9.30.2011

Nibblermania!


The Tarantulas unleashes a truly menacing assortment of Nibblers TONIGHT! 

From the Tarantulas blog:

From a dingy arcane workshop in the depths of Fishtank Castle they came - Mechanibblers - unstoppable metallic munching machines with a singular will - that of the Nibbler himself !!'
Fishtank Castle SHOULD* open for business Friday night 30th Sept at 12pm Midnight UK time ( 7pm East Coast ).. The store has been updated with the new stuff at 'coming soon' status..

My thanks to Don & Mori for their skill & attention to detail in getting the Mechanibblers just right, to Ali at Morpheus for playing along with my crazy projects and above all to Matt without whose inspiration ol' Chompy would never have existed ( at least not in this dimension )..

Pls note the Fishtank Castle playsets are a Pre-Order open for one day only - pls allow 60 days for delivery. Pls also note the classic deco 'Action Nibblers' will be limited to one per customer - the Mechanibblers are unlimited.

See you on Nibbler Night !!


*I say should - because if my girlfriend goes into labour today or tomorrow ( a distinct possibility - we are overdue now ) I will postpone the release until some time next week.. Twitter will be the best channel to keep tabs..


Congratulations to our brother in the UK on his biggest Nibbler release to date! What a round, Chris!

A Night with Nightow

For the last few trips to Japan we have had the absolute honor of spending some time with Yasuhiro Nightow, best known for creating Trigun, Gungrave and more recently as a third of the design team (which also boasts the genius talents of Yutaka Minowa and Noriyuki Jinguji) behind one of the absolute coolest lines out there today, Assemble Borg (if you haven't discovered Assemble Borg take the time to check it out, it's like our much cooler Uncle who has his act together).

In what has quickly become a tradition, Nightow san took us out for some okonomiyaki (like a Japanese pancake/pizza) at a spot near Nakano close to where his studio is. The food was awesome as usual, even if we were without the company of Jinguji san this year (but he did send something special in his place -more in a moment).

On top of buying everyone dinner, Nightow showed us the latest installment of his wild manga, called Kekkai Sensen (Blood Blockade Battlefront under Darkhorse here in the states) and gave us the scoop on upcoming Assemble Borg projects. A total class act all the way.

The most shocking element of the night though, was when Nightow san whipped out an original sketch done by Jinguji san that nearly made me and Jesse's heads explode. According to Nightow, Jinguji had become interested in the Rig that I had given him last September, and after analyzing it for a while, decided that Callgrim should have a Rig type vehicle as well. So he designed one. One of the main mech designers for Assemble Borg made Callgrim a Rig. Suffice it to say it was a golden moment for both Jesse and I (Jesse is going to frame the original).

Deep thanks from Jesse and I go out to Nightow san and Jinguiji san for an unforgettable night.

I also want to send out an extra special thanks to Don "Datadub" Kratzer for getting us all together and also for once again looking out for us during our time in Japan. You know everybody D! Thanks a million for taking the time to shuffle our ragged frames around wonderland, it was a blast as always.

9.24.2011

Dumplings VS Burgers

Eaten in the span of one day, from Hong Kong to Japan. Paul, Jesse and I wiped out over 40 dumplings for breakfast. Our man Paul always delivers the dumpling punch and this time was no different.

After we left Hong Kong and said goodbye to Paul, we left for Japan and met up with Don for some late night burgers at our favorite McDonalds in Nippori. Gross but sentimental, that's us.

Tomorrow we tackle Tokyo again!

PS - Yes, that's an egg on that beef bomb. Night breakfast!

9.21.2011

RXH Enforcer Sarvos Mini

Real x Head Enforcer Sarvos Mini is GONZO.
Thanks everyone for your continued support!
I'll be posting more pics from the guys as I get them.

Chicken Twins VS Brainiac Fish

9.20.2011

From the Road Part 2

9.19.2011

From the Road Part 1


9.17.2011

RXH Attack!


Mori strikes again! Cutting a simple yet sharp form, Mori's version of Enforcer Sarvos brings back Soul of the Traveler memories for us over here. As per usual, this is a limited edition and will be available on Wednesday, September 21st at 9PM EDT. The price is $35 USD. Please limit one per customer.

This guy should look good next to the upcoming RXH Hades Pheyden that is on tap for November...

9.15.2011

Predecessors: A Fish Tale

This old story about an unlucky (and then lucky) space pilot was one of the larger sized comics I made back in the 7th grade era. "Pilot" worked as a Space Delivery Man for the Space Federation (judging by the ridiculous writing on his chest), and managed to get blasted within the first four panels of the strip! Lucky for him, the ship he was "piloting" had a small escape pod.

The funniest thing to me about this demented yarn is the part where Pilot is fishing on what looks like a regular old 1980's style boat (our old boat to be precise) -with all his space gear on. Because everyone knows that after getting into a galactic missile battle all any true astronaut wants to do is cast a line and forget his worries.

Oh yeah, and he was delivering mini-Bonkers.

Thanks for checking out these first three looks at my old junk. Jesse and I head overseas in about 12 hours, but when we return I'll dig up some more stuff from my youth if you guys still dig it.

Business will operate as usual over here as Michelle and Marcus have the bridge! Keep your eyes peeled next week for some sneak peeks from the factory and workshop! New stuff is cooking!

9.13.2011

Predecessors: Bonker


Long before there was Pheyden, there was Bonker. You're not reading that wrong, I made a character named Bonker. When I was very young (Elementary School into Junior High) this little white furry alien starred in many of my earliest stories, flying around with his energy field zapping bad guys named after US cities. Why did he have a giant "B" on his chest? Did he come from a world where they used the English alphabet? Who the hell knows, but I have some strong memories of drawing Bonker.

Like any classic sci-fi tale concocted by a child's mind, Bonker had a special spaceship and even a hover bike to tool around in -even though he could fly on his own and didn't need those things. His ship was called the Polaris-1 and I spent hours thinking about how it would operate and what it was like inside. The old Japanese robot cutaway illustrations I would see at my Japanese neighbor's house seeped into my mind and made a permanent place to stay, making it mandatory that I draw the insides of everything. I drew the Polaris many times and was never satisfied with the internals. Maybe I should have just stuffed more vehicles in there!

The main bad guys who gave Bonker a hard time were the Bionic Trio, and a dude named Acron. Acron popped up in a few different forms (scientist/muscle bound beast) and always ended up getting blasted to cosmic bits. Then he would show up again with no explanation as to how he survived. No accountability, I love it. The Bionic Trio were my favorite guys to have Bonker fight, as they collectively filled the anti-hero role in the story. They were three brothers who lost different parts of their bodies when their spaceship exploded. That's it. Why did they want to waste Bonker so bad? Again, no real reason other than to cause chaos. Maybe I should have called them the Anarchy Trio. Either way, I loved drawing them.

For a modern take on Bonker, the Polaris-1 and the Bionic Trio I tried to imagine them in our current Glyos setting. Bonker evokes a bit of every half animal videogame character from the past 20 years. The Polaris-1 looks roughly the same, only now piloted by Pheyden (who also does not really need a ship-only Rigs-ha!) and the Bionic Trio remind me of the Galaxy Ranger's and Crusher Joe's love children.

Bonker will always hold a special place with me, so much so that he was the inspiration for the character Sarvo Halos, who has played a pivotal role in the Glyos System. Sarvo created Prototype Sincroid Exellis along with countless other Mechanoid based lifeforms throughout the history of Glyos and holds many secrets about what is really going on. He might even know what the Bionic Trio were up to. Nah, nobody knows that.

More old files will be explored when I get back from the upcoming overseas trip. Maybe we can take a look at another old series I used to draw called Hermit.

9.10.2011

Predecessors: Skate Wars

While working on the Glyan over the past year, I ended up digging through a lot of my old drawings from when I was younger. For some odd reason I felt compelled to review a particular series of scribbles from when I was in 7th grade that I called Skate Wars (shown above). Yeah, the name brings to mind some dudes battling on their skateboards, or maybe even a deadly hockey story. Neither of those things factored into Skate Wars. Apparently I just liked the word "skate" and used it. No deeper meaning, I was just a nerdy little guy (and still am).

Outside of the totally screwy name, Skate Wars had some fairly intense thought put into it for the product of a 7th grade mind. I was still obsessed with all the little details about each character, from height and weight to the type of rank each soldier could achieve.

Skate Wars was a futuristic Special Operations Forces Tactical Assault Team or SOFTAT (what the hell?). The designs were inspired by all the Japanese animation bootlegs that I was watching as well as my exposure to tons of Time/Life WW II books. This series of Skate Wars drawings always stuck with me, even after all these years. Being a spaz about hanging onto all my artwork since I was 6 works out pretty good for when I want to look at old junk I made. As I checked out the sketches, an interesting connection between the old me and the current me developed as I studied each paper. I felt like I was getting an assist from 7th grade me as I developed the Glyan figure.

In honor of my utterly bizarre younger mind, I thought it would be fun to dust off some of the older characters and worlds that eventually brought me to the Glyos System and draw them once again, keeping faithful to the original designs. If you think that Skate Wars is weird, wait until you see Bonker.

9.07.2011

Battlegripped!

The unstoppable work machine known as Phil Reed has struck again! Now he has gone and run the risk of low readership over at his Battlegrip.com site by dedicating an entire week to our weirdo stuff. Thankfully, he has managed to make what we do look half interesting by adding his own special creative spice to each entry he has posted this week.

My favorite has to be the Choose Your Own Adventure post. Phil has mixed some very clever Transformers homages into a fun throwback story that features his own take on a few familiar faces.

As usual, Mr. Reed brings his sharp perspective and trademark honesty to everything he does, his Glyos Week being no exception. Thanks a million Phil, you are way, way to good to us.

9.03.2011

Shipping and Hammering

All orders from the drop last week should be shipped out by the end of today, including all the foreign stuff. Megan, Marc, Jesse and Grilo (now with Fu Manchu mustache) all came to the barn ready to rumble and we hammered through a ton of stuff after all the processing was finally completed. The mountain of paperwork was once again conquered by Michelle and as usual she managed to keep things on track. We're trying harder than ever to get the packages out of here faster so the wait is not as long.

Thanks again to all of you for the Jedi style patience and for making this such a positive release!

9.01.2011

Banimon Grand Prix

Multi-talented workhorse and Banimon creator Boris Savic has unveiled his latest creation over at the Banimon blog.

Combining the storytelling style of old time silent movies with his now classic Banimon design sense, Boris has brought together something extremely unique, personal and fun with his Banimon Grand Prix animated short.

Make sure to also check out the Banimon store for an all new assortment of hand cast and painted Getto Rockets, BGP T-shirts and even special Banimon Grand Prix Shop Towels!

Huge congratulations go out to Boris for completing the latest piece of Banimon history.

Long live the Amazing Deda!