New Jazz Boid Prototype Pics!

Wow! I'm having trouble keeping up with the review process, these guys are so fast! I'll have to get my feedback to them by Monday (self-imposed)! Check out the other bajillion angles here.

Jazz Boid Progress Pics!

Here's the first digital prototype images of my Jazz Boid character from Big Shot. It's looking great, and I'm very excited! Now it's feedback time.

I'm sure there'll be more updates soon!

Jazz Boid Turnaround Finished!

Today I was finally able to finish (or abandon, depending on your creative philosophy) the turnaround for my Jazz Boid resin figure! I'm hoping to make this character in 3-D with Bigshot Toyworks! Check out the full series of drawings on my Flickr photostream.

Early Kumo-Kun Sculpt Pictures!

Vin Teng has started work on the sculpt for my new Kumo-Kun toy! It's looking great, so I thought I'd share the pictures. Enjoy!

Kumo-Kun Turnaround!

I just thought I'd set up a link to the finished turnaround that I e-mailed to Vin today... I'll email it to ThreeZero as well, just to make sure that everyone's on the same page. Hopefully I'll have new stuff to post very soon!

Happy Beaver Post At Montrealvinyl.com!

Frenchie (creator of toy blog montrealvinyl.com) contacted me through Flickr and asked for a small write-up about my toy projects past and present. It's online now - check it out. Right now, I'm the third post down from the top. Thanks, Frenchie!

Announcing A New Happy Beaver Colorway!

It's actually a little more than that - Frank Kozik generously offered to do his take of my Happy Beaver toy! I got the turnaround last week, and it looks awesome - this will be part of my new toy release (though I don't know that I'll be able to get them done for July/San Diego Comic-Con).

The plan at this point is to make three new colorways of Happy Beaver, plus three colorways of Kumo-Kun in the same production run. That way, I can gradually release new variants of my toys for the next six conventions! That'd keep new stuff on the table for at least a couple of years. Keep your fingers crossed...!

Also, I'm in the very early stages of considering a resin figure with Bigshot Toyworks! I'm working on the turnaround right now, and I'll keep you posted as it develops.

PS - Toysrevil's I Like Toys blog is already spreading the news - thanks, Andy!

The Toy Equivalent of Threadless

Patchtogether.com offers contributors the opportunity to have their toy designs made and sold through the website. Members vote on submissions, and the highest scoring designs get picked for production.

If your design is chosen, you win $500 and 5% of sales - but Patch Together automatically get all rights to your work. If it isn't chosen, you get your design back after ninety days.

Hmmm. That still seems like the company stands to make a lot of money with very little output on their part... but I guess that's the point. They're basically panning for gold, and not really paying all that much for the work (when you consider what one really successful toy can bring in). Even the less successful entries probably aren't all that risky either, as they've already been proven to be popular to some degree.

Like Threadless, I think one would be better off saving up to produce a design independently. Sure, it might not work, but if it takes off, at least you own most of it!

The PEECOLator

eBoy and kidrobot have debuted a toy line called PEECOL, comprised of figures that feature interchangeable parts. They've also set up the PEECOLator, a web page where you can design your own! The options seem a little limited so far, but it's fun! Here's my first design.