Return of the Banimon Red Army Men!

Overcoming a multitude of obstacles thrown at him by both nature and by man, our good friend Boris Savic will finally roll out the return of his Banimon Red Army Men tonight, February 28th, at 9:30PM EST over in his store!

Making its second appearance in the spotlight as a full production vinyl piece is the Banimon Bunkerbuster tank, this time decked out in a green that might be familiar to those of you who like your plastic in Volkriun hues. This new Bunkerbuster is fully compatible with all of the vinyl we produce around here, and its colors match right up to last year's VSF wave.

I had some fun taking a modified Bunkerbuster (shown above with a few of our parts mixed in) for a spin across the piles of snow out back as the sun was setting, and the little armored machine proved once again that it's truly a blast to play with.

Well done, Boris! I'm loving this tank!

Swirling Influences

The above pics are of Test Shot Number Five, which sealed the deal after repeatedly striking out on four earlier versions of the Skeleden armor.

The major changes that occurred to the sculpt for Number Five focused mainly on the following:

-Revised size and shape of the torso armor, with newly added sculpting around the front and back edges to achieve a tighter grip on the base body. I tried to hide a bunch of strange visual elements across the back area, with some Lovecraftian inspired creepiness in the form of a little Cthulhu half face hanging onto Skeleden's upper left side. The "back" area is patterned after old school gladiator armor design concepts, fused with a little Bio-Boosted punch.

-Revised size and shape of both leg armors. Skeleden's right leg armor was extended downwards and the skeletal creature on the knee area was tweaked, as well as some redefining of the "ribbing" that curves around to the back. The left leg armor was also extended downwards and given some extra detail and a tighter fit.

-Revised interface of the two part head connection. After George completed his killer master sculpt of Skeleden's noggin, I sent a copy to our team in China to create the first tooling pattern. They then sent back the tooling pattern with our requested 2 part separation, which not only allowed for more interchangeability, but eliminated the need for glue that would have compromised production runs with clear PVC. Since the head was originally sculpted as one part, I went in and added details to the areas that previously would have remained unseen. If you flip Skeleden's head upside down and reverse it, then replug the skullcap on, you can create a "Skeledrone" head configuration, to do Skeleden's dirty work.

When the fifth test shot finally hit the mark (and completely passed my "shake" test) I had to scream for a little bit.

The good kind of scream.

Some pics of the "Battle Skeleden" configuration are on deck for tomorrow!

Tests of Patience

Skeleden currently holds the record over here for the most revisions and rounds of test shots (five total) of any project in our almost 8 years of production. The major challenges surfaced in the form of the actual armor fittings. Originally, the torso armor was smaller and more compact (shown above), but the fit kept coming in on the loose side, which was unacceptable. The two leg armor parts also had too much play, and eventually had to have some pretty major changes made to achieve the optimal fit.

Due to the hidden functions of the leg armor parts in particular, nailing their precise dimensions was critical to more than just holding them correctly in place on Pheyden's lower legs. These parts also had to work with the hands, shoulders and thighs, representing a multipurpose angle design that could operate across most of our other molds as well.

Skeleden's armor is compatible with all the Travelers, Buildman, Noboto, the Glyan and Jesse's Callgrim. The torso armor is reversible, with a "bio-gladiator" type cuirass vibe on one side and the Phanosty looking skull sculpt on the other. Consideration was also put into making the torso piece effectively seat upside down on the head, to create a heavy armored look (pretty strange in concept but sort of neat when in place).

The extra time and slightly maddening process of tweaking the armor were both definitely worth pushing through!

More details about the development of Skeleden coming up soon.

Also, shipping starts tomorrow morning!

Thank You!!!

Thank you for the great turnout on Sunday night! With all the intense winter activity around these parts, it was really uplifting to see the latest wave find a rhythm amidst the surrounding landscape of chaos here in the Northeast.

Skeleden has been a work in progress for exactly one year, with the original design sketches being drafted in early February 2014. What started out as a small option for a basic Traveler turned into something much more involved, becoming a significant part of our 2015 plan along the way.

The core design of Skeleden was intended to be a mix of Villser, Pheyaos, Mori's classic Chaos, Inhumanoids, Manglors and of course Skeleton Warriors -with a dash of 90's era Spawn stirred in. Pushing the more biological narrative to the sculpted parts was the central aesthetic focus, and proved to be a trip to explore with the always great George Gaspar of October Toys. The dual duties on the sculpting brought something unique to the final look, and I'm very thankful for George's willingness to deal with my eccentricities during the process.

The actual slide on armor concept used on Skeleden actually came from another project that I had been working on in late 2013, which was a more "Glyos Space" looking set of armor parts that were to be used as an upgrade for the Traveler, Glyan, Buildman, Noboto and Callgrim molds. The basic dimensions of most of our stuff is lined up by design, and I spent an unholy amount of time trying to devise a simple optional armor set that could augment our already exiting figures at a low cost to purchase. Kind of like the idea behind the Armored Valkyries from Macross, or the beefed up armor parts from Spiral Zone. The majority of the sculpting for that "Glyarmor" project was actually completed, and then the Skeleden factor came into play. Things just rolled into a giant bone armored beast from that point, spawning something even more bizarre than our usual oddities from space! Maybe we'll still see that original Glyarmor Set surface before long.

There are many hidden aspects to the Skeleden Armor, and successfully adjusting the measurements and tolerances to get everything to work just right was a true challenge. Over the next few days we'll pop up a few pics showing the little "tricks" that you can pull off with multiple sets, as well as some behind the scenes looks at the development of Skeleden.

Thank you again for checking out the new wave, and for reading this Labyrinth of Letters!

The Secret Beneath the Ice

The store is LIVE!

Refresh: onelldesign.com/store

Edit: All limits have been lifted. Thank you!

You may place ONE ORDER WITHIN THE FIRST HOUR tonight. We are seeing a high volume of traffic and need everyone's cooperation to make this as smooth as possible. After the initial dust settles, we will lift all limits. Thanks for your understanding and support. Have fun!

Mission Details

As I write this, we are coming out of 4 weeks of record setting snowfall here in New England. The ridiculous amount of shoveling that all our friends and family have been doing has been totally off the charts! Even though the weather has been bananas, the landscape has been beautiful, supplying some great settings to play around in. I can't recall ever seeing this much snow on the ground in my lifetime, and I don't think it's even close to letting up just yet.

The timing of this winter blast falls in perfect harmony with our new wave of figures, which centers around Search Corps Ankram, a small team of specialists sent to Planet Nemica to analyze the lasting effects of the Bio Paralyzer that was used by Planet Metran to end the Old War. What one of the Searchers stumbles upon beneath the frozen wasteland reveals the ruins of a lost civilization that perhaps even the Elder Delphi were unaware of ...

We are still on track for this Sunday, February 22nd at 9:30PM EST, once again pending the ferocity of yet another winter storm that's on its way for Sunday. We'll keep things updated as we go.
 

The Secret Beneath the Ice


Glyan -SCA Standard (Maxx Gray*/ Maroon with Black visors and Yellow tampo) $8
Glyan -SCA Reverse (Maroon/ Maxx Gray with Black visors and Yellow tampo) $8

Commander Rykurra Sarvos (Maxx Gray with painted eyes/ Maroon accents and Yellow tampo w/ Maxx Gray Phanost head/ Maxx Gray Scar Pheyden head/ Maxx Gray scarf -Features new pelvis paint application) $10

SCA Extra Set (Maxx Gray with painted eyes Pheyden head/ Maroon accented Maxx Gray Traveler chest/ Maxx Gray Traveler pelvis/ Maroon scarf) $4

Crayboth XXX  $4
Crayboth Stealth MK IV $4

Armorvor  -Neo Granthan Nemica Enforcer (White/ Gray Paint with Black visors and bonus head/ backpack) $10 -Features all new Neo Granthan head
Armorvor  -Neo Granthan Trade Runner (Tan/ Reddish Brown Paint with Black visors and bonus head/ backpack) $10 -Features all new Neo Granthan head

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Axis Joint Set -Maxx Gray $4
Axis Joint Set -SCA Maroon $4 

Phase Arm/Gobon Blaster Single Set -Maxx Gray with Black accent $2
Phase Arm/Gobon Blaster Single Set -SCA Maroon with Black accent $2

*Maxx Gray closely matches Toyfinity's recent Robo Force "Maxx Zero" Commodore 64 Type Light Gray

Searchers

The short list is almost finished and will pop up in a little bit!

Bringers of the Cold

We are on track for a smaller release landing next Sunday, February 22nd at 9:30 PM EST.  The Neo Granthans will be making an appearance in the assortment, as long as the endless snow doesn't swallow our town completely before the launch.

More from the Frozen North as the week rolls on!

Toy Pizza

Our old friend Jesse DeStasio and his two partners in crime, Nicky Fung and Cade Hiser, have been steadily cranking out episodes of their popular web program Toy Pizza since February 2014. I personally met Jesse D well over a decade ago, and have watched him maneuver through the world of professional like a fox.

After all these years, Jesse D and Onell are finally working on an actual project together, that being Toy Pizza's brand new Knights of the Slice Glyos compatible figures, with their campaign currently running over on Kickstarter.

The Toy Pizza crew recently popped up a new episode that covers a little bit about Glyos in general, including some alternate reality factoids about the early days of our existence (ha!).

It's been a lot of fun assisting Toy Pizza with their Knights of the Slice project, and we're really excited to welcome an all new addition to the Glyos family!

Winter Kid

Kabuto Mushi MK II: Wave Seven

Marty "Loctite" Hansen rolls into 2015 with three brand new colors showcasing his popular Kabuto Mushi MK II production figure!

Continuing his recent theme of famous Japanese character homages, Marty has put together some very clever combinations utilizing an assortment of all new spray applications. My personal favorite is the Cyborg Mushi, which is shown above surveying the Frozen Zone that has taken over most of New England.

Cyborg Mushi also makes a good rival for Redlaw Argen, as they both pay tribute to the excellent classic Henshin Cyborg series by Takara (thank you Paul L. for maintaining the best link).

Head over to Mushi Central to check out the rest of TGB's latest offerings.

Congratulations on another unique and exciting wave, Marty! 

Granthaxis Vrylless

Another take on this old build, now using the new Granthan head.