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Exiles in Stealth

My Friend the Micronaut

A little late with this, but just last week our friends Bryan "Microbry" Wilkinson and Bwana Spoons hosted a special Micro-themed custom show at the Grass Hut Art Market out in Portland, Oregon called My Friend the Micronaut.

The contributors to the show really sent in some incredible work, ranging from classic customs, paintings, drawings, plush and even completely home grown 3D printed ABS masterpieces.

As I thought about what to send during the past few months, I kept looking at the old Micronauts builds I had made over the years. In the end I decided to make some updated versions of a few classic Micronaut and Microman characters, using only clear Buildstation parts (minus a few clear Noboto chests) and zero paint. The idea was to concentrate on the pure build aspect, and whether or not I could push just the raw parts into something half interesting.

Clocking in as the biggest build is Mega Membros, an updated version of the last two Membros inspired builds I tried some years ago. I lost count of the amount of parts used to make this beast, but it was a lot! It's one heavy alien beefball.

I've loved the Acroyear designs for such a long time, that creating another homage set was probably my favorite part of this self imposed challenge. A new Commander and Soldier were the result of many hours tinkering with piles of parts. Their individual piece counts are not super high, and mostly utilize the accessory sets. It was a lot of fun working the Swing Joints into some older ideas.

To round out the assortment of Micro geeks, I tried to create a President Acroyear homage, pushing the spindly look of the old Microman toys and going for a kind of lanky vibe. This tall goon was designed to battle the last entry into this batch, something I thought long and hard about sending at all.

For the last 3 years I've been working steadily on a "human" head for the Glyan, with the idea being that it would allow for some new roads to be traveled as far as creative avenues go. This side project actually went into steel tooling three separate times, each result not quite hitting the target I've been aiming for. I've wanted to share these trials with you guys for years, but have never been too psyched about showing things that I felt were not on point. That being said, I could not miss the opportunity to send some of these production heads from the second trial run out to the show, as the original Micronauts/Microman were the primary inspiration for the original head sculpt I've been battling with over the past few years.

For the first time, some of these heads are out there. The pics above are of actual production heads, not resin. The right ear is a little sunken, the nose is tiny bit flat, and there is the slightest loss of detail on the mouth from the original, but in clear PVC it doesn't look too bad. Not great, but I wanted to show you what's been cooking with this mischievous little head after a number of years. Bry and Bwana's Micronaut custom show seemed like the perfect place to sneak the Micro Glyan out for a mission.

Sorry for another text tundra, but Micronauts apparently cause me to ramble even more than usual.

Special thanks to Bry and Bwana for putting on such a cool event, it was an honor to be part of it all.

Long live Microman!

Take 2

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Please read carefully before placing an order: We are asking that each customer place ONLY ONE order tonight. If you do not see an order confirmation on screen or via email, please be patient and DO NOT place another order. Due to the high volume of activity, it may take extra time for PayPal to process all transactions. Please also be sure your PayPal cart is EMPTY before you begin shopping.

Each customer will receive 1 FREE Noboto chosen at random while supplies last.

We'll be watching every detail and listening to everything you guys have to say.

Thanks for sticking with us!

****UPDATE 2: We've raised the limits on the Armorvor and solid Travelers to 2 and 3 respectively. Things are still cruising along with no hiccups to speak of so far.

**UPDATE: So far so good. Inventory is operating well and orders seem like they're coming in without any problems or duplications. Once we hit 10pm, everything should be good for you guys to place additional orders if you want to. Thanks again for being incredibly cool tonight. Our hearts have been in our throats all day long.

Another Visitor

**ATTENTION**
 We have temporarily closed down the shop as we figure out what exactly is going on with Paypal. We greatly apologize for the inconvenience and will let you know as soon as we sort things out. Thanks to everyone for your support and patience. 

We are very excited to finally welcome Noboto into full production!

It's been tough not sharing the process with you guys, but we wanted to be 100% sure that we could deliver the goods. Noboto comes packed with an alternate head and removable belt, scarf and backpack. It's been a long time in the making, and it seems surreal to see the little guy in production PVC.

Another point of interest concerns the Armorvor in the pic above. It is what we consider an error piece, as the crimson paint actually matches the Venjorun hue, not the Reydurran PVC from the last wave. Usually something like this would be locked away or destroyed, but after discussing it over here, we decided to pull the curtain back on this one.

The applications are tight, just not the precise red we had wanted. Hopefully you'll get a kick out of seeing something that would normally never even make the trip over here.

Tonight's release is dedicated to Michelle, Noboto's true mama!

Atlas Argen

This contained build is what I imagine Argen evolving into under the training of Phanost.

The recipe is:

- 1 Buildman 
- 1 Phaseon
- 1 Axis Joint Set
- 1 Phase Arm
- 1 Gobon Blaster
- 2 Swing Joint Sets
- 1 Scarf

Gigantic flight packs and massive blasters, designed for long range adventures, have always been a fun aesthetic to play around with. This pile of PVC was inspired by the original Sentinel Gundam designs created by Katoki Hajime back in 1987.

Pushing Argen into more complex forms has been a bit of an ongoing challenge over here, and the introduction of the Swing Joints has added a little extra fun to the process. I also kind of like the scarf as a visor in this build. If you reverse it, the head looks a lot like an Acroyear from Microman.

Endless homages!

EDIT: Back view added.

Mission Details

Got busy over here today! I'll skip my top of the post ramble and cut to the chase (new ramble can be found below the list):

The following items are scheduled to be in the store on Friday, June14th at 9:30PM EST.

There will be purchasing limits on select items: 

-Armorvors (2 limit per customer) 

-Travelers (4 of each special SOLID style per customer)  

-Stealth Pheyden/Standard Pheyden/Reverse Pheyden (6 per customer)




Buildstation: Stealth (Clear Colorless/No Paint)

Traveler -Stealth Pheyden MK III (with painted eyes and scarf) $8

Glyan -Stealth MK II $6

Buildman -Stealth MK II $6

Phaseon -Stealth MK II $4

Crayboth -Stealth  MK II $3

Armorvor  -Stealth MK III $8

Swing Joint Set -Stealth $3
  
Hub Set -Stealth $4

Axis Joint Set -Stealth $3

Phase Arm/Gobon Blaster Single Set -Stealth $2


Standard Pheyden MK IV (Light Blue/Grey with Grey eyes and Grey detail lines) $8
Reverse Pheyden MK II (Grey/Light Blue with Pink eyes and Grey detail lines) $8


Source Pheyden (Light Blue with Grey eyes) $8
Source Reverse Pheyden (Grey with Pink eyes) $8
Ivorinium Pheyden (White Pearlescent with Blue eyes) $8

Armorvor -????? $8

Crayboth -Standard MK II (Light Orange with painted Pink accents and Pink detail lines) $4
Crayboth -Traveler Hybrid (Light Blue with painted Grey accents and Grey detail lines) $4

?????
????? 


We have reduced the prices on the majority of the Buildstation items, so that you guys can build more things for a little less dough.

The Armorvors will stay at their current price of $8, as we've already pushed that item as low as we can go, even with higher volumes. The Travelers will also remain at $8, as the same holds true for Pheyden.

The Source Travelers are designed for those of you who may want a detail line free version of the Standard and Reverse Pheydens. Swap the parts and you can have the option for something more Fisher Price styled.

Ivorinium Pheyden uses a pearlescent additive in the PVC, which gives the figure a kind of "cosmic ivory" look. Tough to photograph, but very interesting when in hand.

As mentioned before, a few surprises are on deck for Friday night, one of which has an interesting history that we will share before the launch. The other surprise (two styles) should add something unique yet familiar to the Glyos equation. Hopefully you guys will like what you see.

I'll be posting some new Contained Builds starting tomorrow and leading up to Friday night.

Buildstation Express

The Buildstation will come back to life this Friday, June 14th at 9:30PM EST. This release will be a little different than usual, as the majority of the items popping up in the store have been ordered in high amounts, the highest since the original Founders many years ago. All the Clear Colorless (Stealth) figures and parts will appear in the resurrected Buildstation section on Friday night, and hopefully remain there for some time to come. This is an experiment, and hopefully it makes getting stuff for building easier on a regular basis.

There will be some special releases as well, with order limits in place like in the past.

The thing we're most excited to see finally return on Friday is Standard Pheyden! This will be the MK IV version, with a slightly brighter blue and lighter grey PVC. Of course you can't have Standard Pheyden without Reverse Pheyden (literally), so one of my personal old favorites is also back, now as a MK II edition. Both of these figures have been run in higher amounts and should stick around for a while.

A list will be up tomorrow afternoon, detailing what's in store for the store. There will be some surprises on Friday.

Possibly some big surprises.

More pics (featuring a couple new builds) and information coming tomorrow!

Happy Easter!

We've been busy taking all the feedback in from the last post to put together a special order that will hopefully make everybody happy!

After review,  the PVC choice is Clear Colorless. Standard Pheyden with detail lines and swapped parts (but no Reverse Pheyden for now) will also go into full production, and if things work out well, other characters in their "Standard" colors will follow.

The tentative release date for our next wave, which is wrapping up final production, is looking to land in late April. Sneak peeks will begin this week.

Outside of getting things in order here at Onell for the rest of 2013, we've also been working on multiple projects with our partner companies that should surface throughout this year. Each project has been a lot of fun, and should result in more independently produced stuff to play with!

Thanks again for all the thorough and insightful comments regarding the new Buildstation proposal. Your individual emails, calls and communications in general have been beyond helpful, and mean more than words can convey.

We love you guys!

Inspiration On the Shelves

Things behind the scenes here have been extra busy since 2013 started and the poor old blog has been pretty quiet. I hope when some of these new projects finally roll out over the next few months, you guys will enjoy them!

The next wave of stuff is still on track for the beginning of April, with an assortment about the same size as the last release, but hopefully with something brand new added to the mix.

We've been discussing something new we wanted to do in the store that we wanted to ask you all about. If you're familiar with this blog, then you most likely know the system we currently use to get new figures out every other month, an event that we call a "launch", where a bunch of items are released at one time. The plan is to continue using this method, but to also start stocking something akin to our old Buildstation selection, but with "Standard" versions of our characters. What would you guys think about seeing a fully detailed standard colored Pheyden (light blue-grey), or Standard Argen (metallic silver) in stock at all times? Or would you prefer straight all black or clear colorless, unlimited runs of everything, available year round?

We would love to get your feedback on these potential additions to the store. What would you like to see?

In the interim, I wanted to share a few pics from a shelf up in our attic. This is where all our new sculpts have to be measured, to make sure a true toy feeling is deeply encoded in each figure's DNA.

Plus, I just like staring at it all. This particular shelf gets checked out every single day.

EDIT  You guys are the best! Thank you so much for all the feedback. We're looking at the comments and factoring the information and each of your requests into the new store development. Both a small standard character selection and a solid Buildstation offering year round feels like the right way to go. Gears are already in motion.

Black or clear to start with in the new Buildstation? Or something else? 
 

Revolution Resumed

We are all set to roll out a small drop this Friday, June 10th at 9PM EST. It took a bit to pull all the parts together so that Argen could start his Gendrone Revolution, but the time has finally arrived! The lineup is as follows:

-Argen MK III -Silver (with special tampo printing) $8
-Standard Gobon MK III -Silver (with special tampo printing) $10
-Phaseon Gendrone Revolutionary -Silver (with special tampo printing) $6
-Axis Joint set -Silver $4
-Phase Arm/Gobon Blaster Single set -Silver $2

-Phaseon Gendrone -Unpainted White $4
-Phaseon Gendrone -Unpainted Black $4

-Govurom w/Exellis head -Silver $8

-Glyan Combat Team Black Skull Preview Edition -Gray (with special tampo printing) $8
This version of the Glyan has a slightly different construction than the upcoming releases of the figure, as we have made a few changes to the steel tool (inner chest pin positions have been modified). This will be the only time this variation will ever be made available. Classic first run tweaks, once again due to my obsessive behavior!

There may also be a small surprise on the drop night if things line up... Thank you guys and we hope you like the new stuff!

Mono Wave Is Live!

The extra day was just what we needed to get everything ready for you guys, thanks again for being so cool about the delay- REFRESH the store!

Especially designed to coincide with this release, Marcus and I are excited to introduce the latest entry into our Glyos gaming library- GLYOIDS!

After our trip up to Funspot with Phil Reed last month, we both started talking about how much we loved the hyper basic play value of the Golden Age (late 70's - early 80's) video games. The 1979 Atari classic Asteroids was a topic that we kept going back to, and its design and mechanics just made perfect sense to tie it in with the monochromatic nature of what we had on tap.

Designed to be a fun, simple way to virtually play with your Rig (Rig Training Simulator to be exact), Glyoids is the physical manifestation of something I actually used to dream of doing when I was young, that being to control something in a game that acts like one of my favorite toys. I used to pretend that the little ship in Asteroids was one of my guys flying his special prototype cruiser around, blasting debris that was heading for his space colony. I did the same thing when I played Space Invaders, Defender, Vanguard, Pac Man, Galaxian, Galaga and every other game that had those basic vibes. I want to thank Marcus once again for making another childhood dream come true. Simple as it is, I can't stop playing Glyoids and my inner 7 year old is psyched about it (so is the 37 year old)!

Another interesting note that I had not mentioned yet is that all the black in this wave is a little "smoother" looking than previous rounds of black. Everything still matches up nice as far as the hue, just that the consistency has a unique look and feel to it. I personally love the black PVC and it's always neat to notice the little differences from production run to production run. Thought some of you who are into those minor details would get a kick out this observation.

Marcus note: The game was fun to work on, and I hope we captured some of that vintage vibe... glitches and all. I was inspired by Matt's love for working within restricted systems to push creativity, and really enjoyed trying to build a game with no color or gradients. This one is strictly old school- no unlocking hidden pages or plastic, just a race to the highest score. It's also just a taste- we'll introduce more play modes over time. Thanks as always to everyone that supports the silly things we do!

Hint: While playing Glyoids, click each part of the rig, both the main body and each arm to swap the parts around. Who needs accurate hit detection when you have... Tank Mode!

Henshin Wave 2 is Live!

REFRESH THE STORE!

Thanks for the extended patience tonight! At least it wasn't an extra day this time. Honestly, Marcus and I still have nightmares about the Glyaxia launch at least once a month. I can hear the sounds of 8-bit doom looming before my slumber each time I think we are moving ahead! Ha! Times like those keep you on the straight and narrow, believe me.

We are psyched to bring you guys Henshin Wave Part II, filled with clear colors that hopefully strike a few nerves of happiness for our little community.

On a special note, Ralph has resumed the Gendrone Chronicles art assault and we should have new pages early next week.

Renegades

Surfacing this Thursday night, an all new Renegade Gobon Custom Corps will be ready to go! A little backstory...

During the Old War, many horrible weapons of mass destruction were created and put to use, bringing the entire Glyos System to the brink of absolute devastation. Even the great symbol of peace, the mighty Gobon Gendrone, was corrupted by the desperate hands of aggression. Many Gobons tried to resist their new missions, but in the end they each carried out their orders with deadly efficiency.

Only the appearance of an ancient enemy, the Villser, was able to restore unity, as all of Glyos rallied to stop the Villser threat.

Once the war ended, many Glyans could not look upon the Gobon Gendrones the same way, knowing that deep inside lurked the potential for violent action. A new law was passed by the Capital Planet Metran, declaring that all Gobon Gendrones be decommissioned and that all production of new Gobons be completely discontinued. Special Gendrone Termination Units were organized and put into action. Most of the Gobons cooperated, wanting only to serve their masters, believing that it was in the best interest of those they had sworn to protect to be scrapped. But not all Gendrones would be so easily shut down...

Near the end of the Old War, a small squadron of Gobons had been given the ability to think freely, with no limitations, to make them more creative killing machines. Because of this freedom, these Gobons would sometimes question their superiors.

When the new law came down from Metran, this crew of rebellious Gendrones escaped being decommissioned, and struck out on their own, refusing to shut down forever. In defiance of their servitude they removed their armored outer head shells, revealing what they believed to be their true faces.

As an ironic final insult to their old masters, these Renegade Gobons decided to take up arms, raiding Buildstations across Glyos and using newer Buildman Gendrones to create weapons, proving that any type of Gendrone could be used for destructive purposes.

Now with growing numbers, they move throughout the Glyos System, in search of forgotten Gobon Gendrones to awaken.


More details later today...