New horizons welcome new arrivals.
Wave 90 launches Thursday, May 20th at 9:30PM EDT.
5.13.2021
3.07.2021
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.
12.06.2020
Wave 89 is GO!
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.
12.01.2020
Shining Sundowns
We must march on with our memories.
Wave 89 launches this Sunday, December 6th at 9:30PM EST.
11.28.2020
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.
10.29.2020
Mighty Maniax!
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!
9.25.2020
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.
9.21.2020
A Belated Thank You!!!
Another late thanks from the whole family goes out to you for the super Wave 88 turnout. The already unpredictable nature of making stuff and offering it up on the internet has been bumped into all new levels of the unknown this year, so being hyper busy since the launch a few weeks ago really generates an even deeper sense of humility. All of this is of course due directly to you guys continuously supporting our efforts. The traditional "thank you" doesn't really convey just how grateful we are.
Finally bringing the Delphi into full production has seemed extra surreal with 2020 being so upside down, but I suppose in many ways it makes perfect sense. Then welcoming Cady into the creative process made Wave 88 a true dream rollout for Michelle and I (and Uncle Marcus). The amount of time she spent drawing, animating and scoring her mini Delphi teaser blew us all away. I haven't been around too many multi-generational artistic families that collaborate together, but I can tell you with complete certainty that it's one of the luckiest twists so far in my life. Thank you so much for sharing your talents, Bubba.
Special thanks to Pj for helping Michelle and I process a truly colossal amount of orders, as we would have been completely buried without him. Pj's Paper Palace never fails.
We've been working hard to remain positive and creatively active over here as much as possible on a daily basis. Some of the days are great and some days really stink, but that dedication to staying creative, artistic or otherwise, helps to keep things steady with all the prolonged isolation. I hope when we do surface occasionally and share new stuff that it maybe stokes your own ideas and gets the old gears turning. Hopefully, we'll all continue to inspire each other on both sides of the screen to explore and fine tune our imaginations for many more years together, despite the world going through all the heavy shifts.
Our next wave is on track for mid-late November, which will most likely wrap things up for us in 2020. Plans for 2021 involve the introductions of some all new characters and their corresponding sculpts, some collaborations and a couple of curveballs. With any luck, the lights will remain on and there will still be time to enjoy a few small escapes.
Thank you once again for fortifying our resolve to keep on creating.
PS-The comments have been reactivated and the blog should be functioning normally again after our forced pause to try and wipe out the wretched spambots. We'll see if it worked.
8.23.2020
Wave 88 is GO!
Wave 88 is live!
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.
Armorvor General Venjorun - SALE UPDATE
8.19.2020
7.07.2020
Gratitude in Solitude
With the spiked intensity of these last months slamming on top of an already heavy year, the internal perspective on what we do and the reasons why we do it have been under an extremely critical personal examination. It's been harder to stay balanced while so many are hurting worse than ever, even though the injustices coming into focus have been going on all along.
We've contributed what we can to assist the groups that are out there working everyday, doing the toughest and most thankless volunteer work that so many of us never even see. I don't like to politicize this creative area, particularly because it's supposed to be an escape from the various challenges of the world, but talking about life outside the confines of our lighter pursuits sometimes has to happen. I'm only sorry that I couldn't articulate these thoughts, however scattershot, sooner.
Ruminating on the state of the world from within a vacuum somehow triggered a pretty manic output of work for me, and though my right eye is about cooked at this point, some strange new characters (and a couple of old ones) have crawled forth from all the extensive isolated sculpting and drawing. The therapeutic power of the arts cannot be stressed enough and remains eternal. Increased mental static and all, I still feel an absolute passion to make things.
As far as actual activity over here goes, currently the plan is to have our next wave (13th anniversary) available in early August. Hopefully, the additional amount of time we've poured into making these more sporadic releases extra special will make you smile a bit. Beyond that, our family will remain committed to building our bonds with the rest of the world, even from a distance.
We do this together.
5.25.2020
Wave 87 is GO!
Refresh: https://onell.store
Thank you Ralphus for another captivating trio of illustrations! You are the reigning grandmaster of all drawn lines, both bio-curved and mecha-straight!
Thank you Ralphus for another captivating trio of illustrations! You are the reigning grandmaster of all drawn lines, both bio-curved and mecha-straight!
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.
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