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hi all,
first, wanted to thank you all for the amazing response to the stuff we had all over toy fair, both in our booth and those of our partners.
we're effing exhausted over here, as we've been head-down focusing on this event 12-16 hours a day, 6-7 days a week, pretty much since october. i, for one, can hardly read or write (although i noticed that as i slowly drained over the week, paul slowly re-energized. damn him!).
but i didn't want to end toy fair without a couple notes that i think we'd be remiss if we didn't put out there:
1. the zombie kit -- need to bow and give mad props to head sculptor sean sansom, who also did frankenstein, dracula and the mummy for the monsters line, as well as this forum's own john farley for the body parts (he also did our wolfman head, and the costumes for mummy, frankenstein and wolfman). the zombie samples were painted by amazing artist moses jaen (Main Page - Mochiin Designs, Inc.
) and our own carolyn seyster. i'm happy to take credit for the messed-up outfits, and i'm proud to say that the shots of zombie green lantern and zombie kirk popping up around the internet were painted on-site by my 14 year-old son alex. all using citadel paints from games workshop (so good the thing practically paints itself).
1a. dracula's costume was done by brian leitner. that's been said elsewhere on this forum, but wanted to make sure everyone heard it again.
2. the "war of the dead" line: glad everyone likes it, this is the one we worked hardest on to prove how much detail can go into the 8" format. i'm happy to say that i did the sculpts on these puppies myself, while carolyn painted them and all three of us worked on the costumes and accessories. now that the response on this line has been so positive, paul and i agreed to push the button on something from this line that will blow everyone's mind...for next year's toy fair.
3. non-mego toys; we proudly entered the mass market on our own this week with the glow stuff, the "army men" bag and the weapons sets. this line alone represents a huge chunk of work, time and cultivation of relationships with factories. this was more for the zombie fan than the mego fan, and we hope you all don't feel like we were "cheating" on you :-)
4. superhero stuff -- we had great meetings with both mattel AND toys r us this week to go over the new stuff for the future, but the focus on green lantern shouldn't surprise anyone, given how much is at stake with the feature this year. so, don't be surprised at the quiet on new "waves" and all that as everyone is focusing on gl this year. we also won't be talking on the topic or responding to speculation because, frankly, it's a time-sucking quicksand pit that paul and i have both agreed recently is a waste of our energies. we worked really hard last year on getting the quality right and addressing production issues and we're satisfied that we changed a lot of minds on that front. that was a fight worth fighting. the "nothing new was announced...does that spell the death of the line?" stuff is simply no longer even going to earn a response from us. toys r us themselves and mattel both love what we do, still work with us on upcoming toys in this line and frankly, the guys who keep checking their watches to see when the stuff drops are going to be frustrated and confused no matter what we all do. so, this is officially the last time we will ever address anything on the line outside of creative. new entries will be announced/released when mattel and tru decide.
5. nobody noticed my cthulhu waterglobe? (io9. We come from the future.)
going to bed now.
cheers
j
first, wanted to thank you all for the amazing response to the stuff we had all over toy fair, both in our booth and those of our partners.
we're effing exhausted over here, as we've been head-down focusing on this event 12-16 hours a day, 6-7 days a week, pretty much since october. i, for one, can hardly read or write (although i noticed that as i slowly drained over the week, paul slowly re-energized. damn him!).
but i didn't want to end toy fair without a couple notes that i think we'd be remiss if we didn't put out there:
1. the zombie kit -- need to bow and give mad props to head sculptor sean sansom, who also did frankenstein, dracula and the mummy for the monsters line, as well as this forum's own john farley for the body parts (he also did our wolfman head, and the costumes for mummy, frankenstein and wolfman). the zombie samples were painted by amazing artist moses jaen (Main Page - Mochiin Designs, Inc.
) and our own carolyn seyster. i'm happy to take credit for the messed-up outfits, and i'm proud to say that the shots of zombie green lantern and zombie kirk popping up around the internet were painted on-site by my 14 year-old son alex. all using citadel paints from games workshop (so good the thing practically paints itself).
1a. dracula's costume was done by brian leitner. that's been said elsewhere on this forum, but wanted to make sure everyone heard it again.
2. the "war of the dead" line: glad everyone likes it, this is the one we worked hardest on to prove how much detail can go into the 8" format. i'm happy to say that i did the sculpts on these puppies myself, while carolyn painted them and all three of us worked on the costumes and accessories. now that the response on this line has been so positive, paul and i agreed to push the button on something from this line that will blow everyone's mind...for next year's toy fair.
3. non-mego toys; we proudly entered the mass market on our own this week with the glow stuff, the "army men" bag and the weapons sets. this line alone represents a huge chunk of work, time and cultivation of relationships with factories. this was more for the zombie fan than the mego fan, and we hope you all don't feel like we were "cheating" on you :-)
4. superhero stuff -- we had great meetings with both mattel AND toys r us this week to go over the new stuff for the future, but the focus on green lantern shouldn't surprise anyone, given how much is at stake with the feature this year. so, don't be surprised at the quiet on new "waves" and all that as everyone is focusing on gl this year. we also won't be talking on the topic or responding to speculation because, frankly, it's a time-sucking quicksand pit that paul and i have both agreed recently is a waste of our energies. we worked really hard last year on getting the quality right and addressing production issues and we're satisfied that we changed a lot of minds on that front. that was a fight worth fighting. the "nothing new was announced...does that spell the death of the line?" stuff is simply no longer even going to earn a response from us. toys r us themselves and mattel both love what we do, still work with us on upcoming toys in this line and frankly, the guys who keep checking their watches to see when the stuff drops are going to be frustrated and confused no matter what we all do. so, this is officially the last time we will ever address anything on the line outside of creative. new entries will be announced/released when mattel and tru decide.
5. nobody noticed my cthulhu waterglobe? (io9. We come from the future.)
going to bed now.
cheers
j
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