Mission: Power Lords

Our old buddies, the Four Horsemen, have been running a special pre-order for the continuation of their awesome Power Lords line for the last month, and it wraps up later today (October 6th) at 3PM EDT.

Although we moved in different directions over the last few years professionally, we still remain great friends, and everyone here at Onell has been in full support of both Mythic Legions as well as the re-relaunch of Power Lords. The amount of work the guys (especially Eric) have poured into the redesigning process on these new super articulated Power Lords is deep, and continues to stand as an absolute passion project. As much as it was fun to work on this property together years ago, it's still been cool getting to see the 4H resurrect this strange yet glorious action figure classic, one more time.

If you enjoyed the first and second iterations of Power Lords, it's safe to say you'll love this third journey into the combined minds of the legendary Wayne Barlowe and the inimitable Four Horsemen.

Special thanks to Eric for the images shown above. Raygoth is the king!

Also, I've watched this little promo video about 50 times now, love the vibe Ryan Lord captured.

  

Big Boys

Beyond the Pond

After a super fast sellout of their online Power Soldier selection this past Monday, the Four Horsemen have posted that they will be offering a second chance to get them for those that missed out.

An excerpt from the latest 4H blog entry:


We’re going to put these figures back up for pre-order for those of you that missed out, and you’ll have 72 hours beginning Thursday, September 19th at 3:00pm to place your pre-orders. We’ll then run however many orders for each figure that we get during that time period. Once the sale ends, the ability to get those two figures ends. These figures will have stickers on the outsides of their poly-bags which will be numbered #251 and up (the figures that have sold so far are numbered 1 to 250) and will be placed into orders randomly.


This presents a great opportunity to still get in on this line at the ground level.

With what the 4H have planned for the rest of this year and into 2014, Power Lords is definitely a line to watch.

Power Play

The Four Horsemen will have their Power Soldiers available for purchase over at Store Horsemen today, September 16th, at 5PM EST. Priced at $10 USD and limited to 5 per customer, odds are these will be vaporized lightning fast!

Congratulations to the 4H crew on these first  production run Power Soldiers. I've been playing with them for days and they are absolutely the real deal. The team in the pics above even survived the rocks of Gloucester, which have claimed many a toy over the years!


NOTE: The White Elite Power Soldier in the middle has been swapped around with the Black Standard Power Soldier for fun, their actual default assemblies are single colored plastic with painted accents.

Warriors in the Woods

Cosmic Cousins

Took these guys for a little walk after packing and shipping yesterday...

Power Point

Today, September 14th, the Four Horsemen will be releasing the very first full production versions of their fantastic Power Lords Power Soldiers out at Power Con in Torrance, California! 

If you will not be able to attend the show, there will still be a chance to pick up these brand new figures over at the 4H's store within the coming week.

Crossworlds Part 2

Another example of the Four Horsemen's new Power Lords figures combined with some of our parts.

It's been fun trying to simulate the base dimensions of the original Power Lords limbs on these cybernetic builds.

Also, the Ggripptoggs are pretty big bruisers, standing just a smidge taller that a Syclodoc!

Crossworlds

As the fine tuning of the new "Glybrid" joint system has progressed, some pretty neat Power Lords test shots have shown up to tinker with. These test shots are crucial in solving any riddles that the various plastics may present.

The test shot shown above of the Four Horsemen's Elite Power Soldier has extremely solid joints and a super satisfying feel in hand. All the parts hold together, even under intense play and repeated movement. These figures can truly survive the pocket.

My favorite aspects of the new Power Lords are being able to still build and modify the core figures, even though they don't show any really obvious signs (outside of the back hole) of using our interface. The primary engineering goal of this endeavor was to not compromise the traditional "action figure" look of the characters, yet retain the interchangeability we've used for years. We wanted to create another option that could be applied to new projects across the boards, when the abstract approach might not be the right fit.

The Four Horsemen have some excellent things in store with the Power Lords that I think you guys will really love. Soon you'll be able to put together teams of Power Soldiers, to battle or befriend anything living on your shelves or hiding in your storage bins.

Also, that Ivorinium DSG up there is from our next release, which will be in early September. More details and pics coming this week!

Testing the Lords

After a fun and very experimental process of development, the Four Horsemen's Power Lords are finally in the test shot phase!

These figures represent a lot of combined effort, blending multiple production techniques into something a little different than what we normally produce at our factory.

Featuring a brand new hybrid joint system (Glybrid!) that combines traditional insert molding with a modified but 100% compatible Glyos pin, the Four Horsemen's new Power Lords are aimed at those with a taste for the classics as well as those looking for something new.

The Four Horsemen are currently exhibiting at the San Diego Comic Con with Action Figure Xpress at booth #3345. If you're at the show or are thinking about going, make sure to drop by and say hello to the 4H in person!

Next up: The new Outer Space Men!

The Vintage Vibe

While I was laying in bed last week with a messed up back, it gave me a good chunk of time to think about many subjects. Of course toys pushed to the forefront of my mind, as always. As I churned through plans for the next set of steel tools coming up, I was also busy reading a very special book.

Back in July while I was at SDCC I got to meet a bunch of great guys, one of which was Rain Infinity, a customer from up in Canada who had made the trip down for the show. He surprised me by giving me a great book on sci-fi toys from the 60's called, appropriately enough, Space Toys Of The 60's by James H. Gillam. I have literally looked at it hundreds of times since receiving it. I highly recommend that you guys try to track it down, as it chronicles the great trinity of 60's space themed toys, which are: Major Matt Mason by Mattel, Zeroids by Ideal and The Outer Space Men by Colorforms. I believe that these three toy lines lead directly to another three of the most unique toy lines of the 80's. It would seem that many of the people who went on to design action figures in the 80's played with one or more of the toys from the great trinity of the 60's, creating lines that almost seemed like sequels to the three classics. Here are the comparisons:

Major Matt Mason = Starcom (originally produced by Coleco then ironically Mattel ended up with it)
Zeroids = Roboforce (Ideal produced both lines)
The Outer Space Men = Power Lords (Revell produced)

If you really analyze the similarities of the different series from above, it is pretty cool to see that some very real homages were happening. In paying respect to the toys that continue to inspire all of us, I built a Glyos version of a Robby the Robot type clunker. I guess a little of that Space DNA goes a long way.