Thank You!!!

Thank you for warmly welcoming us back from our long winter (and spring) hibernation. The turnout for the new wave was really something special, and Michelle, Marc and I are forever grateful that your genuine interest and positive energy still flow through this entire project. We deeply, deeply appreciate that you all kept the door cracked open for when we finally wandered back in from the cold.   

By now many of your packages have arrived or are in transit to their various destinations, and as of this writing, everything except what came in overnight has been sent out. Michelle and Pj really went to town for this release, processing and sorting the largest amount of orders we've ever had like a pair of cyborgs. Or maybe more like a  a pair of Sincroborgs. Massive thanks to Pj for making yet another critical assist. The Paper Palace was even reinforced for the event! TBS, Saosin and Tuxedo were all on loop.

Speaking of Sincroborgs, I hope that the new build on the block sparks some fresh creativity and brings a little fun into the mix for those that picked it up. I tried to pour an extra level of custom potential and secret discovery everywhere I could into the sculpt. That bugger now holds the record for the longest amount of hours I've ever logged into a figure project, with its actual starting point dating back to 2019 (if you nose around the blog you'll find that Sincroborg action was slowly forming in the background). The late, great Ralph and I had even worked previews of the basic design into the illustrations he did for Wave 84 and 87. He was excited to draw the new character, and enjoyed busting my chops because I had "finally sculpted some new humanoid faces". So it's only fitting that we dedicate the release of the figure (and its two humanoid faces - and some more to come) to him. I like to think that part of Ralph will live on in the Sincroborg, and at some point maybe we'll show a few of the raw drawings we sent back and forth when we were hiding bits of it in his launch work. 

Looking ahead, we do have plans to do a smaller release in late July to mark our 14th year, and then hopefully another round in the fall.  It feels good to hear the engine running again, and the whole family thanks you for jump-starting our batteries and giving us a push to get back on the road.

 

 

Wave 90 is GO!

Wave 90 is live!
Refresh: https://onell.store

 

Limit have been lifted! Thanks for your cooperation. Have Fun!

Also, due to the state of things with Covid-19, we will only be shipping domestically (and to Canada) for this wave. We sincerely apologize to our international customers for the situation.

Sincro Synthesis

Cady, Marcus and I combined forces to put together this small window into what other strange activity lurks inside the high plains tundras on Planet Granthan. Huge congratulations to Cady for once again diving into the mix and sharing her talent with us. I know her late Uncle Ralph is smiling somewhere in the beyond.

 

Big thanks goes out to Glen Schricker for the awesome reimagining of the "Soul of the Traveler" theme, originally composed by Rich Vreeland. The full track is available now at the Circuits and Brains bandcamp.

Imperfect Paradigm Sincroborg: Corderrun

Special combination build with Star Marshall: Sincroid Superior Black Core.

Imperfect Paradigm Sincroborg: Buildriun

Imperfect Paradigm Sincroborg: Proturrec

Star Marshall: Lost Sincroid Army Advanced

 

Star Marshall: Sincroid Superior Black Core

 

Mechavorian Argenesis Black Core

 

Pheyaos Super Fusion

 

Pheyaos Midoric Clone

 

Mini Exodrone

Delphi: Force Gearius

Crayboth: Force Gearius

Armorvor: Force Gearius

Traveler: Force Gearius

Glyan: Force Gearius

Commander Gearius DX

Emerging Entities

  New horizons welcome new arrivals.

Wave 90 launches Thursday, May 20th at 9:30PM EDT.

Surface Healing

The last few months have been spent mostly away from the public digital world, with a tight focus on clocking in more solid hours with the family and contemplating the past, present and future of our operation. You know, lightweight stuff.

Though massively belated, I will eternally be thankful for all the truly extraordinary dedication that we've been shown by so many of you out there, now coming up on fourteen years straight. It feels very surreal to think about all that's changed during that span of time. 

It absolutely sounds generic, but 2020 really did have some incredible highs coinciding with some of the deepest lows, all coming right on top of each other. The sudden passing of Ralph flattened our whole household, and it made it extremely hard for me to stay focused on keeping the ship running with excitement knowing that he was gone. After mostly pulling it together for the big December 2020 release, I felt the need to circle the wagons and regenerate with the kids and Michelle. It was a very quiet holiday season but the silence was welcome. That healing period extended into the last three months.

Clearly this blog has been something that I've slowed down on over the last few years, though I do still love that we built so much through this now fairly antiquated portal into what we do over here. It's not shown as much, but my time is still spent drawing, sculpting and assisting all the other makers on the regular. I've just become a bit more introverted over the years in posting about it. I tend to go the other way when I see so much heavy overexposure happening with almost everything out there.

With the above being said, we do have multiple things in motion and hopefully at the end of the month or maybe early April we'll be ready to share some new stuff. 

The creative fire will never go out, it's just not burning in the spotlight.

 

Wave 89 is GO!

Wave 89 is live!

Refresh: https://onell.store

 

Extra special thanks to Cady for the amazing new illustration. It's the absolute best having you in the mix now, kiddo.

 

Wave 89 is dedicated to the memory of the great Ralph Niese, and the powerful legacy that he leaves behind through his incredibly unique and prolific work.

Please place only ONE ORDER WITHIN THE FIRST HOUR TONIGHT. We will lift all limits after the first hour. Thanks for your cooperation. Have Fun!

Also, due to the state of things with Covid-19, we will only be shipping domestically (and to Canada) for this wave. We sincerely apologize to our international customers for the situation.

Star Marshall Sincroid Superior

Crayboth Adubec

Special Build Quallgru

Delphi Monbarann

Special Build Neinboto

Pheyden Kargreed Conversion Set

Special Build Sincrohunter Aigee

Glyan Metrallore Commando

Vortrooper Commander

Vortrooper

Vortrooper Patrol

The Glylorian

Shining Sundowns

  We must march on with our memories. 

Wave 89 launches this Sunday, December 6th at 9:30PM EST.

Ralph Niese 1983-2020

2020 will go down in history as an almost impossibly challenging year, and earlier this week it truly punched into the surreal with the news that our brother and long time collaborator, Ralph Niese, unexpectedly passed away last Monday evening. Our whole family has been trying hard to process this incredibly deep loss, joining Ralph's family, his fiance Jana and his countless friends and colleagues from across the world in mourning.

Ralph and I met online 11 years ago and immediately connected, sharing similarly oddball perspectives on art, music, movies, food and of course, humor. Damn, did Ralph possess one of the quirkiest and sharpest senses of humor ever. This was made even more impressive considering that English wasn't even his native language. 

When he made his first extended visit to our house, we all fell in love with his unforgettable laugh and deadpan delivery, dispensed each morning in the kitchen as he brewed his "special" coffee while standing in just a t-shirt and underwear, Michelle and the kids uncontrollably cracking up the whole time. We would then spend the entire day right into the late night talking about everything and anything, listening to tunes, drawing, painting, sculpting, customizing and planning out lofty toy and comic book conquests. His old workstation is still intact upstairs to this day.

Ralph meshed seamlessly with Marcus as well, sharing the same birth year and growing up with many of the same interests. On one occasion during a visit, Ralph asked to use Marc's computer to edit a few elements on one of the comics, and both our jaws hit the floor as we watched Ralph effortlessly do things at lightning speed in Photoshop that weren't even on our radar as being possible. Ralph did that a lot, making impossible things look easy. The tales of his talent could fill a galactic library.

We would also clash on the regular, driving up each other's temperatures as we jousted over the details and deadlines of our various projects throughout the years. Sometimes after a dust-up, we would drop out of communication for a month or two, but one of us would always reach out and right the ship, which is part of what made Ralph feel so much like family. True family, with all the scars, dents and tears that real love carries with it. 

It's only too natural to want to curl up and hide from the pain of losing Ralph, and that's what so many of us who really knew him are struggling with right now. As I spent the last few days going through literally thousands and thousands of our old emails back and forth, I came across one in particular that contained Ralph's usual blunt, yet accurate, assessment of death itself:

Reading this really brought me back into focus, because I knew he'd meant every word.

We will honor Ralph here and throughout all the things we do moving forward, doing exactly as Ralph wished in his message above, celebrating the person we all loved and never forgetting the astonishing work that was done while he lived.

We'll meet again, Ralph.

Mighty Maniax!

In a very strange year, at least good old spooky October hasn't let us down, delivering forth something wickedly special in the form of an all new cool and creepy Kickstarter campaign called Mighty Maniax! Created by the multi-talented Rocom Toys, Mighty Maniax features a wide array of classic monster and horror movie inspired Glyos compatible figures, but with a style all their own. This new series is packed with tons of options for character swapping not only within its own range, but also across the different Glyos lines currently in production. 

I've been extremely lucky to have watched Rocom build the Mighty Maniax line from its original inception, as he rendered drawing after drawing in search of just the right aesthetic style and dimensions. The final result is a cohesive and completely customizable cast of characters that pays tribute to all the great monsters, mutants and maniacs that flashed across the television screens of the glorious 70s, 80s and 90s.

In celebration of this new addition to the Glyos family, the super skilled Ian Ameling (a frequent Toy Pizza / KOTS collaborator) was tasked with putting together a couple trading cards for the Mighty Maniax campaign's trading card set, with one of them featuring a familiar Space Traveler mixing it up Rocom's favorite big bad, the vicious Fire Face!

Currently, the momentum is continuing to ramp up, and a 4th and entirely new figure mold has been unlocked that Rocom calls the Brawler! If you love Kenshiro, Street Fighter II and Double Dragon, then you will not be disappointed. A perfect rough and tumble hero type to mix it up with the bad beasts. Check out the original illustration below by Rocom himself!

The Kickstarter is set to end on Halloween night, perfectly timed to coincide with the inevitable stealing of your favorite candy from whatever sleeping child's stash you are lucky enough to have access to. Personally, it's Reese's for me, any Reese's.

Huge congratulations to Rocom Toys and welcome to the family!

Toy Pizza Cen-5 and CroMega Fundraiser

Our extended family of Jesse D, Nicky and Jack over at Toy Pizza are rounding the corner on their new multi-figure fundraiser which wraps up this Monday, September 28th. The focus of this new project is split between a dynamic duo of 100% original characters, one a mechanical marvel forged from lawless cybernetic experimentation and the other a natural born warlord of entirely primal descent. 

The aforementioned cyborg, Cen-5, has been part of Jesse D's cast of personal creations since he was a kid, and has traveled throughout his sketchbooks for decades. Featuring the signature eclectic design principles that all KOTS figures are now known for, the hulking Cen-5 even comes with a great mini figure D.O.L.S. "pilot" and reconfigurable arm blaster. This particular mecha Frankenstein also has some direct connections to one of our own in-house projects that will be surfacing early next year, so the more parts and styles that are unlocked the more build options we'll all get to build with. 

Counterbalancing the metallic mutant is CroMega, which is easily one of the most unique designs Jesse D and his boys have come up with yet. Decked out in animal furs and bone laden leather armor, this Paleolithic Pariah rules over the dinozone known as Pangea Island, plotting from within the ancient cave of his ancestors against the unsuspecting denizens of the mainland. CroMega in his default form is already a beast to contend with, but his alternate forms are perhaps even more intriguing, particualry when he's wearing the cursed Trilomask (shown below). 

Currently Cen-5 and his accessories have been fully funded, and CroMega is coming within striking distance. If you're into lawless character design, independent storytelling and completely unique action figures, maybe shoot over to the fundraiser, check out the prototypes and support our Glyos brethren at Toy Pizza.

Extra special thanks to the mega talented Ian Ameling for the awesome original illustration at the top of Pheyden meeting some of his new cousins.