Invisible Elements

Spaced Out Design: Mystery of the Dalendure

Mystery of the Dalendure

Spaced Out Design: Rule of the Raptinok

The great Pj Bartlett of Spaced Out Design has conjured up some all new 3D printed creations that are set to invade his rapidly growing figure line tonight, June 26th, at 9PM EDT.

It's hard not to love the bio-mechanical, bipedal "Raptinok" shown above, especially when it's been printed in GITD material! Pj continues to push his own boundaries with the execution of this original character, which sports over 18 interchangeable parts in its 100% 3D printed construction. There's more in store than just the Raptinok tonight, with a selection of surprise figures also waiting in the shadows of the Velgeris, yet to be revealed.

I've been lucky to have watched the development of Pj's latest characters while at the shop, and have seen some serious time and effort go into refining all of his new designs. The variety of his personal influences and interests continue to inspire extremely unpredictable and exciting work.

Adding a double dose of excitement to this new limited release is a special set of Spaced Out Design themed comic pages rendered by none other than the creator of Banimon, Boris Savic! By illustrating the beginning of Pj's ongoing story, Boris shares yet another of his many talents by drafting the art completely old school style, with straight ink and markers. I hope we see more from this collaboration very soon. 

Yet another inspiring exhibition of skills by Pj and Boris!

What a month!

Beyond the Black Nebula Part 3

As I produced various sketches of the Knight of Darkness and his proposed "troopers" for Project X in late 2012 and into 2013, I started to realize that the core design principles of the original vintage figure had a lot in common with our very own Space Traveler Pheyden. That sneaky domed would-be conqueror from the 70's had actually left an indelible subconscious impression on my tiny brain! It seemed that I had inadvertently discovered Pheyden's long lost cosmic grandpa through the act of drawing oddball pictures.

Strange skull-like swept angled helmet? Check.  Simplified segmented chest? Check. Skinny arms and legs? Check. Asymmetrical weirdo belt? Check. That last one really jumped out at me. All that time playing with the original Knight of Darkness had definitely affected my creative choices when I was developing old Pheyden, I had just never really put it all together until I seriously analyzed the basic aesthetics of both designs next to each other. 

In many ways, the concept of Toyfinity is truly best proven by the very projects that it undertakes. The Knight of Darkness/Pheyden connection may never have been made if we hadn't collectively decided to bring the original S.T.A.R. Team back from deep space. Being able to collaborate, design and develop with John and the Toyfinity team has allowed us to open up all new dimensions, even without Traveler powers.

Or weirdo asymmetrical belts.

Beyond the Black Nebula Part 2

When I first received the Knight of Darkness "doll" from my folks back in the late 70's, I was really taken by the strange and blunted "Vader-like" look of the helmet, as well as the silver and black color combination. Because I was also obsessed with Stormtroopers at the time, I thought the Knight also looked like some kind of elite version of the Empire's prime military force. Naturally, I expected to see other S.T.A.R. Team antagonists like the Knight show up at the toy store, filling out the "bad guy" ranks like Star Wars was starting to do. Each time my family traveled to The Maine Mall I was on the lookout for new S.T.A.R. Team recruits, but nothing ever materialized beyond the Knight and a few Zem 21 figures. This actually bugged me more than it ever should have, especially since legitimate Star Wars figures were starting to invade the shelves. The Knight of Darkness needed his own troopers to command!

I kept my original Knight of Darkness for many years, losing various pieces of its body as time rolled on. Eventually all that remained was the poor guy's head, battered and scraped from years of service. The Knight's noggin one day ended up on my work desk, while I had some cruddy enamel model paint opened up (80's kids know the kind). I thought back to my desire of seeing a trooper versions of the Knight and I applied some of that nasty enamel paint (a red color) to its worn out dome. Needless to say, the paint refused to dry, but for a small window I was able to sneak a glimpse of what might have been.

Fast forward to nearly 4 years ago, around the time I started to develop new S.T.A.R. Team (Project X) concepts with Toyfinity's John Kent (who now held the licenses for some of my most beloved Ideal toy lines including S.T.A.R. Team) and our long time collaborator Ralph Niese. During those extensive work sessions, we discussed how we could bring back the Knight of Darkness and give him an army of armored soldiers. The old "trooper" concept then resurfaced from my youth, and things began to fall into focus for the Knight's resurrection.

More to explore in Part 3!

Beyond the Black Nebula

Our creative crossover partners at Toyfinity have something special cooking for release in their store this Friday, June 24th at 9PM EDT.

Accompanying Toyfinity's new crimson "Hunter" Neo Zeroid release will be the first edition of the collaboratively produced Darkness Soldier! Based on the original S.T.A.R. Team Knight of Darkness design that was brought to market back in 1977 by Ideal to capitalize on the Star Wars craze, the Darkness Soldier concept has been percolating behind the scenes for quite some time.

We'll pop up a couple posts here on the blog about the development of the Darkness Soldier as we lead up to Toyfinity's launch this Friday night!

Kabuto Mushi MK II: Wave 15

Marty "Prince'" Hansen has prepared a very special wave of Kabuto Mushi MK II figures for sale tonight, JUNE 17th, at 8PM CST.

If you have known Marty for any significant amount of time, you would know how much he likes the late musical genius, Prince. I remember that one of our first conversations many years ago involved how much inspiration Marty found in the music and style of Prince. It makes perfect sense that a wildly creative, provocative and sometimes controversial artist would resonate with the Godbeast.

For tonight's release, Marty has paid homage to "The Purple One" with a pair of figures that celebrate the incredible career of another extraordinary musician that was taken too soon.

Along with the two Prince tributes, Marty will also have a very cool super deluxe "Buzzer" Mushi available, which draws from the great Masters of the Universe classic figure line. Rounding out the selection comes the "Hopper" Mushi, featuring a color combo lined right up with our fairly recent Keytrius figures.

All in all, a very personal and extremely cool new assortment.

Wave 15, Marty! That's a hell of an achievement in these hyper competitive and unpredictable days of collecting!

Jade Titan Skeleton

Our great and long time friends over at October Toys have an excellent all new clear hue of their fiendish Titan Skeleton available right now in their store! The color in hand is pretty close to our old Voss PVC, and really gives the Titan a "lost civilizations" vibe. I can imagine an ancient throne room filled with the crystal bones of faded masters, buried deep within the caverns of some long forgotten continent.

Or something like that.

Great color choice, George! Love these guys in clear hues!

Thank You!!!

Thank you for making Wave 56 a fun one! The store held up without any major glitches, and the supply numbers seemed to match up pretty well with what folks were after. The Special Edition OSM Orbitron moved at a steady clip, and it was great to see that you guys were excited about the OSM returning after their extended break.

The significance of seeing an OSM mold run again is something that's hard to adequately describe knowing all the assorted details behind the modern line, but I'm extremely grateful to Mel, Gary and the 4H for working together with us to make it happen. I absolutely love the OSM, and owe much of my original inspiration to produce action figures to the extraordinary Mel Birnkrant, whose artistic vision has been affecting my creativity in only the most positive ways since I received a mysterious Colorforms set called "Space Warriors" back in the late 70's. I still look at the image on that box and feel excited to create and play, even after all this time. Expect to see some more Special Edition OSM as 2016 rolls along.

It's hard to believe that we're just over a month away from our 9th anniversary of running this ship. I know that we don't always present things exactly the way that the more mainstream companies do, and that our style is a bit eccentric at times, but it's the curves in the long road that make the drive a little more interesting. We don't ever take anything for granted around here, and we're fully aware that nothing is a guarantee, especially as the hardcore collecting community continues to shrink and the cybernetic society that connects the world takes an even greater hold on all our lives and interests.

No matter what the future holds, our clan is eternally thankful to be allowed to continue this adventure with each of you. 

 

Chariot's Keep Part 1

Arriving just in time to provide a little extra treat for the night, we have an all new comic to share with you from our long time creative brother, the one and only Ralph Niese!

Serving as the first part of an unfolding story, Chariot's Keep drops us into the latest series of strange experiments being carried out by the elusive Gatekeeper Viyer and his powerful creations aboard the Edgeliner Marezioc. Will Viyer unlock the mysteries of the Atarikoth Comet? Not if his old friend Exile Deniken has anything to say about it!

Massive thanks to Ralph for visiting the Glyos System once again with us to spin a few more yarns.

Chariot's Keep

The new store is LIVE!

Please refresh: onelldesign.com/store

Edit: All limits have been lifted! Please place only ONE ORDER WITHIN THE FIRST HOUR TONIGHT, and be sure your Paypal cart is empty before you begin. We will lift all limits after the first hour. Thanks for your cooperation. Have Fun!

Armorvor Cosmic Wave

Exile Deniken

Viyer's Command

Marezioc Duo

Introspection 5

UPDATE (Release bumped to Monday): Exile Deniken leads a new assortment that will be arriving this Monday, June 6th at 9:30PM EDT over in our store. We're hustling to wrap up a couple surprises for this wave that might make a few of you old-timers happy.

Lots of moving parts had to fall into place for this round to finally come to fruition, so we're extra psyched to share the results with you.

More pics are on deck!