Thank You!!!

Thank you for making Sunday's release a successful one!

With the ever changing trends in the independent toy world, we are more grateful than ever for your interest and support of Glyos. Without the connections that we share together, this whole adventure would be meaningless, and the fact that we've survived for all this time is a testament to those bonds.

It's been a year of many strange turns, and I believe more than ever that we are in the midst of a paradigm shift in the way that we interface with our collecting habits. The rise of the independent action figure has been elevated to even greater heights by groups like the Four Horsemen and Boss Fight Studio, with powerful (and well publicized) Kickstarter campaigns that proved both inspirational and eye opening. Fresh companies that also emerged through Kickstarter were Warpo and IAmElemental, both of whom established themselves quickly with exciting and comprehensive campaigns. When you begin to analyze just how small the amount of people that truly make up the independent toy fan base is in comparison to the mainstream toy world, you really start to understand how incredibly risky all these unique and smaller projects actually are.

The pre-order model is quickly becoming the only way for anything to remotely stand a chance of getting produced, targeting the core audience and asking for a commitment up front (where you essentially purchase multiple waves of a toy line at one time) that in nearly all cases becomes a better deal with the more you spend. This is an excellent method for those of us who choose to go "all in", but if someone only wants a taste, the single unit cost usually falls a bit on the high side. This system seems to be the major draw of the Kickstarter model, and I'm extremely interested to see how it evolves as more companies have no choice but to use it. Personally, I'm thankful that Kickstarter exists, even if it has forced certain older models closer to their commercial graves. In many ways, the emergence of the crowd funded model has equalized and rationalized the basic viability of any given project proposal.

Moving forward, we will continue to keep the releases on the smaller side for the majority of 2015 (with only a few slightly larger waves planned), as well as placing additional focus on a few other projects that delve into the mythos of the Glyos System, reminiscent of our older booklets. Some new partner companies will begin to emerge next year, and some older partnerships will separate and travel in different directions. I'm fairly certain that 2015 will continue the roller coaster ride that has been in full effect since 2013, keeping things moving through thick and thin. That being said, no matter what occurs, we'll stay present and focused on bringing you our very best.

Thank you for reading and for inspiring us to keep pushing into the unknown!

Skel-Assessment

These new skeletons are big, mean and a ton of fun to play around with. We'll be posting some more shots of this figure as the day goes on as well as address some scale questions that have been floating around. Old crackle bones up there is indeed substantial in size!

When you spend some time handling one of these "Titan" skeletons, it becomes clear that you're getting an excellent value for a figure this large and articulated.

The timeless iconography of a villainous skeleton is even more powerful in hand, with just the right amount of stylization mixed into the sculpting and design. This figure looks like the reanimated bones of a giant in comparison to a standard 3 3/4" figure, which adds a great twist to the play value. Bones of the Nephilim! Ha!

Those of you following the October Toys Skeleton Warriors Kickstarter may have had a look at another Kickstarter that is also currently underway, being presented by the fantastically talented Boss Fight Studio. Both the October Toys campaign and Boss Fight's campaign started on the same day (Monday) and actually share some similar thematic concepts, one being a basic Skeleton type warrior. The October Toys version, though scaled to play with standard 3 3/4" figures, is actually around 5" tall, representing a super charged and slightly mutated giant Skeleton Warrior. Boss Fight's proposed skeleton figure is designed to measure in at an actual 3 3/4", proportioned directly in size to a standard 3 3/4" human type body. Both figures conjure up memories of the classic Ray Harryhausen skeletons that many of us were crazy about when we were young (Creature Double Feature!). I love the idea of combining both companies skeletons into one undead mega army after the dust settles!

The fact that two fairly ambitious crowd funded action figure projects started on the same exact day is pretty wild, and I believe unprecedented in the history of Kickstarter. This really is a unique and exciting time to be an action figure collector and enthusiast.

As of this writing Boss Fight Studio has hit their goal and shows no signs of slowing down, so hopefully they will be able to unlock all of their planned stretch goals and get to their bone battalion!

The Skeleton Warriors project is 40% funded as I write this, so things are moving in the right direction! George, Ayleen, Marcus and I have some neat reveals on deck, and will continue to put all our collective effort into bringing Skeleton Warriors back to a life in plastic! Thank you to everyone who has contributed! It's fascinating to have a window seat for one of these things.