I don't have much of a history here so many folks may not appreciate what I'm about to say. So If you would indulge me I will back up and tell you about what I've done before I ended up here in the RFSO skull brain board. Back in the early 90's before there where companies that make those hyper detailed 1/6th scale military and sci fi figures I was already making custom figures. I made the clothes and all the equipment from scratch to fit vintage 12" GI-Joes. My mail order business was known as SPECOPS. I guess I was pretty OK at it cause I caught the attention of two really cool guys, Don Levine and Kirk Bozigian. Don is the man that invented GI Joe back in the 60's and coined the phrase "action figure". Kirk revived the series in the 80's after the line was cancelled in the mid 70's. Needless to say it was an honor to have worked with the guys that invented my favorite childhood toy. I did several projects with them and even had a couple of write ups in some magazines. After the projects that I did with Don and Kirk several other oportunities came up from different toy companies needing design work ranging from small weapons and equipments to plush toy designs and such. It was strange to say the least that what started as a hobby became my full time job. For several years atleast. But then I started missing designing and making my own toys but realized that i can't do it anymore because of the labor intensive nature of custom figures. So i looked into how much it would cost to make my own 12" action figure in a factory. I WAS NOT FINANCIALLY READY. The injection molding cost was astronomically expensive. eventually I gave up on the idea. As 1999 rolled into 2000-6 I was rediscovering another childhood love Shogun/machinder robots and vinyl Kaiju (Godzilla,Gamera,Ultraman/Ultra7 stuff). I was buying more of the robots and was more of a spectator with the other. this eventually lead to the newer "art" vinyl. Something I could really sink my teeth into. Here was something that I can apply my art background as well as my toy design experience to. It was around 2004 when I started looking into the cost of producing vinyl toys using contacts that I established during my stint as a toy designer. It looked promising. I had money saved up for a car and decided to continue adding to that. So forget about a new car for now, I want to make my toy. So for a long time after that I had to do without alot of things specially toys.. Heck I even had to sell some. Anyway after thousands of sketches ranging from cute little monkey guys to mutant evil iguanas I realized I loved Robots....So I drew robots LOTS of em. I finally came up with a design that struck a good balance of detail and simplicity. It is not easy to do. I was inspired by an old favorite of mine from my earliest memories of whatching TV ...Gigantor/Tetsujin. I love that 60's style design and decided to adopt it for the series of robots I was drawing....Winter 06 I started making first contact with several factories in china and narrowed my choice down to 1. I told them what I wanted to do and sent them drawings so they can prep a quote. By this time the noose around the "no buying toys" was starting to loosen up since I had finally socked enough $$$$$ to take care of binezz. I was looking for a place to hang out and talk and learn more about my new vinyl addiction but the KR site was just not cuttin it. Several other sites finally led me here and I've been livin and lovin it ever since. So finally after doing it for other people for the longest time I'm now doing it for myself. I gone went and done it. I'm making my first toy..a vinyl toy. It's my wifes favorite colorway (havn't decided if I'll ever do it in that color) but you guys have been looking at parts of it for a few weeks now. See my avatar. It will be produced under my new label "Atomic Mushroom". The website has not been constructed yet but should be up way before release day. No press release yet you guys are hearing about it here first. MY RFSO buds. I was thinking of approaching VinylPulse but since I'm a nobody they'd prolly think I was full of BS. I'm kinda low key so I'm still figuring out promotional angles. Anyway I just got the first pictures of the clay model from HK. Tweaks are needed naturally but overall it's lookin real good. Combat-R (combatar) Zero stands 9-1/2" tall. Several colorways planned including a GID. pics will come as soon as I get them preped.
awesome. let me know if you want a hookup for wholesale distribution. I work with the best indie ditributor there is. also, if you want, you can display your proto and information and at SDCC in my booths showcase. give away info flyers maybe as well.
thanks for the background info and everything robert! so awesome that your making your own toy and i'm sure you will have lots of support from the great peeps here on the board. best luck to you, and def looking forward to seeing the finished product.... yummy, gid version..
cool story. judging from your avatar it will be a rad toy. bieng a machinder/tesujin fan iI already want one.
I've been curious about your avatar. Sounds cool, I too prefer the Gigantorish 60's robot look to the more sleek modern bots. I always prefered original Iron Man too, rock us w/ some robots!
Wow I still can't believe I'm reading your post Frank. I would be totally honored to have a place in your showcase at WOW SDCC. I'll prepare something like flyers. The robots still in early clay stage as you'll see a bit later so I'm not sure what I can provide in terms of a prototype to show. My brain's doing flip flops right now sooo cool!!
I think most of us would really dig it to follow your progress. So keep it up. I can work out a design for real flames if you want them ( but I think shipping would be a problem--- so never mind ). Support given by putting money where mouth is. Make it, I'll buy one.
Very, very, very cool. It's so great that you are able to realize your dream. I can't even imagine how it must feel to finally see it come to fruition. The robot is super-rad. I am kinda getting a Duo (from Mega Man) vibe from him -- One of my favorite robot designs ever. Also very cool of Frank for the offer on letting you display your stuff.
Sounds great, Rob. I've done a bit of research into it myself and what I've learned is that to make a toy you really need two basic things: guts and money, and you mainly need the guts to let go of the money. Sounds like you have both things in the appropriate amounts. Good luck!
Nice one Robert Looking really cool. I'm looking at heading down that direction myself but your much further along than I am. Sounds exciting . I'm looking forward to seeing more too!
These are first shots of the clay model. I've already sent in corrections that I want done, mostly on the face. Others are smaller detail issues Click to the link below to see more photos. http://www.flickr.com/photos/atomicmush ... 424383731/ I'd like to thank everyone for the kind words, support and encouragement. You guys are all good folk
That is awesome Robert! A beautiful thing. The mask on your drawing is much better (as I'm sure I don't need to tell you). Which HK company are you using (if your happy to say)? How many points of articulation are you planning on? Once again
Nice. I dont usually like this kind of thing but the design is just weird enough that it works for me. Was this the inspiration for the eyes or am I seeing things?
Articualtion will be minimal, arms up and down. legs will most like just rotate at the socket. The rocket pack is removable unless it causes problems then it will be glued on. The fist may be able to rotate. The factory is a solid producer. 90% thier business is for the Japanese market and have worked with many notable companies like Medicom and they do alot of designer toys.
Just my re-interpretation of the black area around Tetsujins eyes Photo from the Flickr file of Geozilla
if you can live with 1 design change I would recommend you beef up the upper legs and joints. as it is, although it looks awesome, your giong to run into collapse problems above 80 degress Fahrenheit..and some snap=offs. -my 2 cents
