Intelligence Report

Pappy continues the Gendrone action with a new installment to the MT-01 saga over at pappysoup.com!

Custom Imperium Xodiac

Here are a few pics of the custom "Imperium" Xodiac I put together for the recent Futuretro show. The intention was to give a slightly more armored look (big surprise) but not get too beefy by sculpting up a few new bits. As if a member of Xodiac's race found a Flexion Suit while visiting Glyos and popped it on, resulting in the state above. The cosmic "beard" is a direct homage to Mel's Goldiac paint job.

I was working on this right up until we left for NYC last Friday morning, touching up the paint as the sun came up. These shots were taken between closing up the barn and loading up the car.

Man, I love being able to customize OSM figures. I still can't believe these guys are back.

Retroactive

Marcus and I wanted to send a huge thank you out to everyone whom we met up with over the past weekend while we were visiting NYC for the Four Horsemen's Futuretro show. It was more fun than either of us could have imagined, with some truly awesome moments and unexpected twists throughout the trip.

The opening on Friday night was easily one of the best toy show experiences in recent memory, with a ton of positive energy and just a great vibe throughout the entire evening. Getting to see Mel Birnkrant surrounded by a crowd of his fans, both young and old, was simply awesome. The man really is a legend, and he lives up to any high expectations that you could ever hold.

Thank you to the 4H and Toy Tokyo for working so hard to put on such a unique and refreshing show, it will go down as one for the ages.

On one last note, the night was sealed with a killer Food Crawl around the East Village, where we all got to catch up and chow down.

We can't wait to do it all again.

PS -The special edition OSM set with Mel's new color selections is a knockout in person. I'm little obsessed with the Inferno, as evidenced above.

Futuretro!

This Friday, February 10th at 7PM EST, the Four Horsemen and Toy Tokyo will open the doors at the Toy Tokyo Underground Gallery to unveil Toypocalypse 2: Futuretro, a celebration of 45 years of The Outer Space Men and a rare look inside the creative powerhouse known as Four Horsemen Studios.

From the Horsemen:

"Their second annual show at the TT Underground showroom in New York City will feature many all-new, never before seen items and even some fan favorites and toy industry classics from the Four Horsemen's past, present and future! Get an up close and personal look at action figure work that's seldom (if ever) been seen outside the Four Horsemen's own studio.


Toypocalypse 2: Futuretro will begin with a special opening night for friends and fans at TT Underground Friday night - February 10th 2012, and will run through most of the following week.
 
And if you're a fan of the Four Horsemen's licensed action figure line, The Outer Space Men, then you're NOT going to want to miss this show! There's going to be a specially featured Outer Space Men display that will most likely never be seen in this form again, as well as some special events surrounding the 45th anniversary of The Outer Space Men!

Last, don't forget about the AMAZING set of super limited Outer Space Men figures redesigned by Mel Birnkrant himself specifically for Futuretro! This extra special set of figures will be signed by Mel AND The Four Horsemen, and will also come with an exclusive Outer Space Men print by fan favorite illustrator and frequent Four Horsemen collaborator, Nathan Baertsch! All of that for only $125.00! What a steal! If you want a sneak peek into Mel's brain as he created this new variation on his old classics, check out the "Custom Colors" section of his "Sketchbook" website HERE.

The show's absolutely free, so come on by, chill out with us and some amazing toy industry dignitaries for a couple hours, have a free brewsky on us, and say 'hey' at Futuretro!"

-4H  (clipped from the 4H blog)


Click over to the Horsemen Blog to catch up on all the details that surround this crazy show!

One particularly special part of the festivities is that the creator of the original OSM, Mel Birnkrant, will be in attendance on Friday night -this aspect alone is worth the trip! Between the Horsemen and Mel, you will be in the company of the best in the toy business, all in one spot.

There is also an open call OSM custom show on top of everything else (and fresh off his domination of cable TV, an appearance by the notorious Sucklord himself).

Marc, Jesse and I (the booby prizes) will also be coming down for the show on Friday night and possibly unveiling a thing or two in the gallery. We hope to see some of you guys and maybe go for an East Village Food Crawl later that evening. Crif Dogs is calling us!

All in all, a great time on the horizon!

Monkeying Around

Today is the day! Head over to Spy Monkey Creations at 12PM PST (which is in about 10 minutes!) to get in on the action!

In celebration of this newest edition to our community of customizing, I used 6 Armory sets and tried to build something with a lot of "mech potential".  I hope you guys have as much fun playing with the new Armory parts as I have been.

Good luck to the crew at SMC!

Spy Monkey Creations!

This Friday, February 3rd at 12PM PST, Spy Monkey Creations will unleash their parts-packed Armory Series 1 sets via their website store!

These guys are great old friends of ours and have worked extremely hard to bring their incredible custom weapons to a full PVC production level. All 42 (!!!) pieces that make up one Armory Set are 100% Glyos compatible and are made at our factory by the same team that manufactures all of our releases. A ton of time, energy and planning were poured into the development of this Armory Set, and we were honored to work very closely with the Spy Monkey team during the process.

I have been personally messing around with the parts (some pics above) and the build potential within these sets is really something. We can now add some classic hard lined mechanical aspects to our collective builds as well as an entire arsenal of beautiful clear ABS parts, ranging from spikes to domes to wings -and this is only one small aspect of what these sets can do. For fans of larger format figures that feature certain blond, beefy battlers, the weapons that can be configured from the Armory Sets just blow apart previous limitations, opening up the true power of full customization.

Our absolute deepest congratulations to Jeremy, Brian and Bill for bringing Spy Monkey Creations into this new frontier with their dedication, talent and hard work.

We'll be ready on Friday to join in the mayhem!

Almost Done!

Did anyone get the number of that bus?

All the shipping for the January drop is nearly completed, with the last round wrapping up by tomorrow afternoon.

Thank you so, so much for your extra patience during the process of us putting everything together.
Our usual packing team combo was cut in half this time, so things took a little longer.

After everything is out of here, I will get back to updating the blog. There are some really fun things happening in February, starting with Spy Monkey Creation's all new production drop coming at the end of this week -on February 3rd! These weapon sets have so much potential for building, that it truly is an eye opener once you start to play with them. Some pics of a few in-house builds will surface here tomorrow.

Sorry for the lack of updates over the past week and a bit, but things are almost back to "normal" (HA).
I can't wait to share some of our projects that are finally coming to completion with you guys!

Thank You!

Holy smokes! My apologies for not writing a proper thank you post yesterday, but we were busy bees after Friday night's drop. We experienced a few things that have never happened before, one being a near total crash of our website due to the high volume of traffic. Not necessarily a bad thing, but we were shocked by the event.

Maybe it was because we have not had a full release of all new Glyos stuff since last October, or maybe it was just one of those strange times that just occurs every so often. Whatever it was, it also resulted in our fastest sell out of almost everything in stock yet (it will be 5 years of selling production toys in July 2012). I feel psyched, but also a bit like a fool for not making more stuff.

The upcoming March release will absolutely have more Blocks, blank vinyl and more painted PVC. The numbers will be increased, but not to the point of overload. The vinyl aspect I know is not for everyone, but I'm hoping that the blank options might open the door for some of you that have hesitation. I'll be doing some basic tutorials (just me making something) soon, so hopefully that will also show just how easy and fun messing with vinyl can be. It really does add an interesting addition to this whole project.

For those of you who are hardcore PVC peeps, the nearly completed Hub Set should add some spice to your customizing endeavors. With 17 parts, and the ability to become various contained mini builds right out of the bag (think tiny mechs and the like), the Hub Set should add some new dimensions to things. I've really enjoyed playing with the test shots and feel like this set holds some true potential.

Thank you once again, for keeping us on our toes and for pushing us to become a better operation. Personally, I'll forever be astonished that this is real, and that we all have gotten to know each other through these weird little pieces of plastic.

Thanks for keeping us alive.

EMD Activate!

The new stuff is LIVE! Make sure to REFRESH THE STORE! 

Due to the amount of emails about possibly missing the new Block tonight, we are asking that each person limit their purchase of the EMD Core Block to 2 units and the Black Core Block to 2 units (4 units COMBINED).

Once tonight's release has run its course, we will assess the demand for the Block. New stuff is already on order, but we may beef the numbers up if you guys are feeling it. I personally apologize for not running more Blocks, but I was not sure if it would resonate at all because the concept is so strange.

Let us know what you think about the new round of toys! Thanks for coming out tonight!

9:30 PM EST Tonight

We are on track for a 9:30 PM EST launch tonight! An extra half hour gives us a little bit to finalize a couple things that we think will be worth the wait.

In the meantime, I will post a few of the more out there builds I have been working on since the Blocks came stacking and chopping their way into our house!

First up: Heavy Armored Block Trooper-Cane's Custom Version!

This meatball was created by lots of cutting and fitting, but using no adhesives. Everything was measured and installed using a knife and heat gun. Temperature manipulation makes things 100% easier when customizing with vinyl (and the regular PVC parts for that matter).
This figure is comprised of Armodoc parts, Rig parts, Block parts and Runner parts. I'll have an exploded view up in the next few days. The Phase Cannons can slide off, revealing Armodoc arms. The Phase Blockers can be removed, as well as the Block "skirt" -which rests over an Armodoc inner pelvis assembly. The "head" is made from the back of the Runner (WARP Bike) and was originally conceived to be used for things like this. You can actually see a trace of a mechanical looking Pheyden face on this small piece, right down to the three "teeth".
Makes sense that the front of a Warp Bike has the tough face of Callgrim and the bum is based on Pheyden's bulbous noggin!

At Work

Ramping up for the drop on Friday night (looking like the standard 9 PM EST time), the Glyans are busy at work, enjoying their temporary Block Base and developing new uses and configurations for the Block itself.

Overseeing all of this activity is Operator Cane, who stands more than ready to test fly one of the Block Fighters the EMD Technicians have assembled.

Little does he know how dangerous his first flight will prove to be...

Battlegripped Blocks!

On one of our great friend Phil Reed's many trips out this way he showed me a very cool technique that he created in which he can render just about anything in a cool geometric 2-D design style. This approach gives an almost cel-shaded look to whatever he puts his Battlegrip on!

Over the past few days Phil has been posting some awesome renditions of the Block builds that I have been shooting back and forth with him, over on his Battlegrip.com site. These visuals have really done wonders to help "illustrate" (ha!) the Block's potential for those that think I've lost my mind with this project (which I no doubt have).

Thank you Phil for taking the time to create these excellent works of art. They truly add a much needed dimension to understanding what the Block is -even for the goon that made the thing in the first place!

Gendrone Revolution: Shock Force

Argen and his Gendrone Revolution return to challenge the Glyans in an all new hue!

This metallic purple has definitely become one of my personal favorites (paying homage to Shockwave). It looks quite different under various light sources, making it pretty tough to accurately represent in photos. What I've done is taken some shots in the Block Hangar with the regular light set up as well as some outside pics in natural lighting. Beneath the studio glow the purple just pops, with a crisp hue. When you go outside, the color dulls considerably, and the detail lines start to show in an interesting way. It's pretty neat to watch, but Michelle is getting a little sick of me going in and out of the house so many times to watch the color do its thing.

I guess I should just stand by the window.

Mission Details

Before I get to the specifics of what's coming next week, I wanted to once again give my sincere thanks to all of you guys for being so positive in regards to the Block. I have had a lot of mixed feelings about actually bringing something that is pretty abstract (even by my standards) to full production, so seeing that there is some interest in this project is humbling. You guys are the best.

Details for the January 20th (Friday) release:

United Glyan Forces
-Glyan EMD Operator Cane (black with gray visors and tampo print)  $6 
-Glyan EMD Technician (orange with black visors/gray detail lines and tampo print) $8

Gendrone Revolution (pics later today)
-Argen MK VI (purple metallic/pale yellow visors with tampo printing) $8
-Phaseon Gendrone Revolutionary (purple metallic/pale yellow visors with tampo printing) $6
-Gobon (purple metallic/pale yellow visors with tampo printing) $10

Axis Joint Sets
-EMD Tech Set (orange) $4
-Purple Metallic Set $4

Phase Arm/Gobon Blaster Single Sets
-EMD Tech (orange) $2
-Purple Metallic $2

Travelers
-EMD Commander Rynevo (orange Pheyden) $8 


Core Block
-EMD Core Block (gray and orange with black visors/tampo print) $14

-Black Core Block (black vinyl/no paint) $10

Rig
-EMD Heavy Armored Rig with Wings (gray and orange with black visors/multiple tampo prints) $25

Rig Runner (Glyan WARP Bike)
-EMD Rig Runner (gray and orange with black visors/multiple tampo prints) $20

Conversion Set (consists of 1 long Rig Arm and 1 short Rig Arm for customizing vinyl figures) 
-EMD Phase Cannon (Rig long arm) and Phase Blocker (Rig short arm) (gray and orange with black visors/multiple tampo prints) $12

-Black Phase Cannon and Phase Blocker (black vinyl/no paint) $8

Buildstation
-Black Gendrone  RESTOCK $4

A surprise or two might be in store as well...

The expansion of the vinyl stuff is a work in progress and will be tweaked depending on how everything shakes out after the drop. We're trying to keep the prices as low as possible and the margins are pretty tight, but I personally really want to offer something different and attempt to share the fun of messing around with all these larger vinyl parts.

Let us know what you guys think and we'll continue to twist the dials until we hit the right mix. 

Experimental Mechanics Division

I personally hope you guys get a kick out of this strange new addition to the Glyos ranks. There is something about holding one of these things that brings back a flood of memories for me. From playing near the ocean with the rocks, to customizing Star Wars Mini Rigs, to flying around Micronauts capsules and even overloading the old M.U.S.C.L.E. plastic trash can with piles of tiny Godzilla figures.

 The idea of chopping these up to customize might be a horror to some of you, so all black "Buildstation" style vinyl Blocks and parts will be online when these fully painted versions go live next week.

This is still an experiment, so we did not produce a ton of these. If the response is good, then we'll make more for the next drop (sometime in late March). There will be a run of matching Rigs and Rig Runners (Glyan WARP Bikes) available in this wave as well, for those of you still wondering about what the hell the Block is and what it does. Ha!

More details on the January 20th (next Friday) release will be up tomorrow, including prices, full assortment and more pics!

Thanks for checking this stuff out during the past week!