Kabuto Mushi MK II: Wave 14

Marty "Fortin'" Hansen has a new wave of Kabuto Mushi MK II figures poised and ready to invade your collections tonight, April 15th, at 8PM CST.

The color selections for this assortment feature some PVC colors that date way back to our early days. By combining the different hues found on each Mushi, you'll be able to form Rothan, Halos, Gatekeeper, Gatekeeper Reverse and half the Crayhunter (redorange) versions of the classic Mushi design. Marty swapped the parts around for the final selections and the results are looking good! The pricing is also set up with the builder in mind, landing at only $11 USD. This is a great time to check out the formidable customizing potential hidden inside the Kabuto Mushi MK II design.

Another very cool addition to tonight's sale is the latest Titan Mushi, with a full on Micronauts inspired color combination that should have old school toy fans smiling. The tight paint applications layered over the juicy rotocast orange vinyl turned out awesome. As a huge Micronauts fan, I find these crazy colors hard to resist.

Good luck tonight, Marty! Thank you for keeping us old timer toy fans in mind on this launch!

Acromaxx

2013 has been filled with some really fun projects, which helped to balance out the various curveballs that were thrown throughout the year. One such project was Toyfinity's resurrection of Robo Force.

Working on the Robo Force relaunch ended up taking a bit longer than I had originally anticipated, with many weeks spent up at the shop working with the always amazing Ron Daley. By the time we finished the prototype I had taken around 500 pics of the process, attempting to catalog the various alternate builds that we tried to hide within the parts as well as the actual progress. John, Mike and Charlie over at Toyfinity were always encouraging and trusting and made for great partners in the development of their new Maxx Zero.

Once we finally got Maxx into production, John and I spent a lot of time talking about how to roll the new series out, and the best possible way to coordinate the releases with the story John wanted to tell. As we had been shooting ideas back and forth for the greater part of a year, the decision to have some shared colors across our respective lines seemed to make the most sense, for potential building as well as for crossover story purposes.

The recent blue hues from the Ecroyex wave were selected to pay homage to Takara's Giant Acroyear and Mecha Acroyear (thanks Microforever!), two true classic toy designs from Japan. As strange as this may sound, as a child I would always dream of seeing characters from one series color swapped with characters from another series. Something about that idea still sticks with me to this day, so when the chance came up to possibly see Maxx sporting the colors of a Giant Acroyear, we had to go for it.

It's been a true privilege having the opportunity to work on bringing Maxx and the Robo Force back to life with the Toyfinity team, and I'm really looking forward to watching the line expand in 2014.

A Head Case

Speaking of Micronauts, this guy has been doing time in the pocket for a while, only just getting a break since the Ecroyex crew rolled into town.

Even though this head has its little issues, I've come to accept him as a part of this whole weirdo project.
The little scarf from the new Ex/LSA/Dark mold was designed specifically to be used with this now defunct humanoid head. The new belt was also sized to be used as a Glyan belt, as well as deep collar/scarf thingy (pics later).

The mold for the above head has indeed been destroyed at this point, and there was even a third head (also not destined for the ranks) that was run a few times. So far there have been three separate PVC attempts at nailing just the right human head, this one being the second round (and I think the most acceptable of the trio).

Even though the human head steel mold cavity has been re-purposed (for a special project debuting in early 2014) , we did run a batch of the above head, just to have in the archive.

Would you guys be interested if we released them at some point?

Silver and Chrome

Lots of activity in the month of December from our plastic slinging brothers!

The Four Horsemen have posted some sneak peeks of their special Outer Space Men Holiday Edition Silver Chrome armor accessories, which come with the brand new 2013 OSM Holiday Editions. These newly decorated versions also just happen to be beautifully painted up by the previously mentioned Ni!

As I  reviewed the parts (hence the pics), the whole assortment started to look like a Micronauts inspired fever dream! We now finally have the option of outfitting the latest wave of OSM with chromed parts!

Seeing Gamma X in clear colorless PVC sporting silver chromed armor and blasters is something directly from my "Nerd Book of Things I Wish Would Happen"!

The silver completely turns Jack Asteroid into an OSM/Adventure People/Micronauts super fusion astronaut!

Of course, then there is Colossus Rex, now made even more fearsome with a shield so reflective, you can see your doom all the clearer when he approaches.

I freaking love the OSM!

Always have, always will.

Velstryker Formation

In keeping with the spirit of the Takara inspired colors from the new Ecroyex wave, this configuration of Argen (which I've been calling the Velstryker Formation) is meant to pay homage to the iconic head design and flight gear of the classic Acroyears.

Stacking the scarves and belts can result in some interesting shapes, and the look of the new Dark Traveler scarf as a visor kind of gives Argen a pretty alien look. I started messing around with scarf/visor mixes a lot during the Buildstation wave back in June, and ended up incorporating a lot of those building sessions into the final  Dark Traveler scarf/belt dimensions, as well as actual sculpting decisions.

I imagine that when in this configuration, Argen is capable of operating at incredible speeds, flying with a precision and velocity difficult for even the most experienced Gendrone Hunters to keep up with. This more compact battle mode is now favored by Argen for most combat missions, due to him spending a great amount of time training and evolving under Phanost's guidance.

Red Metal

It has been a wild whirlwind over here for the last week and a bit. With the year coming to a close, the activity at the factory has been nonstop, as well as the action here in the house!

Our final wave for 2013 is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, December 1st at 9:30PM EST. 

Everything is currently on track, but with the intense shipping across the globe right now, there is a small chance that the release date may get bumped a few days. I'm hoping that's not the case, but the holiday season can create roadblocks from seemingly out of nowhere.

A full list will be up on Wednesday.

Over this entire week, we'll be posting up pics of this new round, which is paying homage to multiple classic toylines, with the most prominent being the Microman/Micronauts Giant Acroyear figure (which was a two tone blue with red accent parts). While studying the pantones of the old Giant Acroyear, I couldn't help but notice the parallels between the palette of GI Joe's Cobra and Microman's Acroyears. I've noticed the connection before, but when you get down to the details, the similarities are pretty neat.

The big event for me personally in this wave is finally running a Red Metallic (with pearlescent additive) Argen, along with the rest of the molds. Nailing a proper Red Metallic has been a bit tricky, as too much metallic additive pushes the hue towards a grungier red base color, almost looking more crimson/purplish than a true red.

Now that I have a few of these new Red Metallics in hand, I can safely say that they are a true red hue, akin to the Reydurran red we ran earlier this year. The pearlescent finish creates some vivid effects, which are of course very difficult to photograph!

Overall I'm really excited to have another metallic/pearlescent color to add to the build catalog. I hope you guys are in the mood for some Red Metal!

On Track

We're all ready for the mini release tonight at 9:30PM EST!

My apologies for the little quiet spell around here, but things have been cooking behind the scenes.

Also, I broke two toes and burned my hand.


EDIT: I forgot to mention that the inspiration behind the colors on the Armorvor shown above is the old Microman/Micronauts Giant Acroyear figure. A little Stealth Iron Man also may have gotten in there as well.

The strange neon pearlescent pale orange Armorvor shown in earlier posts pays homage to the great sofubi producer, Cord Viper, and his excellent color choices. Cord Viper put out a particularly killer Machine Sider figure that sported a very similar neon  pale orange.

Neon pale looks like an oxymoron now that I'm reading it. Ha!

Major Micro

The combination of the Ivorinium and Clear Colorless does a decent job of evoking the old Microman/Micronaut aesthetic.

There are some funny toy line tributes happening in this build, as it blends a couple highly influential classic toy lines that share some interesting parallels, those lines being Mattel's Major Matt Mason and Takara's Microman.

Everything from the initial introduction of four main characters (a theme that really got its start with the original Hasbro GI Joe 12" line) to the futuristic space machines and general themes of exploration seem to echo each other.  I would bet that Microman owes MMM some credit for its existence, not just Henshin Cyborg (which again was born from Hasbro's vintage GI Joe 12" line).

Play patterns and series connections that started way back in the mid 1960's continue to repeat themselves to this very day. Something that my good friend John Kent refers to as Toyfinity.

My Friend the Micronaut

A little late with this, but just last week our friends Bryan "Microbry" Wilkinson and Bwana Spoons hosted a special Micro-themed custom show at the Grass Hut Art Market out in Portland, Oregon called My Friend the Micronaut.

The contributors to the show really sent in some incredible work, ranging from classic customs, paintings, drawings, plush and even completely home grown 3D printed ABS masterpieces.

As I thought about what to send during the past few months, I kept looking at the old Micronauts builds I had made over the years. In the end I decided to make some updated versions of a few classic Micronaut and Microman characters, using only clear Buildstation parts (minus a few clear Noboto chests) and zero paint. The idea was to concentrate on the pure build aspect, and whether or not I could push just the raw parts into something half interesting.

Clocking in as the biggest build is Mega Membros, an updated version of the last two Membros inspired builds I tried some years ago. I lost count of the amount of parts used to make this beast, but it was a lot! It's one heavy alien beefball.

I've loved the Acroyear designs for such a long time, that creating another homage set was probably my favorite part of this self imposed challenge. A new Commander and Soldier were the result of many hours tinkering with piles of parts. Their individual piece counts are not super high, and mostly utilize the accessory sets. It was a lot of fun working the Swing Joints into some older ideas.

To round out the assortment of Micro geeks, I tried to create a President Acroyear homage, pushing the spindly look of the old Microman toys and going for a kind of lanky vibe. This tall goon was designed to battle the last entry into this batch, something I thought long and hard about sending at all.

For the last 3 years I've been working steadily on a "human" head for the Glyan, with the idea being that it would allow for some new roads to be traveled as far as creative avenues go. This side project actually went into steel tooling three separate times, each result not quite hitting the target I've been aiming for. I've wanted to share these trials with you guys for years, but have never been too psyched about showing things that I felt were not on point. That being said, I could not miss the opportunity to send some of these production heads from the second trial run out to the show, as the original Micronauts/Microman were the primary inspiration for the original head sculpt I've been battling with over the past few years.

For the first time, some of these heads are out there. The pics above are of actual production heads, not resin. The right ear is a little sunken, the nose is tiny bit flat, and there is the slightest loss of detail on the mouth from the original, but in clear PVC it doesn't look too bad. Not great, but I wanted to show you what's been cooking with this mischievous little head after a number of years. Bry and Bwana's Micronaut custom show seemed like the perfect place to sneak the Micro Glyan out for a mission.

Sorry for another text tundra, but Micronauts apparently cause me to ramble even more than usual.

Special thanks to Bry and Bwana for putting on such a cool event, it was an honor to be part of it all.

Long live Microman!

Halftron

Here's a really odd one from the lost files -a scratch built, wire frame Biotron with magnets imbedded in its limbs.

This guy was to be included in Microshow II, but was never finished and has been buried in a toy pile since 2004. I had wanted to create attachments that would utilize the larger magnets for connection points but other projects knocked this one aside.

The idea of having a super bendy version of this Micronauts character is still appealing to me. Maybe one day Takara or Hasbro will make one a reality, but for now I have this junky bot to play around with.

Looking at this Biotron now, I'm reminded a little of the Easter Island Moai statues.

Man, I didn't even give the poor thing its claws!

Custom Micronauts Huntarr

The Micronauts will forever be a massive influence on my creative endeavors (ha!), sneaking into the DNA of just about every project that comes out of this house.

The custom version of the living bio-weapon known as Huntarr (from the original Micronauts comic) shown above was sculpted back in 2000 and tinkered with for a few years after that, eventually landing in the original Microshow booklet we did in 2004.

I was, and still am, crazy about this character. Huntarr was sort of boring in some ways, looking like a lumpy orange alien with gray boots (why he needed those boots is anybody's guess) and no real distinctive details. He could shift his shape to deal with different situations and for some reason just seemed awesome to me. Later in the story, Huntarr transformed into a very Alien inspired form, which I tried to capture by having a removable outer head that could plop onto the first form's noggin.

The actual 3 3/4" custom is sculpted with Oatey Plumbers Compound over a twist tie armature that was wrapped in layers of electrical tape. The eyes are melted "stained glass" plastic pellets and the paint is Tamiya and auto finish.

I played with this figure for years, eventually snapping most of the wires inside due to excessively rough play. Huntarr saw some serious action and has lived to tell about it, now resting with the rest of the Microshow cast, exchanging tales of being abused by some giant bearded geek.

The cruddy drawing was done today, and is a little extra dedication to one of my favorite Micronauts characters of all time.

The Kind of Old Days

Man, that was a spell! The last few weeks have been a whirlwind over here. Lots of production related challenges had to get wrangled, as well as a general mopey vibe in the air that was kind of bringing everybody in our little circle down. Maybe the winter blues were to blame, or maybe just regular old stress. Whatever gremlin was messing with the works seems to have taken a break from causing trouble, at least for now (though we did lose one of of our chickens to a raccoon last night).
 
To unwind, I've been going through old project boxes and drawing files, remembering the days when I was really custom building crazy. Being a Microman (Takara) and Micronauts (Mego) nut, many hours were spent building various representations of characters from those worlds, as well as branching off into fan fiction stuff, like the Microshow. Takara still remains one of my all time favorite companies, right up there with Fisher Price.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to put up some images and scans of those old customs and drawings, Micro related and beyond. I warn you that some of the stuff is pretty rough, and at times downright cruddy, but it may at least make you laugh!

In production news, a new wave is planned for the first or second week of April, and if luck is on our side, something new will be in store (and in the store) when everything goes live. The mystery item has been worked on for quite some time, but may not be what you're expecting. Multiple steel tools are currently in the process of being cut, one of them being a complete figure with all new parts. Should be fun to customize with!

I hope you guys are feeling good and staying creative during these winter months!

Pocket Poll

As we all get ready for the Callgrim WARP Bike drop later today, I was thinking it might be fun to check out who is being carried around (if anybody is doing it) in your collective pockets.

I've been attached to the Sincroid configured Glyaxia guys in the above picture and also the White Skull Sincroid also shown above. The Glyaxia color scheme has that Commander Rann vibe happening a little more than usual in Sincroid mode, so I think that's the draw for me.

Before this batch it was the metallic green Argen in Rig Killer mode, but that was a bit much to have wedged in my pants.
Wedge+Pants=Bad.

Henshin Wave is Live!

REFRESH THE STORE!
onelldesign.com/store

In honor of the amazing creations from the past that have continued to inspire us over here time after time, we have dubbed this release the "Henshin Wave".

It was Takara after all, that really opened up the craziness of clear plastic aliens and heroes for many old time collectors out there today. We also have to give props to Mel Birnkrant and his always impressive Outer Space Men, which he served up with Colorforms back in 1968! This lineage of creativity is enriched by each generation, and watching the Four Horsemen (the masters) add to it all with their revival of the OSM this year has brought a lot of things full circle. In a time where there are no Microman or Micronauts figures on the market, it's awesome to see that their collective influence has not been lost.

I truly owe so much to the incredible toy lines that have come before us, that I really wanted to put together a simple, fun release that brings us back to the days of finding a brand new figure on the shelves. Before Action Figure Digest, before Lee's, before the glory of the Internet. Just walking into a store and discovering something that made you feel excited as hell to get it. Hopefully we at least got close. This wave is dedicated to the creative people who are part of this cycle.

The most important part of course, being all of you. We hope you guys have fun with the new stuff and we want to thank each and every one of you for an incredibly awesome year. Personally, I could never give enough thanks for being allowed to do this every day with such excellent people.

Note from Marcus: In the spirit of keeping things simple, we have streamlined the the shopping aisles of Glyos- the Buildstation and Founders are now located in the main (and only) store. No more getting Lost in the Supermarket! Also- new Gendrone Chronicles will be posted once the dust settles a bit...

Build Spectrum

As we go into overdrive packing everything up, I wanted to get a few of these latest Build configurations posted to try and spice up the week. Micronauts is one of my favorite lines of all time, and it's fun to try and make Build versions of those old characters. The Membros design has some of the craziest looks for a toy, and I'd been itching to try and make that brainy freak for a long time. The mostly red version is a homage to my friend Bryan Wilkinson (Microbry), and the work he did with Palisades back during their re-release of Micronauts. Man, I miss Palisades. The Centurions was another big influence on me, even though I never owned any as a kid. The rumor is that Jack Kirby designed the main characters for that show! When you look at the style it kind of makes sense. Trying to solve the chest look on those was a fun challenge, with the 7 iconic insert ports being a necessity to convey. Anyway, I hope you guys get a kick out of these builds, and as always, I look forward to seeing what is on your creative minds.

MicroMania

These new formations were put together over the last week. Jesse made the Centaurus and it's one of my favorite configurations yet. The thing is nuts and has a poseable brain/mane! Lobros is an old classic from Micronauts, so I had to make him. The Silver Star Acroyear is just a variation on the last Acroyear that popped out. I did add some new swing hinge joints to the old version so he wouldn't feel outdated next to his brother. Having the new colors and better access keeps us up pretty late these days. Hope you guys are enjoying the latest stuff.