Cypser Greetings

Big thanks to Will Cypser for this great Holiday Card.

The Odyssey

It has been a while....Well over the last month and a half tons of things have been going on. We had a new addition to the house with the birth of our second daughter, Cirie Alice Doughty, and I went on a trip to China, Hong Kong and Japan. Sorry for such a spell of silence, but it has taken longer than I had anticipated to get back in the groove. While in China I visited the factories that make the Glyos figures and Beantown Toys. It was wild to see the process first hand. I actually worked on the assembly line while the new Sarvos figures were put together. Working with the factory's QC team was great, a bunch of production problems got solved from just meeting in person. The latest figures that we just had made are by far the best to come straight from the factory. I actually don't have to fix anything on them (which is a first). A Typhoon hit while I was in Hong Kong and I got sick as hell during it. I was on the 25th floor of a hotel in Kowloon in the middle of an insane Typhoon, alone and ill out of my mind. To top that little section of the adventure off, one of the bay windows in the room BLEW OUT and was hanging by a tiny support arm, causing a freaking vortex in the room. It was awesome. And it sucked.

The Japan leg of the journey was absolutely glorious. Massive thanks to Don "Datadub" Kratzer for putting me up and literally being the best damn host in history. Don, I owe you a million. The insanely talented LAMOUR Supreme was also docked at Don's and the three of us went on a toy expedition that was ridiculously mind blowing. We also managed to release the first part of the Shadow Set during our time in Japan. Built a small set and took a series of pics in Don's backyard to chronicle the toys while we were at it. Got to meet a lot of vinyl heroes as well. Mori from Real Head was an incredibly generous person, with his time and his attention- not to mention his amazing toys. The Gargamel and Super 7 crew threw a great party at the Thrash Out Store with tons of US collectors crashing the show. So much activity in such a small time frame, it wiped me out. I'll put up some small blips of info and pics detailing the whole trip over the next few weeks. I'm glad to be back.

Me working the assembly line at the factory in China.

The steel tool mold for Buildman.

The factory at work.

Pile O' Pelvis...

...and feet.

L'amour doing his thing.

L'amour and Mori from Real Head.

Mori, Don and L'amour.

Quick backdrop for Japan shoot.

Returned and Recovered

We had a great time out in San Diego this year. Saw all our old friends and made a lot of new ones. Some incredible little toy companies out there, we were all very honored to be around all those great creative minds (and crazy hard workers). It's taken us a little longer than normal to get back on our schedule this year, post con. Thanks to everyone who put in orders for the new stuff while we were out there, we are finally finished up with shipping all that plastic! The Lamour/Triclops heads landed on Saturday at the con and craziness ensued. Thanks to Master Mold Maker and all around workhorse, Ron Daley, for cranking all those heads out. To everyone who still wants a set, we are cobbling something together that should be cool. Speaking of those heads, check out the new pictures and let us know what you guys think. We call this version the Shadow Set, and it has a darker feel to it. Joel, Rob and Luc -you guys are amazing designers and all around human beings, thanks for being part of this mash up. Thanks again to everyone who came by the booth and spent time talking with us, we all had a great time meeting up and look forward to doing it again next year.