Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Monstors Among Us: A Conversation with Monstors Creator Dave Igo
280 Plays3 months ago
In this episode, Dave and Erik sit down with toy industry veteran, designer, and artist to talk about his history with toys and his new Monstors Kickstarter campaign. Dave's got a lot to say - sit back and enjoy the latest edition of Adventures in Collecting!
Back the Monstors now on Kickstarter!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/monstors/monstors-sham-moo-moo-and-sting-cobra-action-figures/
Follow Dave @themonstors Instagram!
Follow us @aic_podcast on Instagram, Facebook, X, and YouTube
Start creating a podcast today with Zencastr! Learn more.
Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
Proudly part of the Non-Productive Network
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Journey
00:00:03
Speaker
Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox, and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast. I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting. Where we talk toy news, culture, and hauls. Along with our journeys as collectors. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting. Hi.
00:00:33
Speaker
ah Dave, we we're back. Yes, yeah we are. it's been ah we're We're now on the on the other side of five years. Yeah, it's ah its but it was a long trip, five years long.
00:00:52
Speaker
Yeah, five five years long indeed. um Five years of ah of of cool interviews. With many more to go. With many more to go. Five five years of of super cool interviews, much like the one that we're going to have today.
00:01:08
Speaker
Yes. So I am not going to ah I've spent five years not doing it. So I think I'm going to continue not doing it. So I'm i'm not going to bury the lead, Dave. It's your thing at this point. Yeah, I'm just just not going to do it. um But I am really, really excited about. ah Today's guest um this week's guest quick shout out um to our friends ah at at toy amigos our friends at ah toying around ah Kevin and and super shout to ah to toy farce who just celebrated a ah birthday toy farce was the the one who actually ah Tuned me into a This week's guest and brought brought them ah
00:01:52
Speaker
to my attention and then I went and and enjoyed. ah some some previous interviews. um I think the one that I listened to the most recently was actually the Yes Have Some Guys. So Toy toy Anxiety ah had our guest on in an awesome interview
Dave Igo's Toy Line Kickstarter
00:02:10
Speaker
there. So Dave Igo is one of the best toy artists you've probably never heard of. After designing for Gentle Giant and then putting in a decade of work at Sideshow Collectibles,
00:02:23
Speaker
He has launched a Kickstarter for monsters, an unapologetically epic homage to the weird buff and bizarre toys of the 80s and 90s. Here to talk about his journey through the toy world and to tell us all about monsters, we welcome Dave Igo to Adventures in Collecting. Dave, welcome to the show, man. Thanks. I didn't know if I was on screen yet. It's like a different thing than the other one. So I was like, I thought I was in this small waiting room. I didn't know if they could see me the whole time.
00:02:53
Speaker
Hurry up, I got stuff to do. You know, just like, so impatient, like huffing. Jeez, you know, so yeah, we we don't have the we don't have that that cool set set up notes to Zen caster are our wonderful platform that that we use every every week. um Maybe get us a little like green room waiting area so that way we don't have to like feel like You're just. I thought I was in the waiting room. I'm like, just off the side. I'm slightly small. I'm like, okay, I'm waiting. When do I jump out and yell surprise? So when, when this airs, when we introduce you, you'll get a nice little like, and like through the magic of editing, you'll just appear. Yeah.
00:03:33
Speaker
Sweet. I accept the magic of editing, making it me and my appearance more epic. So thank you and good night. and yeah Perfect. Perfect. What an interview. done yeah We did it. Five years, guys. You did it half a decade. I'm glad to make this awkward. punk no The best. I can't think of a better way to kick off year six of the podcast with, uh, with the shortest interview we've ever done.
00:04:03
Speaker
um So Dave, other before we hop into all of the cool things that you have going on and and your history with ah with toys, the first question we ask all of our guests, ah what are you currently collecting and ah what are some of your recent pickups?
00:04:18
Speaker
So two different things they're currently collecting is I'm mainly going back and like touching base with a lot of the vintage toys I never had or I lost or I sold when I was in junior high. So I've been buying a bunch of my classic Ninja Turtles back and then all the ones I didn't have. Figuring out all the Motu ones I want. I just got a bunch of Bucky O'Hare stuff, which is cool. Got a couple of toxic crusaders. I'm a little bit pickier with them. so oh cool gross but not gross gross gross gross you know and there's some like it's fun stuff i'm just like this has bit my collection you know so a lot of that stuff and then a recent pickup was i got into the sarsaric warriors i got this cool punk rock you know stegasaur guy who's fun so i love i got the whole series one actually but this is just like the one i haven't i'm opening next i'm pretty excited about
00:05:10
Speaker
that from a boss fight because they do great stuff. They really do. I love my four horsemen bro. So I got, I got the, like the cosmic lesions variant, like the not, you know, the homage pieces, one of our classic characters, you know, from the eighties. And, uh, yeah, I dunno, just like, yeah, I'm buying a bunch of like older yeah Like Ninja Turtles, Dream Dinosaurs. So it's been fun. Like kind of going back and picking up a couple, like three, no, right? Like late 2019 was right when I got back into kind of like buying vintage He-Man and Ninja Turtles and stuff like that. And I actually went down the crazy He-Man international variant rabbit hole, which is insane and expensive. And I have now 26 unique mermans because he's my favorite. So.
00:06:04
Speaker
Yeah, I need to get like a lineup of all, I think I have, I'm like six away from having all of them, but. Oh wow. Yeah. It's insane. It's crazy. so Yeah. That's awesome. Um, yeah. Very cool. the The one thing that I like how you mentioned like the right kind of gross. And I feel like the toxic crusaders towed that line because it's one of those things that like,
00:06:30
Speaker
There are a few toy lines from the 90s that should have never been marketed to like kids based on their source material. but yeah so Yeah. And like, and like the, I would say between aliens, those like super cool Kenner aliens. Oh no. And toxic crusaders by far, by far wins that. Yeah. Just like absolutely insane that that became a kid's show.
00:06:54
Speaker
Yeah, like it was nuts. Sorry, Dave. Go ahead. No, I was going to say they they somehow managed to make the Toxic Avenger adorable. you know yeah Somehow, but this is the one I got recently. I got a junkyard, I think his name is um like is. It totally fits like the stuff I've been getting lately. This is like the one I got. I might get Toxie later, but I'm kind of just, i I'm dangerously completed, so I really have to. No, that's the one I really want. And even like I bought like wave one of a toy line and there's five, I'm like, I really only like three of them. So I just gave two to my buddy. He does a, he does a bit every like once a month, like he does a, at a toy shop in Burbank called a blast in the past, the first Friday of every month.
00:07:42
Speaker
They get Santa comedians in there, and they do a thing called Minton Card. My buddy Jeff May hosts it, and he pulls in different comedians. Then they do like a raffle. So whenever I have like toys I don't really want to sell, but I just need to get out of here. I just give them to him, and he does like little raffle giveaways and stuff. Oh, that's awesome. That's really cool. next Next time you're in LA, or next time we're in LA. Yeah, Burbank, yeah. Blast in the past, first Friday of every month. That's awesome.
00:08:08
Speaker
Yeah. And, uh, you know, I was, this is always the time to mention toxic avenger for a superhero from New Jersey films, part of the movie filmed in our hometown. It's true. It's true. I forgot about that. Yeah. Yeah. It's such a weird. I'm really excited about the remake. I love Peter Dinkley. So we'll see what, what happens, you know, like how crazy they're going to get her.
00:08:33
Speaker
Well, I'm excited, we'll see. It'd be a fun one, like, I love, so with like, not to jump ahead too much, but like with Mon Storage, it's kinda like my hybrid of certain things. Like, I wanna find like, what's a new gross thing that could be successful? Like, what is the next toxic crusaders? Like, mad balls, garbage pail kids. But like, what would make that cool now? Like, what would hold up in this day and age? Like, for the modern collector. Like, that'd be a fun challenge to think of, you know? Like,
00:09:03
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Before we dive too deep into monsters, tell us a bit about your journey as a designer. ah How did you get started in the world of toys?
Career Transition and Creative Process
00:09:13
Speaker
man so i i got lucky so i've been collecting toys like i mean when i was in high school i i had a job and my parents are cool and supportive and they're like hey hat like but if you want a car you know save up by a car hey if you get in a wreck and get you know pay for the wreck but that's really all you have to pay for like my parents like i gotta live like a
00:09:36
Speaker
You know, they, they took care of me. So I have this job where basically I could have to pay check, just put into whatever I wanted. So I was buying like McFarland toys. It was a huge McFarland toy collector in junior high and high school. So I loved toys, but I never really thought of that as like a career. I didn't actually, I owned a couple of statues, but not many.
00:09:55
Speaker
So i went to school when i want to be a comic book artist. I was drawing comic book art 4th grade through high school when we had a comic artist didn't work out. So i applied to go to cal arts animation school they didn't accept me so much a local art school in denver colorado. And i learned to animate then new animation program like bull i should be an animator but it was all experimental weird stuff so when i finish that program at this portfolio that is like really eclectic and traditional skill i had.
00:10:22
Speaker
digital modeling in Maya that I didn't really understand. And then I had a bunch of drawing and illustration stuff. And so I said this portfolio and no one knew what to do with me. So I went out to California, I went to Comic Con, went to SIGGRAPH, applied, no one was hiring or no one was hiring me. So I found out about this place called Vancouver Film School. Went there for a year and a half to focus on 3D modeling visual effects for film and television video games. Thinking like that's how I can get a job being an artist.
00:10:51
Speaker
When i finished school i went back to comic con and i met harold meyer the owner of general giant and he liked my drawing like my drawing portfolio and he's like Hey man, you wanna draw? I'm like, yes. So he hired me to draw at his company and they made statues and collectible. Not as much toys, more like resin mini bust of Star Wars, packed in collector exclusives for like DVDs and Blu-rays or sometimes cases, I would design cases. Like I designed this for the Edward Norton Hulk one, I designed a case. I don't know if it got made, but it was like a brick wall that would slide open and it had a Hulk's face. I'm like, ah, like his fingers, like he was breaking out a wall.
00:11:28
Speaker
So it's like a bunch of weird weird fun stuff like that. That's how i got into drawing and consumer products. And there'd be some toy-ish things, but nothing like highly articulated action figures or anything like that. Mostly statues, some smaller figurine things, pack-ins, whatever.
00:11:45
Speaker
So then i was there for three years with the sides of collectibles for and i was there for ten years designer turned art director, and i was mainly focus on their statue line but i didn't know about a little bit with the one six scale like articulate line with star wars and you know, not a ton they offered like hey do you want to draw this might download anything like the people are working on the gio one six going there like,
00:12:08
Speaker
Huge, you know, like military stuff. So they knew gun terminal all this stuff. I'm like, I'm an idiot with guns. So I didn't like, I didn't know like, what are accurate pouches for this military thing? So I'm like, if you guys have a designer that knows this stuff, you should work with them. Cause I, I, I would just like make a cool helmet or make a cool thing that's made up. But they're like, no. And like this gun has a site scope. Like, that like they're really military accurate. I'm like, I just.
00:12:35
Speaker
I, like I, I would, if you need me to, I will do this. But if you're saying I have a choice, I will be better drawing Wolverine in a pose over here. You know, so I did that. And then, uh, yeah, I've been at Twitter head for the last five years or four years and change and creative director in charge of their, uh, statues for key man, thundercats, mists and monsters. And then I help out with some DC stuff too. So I've been working in the last 18 years, probably like.
00:13:02
Speaker
90% was statues and like 8% or 78% was other like consumer proxies and like 3% I got to do a little bit of like film design work, video game design work and stuff like that, which is really cool. I got to work on Tim Burton's Awesome Wonderland for four months as a designer. Cool. those That was a long time ago, but those fun movie to work on. And then yeah, I've just always You know, at a certain point I just, you know, I've been doing this for 18 years and at the time I was like, Oh, I've been doing this for 15 years or whatever it was. Like, what makes me happy again? Cause when you do, when you get paid to be in this world for so long, sometimes your compass gets a little bit skewed because it's like the nine to five and the, like, you're trying to appease like the company you work for in the license hours. And then every once in a while you need to take a step back to like, what makes me happy? And I was like,
00:13:49
Speaker
These things make me happy. So in 2019, that's when I started to rebuy like my, my He-Man stuff. And then that led in into Ninja Turtles, that led into other weird, fun animal stuff. And that's when I realized this is the stuff I love. This is what I want to make. So I started to do it on my own. I mean, I'm still doing Twitter head and I have a statue company with my new business partner, Todd. We have a company called ReVenture. We have the Frank Presetta license so we can make Presetta statues. but doing that Awesome.
00:14:15
Speaker
So then i go stuff is my third job is wait so staying single busy you know yeah just just a couple things in your place a little bit not a lot of well i mean that's that's awesome i mean you you have such a ah textured kind of past you know in the in the industry touching so many different licenses and and formats and everything i out of all of that. And yeah we kind of alluded to it in the intro and and, you know, you just kind of alluded to it again, but what really inspired Monstores? So where where did the the concept come from? Yeah, it was kind of just like, it was, ah so the pandemic happened in 2020. I was commissioning a buddy to design and sculpt these little like, ashy inspired um takes on Gilman.
00:15:04
Speaker
Oh, wow. So if you guys are familiar with Ashley, they're like the small muscle flesh. Oh yeah. Yeah. Can it come in? Yep. Yeah. So I was just like, Hey, this artist, Hey, you want to design in sculpt, like a gill man for me. He did it. Then it was a Lulu next. These were done in super sculpey. So these were traditionally sculpted in the computer at all. This is all super sculpey.
00:15:28
Speaker
Oh, wow. That's crazy. look at the day I got these done just for me for fun, you know, and then I'm like, Hey, other people like these. so I decided to do some resin castings and sell them and then make my money back of a ball. Then once it got to a point of financial, like, Oh, I broke even then paul like I worked on a pricing structure with all like, Hey, let's split this. You know, where it makes sense. Cause thank you. You know, like I want to pocket all myself. So it was cool. I'm like, Oh, I can maybe do this. Like people like.
00:15:57
Speaker
The ideas i have a new how to connect the right time to the right thing is early twenty twenty one hours walk with my wife or walking our dog and i was like. You know, just like thinking about stuff. I came back to my toy collection and I'm like, what don't I have that I want? And I realized like what I love is I love like the buff stuff. Like I love E-Man. I love like Ninja Turtles. Like I like, I've been drawing comic book anatomy like my whole life. So I love, I'm like an anatomy nerd. So I'm like, I like that. And then I love creature design. So let's do some animal bad guy looking cool creature hybrid stuff.
00:16:31
Speaker
And i was like what don't i like what literally don't i have that would like would fit the gaps in my collection so i realize i wanted a shark character add add street sharks was like i wanted something that fit more like the human and charles less like. The giant torso head with the arms coming out like where the ears would be basically you know yeah yeah.
00:16:49
Speaker
Which I love I love I just wanted something that bit more like why don't I have a shark heads e-man character? Why don't I have like why he wasn't Armageddon or Armageddon Armageddon gone the Ninja Turtles character from the fighting game that negative figure of like why did why did they ever do him in like the playmates style?
00:17:05
Speaker
It's like, I wanna shark, like but like, how do I make this a little bit different? So I love mashups. Mashups are like a favorite thing of mine. So I'm like, I wanna do an animal mashup. I wanna shark with bull horns. So I'm like, that would be cool. I haven't seen that before. And then when I was walking with my wife, that's when I was like, what would really make that gel well? And I'm like, well,
00:17:23
Speaker
Bulls or cows are black and white and orchards are black and white so let's make that the mashup like what's it and that could tether them together it's a fun contrast because you get the sea life thing you have the bovine hoof feet so it was a fun like hey these don't really belong together but I haven't seen this done this way.
00:17:40
Speaker
And then I was like, you know, what's the next thing that would go with it? So it's not just all aquatic thing that wouldn't be viewed as just like street sharks. So that's where I was looking. I'm like, I love my scale tail from Ninja Turtles, but doesn't have legs. So it was always like leaning because of his weird tail lower half. Yep.
00:17:56
Speaker
i love claw hand characters i love cloth was my favorite characters i'm like i'll be cool to have a snake with feet and a claw arm. Like i'm doing a crab that's too close to cloth let's do a scorpion that you can have a scorpion tail is it a cobra head bangs. Claws scorpion like that makes me look like triple threat evil you know so.
00:18:16
Speaker
those became the first two characters and monsters and i just started to write a long list of animals i like that i think look visually awesome and some that might be underserved and my collection like oh hey there's a lot of turtles i don't need a turtle character at anytime soon so let me do this character let me try and like this thing oh hey I have an elephant, but I don't have a wooly mammoth. Like, I don't have a hairy elephant. Oh, I don't really have a... there's ah There's kind of a bear character, too, but not one that, like, I'm really, like, oh, yeah, that's the bear character I want. So I started to just come up with, like, this list, and that's how, like, monsters started to happen. And, oh, I was talking about a lot of this with the designer, Erwin Papa, who's amazing. So he... We hopped on a phone call, started, oh, my God, what if... du And then he started drawing. So, yeah.
00:19:06
Speaker
You guys are like the plastic aisle of Dr. Monroe. moreau Yeah, I was going to say. A lot less evil, a lot more playful, a lot more fun. You go to the island of Dr. Monroe, you're kind of like, something's amiss here. you know You just come here, and it's fun. Yeah. yeah No, but that's so that's that's awesome. Very, very cool. Thanks. Yeah, very cool.
00:19:30
Speaker
Um, he kind of alluded to things not being, or things that you didn't have in your collection or things that were um underrepresented. But did you have any sort of internal style guide or like rules that you were going by when you were designing the creatures for the project? Yeah. So I knew I wanted him to be like buff, you know, and I knew I wanted them to be like all two legged, not like, Oh, there's a centaur character. You know, I'm just like, just to have, cause it's a great question. Cause I love.
00:20:00
Speaker
Posing this to like when I'm responsible for an artist, like it when I'm a creative, like my creative director job at Twitter, and I try to give an artist like a box to work, like a framework to work with it. They can be creative within them. Not just give them a blank check, a blank canvas, cause then artists can really spin out of control. It doesn't really help them.
00:20:19
Speaker
So to give myself when i want to come up with a form of some like i like to legs to arms keeps it easy i like the two animal mashup. And those are the main things and when iwin and i were talking we're talking about like things i like and don't like and the ninja troll characters i wish i had slightly different or ones without like.
00:20:37
Speaker
tennis shoes and wrist watches and stuff like in bow ties or something you know i'm like always there's a little bit more oh the ones i like are more barbarian warrior leaning like key man so i want to keep it all tribal barbarian you know like it could be viking it could be whatever just like no no modern stuff and no technology either no laser guns eyesights any of that stuff and i have i have ideas for that stuff later but like i want to keep like this is this right and then very little if any bound object stuff like Shamamoo has his anchor in the cowbell and that's kind of it otherwise everything else is kind of like it looks made by them or looks like it was found by them not like oh i found this like uh there's a term for it and i forgot what it's called called like oh here's a license plate from a car right it's like oh darn cars in this world like even though the anchor is like a weird like
00:21:32
Speaker
They're like, I want the anchor not to jump ahead too far, but there's a story outline I'm working on for a possible cartoon show pitch. Just like if things go well, like what would the cartoon show pitch be? And the anchor that Shaimumu has is actually kind of important because the only sign that humans really ever existed here, if that makes sense. Maybe, maybe it's an anchor from another ship, from another thing, but there's no ships or anything else really. Yeah. It's kind of like, it's a proper artifact.
00:21:59
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Like there could be something else and we haven't answered that yet. So like leaving it open. very good Yeah. I love that. ah Like, and you said before, you know, especially talking about He-Man, like, I'm thinking, like, why was there never, like, a bite tour that was, like, you know, a shark head, you know, He-Man figure? But, like, it's cool. Like, there was a skunk, there was skunk ore, like... Skunk ore. Stink ore, guys. Stink ore. I know I'm the He-Man guy. We're gonna get our cards revoked.
00:22:33
Speaker
so Yeah, I can tell you I had I had to keep him in a plastic baggie in the bin back in the day Oh, yeah, he actually smelled and then Mossman had Mossman had a look. No, he didn't have it yet. Yes think or had the truly kind of a thing going on with him Mossman was flocked wasn't he? Yeah, he was definitely flocked. I just forgot if he also had a little scent to him. I don't think he did. But yeah, like with He-Man, so many of the bad guys look cool. It's like Skeletor looks cool, Trapshot looks cool, Mermaid looks cool, like Beastman looks cool, Spycore too bad. They're like all the cool characters. And then the good guys were like... Yeah, the good guys like a buff blonde guy like it's cool because the main character but really like if this IP never existed sounds like I have a new IP to buff blonde guy.
00:23:22
Speaker
you have tattoos what's like you know like what like it's not talking trash you know i mean it's like and then they're man in arms is cool but it's like a white dude with a mustache and orange armor it's all right cool ram man all right i guess you know i'm like all right but don't worry we got you now with mecca neck it's like dude come on like where's like a cool animal that like oh we'll give you a bird monkey stratos like all right he's kind of cool buzz offs kind of cool because has like a weird pervy smiley face it's like
00:23:54
Speaker
You know it's not about my favorite of the heroic forces and it's so ridiculous second actually. Have them here, but it's like an elephant, you know elephant man. It's like so ridiculous. It works. And I wish that actually had two of them. Yeah, that one and have my vintage one, but.
00:24:12
Speaker
This, I wish more good guys looked cool. Like even in Star Wars, if Star Wars never existed, someone brought it, stage one today, George Lewis was like, all right, my hero is this little blonde white guy in a robe. It's like, all right, cool. It's like, you know what I mean? he But he has a laser sword. It's like, all right, that makes him cool. All right. Who's his mentor? Is his mentor like cool rat or something? Like, no, it's just old white guy in a brown robe. Like, come on, man. You're like, where's the cool looking like without any. They're cool because of the context of like what we grew up with in the movie. yeah But I wanted characters that were just cool without any context. Like you just look at him, you're like.
00:24:54
Speaker
And those are cool. Are they good? Are they bad? I think he's bad. He might be good, but he looks kind of crazy. So that's what I wanted. I wanted more like, I love mylawffles my clawfuls, my whiplashes, my rat lures, my trap jaws. I want like that, you know? Mosquitor with the little blood pump thing. I loved that figure. That was always a good one.
00:25:14
Speaker
I love, he would be just like straight up murderer. Yeah, stabs you with his face. It's like that's pretty cool, you know? Yeah, He-Man and Masters of the Universe was always about the bad guys. I mean, the bad guys were always where where it was at. that that There were some of the most poetic things ever. For me it was cool because I was a little blonde kid with a bull haircut and like Luke Skywalker and He-Man were blonde dudes with bull haircuts. You could relate.
00:25:40
Speaker
I can relate. I never really care to have something I can relate to. I just want some of those cool looking like I i love like, you know, like I love like things just look cool. I'm not like, man, I really relate to Clawful because I'm red and have a claw arm. I have sunburned skin condition. You know, this is me though. Some people like characters are relatable. I'm like, I think you just need cool characters and cool story. know See, part of the other thing though was could I be it for Halloween? Oh, that's a good point. That's solid.
00:26:08
Speaker
So speaking of speaking of things that look really cool, a a lot of creators have tried to capture the essence of the 80s and 90s in their toys, especially now. You know, nostalgia but is a big deal, big selling point.
Inspiration from 80s and 90s Toys
00:26:19
Speaker
um What are some of the key elements that you focused on from that time period while developing lawn stores?
00:26:26
Speaker
Yeah, it's weird because I don't know if my intention is like studying the 80s and 90s as much as I was like living my life and just have this like being all these things in the back of my head just baking and stewing. Like what I like again looking at my collection that happens to be toys from the late like early 80s through early 90s.
00:26:44
Speaker
I was like send me how do i make this work exactly what this is kind of like a natural thing of like it was kinda size. Kind of the boss body and then your thing too is the thing that really strikes me i'm actually color blind and my color blind me i can still see color but like losing purpose can overlap a little bit so i can't tell you if it's blue or purple.
00:27:03
Speaker
or Bright green and yellow are so similar to me. It's like they become the same thing. I love like bright weird colors We're always like the thing that stuck out to me. So working with her when Poppy has a great color design sensibility, so I'm just like Go like when we designed a character then we work did color later and he would do like Do like a B or C who do like three different color paths and they're all insanely awesome So I'd be like They're all cool, but I guess I like this one slightly more than the other two. What do you think? And he would, you know, agree or disagree. We'd have a discussion. So I think it was like part intentional part, just like this is what I like like from all these years of things I like. cause Even there's stuff that's ah like some image comics is infused in there like a little bit, you know, in a weird way.
00:27:48
Speaker
So it's kind of like just the everything I've loved in my life can put in a blender and it biases slightly towards like the eighties and nineties. So I think things that I've heard from other people that make them feel that connection is that they are fun, super expressive. Like you look at like old ninja turtle toys and there's like weird, funny expressions and you get like, you know, the rat think era stuff like um Ed Roth, which is like sixties and eighties and that like influenced a lot of people in the eighties. And then.
00:28:17
Speaker
expressive hands and weird posing stuff and just like bizarre like doesn't really make sense but kind of does as long as it looks cool and like just like the actual detail splatters on there you know like I love that about a lot of the playmates toy stuff is you can like look at them and they each have like a weird little easter eggy thing on them somewhere you know or multiple easter eggs so it's kind of like That and even guys like james grohman who's been designing and working twice since like the eighties. You know he worked on the original bournier mando's and madballs and stuff like that. And his stuff he's doing now his personal work has like a lot of that fun easter egg you just like all this thing has a splatter on and a bone sticking out of it and you're like.
00:28:59
Speaker
You wouldn't, like when you look at this thing, it's crazy and you're like, oh, look at that one thing there, you know? So it's like, it's cool that that's kind of like coming back in the last like five, eight years, you know, so.
00:29:10
Speaker
I love that you brought up the colors because that I was hoping you were going to mention that because that was the thing that actually jumped out at me when I first saw the Kickstarter page was just those like shocking, almost like violent colors. I mean, violence, violence, Lee Vibrance. Let's say that violently, violently vibrant. Yeah. I mean, like you you look at the you know shelf behind you and you know, some of the toys that you named earlier in the, you know, uh, in the interview,
00:29:36
Speaker
Like those Bucky O'Hare figures especially, those colors are just so saturated, they're so rich, the greens, the reds, like, it's just, you know, it's incredible. And of course, you know, turtles, that the wild color palettes on that. But you wouldn't... Or like, you know, like Triceratons always one of the...
00:29:57
Speaker
Brown Chuck, like he's just, he's like primary color splatter. You know, he's just like, things pop and they look cool and they make, they bizarrely make sense even though they're like, though, like you said, the intensity is just like, it's like the dial is like to a 13 or whatever. It's like, whoa, I love it. Yeah, well, we all grew up in the era of like day glow and like bright colors and stuff didn't start to get, yeah, stuff didn't start getting darker until like,
00:30:27
Speaker
mid to late 90s. So, you know, even think about like, you know, and he has Jason, he's purple and teal, like, sure and it rolls. Love it. Yeah. And I think too, the fans really help with the color. It wasn't like my intention was I want to go bright and colorful. So they really pop. It just like, I just thought they were fun.
00:30:46
Speaker
Then a bonus thing of that is when I've gone to conventions I have a display, they really pop and like in a lot of conventions like a lot of stuff might feel same Z. Oh, so like if a lot of things are more muted and realistic and they all kind of like blood and over there someone sees like this. And they're like, what is that like?
00:31:04
Speaker
Moth to a flame I lure them in and they see him and it's just it's fun like you know mad Hatter like saw the stuff with distance like I like what whoa what are the you know it's is like it's cool that like they really grab people from a distance because they pop so I try to have that be with like the display of the figures the logo of the figures It's just I want everything to just pop and then you have a toy collection, you know, and a lot of stuff is feels, you know, like, oh, it's done. And then to bam, you're just like, whoa, what are those things? You know, it's like, yeah, like glow in the dark figures and we turn off the lights, you know. And and, you know, just to to follow up on that, like the fact that you're color blind, like how like that has had to. like I can't ah I can't imagine as a creative director
00:31:53
Speaker
and an artist, like, how like how how have you navigated that for for so long? Well, an easy thing is I love drawing and sculpting. So that's a self form focused and that like with my illustration, a lot of its values, it's fine. And then with statues, it's like, all right, or we're making a blue and yellow Wolverine. Pretty sure she'd be blue and yellow. So when I work with a painter, they I'm like, here's some reference of blue and yellow Wolverine. They know not to make them like purple and green is like, you know what I mean? So it's like, yeah, that helps a lot. I just, my focus when it comes to color on stuff is.
00:32:25
Speaker
like uh like what pops and what doesn't like oh is this wolverine too bright and yellow compared to the cyclops we just did hey that one's a little bit like he's not he's not an 11 on the intensity scale is like an eight let's make sure the wolverine matches him right now wolverine feels like a nine and a half let's bring it down a little bit it's stuff like that like oh hey is the base pop too much and competes with the character. So I focus when I work with the paint team and painters, I work with this freelance. There's a lot on like the value and like what, what pops less about the exact cue of a color. Like, Oh, this needs a little bit more green. You know, they, they tell me that like, I think this needs a little more green to make it less this morning. It's like, that sounds great. Let's do that. Cause I work with great artists. So I, you know, we have a great discussion. I just make sure they know the frame, like what we talked about earlier, the framework, like here's the framework, you know? Awesome.
00:33:14
Speaker
And now, a word from our sponsors.
00:33:22
Speaker
This segment is brought to you by our friends at Chubsy Wubsy Toys. A traditional mom and pop toy store in Little Falls, New Jersey, Chubsy Wubsy Toys brings you the best new toys from the brands you love without the hassle of pounding the pavement searching for them at larger retail stores.
00:33:39
Speaker
Visit them in person at their brand new home at 101 Newark Pompton Turnpike Suite 1 in Little Falls, New Jersey, or online at ChubsyWubsy.com. That's C-H-U-B-Z-Z-Y-W-U-B-Z-Z-Y dot.com. And tell them Adventures in Collecting sent you.
00:34:03
Speaker
And now, back to the show. So you cut your teeth at two of the most notably designed forward companies in the industry. um What did you learn from Gentle Giant and Sideshow that you brought to the project? So side ah going back to Gentle Giant, there's definitely a few things that stick out to me. One was I had had a couple of really good mentors when I was at Gentle Giant, like ah Christian Gosset. He's the creator of this comic called The Red Star. He was one of my early art directors.
00:34:34
Speaker
And then dan catcher at the time he was a he came to general giant from mccrull and toys where he was a traditional sculptor. And i i learned he was there because i was walking when i was getting my interview and i was walking through the studio they had these cubicles on top of one of the cubicles they had like the elder dragon i love this brave digger figure i love like these three or four figures i love from mccrull and toys that got me back into collecting mccrull and i love those figures.
00:34:59
Speaker
And then the guy gave me the tour, he was like, oh, the sculptor is in that cubicle. So I turned around, I'm like, I mean, like a celebrity that I didn't know existed. He was this crazy dude named Dan Patcher. He's awesome. He's like a big brother to me now. He eventually went on to learn digital. I kind of helped him learn ZBrush early on. And his claim to fame now is he was a designer and sculptor on the Dragons for Game of Thrones, the original show. He's two through eight. So that was like his dream. Cool.
00:35:26
Speaker
Yes, it went from traditional sculptor, digital design and creator, and he has worked in film, television, video games for a while now. And then the other guy that was kind of like my third mentor, ah friend friend, big brother there was Joe Jung. Remember I had one talk with Dan that really stuck with me and one talk with Christian Gossett that really stuck with me and one talk with Joe z Jung that really stuck with me. So Christian Gossett, when we were working on Alice in Wonderland, he's my art director on that, he's like,
00:35:55
Speaker
Don't go, there's actually two things. He's like, don't go for good looking illustration. He's like, we'll make it look good later. Right now we're on early development, so let's push good ideas. Get the team happy with the idea that we can make it a pretty illustration. So I'm like, oh shit. Like that really stuck with me about like, go for visually the good idea first. Once a good idea, they can make it pretty. Because a lot of people can make pretty pictures, but like, is it a fun idea?
00:36:18
Speaker
Like not saying that's the right way to do things because sometimes illustrations very straightforward and you just need this thing. But for what a lot of what I do it needs to be a good idea first and a good illustrations like a bonus.
00:36:30
Speaker
And then he told me a thing about scale, I just make sure things are clear with scaling. Like you have some small mix, you have something big to contrast it or whatever. So I always like to make sure it's like a lot of the same, right? So that always like the contrast that went to detail versus bigger, like bigger, broader areas and shapes and smaller shapes than color, you know? So that was something that really like kind of affected me across all this other stuff.
00:36:55
Speaker
And then Dan Catcher, and this is before he worked on the Dragons for Game of Thrones, but he did the Dragons for MacFarlane toys. We were just drawing dragons together one night after hours. And I was drawing some random thing and it looked weird and bizarre. And he's like,
00:37:08
Speaker
He's like, that's cool. does it He's like, it's kind of like more on the, and this goes, but we were talking earlier, he's like, it's kind of on the grocer side. You should go for something that looks a little bit cooler. And then the way he said it, it's not like it has to be this, but it really stuck with me. Like I can make this gross and it would like kind of limit the viewership or I can make it look cool and it would broaden the viewership. So it's like that fine line of what's cool and what like what is cool and then what do I think might be cool, right? And it's it's a weird thing to,
00:37:38
Speaker
really define exactly, but it was something that stuck out with me in terms of like, I kind of applied to like, when I, like going back to the toxic crusaders stuff, like what's too gross for me, not saying like I'm offended. Just like, eh, this really inspire me to do something cool. You know? Um, and then Joe Jung, the one thing he imparted on me that stuck with me forever is I would design something. I would push it like this far and he's like, no, go this far and have someone bring you back rather than like not go far enough and you need to be pushed.
00:38:09
Speaker
So I was like, Oh, dang. And that, um, that echoed into stuff. Other people told me later on too. So it's kind of like those, those are like three to four things that really stuck with me leaving John giant. And at a, at sideshow, I grew more into and management and it ah like, I learned a lot from some of the people there, but really forced me to like read more books on management and psychology of people.
00:38:32
Speaker
And really kind of like stuff I felt like I knew but was never explained to me. So while I was at SciShow, I read this, ah the book's Dale Carnegie, I think is How to Make New Friends and Influence People. It's like it was written like early 1900s. It's on like its 20th draft edition or whatever. But that book essentially was about people skills and management and how to be a that like, you know, you might be a good people person, but then like, how does that like work with management?
00:38:58
Speaker
And that was just like, I mean, most people know this now, but for me, it was kind of like, I don't know if it was ever said to me, this book made it really clear, was like, you know, just treat others how you want to be treated. Like if you're giving someone direction, make sure you're giving the direction how you would want to receive the direction. And something like I knew kind of, but in that book, like just defined it, like just really blotted it out. And I was like, that's cool. And then another book I was reading while I was at sideshow, it was called The Spirit of Leadership.
00:39:24
Speaker
And it's a weird one. Like it's a great book in a weird way. I'm ex-Catholic, not really religious anymore, but it was written by like ah a Christian guy. So like you get like some really good chapters, maybe one chapter. It's like, and here's why God's awesome. And because I say so and I'm like, all right, that's an interesting chapter. You know, kind of skim through it a little bit faster and then get to like the meat and bones of like human psychology a bit.
00:39:45
Speaker
But ah he had a ah bit that basically talked about like the difference between leadership and dictatorship and how a leader is there to service the people. If you have people underneath of you, you're here to make sure they have everything they need so they can succeed. And the dictator believes that the people are there to serve them.
00:40:04
Speaker
so you can choose to be a dictator just like alright cool you're all doing this for me or you can choose to be a leader and just like alright you're my team i'm responsible for you how can i make sure you're supporting everything you need and then apply that with the golden rule and other stuff too and it just it's nice because i feel like i knew those things then just having it like presented in front of me, like, like that makes so much sense. So those are like probably the two biggest things in terms of like learning about leadership. and Not to say I didn't learn anything from my, you know, the people above me there at Sideshow or anything like that. But like, those are two things I learned while at Sideshow just through, you know, literature. I read books one time. Hey, books are important. Yeah. Sometimes.
00:40:48
Speaker
I need to read more. I'm horrible at reading. it Now I get so busy. I'm just like, Oh, I have some breach. I want to play Tetris or watch a movie with my wife or some like hall play Hollow Knight. That's like the other video game I play. So, so actually I have another thing that was just kind of thinking of, um, you mentioned it when you were like, Hey, I taught the, you know, um, somebody how to use like digital, you were coming, you basically kind of came through same time.
00:41:14
Speaker
Of course, we did just learning that like computers were becoming prevalent and digital was becoming a thing. yeah You know, analog was starting to fall by the wayside. um How did that kind of prepare you for for now or for even just kind of making your way through as as you have?
00:41:34
Speaker
for the po you I was lucky that was a experience yeah i guess i was lucky I was a traditional illustrator growing up and then I went to school to learn digital because I thought that was my future. so i was kind of like And then rewinding a little bit further, before that, I have a twin brother and an older sister, so I was raised sharing everything. And like, you're not always right. There's always like, oh, this is for them. You know what I mean? So I was like, I was always kind of raised like an open mind of like, it might not just be about me or this thing I know, but oh, my brother is going through this thing, my sister or whatever. You know what I mean?
00:42:08
Speaker
So, being an illustrator, learning about digital, I'm like, oh, I should learn, like there's something out, like there's something maybe out there that's different that I need to learn. Like, sorry, it sounds like super jumbled mind mush, but I hope it makes sense. Basically, I was like, a title and yeah, should learn this.
00:42:24
Speaker
So when I got a job at John Giant, I was very like very open minded like, I want to learn new things. I'm in California. I just moved here from Colorado. My first job. I know how to draw. I know how to model in, you know, 3D. And I i know a little bit of ZBrush. ZBrush was newer back then. So and then I was meeting all these work professionals that were traditional sculptors, digital guys. So I was kind of like immersed in that world. I wasn't like, I feel for a lot of my friends and colleagues that were just immersed in like traditional for the longest time then.
00:42:54
Speaker
Comes along this new thing that a bunch of younger people can come in and do things faster and cheaper. It's like I get it. That's like that's scary. It's like what essentially a lot of the industry is feeling now. It's like AI. Yeah, which I'm pretty adamantly against in most cases like to me. It's like there's good uses for AI and there's like Like in there's innocent uses for AI like i I really feel for like the brutal realm guys they they got beat up a little bit on like their animal like animal body like future release thing that they unlocked and they use is. I get it they were like up against the wall up until a certain point in their campaign and then they got all this funny that they need they so at a point they stopped kind of like investing money in their future designs cuz I do we might not get funding you know so I totally get that then when they got us funding.
00:43:42
Speaker
They needed to react, they needed to keep up with their previous projects, all stuff. And they were just like, and there are two guys that haven't been, and I get it. They're just like, hey, here's this thing we can use. And they did this stuff to kind of show an idea. And then a few people caught wind of it and shared it like, oh, these guys are jerks. And I was like, no, they're good guys. I think, you know, and then they came in and said their piece and was like, a dude, we did not want to do this. It was like a last resort, just a show intention. But they have every intention of like investing in artists and stuff like that, which is awesome.
00:44:10
Speaker
That's important. So, sorry, I'm jumping around, Dave, but like that whole thought of like, how did the did going from traditional digital era, like, how did how did I like step into that just weird, some kind of like another one happening now?
00:44:24
Speaker
But I was kind of like there, so I was kind of excited about... I always viewed everything as an option for anyone to use. So if you're a traditional sculptor, learn ZBrush, then you know another thing to do your art with. You know, if you're an illustrator, you should know Photoshop. If you know Photoshop, why don't you learn ZBrush? You're using the computer to make art, use ZBrush, and... Make sculpture so for me it was i was always like excited about that night i gotta see friends be excited like that were traditional sculptor for years be excited about that and jump in and i see people ever. Reluctant then they've actually jumped in the love and i got to see people who. Reluctant hated it took forever than they eventually came around i've seen people who refuse to come around so to this day is as though why people refuse you know it's like.
00:45:12
Speaker
You could learn something cool and a lot of those people that refuse it they complain about not getting work and i'm like. I don't wanna say the obvious but do you think there's a correlation toward your result of learning something and not getting work like.
00:45:28
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know. I don't like working with people that are closed minded to anything. It's like, I mean, not anything, but Hey, we work on this. Nope. I only do this the one way. There's a way I do things. I'm extremely rigid in how I work. Okay. That makes it limited in what I want to work with you on because you only want to work this one way. When you work with someone who's collaborative, open-minded, try like, Hey, try, Oh, I have an idea. Let's try this. Like open-minded acceptance and nits is like awesome. Cause you can,
00:45:58
Speaker
you might get better results and when it's all on you, only your way, you've been doing it this way for a hundred thousand years and you ref refuse to learn digital. It's like, I can only feel so bad for certain people until they like choose to, you know, do it, you know? I don't know. Sorry. Did that answer that David? I jump around. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Cool. Yeah. I mean, we've seen it too, you know, just the way that, you know, even just in the past five years, you know, some of the first interviews we did,
00:46:25
Speaker
You know, toy makers, like, like big toy makers, you know, folks from Hasbro Mattel, we're still talking about doing test shots and, you know, doing, you know, paint masters and stuff like that. Like the old, the old way, you know, like but I remember one of the first conversations we had were, you know, explained to our, you know, our audience, like what a two up was, you know, and, and like,
00:46:48
Speaker
You know, those, some of those same people that we had those conversations with we've had back on the show and like the, the sample process is totally different now. You know, like, like the, the EPs come in and you know, it's the first time they're seeing them and they're like in the actual plastic that they're going to be in, you know, near correct color. Right. Um, and it's it's all done on a computer. It's all done digitally. You know, they make sure that they have the same Pantone book as the, as the ah factory and You know, they're, they're synced up on the, on the the color choices and everything. And it makes the process not not only just move faster, but it to your point, like it allows for experimentation and, and kind of this like digital brainstorming. So it's, and it's really cool to see that the industry kind of like evolving so, so quickly.
00:47:38
Speaker
It's also made things much quicker. Like, you know, I go back to my own experience, like, okay, you're waiting for film to be developed and you can't really do anything until that gets transferred. And now you're like, you've waited like a week and a half. So you better have written your ideas down or I can do it like an hour after I'm done. And now I've shot things digitally. I don't need to develop them. Like.
00:48:04
Speaker
I can just plug stuff in and load it up in less than and an hour. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. And like, you can still, some people love the traditional photography process going to dark green. Cause there's like a process to, it's like their, their meditation. And I get like, there's a, there's an art to that too. And I get like, people still will mix their own paints out of like berries and we're like, you know what I mean? Some people will still make paint, you know? It's like.
00:48:29
Speaker
Yes not gonna go away and in a lot of cases like people thought when the digital cut like illustration boom blew up in the like two thousand six two thousand nine era with marvel comics and cover artists like we are going to learn digital cuz now this one guy is coming just crank it out like a cover every day and we would draw and paint when it takes a week then that's one back because.
00:48:53
Speaker
Digital artists and have originals to sell and that'd be a huge part of a lot of people's salaries is like coming a name artists getting paid to cover work than you have this originally can sell for like three five ten twenty thousand dollars depending on what it is who you are and the importance of it and that's like that's huge for your income be able to sell over 100% I think they're still gonna be thinking of like AI and stuff when i was talking to jay scott Campbell who's a pretty well known comic book artist i'm not sure if you guys know who he is he created like uh gen like gen 13 he was a co-creator on endangered girl and draws hot chicks a lot but uh he and i were having lunch and we were talking about AI this like last year at some point
00:49:32
Speaker
And he he's one of the top like people enter like oh draw this and jay scott campbell style like him and stanley lau goes by archer he's another one yep uh both good buddies and he's like i'm not really concerned about that because people are still gonna want to hire me because my name sells like people and people like me people want to meet me they don't want to meet like the guy who copies my stuff like that person might get work but they're not taking work away from me yeah and that was the thing that really stuck out to me not like in a sense of like And I can see somebody be like, well, it's easy for him to say it's Jay Scott cable. Who am I? But it's like the takeaway from that conversation is, well, make it so people want to work with, you know, like don't be the negative. Everything's not the way it was. I refuse to change. It's like, cool. Who wants to work with that person? Like who wants to work with a negative curmudgeon II ah No, my opinions the best. Don't you dare give me any feedback? No, it's like Okay, you know like it's just like it's just I don't get how people can't make that connection of like you're struggling to find work Because you refuse to be co-operative you use to open your mind you refuse to be like just weird So that's why like even with a Kickstarter
00:50:52
Speaker
People tell me like, if you're very personable, get out in front of this more, get out there. Like don't just push the product. But like with my talking head video, I worked really hard with a buddy of mine to like shoot and edit it to make it feel like a funny, weird thing where they get to know me, they get to know the brand a bit more. And I mean, the more that happens, the more I get to meet people and go on the campaign trail and like shake some babies and kiss some dogs or what's the, what are you doing? Campaign, right? Exactly that. Yeah, dogs, shake babies, you know,
00:51:22
Speaker
like that,
Engaging Conversations and Guest Insights
00:51:23
Speaker
right? Dropkick rotten fruit. um Then people get to know you more than like you, and then they want to support your product more because they like you, you know? And even when people like on certain YouTube reviews, they're like, you know,
00:51:38
Speaker
Like, oh, not articulate enough, too expensive. I'm like, dude, that's cool. It's not for you. You know, like, it thanks. Cool. Not for you. And they're just like, man, Hey, he's a, he's responding. Cool. I can talk. Oh, Hey, but then they like you more, you know? So I think it's the same with like art general. Just make it so people.
00:51:53
Speaker
like You guys, make it so people want to listen and watch your video podcast things. I'm not saying you guys don't know this, but like if people are like, why isn't anyone watching my thing? It's like, I don't know, are you bringing some to the table? Are you making them want... You can't expect things to be... you Sorry, I'm going to stop talking. I talked too much. do You guys need to tell me to shut up at any point. Eric, you like dave you're talking too much. I have a thought.
00:52:19
Speaker
the The good thing, this is a mostly talking medium. Yeah, so that's that's like thing that we that's the thing that we love. ah It's encouraged. is is cool There is nothing better when our guest likes to talk as much or more than we do. That's that's always a good sign. Challenge accepted.
00:52:40
Speaker
So we've kind of, we've kind of danced around this a little bit, you know, talking about the inspiration, the kind of design elements. Um, but actually and tell us ah a little bit about your, your characters here. So, you know, we talked about sham sham Moo Moo, who by the way, what a name, love a good portmanteau. yeah Bravo. Shamu Moo. What a name. And it just rolls off the tongue. And then, yeah and Stinkobra. So, um, tell us a little bit, which is something I like when it's like, what does that look like? Stinkobra. Yeah. Yep. It makes sense. You hear the name, you see it's like, that makes sense. You know, it's like, what am I getting into? Yeah. So tell us about these characters and, uh, and what backers can expect, you know, from, from this campaign.
00:53:24
Speaker
Yeah, so talked a little bit about them earlier, just like where, like their inspiration came from. Like Shamu was just like, wanted a shark with bull horns and became an orca to the black and white gel. And then talking to Erwin pop on the phone, he's like, y'all let's push the expressions, go like a little bit more rat thing. We both love Venom too, from Marvel. And like what's great about Venom, you can draw them almost any way, but really expressive eyes, mouth, crazy teeth, expressive hands. So that's the stuff we want to push in like all these characters.
00:53:53
Speaker
And like so originally they're just gonna be like ah two arms had the one weapon and in stink over skis is gonna be the claw arm that was his weapon yet a little pincer arm. And then when working on the color variance for them.
00:54:07
Speaker
which was gonna be a unique head sculpt to make a new unique, I call them character variants, so it's like it makes a new character. So Bulltooth is Shamamoo with a new head, with a little nose, like a cow nose knocker, and then he has a derpy weird face, he has a giant harpoon weapon, so new weapon, new face. Seeing Cobra as his Venom-Nom, and he has a derpy face with like a tongue sticking out, and he has an actual like clawed hand holding a knife. And then I was like, look at this, I'm like,
00:54:35
Speaker
Well, then Nom Nom in a weird way became kind of cooler than Steen Cobra, because now he has a hand and a weapon. So I was like, I need to do this. And then talking to Mad Hatter, like I was getting some feedback from him. He's like, yeah, dude, the more ways you can hold weapons, I would like it to have a second hand. I can hold a weapon. I'm like, all right, cool. I need to do, for shame and mood, two weapon hands, two expression hands. And then Steen Cobra now comes with the giant claw, the pincer hand, and then the claw hand that can hold in the knife and the knife.
00:55:03
Speaker
so it's like that's what they kind of come with now original is gonna be a little bit less but now it's that now when we get weapons packs of the weapons and you can have shaman when he's holding two weapons of just like he's always anchored ha to just like the one hand with the weapon and the one expressive hand i'm like you're you're right this needs to be pushed a little bit more this way so They each come with the one head, a couple of hands depending, you know, they each come with like a weapon, and Stinkover now he comes with his claw hand, a knife, and his stinger tail, so he's he's a little bit more deadly than Shamamoo. And then one of the people stand on their own, like, so they have big feet, and actually the Stinkover prototype that's painted and been shown, we're actually updating the feet to be quite a bit bigger and worse blade toe, so they can really balance really well.
00:55:49
Speaker
But coming from california like southern california get a lot of earthquakes i gave me to base to seven universal basis for like. Extra stability to don't have to use it can stand in your collection but it's not worried about museum party or whatever you think they all come with the same base and then they stand a little bit extra so.
00:56:08
Speaker
That's what they come with, and they each come with like their own little buddy. So, sorry, I wish I had them here, actually. I'm just shipping them out to another reviewer. It's like, that's a weird timing thing. I'm like, I wish I could have only have the one copy, so they're kind of like yeah going on their own world tour. But on the Kickstarter page, you can see they each come with their own little buddy, because that was the last second thing before DesignerCon last year. One thing I love about Ninja Charles is when they come with like a little catchy buddy. like or years somewhere like like these aren't from Ninja Turtles but you get the idea like a little like what the Gillman was i had earlier and I love a love weird little little buddy guys so
00:56:50
Speaker
They each come with one, so I worked with my buddy Christopher Florick, who's an amazing designer, and he designed this little starfish guy and this little camel spider guy. And we got him designed, sculpted, 3D printed, and painted, and at DesignerCon. It was like literally 12 days before the convention. I'm like, I want to do buddies.
00:57:08
Speaker
And so we did it and it was awesome like you know i had mark newman help me and sculpt one my buddy ariel more over a miss sculpted the other mark three print them she is who painted both my figures and she works for side to collect will she painted them which is single color but still. Great you know so they come with a body so they come with like the weapon.
00:57:29
Speaker
You know, a couple hands, base, a little buddy. And that's like the main package for each figure. And then the variants will come with a color swap variant for the dudes too that match them. And then they come with only the one new head. So they don't, neither of them come with like two heads. No, I mean, I just wanted like the one head. And then, uh, yeah, then we have color variants of Shamu, Munstein, Cobra. So the first color variant is going to be a color called the color swap.
00:57:57
Speaker
So it's Stinkobra and Shamumu colors and Shamumu and Stinkobra colors. That way if someone's like, oh, I really love Stinkobra, but man, I love, I want a Shamumu arm with the anchor to match, or I love Shamumu, I want the claw arm to match him. They could like mix and match those parts and keep the colors the same. I like the weird mixing of colors. yeah I thought that'd be kind of a fun one, was just like a color swap.
00:58:22
Speaker
And a lot of people prefer the color swap version over the main version. So that's been kind of cool, like seeing who likes what. And then ah we're doing injection glow in the dark. So it'll be like the Super 7 and the neck of figures. Everyone loves glow in the dark. And I have ah of a way to work that into the story. So it's not just like a random like, oh, every character is glow in the dark. It's like, it's going to be a thing. So it's kind of a fun narrative moment.
00:58:45
Speaker
Uh, so they'll be slightly limited in their color palette. So there will still be some tones and some color to make them pop like darks and lights and whatever, but there'll be injection. Um, so that'll match all the other glow in the dark figures people have been getting recently.
00:58:58
Speaker
And then I want to do a Kickstarter exclusive only. And instead of doing a gray unpainted one, I decided just to, I was talking to my production manager, Chris Garwich, who's the production manager for the Four Horsemen. So he does all their China production for them. He had his own line called Biblical Adventures. yep ah So he's going to help me with the China factory stuff. And he's like, yeah, you can just go clear, inject.
00:59:20
Speaker
That may paint it one color so you can get blue for chamomu green for seeing cobra. And that way you know he said I could be great to be to me it's like there's some color focus lines of color focus these feel like the unpainted one so yet chamomu is all blue take his arm off but on your other chamomu it's like a water arm you know the water power arm or something.
00:59:40
Speaker
Like, sink over green energy, you know, like, whatever. So I try to make them like meaningful variants, not just like, oh, and I'm doing this, and stone, and brawn, and what, you know, I just, yeah I like clean, I try to keep it clean, but I'm trying to also amortize my tooling costs for these figures, you know, so trying to find that perfect balance. Yeah, makes sense, man. Yeah, and and i like I love the, ah the the one picture you have on the kickstarter page where shamamoo has some of stinkobra's parts attached to him and vice versa like the swapability factor um always a good thing i love that thanks and that's something like with the logo it's monst or it's like the ores is another color because
01:00:22
Speaker
In the toy commercials on the on the page two it's or this or this or this or this and you can just like mix and match make your own mom store so that's been. I know like most toys have that but it's fun like push that into the marketing advertising in the brand of the name.
01:00:39
Speaker
you know it's like yeah where's that gonna go and like then the more monsters you get then like you get infinite possibilities you know it's like when wave two happens like that many more mix and match combinations between the multiple characters and their variants you know yeah so some of the mix and match stuff you know go back to masters of the universe is like oh i found that out from our friend from a friend but it's not on you know not a thing they tell you Yep. Just like if you know, you know, they kind of show you in the, the little, uh, with the origins figures, they give you like a little thing, like a little pamphlet with the figures. Say these are like the removable parts. So you can do it. Yeah. It's not really at, like you said, it's not really advertised as like a, and I don't know what, how it would like in that, like a team man in the store, in the comic, they don't like swap body parts. So it's like,
01:01:27
Speaker
no No other story, I mean, I know there's probably something from the 80s or 90s where it's like things swapping things. And like, I mean, I know that's, I'm not the, definitely I'm not the first one. I'm not saying like, I invented this in the narrative world of things, but it's fun. Like really push it and own it, you know, and just kind of like this, this probably has been done, but here it's unique to us because of this, you know? Yeah, totally. Yeah. Yeah.
01:01:54
Speaker
I invented injection plastic action, just in case. Good. what you We'll commit that to, uh, we'll commit that to permanent record here. yeah So, uh, you alluded to wave two, um, but what's next for, uh, Mont stores when the project fully funds.
01:02:12
Speaker
So I'm definitely a person that can bite off more than I can chew and I realize I do not want to be that person. So I've teased in the talking head video and even in the artist credits at the very bottom of the Kickstarter page, there's some art for other characters and stuff.
01:02:26
Speaker
But in the talking head video, I show full colored art for bear zerker, which is a bear made of bears, wooly rameth, which is a wooly mammoth ram hybrid guide. He has broken tusks. He uses one of his tusks as a weapon and he's mad because he can't find the other tusks. That's part of the story. And then bone picker, he's like our bigger villain. He's more sympathetic.
01:02:47
Speaker
Like versasting cobra who's just like a major jerk like bone pickers kind like the bad guy that you're like oh i see why he's bad sing over just sucks you know but i don't think there's also the introduction of like the first non-buff brawler bro is kinda like more decrepit think of him like ah the mama before he transforms.
01:03:06
Speaker
So, Bone Thicker is the one that introduces the thing that makes the swapability happen between the figures. So, he's kind of like an important narrative figure. And he's cool. He's like a hyena vulture. Like, one big bulging eye, one little creeper, and, like, creepy hands, and all this cool jewelry, and a cool skull staff thing, and hunched back weird ne- Like, I wanted to be, like, this this really cool-looking, like, evil- Like, when you look at him, like, oh, that guy is sad-looking, but cool-looking. Like, in a- I can get- He's a bad guy. yeah Like, he has a- He has a bone to pick with someone, you know? Bone picker. And then we show in the talking head video, we show a world map too, and which i i I just wanted to do. So I have like an idea of where the characters are. Well, I've done a character from the sea, I've done a character from the desert, done it character like, oh, I don't have anyone from the jungle. I don't have anyone from this area. So I can populate like the world map a little bit. So.
01:03:57
Speaker
ah bear I just love the idea of a bear, a bear made of bears. It makes me think of station from Bill and Ted's bogus journey. Yeah. I forgot who, someone commented, it was either a friend who was on Instagram, they said, a bear made of bears. It just stuck to me. So he has a giant sculpted head in his chest, the big head. And then he has two smaller heads. Those will be the swivel swappable ones amongst other characters. He has like one big arm. He has two, like one medium sized arm, the one really small arm. So one arm per head. And he actually has tiger legs. Cause we're just like, and tiger legs and a tiger tail is why not? So.
01:04:35
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I go right back to the Dr. Moreau comment. to bear bear a bear bear I love it. and He's going to be my first like wild card in the story. So like.
01:04:46
Speaker
Every character is kind of like, they can talk, they have their motivations. Beresurker is just like the Tasmanian devil meets Godzilla. He just shows up and wrecks stuff, wreaks havoc. Perfect. And yeah, he's just that. I just wanted a wild card. So wave one is kind of like an antagonist protagonist. And wave two would be a new protagonist, a new antagonist, then a wild card. So I think it's a fun little pacing. Like get the way to split it up, you know?
01:05:14
Speaker
Well, right now, as of the time of this recording, we're recording on on Monday, September 16th. Um, you are just shy of halfway there on this project, which is awesome. I mean, super, super, super cool. You got 23 days left to go. Um, just, just under 300 backers. So, you know, you're, you're definitely on, on pace to to you know hit your funding goal here, which is, which is awesome.
01:05:40
Speaker
and And we are a show that believes in when, not if. Yeah, when we do we do not say if, we say when. When it happens. Yeah, I was talking with David Silva of Creative Beast Studios. he you know does the awesome all the He's had the four different dinosaurs, kickstarters, they like you know the raptors. New Jersey represent. Yeah, dude, yeah. So are you guys going to Legion's Con? Whatever. Probably. You have to, right?
01:06:04
Speaker
ah just ah wait We it ends up it always ends up being on a weekend where we're not here So like we're hoping that this time it works out. We know because it's always a shame. It's like literally yeah and I could say I could walk there, but like it's a short drive. Very, very short. That's cool. Yeah. david David is like, you got to come, but he's been a great mentor for kickstartering and just making sure I'm not crazy. He's he's been a huge supporter of what I've been trying to do with monsters for the last couple of years. He's become like another, him and Eric Treadaway were like my two big brothers with this effort. Like Eric Treadaway of the four horsemen, like i saw him a couple of years ago. like
01:06:40
Speaker
When do i when can i get this like i don't know the last year's like when can i get this my i need a production using using my production i chris because i want these toys like okay you know so there's course chris on me in a great way and then david silvers like been super supportive of it too. and He's give me a couple like really great opportunities to have like a long phone call with and i get my crazy how do i do this and he told me like.
01:07:04
Speaker
Usually, for these Kickstarters, there's obviously exceptions to the rule, but you should be looking at getting the first third-year funding in the first two to three days, and the last third-year funding in the last two to three days. In the middle, 24 to 26 days is the other third. It's like it starts hot.
01:07:20
Speaker
And then there's the bell curve in the middle and then it gets hot again so i just knew it was coming like seeing the first day where i just shot up the day to like we know that more than the third day of black toad i was like ready for it so is nice to not be like surprised by that and i just i just kept.
01:07:39
Speaker
I just refuse to like sit still. So I'm like, hitting up friends, who should I know? Who should I go on? Who should I give these to to review? Like I'm printing out flyers and literally driving them to comic book shops and toy shops in like, LA. It's like, I have a Kickstarter. Do you like these toys? I'll give you free stuff. You put some flyers in your thing. You know, and I ran into like a couple of strangers outside of a comic book shop that weren't even at the comic book shop. They were just like hanging out. I'm like,
01:08:08
Speaker
you guys look like you're about my age. Do you like stickers? Like we love stickers. I gave them a sticker pack of my toys and they're just like, these are awesome. I'm like, I know. And so we just,
Kickstarter Campaign Details
01:08:18
Speaker
it was great. I just ran a like two strangers, like just like a political camera. Just like check out my stuff without being, I'm a six foot three dude with long hair. I'm a, I'm a big person. So I try not to be intimidated. Like check out my toys, you know, just like, Hey man, how's it going? You know, so it's definitely like,
01:08:34
Speaker
Try i'm not sitting in hoping someone does me any favors i'm like i'm getting out there doing the leg work while also having favors from beautiful gentleman like you were like let's have you on the show but sweet let's do it is.
01:08:50
Speaker
People who are listening to your show, like you said, who don't know I exist, now they know, hopefully they're not like, that guy's a juice pack. Hopefully they go, man, he's cool. And his stuff's cool. And the thing I think that's unique about the Kickstarter campaign, I'm i'm really excited about too, is I mean, I make a living already. This is like, I got docked for this one. Sorry, I don don't care, but it is a vanity project. because I just want these things. I want to make them because I want to have them and I want to share them with other people. I think it's what most toys start out as is like someone's like, I want these things. Right. And, uh, I'm not doing it for the month I mean like hopefully I can make money on this one day but even my kickstarter goal when I hit it that's like me maybe breaking even I'm not like oh hundred twenty thousand dollars like dude. Tooling costs unit costs shipping container costs kickstarter paying my team credit card charge fun like all like all that stuff.
01:09:45
Speaker
adds up. People just really are just like, oh my God, that's these are so expensive. I'm like, do I have ran eight financial scenarios? And this is the best case for a realistic goal where I'm not losing a ton. If I hit 120, I might stay at 120. That's all I do. I might still be out $5,000 by the end of all this because there's some other thing I didn't think of. you know But ah to me, the important thing is getting them made, getting them out there, and even one of the tiers in the the campaign is a donation set. So like if you if you want to buy a Stinkover or a Shamu with their 55 bucks each, if you buy both of them together, there's a discount. So it's 99 bucks, takes 11 bucks off. Then if you're like, hey, I like Dave.
01:10:28
Speaker
I like this stuff but it's not really for me i don't have the space but you're doing okay financially you can donate a set so you can pay it's i think it's eighty bucks in the nation said. So and then i keep that set and i gather them all that i donate them to ah toys for tots or children's hospitals, however, whichever way i can so if anyone out there.
01:10:47
Speaker
Is this like hey these aren't for me and you're doing know okay financial you want to buy a donation set that goes. Right to some kids that might not have been a good spot right now and it's cool thing that any money if i do it
Unique Collection Stories
01:11:00
Speaker
certain numbers my unit cost come down and i'm actually making money on those donations that's all that money goes back into more donation sets for the kids like not a single dollar from that year goes in my.
01:11:11
Speaker
pocket that's all That's amazing. That's amazing. That's awesome. And and I can tell you, you know this this might seem completely random, but we we ah we know for a fact that a large portion of our audience really likes orcas and bulls.
01:11:28
Speaker
so read Mm hmm. You know, we just we we not cobras or scorpions are kind of racist towards them or species. Well, species, you know, we can only go off of the information that we have access to. And, you know, that that that bull and orca information is just readily available. yeah So it's good. It's good information. High, high probability that you're reaching the right audience here.
01:11:51
Speaker
of wheat So Dave, ah before we before we say goodnight for the evening and of course you know give you the opportunity to drop the you know the links and yeah URLs and all that stuff, we have a little tradition here on ah on the show where we have a final question that we ask all of our guests. And it's actually been, it's been a minute since we've had like a new guest. Like we've had to like- To have the original one. Yeah, to have like to go back to the original question. So um Dave,
01:12:20
Speaker
Weimbrecht, Dave Weimbrecht, Brother Dave. Yes. ah Would you like to fulfill your role as this podcast's James Lipton and ask our final question? Why, yes, I would. The final question that we ask all of our guests, what is your strangest and or favorite piece in your collection? It can be one of each, or it can be both.
01:12:45
Speaker
but actually I read the email like 10 minutes before it went live. So, ah cause I thought it was just going to be the link. I think I told you guys. I'm like, Oh, it's the link. I'm like, there's quiet. I gotta be ready. So I have a lot of fun, bizarre stuff. I like. yeah yeah There's just a lot of things. One of my favorite things I can't bring in the room for various reasons, but one of my favorite, most bizarre things, when I had it in my office at the sideshow and people came in on tour, my office was full of stuff, people would single this thing out nine out of 10 times. They, like, freaking love this. And you guys might be familiar with it, but there's something special about the one I have. Where'd he go? Who's over here?
01:13:24
Speaker
This is my Shin Godzilla Cookie Monster Mashup. What? Yes. I've actually never seen one of those in like somebody's hand. I've only ever seen pictures. So this is the original, original, original, original, original one by the late, great Gabe Marquez, a good friend of mine. He passed away, unfortunately, two years ago from cancer. like Tragically, he was too young, too awesome, too talented, too soon.
01:13:53
Speaker
but he was uh at one point in time he was posting photos of this thing on his instagram i thought it was a photoshop and i was coming like dude that's awesome we didn't like just think it was photoshop and he's like thanks i'm like who how did you do that he's like and he showed me picture this thing i'm like what this is the original he took a shin Godzilla toy chopped off the head and it's Abe's epoxy this actually Abe's epoxy over it oh like they painted the hole so you can see there's like a little bit of a color difference because he was painting over plastic and playing over Abe's because he has a little tonal strip And then this is the first one before he added Grover to the tail, because that became a later edition. So this is the pre-Grover tail. And so I was like, that's one of my favorite things I've ever seen in my life. And then when he was going through, ah he was in the hospital for a while, and I yeah like i knew it. I'm like, dude, give me your PayPal. He's like, what? I'm like, just give me your PayPal. And I sent him some money to help out, because I knew he was a freelancer. He didn't have, like, just freelance artists are just screwed all the time. So I sent him what I could.
01:14:51
Speaker
And, you know, he's like, dude, thanks. And I'm like, dude, like I just, he's, he's such a good dude. It's like cancer always takes the best people from us. It never gets like, and I hate saying that like, Oh, I should shoot. Like I wish horrible people died, but it's just like, if it's going to choose someone, I don't know why it chose Gabe. He's talented. Not a bad bonus body. Huge inspiration. So many people, but later on he's like, what's your address? I'm like, all right. I just gave him my side and then this thing showed up as a thank you gift for me helping him out when he was in the hospital.
01:15:21
Speaker
And then then right before he passes work on a deal with ball net gallery was gonna do a short run of these figures with the grover tail and then. Couple of artists have totally get the idea that and they've been producing so and he never gets credit for any of it now there's like a door a big bird in the door like you know i'm Oscar the grouch it's fun it's awesome but like.
01:15:43
Speaker
started this is the original original Abe's epoxy head one before they made yeah i think the one that they made too wasn't shingod so i forgot which one it was but this is the first one so Mine. That's awesome. Mine. Amazing. My memory of Gabe Marquez. And it's also like, one of my favorite things is like, I love mashups as well. Like monsters are take two animals, match together. This is like an awesome mashup. I have like a, my pet book. Dang it. Boys fallen. I have a, my pet slash that a guy made was like my pet. Wow. That's awesome. Cool. So I love, I love that kind of. Yeah. If you, if you're ever,
01:16:25
Speaker
So on Instagram, if you're not following them already, cause you will absolutely love literally everything this guy makes. Uh, it's Baxter's laboratory. Oh yeah. No, I follow Baxter. Yeah. Yes. How is stuff on there is great. So yeah. Toy voice knobs did a bunch of stuff. And, uh, amino creations, I think did a bunch of have, he did, uh, like the skeleton warrior Ninja turtle guy. Oh, that's awesome.
01:16:51
Speaker
Yeah, I would just super, like I love like that stuff. And I forgot, I can't remember for the life of me. I need to be ready for with it more often, but who did the, my pet slash, cause he did a purple one. And this is the green variance. And like the purple one sold out, but actually liked the green very cool. Like the different colors stuff. So yeah. So my shin Godzilla cookie monster, my cookie monster, you know, cookie Zilla, whatever you want to call it is my favorite.
01:17:20
Speaker
Most bizarre thing. It's an awesome memory of a great friend that we lost too soon. And yeah, so it's like, it's like eight special things to me all wrapped into one giant blue ball, whatever color he is.
Monstores Kickstarter Support and Conclusion
01:17:32
Speaker
That's amazing. He's blue, blue, blue ball. There we go. Yeah. It was funny. It's funny that you brought that up because when you were talking about your, your little catchy friends that come with the monsters, I, I, I have my most recent little catchy pickup, which is,
01:17:48
Speaker
a little pollution Godzilla yeah that we got at anime and what ma so look at that little gashapon guy. Yep. The little gashapon one. Um, well, Dave, thank you again so much for for taking the time to, uh, to join us. Uh, we are super excited.
01:18:06
Speaker
to to see the success of Monstores. Before you leave, absolutely and please tell our listeners, um where can they find out more about the project? Where can they follow you? And how do they back Monstores?
01:18:20
Speaker
Yeah, so ah the eight the yeah URL for the Kickstarter site's way too long. I mean, I'm sure you guys will put it in the description. We'll put it in the show notes. I redirected the main website, www.themonstores.com, because someone took monstores.com, those jerks, they're not even using it.
01:18:39
Speaker
But we're on instagram as the monster like at the monster is facebook at the monster is. And yeah all those have the links right in the bio you know the toy commercials on instagram the toy commercials on the page so it's all it all gets you to the kickstarter page hopefully. Any other just different options for you guys again like if.
01:19:00
Speaker
you know like a dollar in the digital high five to be great or buy a figure by a set or you're if you're doing pretty good by donation set for some kids and then for every twenty sets i sell like if i take like oh i sold a sink over and it's all shaming with separate that's set that's all set self to start to set bundle but every twenty sets i saw him donating a set as well the charity so the more successful is kickstarter is Not only does it help it get made, it just helps it get back to the ah kids. That's my my jam. So, you. That's awesome. Well, we'll make sure that we include links to everything in the the the show notes, the description, ah so that way you guys can follow Monstores, you can follow Dave, you can you can back this project, you can
01:19:45
Speaker
You can track its success. Watch all of the cool ah videos and stuff that that Dave has done for this. It's a weird thing that people can track it with you. It's just like you get to see how many people backed what. It's like, ah. It's like they're watching it with you. And you're just like, oh. It's like I now know what it's like when during the presidential election when the night of they're watching like the electoral college come in and the counts adding up. There's like, oh my god. Like that's me with this now, you know?
01:20:14
Speaker
Well, I will say since i since we last talked about the backer count, one additional backer has has joined the... Dude. Awesome. It's happening. Was it a backer? Did they give me $4,000 to bump me over? No, they didn't. Dang it. Nope. Not quite over 60 yet. Nope, nope, nope. 298. You went from 297 to 298.
01:20:35
Speaker
Um, but Dave, uh, the Kickstarter knew it was a kismet. Um, yeah. So, uh, yeah, I mean, with, with that, that's, that that's a wrap. Uh, Dave. Brother Dave. Uh, please send us home. Back to campaign for a good cause.
01:20:57
Speaker
Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes.
01:21:13
Speaker
Follow us on social media at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter. Stop by and say hi. Show us your toy hauls and share your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it in a future episode.
01:21:29
Speaker
don't try this at home void where prohibited and some assembly required each sold separately not a flying toy consult a physician if your toy run exceeds more than four hours
01:21:37
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Franca Blaui. This program and many others like it on the non-productive network is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives license. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.