man's" working Lament Configuration. After a while, designing the same sort of thing (toy action figures) starts to grate on your nerves, so this was a nice distraction to help me stay sharp, focused, and creative.

I'm probably just going to have this thing slide apart in the "star formation", the final movement phase that actually summons the Cenobites. In the movies, the box makes other movements as well, but it'd be mostly impossible to make a single unit capable of doing them all as seemlessly as they appear in the movies.

So the past couple weeks have been spent solid-modeling all these crazy details on the faces of the cube. The images above are legit screenshots from Pro/E...fortunately, they have "metallic gold" and "stained elm" colors built in! Anyway, the minute details don't precisely match the original artwork--I wasn't about to drive myself nuts by replicating the images I downloaded of each face perfectly. At least each face will be different on my model (there are minor differences from one side of the box to the other, though they generally appear to be the same).

Later this week (hopefully), I'll carve up the model into the two working parts. We'll see how it goes. I'll be sure to post my results here!

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Anyway, here're some updates on the rest of the crazy stuff I'm working on. First off, the next big run of AshuraShine figures is in, bagged-n-tagged, and ready to ship! I just need to start bugging folks on LRG for money. ;)

There aren't enough yet to finish off the list, but this is gonna be a nice big bite taken out of it. And after that, we'll be doing smaller runs of glow, color-change, translucent, etc.! Very hot. But honestly, even more exciting is what MUSCLE Things and I have planned. First off, just check out his new site--it's a forum now mainly for us custom-MUSCLE heads! But besides that, there are a bunch of new (and ancient!) designs getting the MUSCLE treatment soon. Very damn cool...

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And here's the latest on our pal, Gin Gin. Well, the paint master is being finished up right now, if you can believe it. And just in time for a mold change! Haha! For real, there's a bunch of weird factors that have come together to make this mold change the right move at this point. First off, if you've been following our (me and B00) 3D printing exploits on TBDX, you know that we've been crazy-busy vetting a number of 3D print-on-demand services out there. Well, as insane as it sounds, it looks like Shapeways is still the overall right choice for production arms on Gin Gin (polished polyamide). It's mainly about price at this point. I'm just praying that they can keep their quality standards reasonably high...

Also, I got a new print of Gin Gin's body and head in a new Shapeways offering: "polished alumide". If you recall ages ago, I got an alumide print (it's basically just aluminum powder mixed in with the polyamide powder in the usual SLS process) of just Gin Gin's head. The surfaces were ultimately too rough to get a good vulcanized rubber mold from...but because of the high heat tolerance, the overall geometry looked gorgeous (no nicks, cuts, warpage, or any weird bubbly looking flaws of any sort). Anyway, my new prints in this new "polished" stuff look really nice and smooth, so I have high hopes they'll yield an ideal mold.

Anyway, the actual mold changes, themselves, are minor at best. But whatever. I just can't wait to see the paint master...!

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Lastly, one quick note about the "Throne of Chaos" Unicron stands. I've been getting sporadic e-mails here and there from folks all over the world asking for them (BBTS is sold out and it looks like they're not interested in stocking more). Well, unfortunately, I'm done with storing and shipping these damn things on my own!

There IS hope, however: I'm still in touch with my acrylic fabricator, and I'm sure he'd still be cool with doing smaller wholesale orders. So what I've been telling folks is to go to their favorite TF board online and start a thread about doing a wholesale group-buy. If someone can get a bunch folks together, one person can be in charge of collecting the money, receiving the stands, and shipping them out to everyone else. Obviously, I would forward the money to my fabricator and have him ship directly to whomever gets nominated (and I would personally ship that person the inserts).

It seems that group-buys are pretty common on the bigger/more popular message boards...but either way, I'm done with selling these things on my own. Of course, the alternative is that someone could just bootleg my bootleg stand! ;)

Til next time...I'm out!

Pictorial update!

Happy May! First, let's start off with a little exciting news: AshuraShines are in and I'll be shipping soon!

But we must temper that excitement: I've got just over a dozen...and there are about 40 or so folks waiting patiently for these so far. My hero, Alec, is unleashing his unholy sorcery and cooking these guys up at full speed (which, as adult humans with real lives, may not be fast enough for some...but it is what it is). And incidentally, the next few designs we have planned are going to make people's brains explode! And, yes, that's "next few designs": AshuraShine's just the beginning!

Let's not get ahead of ourselves, though...

Okay, for the first time publicly, let's take a look at AshuraShine's packaging!

Simple but effective, I think. Feel free to comment...I always feel a little insecure about packaging art as folks often tend to have strong opinions about it. Can't please everyone! But I'm definitely open to suggestions and interested in seeing what really gets heads hot and bothered.

And just one last quick thing on AS before I switch gears: there was some question recently about how well effects powders work in Alec's rubber. In my last post, I showed some white prototype figures that were every bit as tough as the standard dudes...but actually changed color in the sun. Well, instead of just telling you that...I'ma show & prove. Peep this:

The dude in the middle uses a powder that's supposed to change from white to red...but there's just something about the rubber most casters are using that renders it completely inert. Bizarre. Someone should let Wolf know...but I ain't really sweatin' it. Anyway, whatever--check out those purple/indigo dudes on either side!! DAMN. That ish is fire!

Now, we don't have any test figures using any glow powders, but I know heads on LRG have some glow customs by Alec, and they say they glow crazy-bright. I have no doubt in my mind we'll be able to rock domes with glow soon enough...

Okay, I wanna switch gears real quick...back to my first love: Japanese robots. All the TBDX heads have been patiently waiting for any signs of life from the Foe Gokin project. Well, as y'all know from reading the blog, the fronts of the shields have been in this weird state of limbo for ages. Originally, we were planning on embossing all of the visual detail in order to facilitate hand-painting it. Then we tried to get cute and engrave those areas to serve as templates for applying stickers.

Not a bad idea, right? Stickers are damn cool. The problem, however, is that there have been non-stop issues with getting the stickers to lay flat and conform to the conic shape of the shields. It should be possible in theory...but *in practice*, it's apparently been a nightmare. At this point, we're honestly considering going back to the original idea of embossing the detail so we can hand-paint it.

So instead of just telling y'all about it, I'm posting some pics of the latest design, incorporating the embossed detail! Check this out...

What you see above is a print in Shapeways' "polished White Strong Flexible", their marketing gibberish for selective laser sintered (SLS) polyamide (polished). It's not bad at all. But those keeping up with Shapeways' shenanigans elsewhere have probably heard that their consistency has gone down the pooper. Folks dealing with them have been getting polyamide parts with horrible surface finishes, soft edges, and even sinkholes.

As an alternative, I'm looking into having the arms made by i.materialise, a company HIGHLY recommended by our buddy, Mike at FreeTime Toys. I'm actually having the same left fist/shield front you see above printed in their Prime Gray material. Dunno what "Prime Gray" means (and I'm wary of marketing nonsense), but it boasts high resolution, impeccable surface finish, and material strength that supposedly rivals polyamide. We'll soon see!

Anyway, back to the latest arm design. Did I mention the frickin blade spins!? Uncle Warren will be pleased. ;)

Oh hell, yeah!

I've also revised the thicknesses of the walls to make the profile a bit slimmer. Looks gooder that way. And going back to Jon's comment from November, I decided to add the concavity back to the reverse face of the shield. All in all, I think it looks pretty smokin'!

Well, I think that's it for now, folks. Stay flossy!

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!

Some weather we're having...

Or...not having I guess! But despite this disquieting lack of winter, ya still have to watch out for your health. This weather's enough to throw folks off their natural rhythms, y'knowmsayin? It's enough to give ya pneumonia, I'll tell you that. Well, maybe not ME. And maybe not YOU. But certainly someone. Someone who ought to be perfectly healthy...and busy painting Gin Gins right now.

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Haha...yo, I know that's foul...but I can't help myself. A certain someone we all know and love is currently suffering...and all I can do is make jokes about him NOT servicing my damn needs! :P Well unfortunately, folks, that's where we're at at this very moment. Some damn bug has infiltrated my unnamed partner's body...and it's messing with my steez. What can ya do? Pray for our loveable chooch's speedy recovery!

Meanwhile, I have some cool stuff brewing...that I can actually share with you! First up, I've teamed up with the Veef, himself--Andrew (or "VF5SS") of CollectionDX and TBDX fame--to produce yet another "3rd party" add-on for an existing toy. This time, it's not so much an accessory meant to enhance an existing toy; instead, it's more of a replacement part.

Some of you may be familiar with Yamato's 1/60 VF-1 Valkyrie toys from the hit anime, Super Dimensional Fortress Macross (or if you like, Robotech: The Macross Saga). Well, these toys are considered by many to be THE DEFINITIVE toy representation of the aircraft-robots known as "Valkyries" in the show. Alas, apparently, their shoulders are prone to 'sploding. Rather than wall-of-text you to death with the details, I'll let Andrew explain it himself. Apparently these parts are sorely needed, so I expect the replacements I designed to be a hit! They will be sold directly from Andrew's Shapeways store (they will be printed in polyamide). And good on Andrew for stepping up and spearheading this project. We're infusing a little positivity into a fandom that has issues with staying positive, y'knowmsayin?

Oh! And before I jump into the big news for this month, I just want to give our boy, Mike D, a big shout-out! Especially since we're on the subject of 3D printing, Mike is getting set to ROCK people's domes with a full size, 3D printed Popy Jumbo Machinder Garada K7 replica! If you're familiar with the original Popy toy, then you know what time it is. You know full well how utterly insane this project is. Words kinda can't describe it...so just follow Mike's blog and watch this incredible replica slowly come to life. Hard to believe, but it's been over ten years since Tom Franck scratch-built his legendary replicas of this toy--arguably one of the single most coveted Japanese character toys in history...

Anyway, I said "big news", didn't I? Okay, I've got some REAL fire for y'all... Brownnoize Productions has teamed up with MUSCLE Things.com to bring you (finally!) a straight-up legit release of ASHURASHINE!!

Feast your eyes...

Please believe me when I say this...this toy UTTERLY SMITES pretty much every other custom MUSCLE I've ever handled. No, I'm not even talking about the sculpt--we've all seen AshuraShine on my blog for months now. What I'm talking about is the casting, itself. I mean, look at it:

It looks good, right?

No...no, it doesn't.

It looks AMAZING. Simple as that.

And I know what y'all are thinking: okay, yeah, that's dope...but what's so special about that? That's real. I mean, resin casting is commonly known for super-"high resolution". Every tiny, sharp detail--flaw or otherwise--that can be seen with even a magnifying glass will come out in your resin casting. That's the beauty of the medium.

But check it. This ain't resin.

It's rubber.

I have never handled something "homemade" like this before. It's absolutely nuts...and my mind is *still* blown by this lil guy. My man, Alec, at MUSCLE Things is a mad scientist, straight up and down. There's no getting around it.

So basically what happened was, a little before New Year's, Kinnikuman/MUSCLE super-collector, Tyler, discovered months old pics of AshuraShine from last summer during a routine websearch...and he decides to post them on facebook. He dropped me a line outta the blue about buying one...and the very next day, I get a PM from Jay "Clawfreak" at October Toys (who saw Tyler's facebook post!) asking the same damn thing. Well, I told them my resin-casting woes...and they step up and volunteer to do some research to find a legit caster for me! Eventually, this all leads to Alec...but there's a catch: he only casts in rubber. What's the difference? Well, how about a four-day cure time for starters. Yikes. But everyone raves about this dude, and since the final product has a durometer similar to classic MUSCLE figures, we decide to drop him a line.

The rest is history. Or rather, it's about to be. Because, yes, we're going into production with these bad-boys! Brrrrrrap!!!

We're still working out the details, but we're shooting for a reasonable pricepoint for such a large, complex hand-casting. "Reasonable" for such customs is probably gonna be between $20-30USD. Heh...I'm STILL blown away by the sick resolution on this guy. The prototype Alec was working from was just a $35 3D Systems hi-res polymer printing from Shapeways...and if you look real close, you can actually make out the faint print lines going across his upper chest!

Yeah. That's NO JOKE.

Anyway, I've been comparing him to some other figures I have:

As you can see, the color is DAMN close to these vintage US-release Mattel MUSCLEs. The durometer is actually a tiny bit lower (softer) than the PVC MUSCLEs that we got in the US. I then compared him to a reissue Kinkeshi (Spinning-head Ashuraman, of course!):

As it turns out, AshuraShine's a bit tougher since the original Japanese-release Kinkeshi were closer to eraser rubber than denser/harder PVC. So overall, we have a bit of a compromise in terms of how hard the material is.

But whatever, man--this thing's hotness, and I'm psyched to be able to offer these. The initial run is only gonna be ten of these guys, and we're shooting for early April. They'll be bagged with a header card. If they do well enough, we'll obviously make more. And yes, Alec and I are looking into other colors...including glow and color-change!

As always, stay tuned here for the latest. And by all means, tune in to Little Rubber Guys for the discussion! Thanks for all the support...on- and off-line! One love.

Has it already been two months??

First of all, Happy New Year!

Heh...for the past month, I kept telling myself I'd get some progress pics to post on the blog. It'd be all teaser-like...y'know--totally gangsta! But each week would pass...and I still didn't actually have anything to show y'all. Such is the life of a toymaker...

Well anyway, I just wanted to post a quick update to let folks know I still draw breath. In fact, it's probably more accurate to say that I'm often out of breath these days! The gears keep turning, despite not having a ton to show off these days. Really impressive things are going on in the background: I'm continuously learning and am constantly amazed by what others perpetrating similar insanity are accomplishing. So anyway, I may not have any pics to show off this week, but the least I can do is give you a quick run down of stuff in the works...

There IS a MUSCLE project in the works, folks! I can't really tell you the details or the scope of the project right now, but it's definitely fun stuff. Yo, I can't wait to provide more info...but as you know, it's all vaporware until I can provide hard evidence. Hey, I need to prove to myself, as much as to you guys, that this stuff can be done, y'knowmsayin?

And of course, the star of the show is obviously Foe Gokin Gin Gin. I'm telling y'all my brain is absolutely melting! At the moment, everything's outta my hands: the finished parts are in the possession of a well-known painter/sticker fabricator. You think you're impatient to see what this thing looks like? Haha...I'm pulling my hair out over here! Well, once the aforementioned well-known artist has had a chance to work his magic, the parts will come back to me for final assembly and magnetization just before photographing and posting all over the interwebs. And all the while, I'll be dancing an Irish jig!

That's it for now, guys! I'll be back, hopefully soon, with some Gin Gin progress pics (whether fully assembled or not). I'll leave you with this youtube clip that's as genius as it is adorable!

I'm out!

Patience starting to pay off...

And I don't know who's been more patient: y'all or myself! Heh...well, a couple weeks ago, I dropped some science about Matt Walker's In Living Kolor - Boston custom toy show. That shit was the bomb and it was fun being able to share the experience with those who couldn't make it. Thing is, I didn't mention any of the big news going on behind the scenes at Broinnoize HQ. I promised an update soon, and well, here it is!

I'll start with the high-profile stuff first. Unicron stands are in! A fleet of hundreds of these things descended upon BBTS last week. They should be shipping from there soon. In fact, from what I've heard, a few went out prematurely without inserts. Don't fret! The inerts are in BBTS' hands and I have no doubt that Joel will send them out immediately to anyone who got a preemie.

But anyway, I'm excited because I've been getting more and more accolades recently from folks who really appreciate the product. As I've mentioned before, it's not a mind-blowing or life-changing item, but it's something practical that really improves an already popular toy. To be able to offer something like that, and have it be received so favorably, is pretty humbling. And who needs humbling more than I do?? ;)

What that also means is that I finally got my own small order of stands in, so those who've preordered directly with me will get their stands very soon (they shipped this morning)! These will likely be the last Thrones of Chaos I'll be handling myself. I have about five left in stock...so if you want in, just let me know!

And lastly, the success of these stands means profit. I'm making it rain like Aaron Hernandez, motherfuckas! Aiight...not really. I made a little scratch offa these, and while I'm far as FUCK from being a capitalist, it's nice to have the "legitimacy" (for whatever that's worth) of getting paid for a good idea. But I think the important thing here is that all of the proceeds are going back into the game. Commercial successes like the Throne just make pipe dreams like the Foe Gokin all the more tangible.



Next up, the minifigs. Yup, the MUSCLE-style figures...remember those? Well, because of the top-secret nature of what's going on, I'm under a gag order. Let's see...what can I leak to the public? Well, first off, I'm abandoning resin casting. At least for this project. More on that later. But what does that imply? I'm definitely not abandoning these minifigs...so maybe I'll just let y'all ponder that shit! Big stuff is in the works, though. Potentially the biggest ever for Brownnoize.

AshuraShine was a fun ClawShine-inspired side project to fucks with, but I don't think he's going into actual production. I may just make him available for print via Shapeways or something. Anyway, despite having just said that, rest assured...baby Gin Gin will NOT be alone for long!



And now the biggest news I've got for this week: Foe Gokin Gin Gin arms may finally be a GO!!

Aiight, so I mentioned above that I'm done with resin casting. It's not that I don't have faith that what I want can be done in the medium...it's more about getting there. See, in previous posts, I've mentioned working with various resin casters in the US. Well, the problem is cost and reliability. Resin casting is a fantastic medium for up-and-coming independent toy makers doing their own thing. The shit's mad labor-intensive though. The geometry I'm after is pretty tricky...and to get clean, unwarped castings that are free of defects (bubbles), a lot of work is involved. That means loot.

The benefit of resin is that it's got pretty low start-up costs and usually no (or low) minimum orders. That's great for low-run stuff, of course, but the price per unit can be pretty damn high. The alternative would be injection molding overseas. The problem with that is the extremely high start-up costs involved in getting steel molds made. Of course, the unit price for injection molded items is just pennies...but to make that initial investment back, you have to sell MAD units. That ain't happening if you're just doing low-run stuff. Well...I may have found a middle ground. And y'all ain't gonna believe this shit!

Shapeways.

On the strength, I can't even make this shit up. For real. The much maligned motherfuckin' Shapeways to the rescue! Think about it: ZERO start-up costs and ZERO minimums...and even if the unit price is high, pound for pound, it's still not nearly as high as resin-casting. Just print-to-order. One unit or one hundred. No difference. You're getting extremely dimensionally stable parts that are essentially flawless by nature. And even if Shapeways is habitually behind schedule, you're still gonna get your shit in about a month...which is a LOT more fucking reliable than some resin-casting outfits out there, y'knowmsayin??

I know I've voiced my concerns about Shapeways in the past. I look at it this way: initially, they promise you the world...and it ain't until you start getting models rejected, or awful prints, or annoying service, etc., when you realize that that promise comes with a lot of fucking fineprint. But here's the thing: once you get used to those caveats, you can play within their rules a bit better and optimize your experiences with them. And I think that's what I've managed to accomplish.

But let me back up a minute. [Right...'cause this story isn't fucking long enough already!] Peep this shit:



The black arms you see are resin castings from an older sculpt of Gin Gin. [You can see all the 3D shield detail included above--if you recall, the original plan was to paint that shit...but more recently, we decided to smooth-out those details so that we can apply stickers.] Now, these are HIGH quality castings. Yeah, in other words crazy loot. They look tight though...and in fact, the Yojimbo Gin Gins, the Tohoku Gin Gin, and the galvanic plated ones from the last Summit are all based on this sculpt.



Well, at the Summit itself, none other than the benevolent Uncle Warren (if you don't know, you better ask somebody) took me aside and praised me for how gorgeous the metal-plated exclusives looked. He went on to mention, however, how dope it would be if the blades could actually spin. Aiight, maybe he didn't say "dope", exactly...I'm just paraphrasing here. But it got me thinking...

Spinning blades involves a mechanism, rather than a dumb lump of material...and in designing a mechanism, the utmost concern is dimensional stability. Well, guess what medium offers that by its very nature!

Aww shit...look what Sanjeev done did:




Jeah...these photographs are 100% straight legit! Free-spinning, Grendizer-shredding weaponry! Printed in polished polyamide (what Shapeways calls "White Strong Flexible Polished"), this material is super strong and extremely lightweight. Pretty much perfect for toy mechanics. And this isn't the first time I've rocked domes with Shapeways' polyamide: those missile-fire Cosmic Squadron figures Walker and I were showing off at the Summit? Yep...Shapeways to the rescue.




The detail is tight, the action is smooth. Really can't ask for much more. It'll cost about $35 to produce two complete arms to dress up a single figure (which, ironically, is pretty damn close to how much the raw pewter costs for a single figure's head and body!). Still, I can't front: resin is inevitably going to be more per unit--even without the start-up costs--and injection molding in China just isn't realistic unless I'm turning these out in the thousands.

So what we may be looking at is a final production Foe Gokin Gin Gin, albeit a naked one. With the packaging essentially complete, all we have to do is get more arms from Shapeways, design the stickers, mix the paint, and get to work! Light at the end of the tunnel, folks...



Til next time...