RXH Attack!

Mori strikes again! Cutting a simple yet sharp form, Mori's version of Enforcer Sarvos brings back Soul of the Traveler memories for us over here. As per usual, this is a limited edition and will be available on Wednesday, September 21st at 9PM EDT. The price is $35 USD. Please limit one per customer.

This guy should look good next to the upcoming RXH Hades Pheyden that is on tap for November...

Predecessors: A Fish Tale

This old story about an unlucky (and then lucky) space pilot was one of the larger sized comics I made back in the 7th grade era. "Pilot" worked as a Space Delivery Man for the Space Federation (judging by the ridiculous writing on his chest), and managed to get blasted within the first four panels of the strip! Lucky for him, the ship he was "piloting" had a small escape pod.

The funniest thing to me about this demented yarn is the part where Pilot is fishing on what looks like a regular old 1980's style boat (our old boat to be precise) -with all his space gear on. Because everyone knows that after getting into a galactic missile battle all any true astronaut wants to do is cast a line and forget his worries.

Oh yeah, and he was delivering mini-Bonkers.

Thanks for checking out these first three looks at my old junk. Jesse and I head overseas in about 12 hours, but when we return I'll dig up some more stuff from my youth if you guys still dig it.

Business will operate as usual over here as Michelle and Marcus have the bridge! Keep your eyes peeled next week for some sneak peeks from the factory and workshop! New stuff is cooking!

Predecessors: Bonker

Long before there was Pheyden, there was Bonker. You're not reading that wrong, I made a character named Bonker. When I was very young (Elementary School into Junior High) this little white furry alien starred in many of my earliest stories, flying around with his energy field zapping bad guys named after US cities. Why did he have a giant "B" on his chest? Did he come from a world where they used the English alphabet? Who the hell knows, but I have some strong memories of drawing Bonker.

Like any classic sci-fi tale concocted by a child's mind, Bonker had a special spaceship and even a hover bike to tool around in -even though he could fly on his own and didn't need those things. His ship was called the Polaris-1 and I spent hours thinking about how it would operate and what it was like inside. The old Japanese robot cutaway illustrations I would see at my Japanese neighbor's house seeped into my mind and made a permanent place to stay, making it mandatory that I draw the insides of everything. I drew the Polaris many times and was never satisfied with the internals. Maybe I should have just stuffed more vehicles in there!

The main bad guys who gave Bonker a hard time were the Bionic Trio, and a dude named Acron. Acron popped up in a few different forms (scientist/muscle bound beast) and always ended up getting blasted to cosmic bits. Then he would show up again with no explanation as to how he survived. No accountability, I love it. The Bionic Trio were my favorite guys to have Bonker fight, as they collectively filled the anti-hero role in the story. They were three brothers who lost different parts of their bodies when their spaceship exploded. That's it. Why did they want to waste Bonker so bad? Again, no real reason other than to cause chaos. Maybe I should have called them the Anarchy Trio. Either way, I loved drawing them.

For a modern take on Bonker, the Polaris-1 and the Bionic Trio I tried to imagine them in our current Glyos setting. Bonker evokes a bit of every half animal videogame character from the past 20 years. The Polaris-1 looks roughly the same, only now piloted by Pheyden (who also does not really need a ship-only Rigs-ha!) and the Bionic Trio remind me of the Galaxy Ranger's and Crusher Joe's love children.

Bonker will always hold a special place with me, so much so that he was the inspiration for the character Sarvo Halos, who has played a pivotal role in the Glyos System. Sarvo created Prototype Sincroid Exellis along with countless other Mechanoid based lifeforms throughout the history of Glyos and holds many secrets about what is really going on. He might even know what the Bionic Trio were up to. Nah, nobody knows that.

More old files will be explored when I get back from the upcoming overseas trip. Maybe we can take a look at another old series I used to draw called Hermit.

Predecessors: Skate Wars

While working on the Glyan over the past year, I ended up digging through a lot of my old drawings from when I was younger. For some odd reason I felt compelled to review a particular series of scribbles from when I was in 7th grade that I called Skate Wars (shown above). Yeah, the name brings to mind some dudes battling on their skateboards, or maybe even a deadly hockey story. Neither of those things factored into Skate Wars. Apparently I just liked the word "skate" and used it. No deeper meaning, I was just a nerdy little guy (and still am).

Outside of the totally screwy name, Skate Wars had some fairly intense thought put into it for the product of a 7th grade mind. I was still obsessed with all the little details about each character, from height and weight to the type of rank each soldier could achieve.

Skate Wars was a futuristic Special Operations Forces Tactical Assault Team or SOFTAT (what the hell?). The designs were inspired by all the Japanese animation bootlegs that I was watching as well as my exposure to tons of Time/Life WW II books. This series of Skate Wars drawings always stuck with me, even after all these years. Being a spaz about hanging onto all my artwork since I was 6 works out pretty good for when I want to look at old junk I made. As I checked out the sketches, an interesting connection between the old me and the current me developed as I studied each paper. I felt like I was getting an assist from 7th grade me as I developed the Glyan figure.

In honor of my utterly bizarre younger mind, I thought it would be fun to dust off some of the older characters and worlds that eventually brought me to the Glyos System and draw them once again, keeping faithful to the original designs. If you think that Skate Wars is weird, wait until you see Bonker.

Battlegripped!

The unstoppable work machine known as Phil Reed has struck again! Now he has gone and run the risk of low readership over at his Battlegrip.com site by dedicating an entire week to our weirdo stuff. Thankfully, he has managed to make what we do look half interesting by adding his own special creative spice to each entry he has posted this week.

My favorite has to be the Choose Your Own Adventure post. Phil has mixed some very clever Transformers homages into a fun throwback story that features his own take on a few familiar faces.

As usual, Mr. Reed brings his sharp perspective and trademark honesty to everything he does, his Glyos Week being no exception. Thanks a million Phil, you are way, way to good to us.

Shipping and Hammering

All orders from the drop last week should be shipped out by the end of today, including all the foreign stuff. Megan, Marc, Jesse and Grilo (now with Fu Manchu mustache) all came to the barn ready to rumble and we hammered through a ton of stuff after all the processing was finally completed. The mountain of paperwork was once again conquered by Michelle and as usual she managed to keep things on track. We're trying harder than ever to get the packages out of here faster so the wait is not as long.

Thanks again to all of you for the Jedi style patience and for making this such a positive release!

Banimon Grand Prix

Multi-talented workhorse and Banimon creator Boris Savic has unveiled his latest creation over at the Banimon blog.

Combining the storytelling style of old time silent movies with his now classic Banimon design sense, Boris has brought together something extremely unique, personal and fun with his Banimon Grand Prix animated short.

Make sure to also check out the Banimon store for an all new assortment of hand cast and painted Getto Rockets, BGP T-shirts and even special Banimon Grand Prix Shop Towels!

Huge congratulations go out to Boris for completing the latest piece of Banimon history.

Long live the Amazing Deda!

Revenge of the Bio Jumpers

Over the past few months Marty "The GodBeast" Hansen and I have been working on a number of projects, further exploring the possibilities of making hand cast parts and creating all new characters to play around with. One of those collaborations which has gone from concept to reality is the latest incarnation of the Bio Jumpers!

When Marty and I were developing the recent Infection stuff we came up with a little guy called the Bio Jumper. The idea was that this nasty bugger would land on a Traveler's head and take control by literally "jumping" the victim's biology. The basic theme seemed to resonate and right after the first Bio Jumper release we started talking about what other kinds of chunky insectoids might be fun to make as all new Jumpers. Once I started drawing, the very first thing that popped out on the paper was a Grasshopper based Jumper. This was most likely due to my love of Kamen Rider and the influence of the iconic big round eyes that always adorn those awesome helmets. Microman was also on my mind, sneaking through in the Acroyear inspired "wing-horns" that a number of the new Bio Jumpers sport in the above concept work.

A personal old theme also resurfaced, having appeared way back in the early days of the blog. Once again the oddball buggy race of Glyos called the Eidrallim marched into my brain waves.. Originally appearing in an old Rechlen and Aves story line, these bug creatures were dipped in a super strong alloy at birth, which would grow as the Eidrallim would grow. Basically like Achilles being dipped in the River Styx by the heel (well exactly like that). I always dreamed of one day sculpting a proper Eidrallim figure, but once the initial parts swapping started rolling they popped up in the form of some combined builds. The little silver cricket Jumper with yellow eyes (seen above) is a baby Eidrallim. The skinny tall guy is an adult (rescanned from a drawing I did around 2001).

The pool of influences ran from Bugmen of Insectica, Megabug Gladiators, and Hornetroid, all the way to Nausicaa of the the Valley of the Wind. The process was very fun and going back and forth with a true toy historian like Marty made the references a kick to infuse into the core designs.

When the time finally came to select what designs Marty was going to sculpt, it was the Resin Master's Choice. Marty came out of the gates with the Larva, the Horned Beetle and the Dragonfly! My demented drawings can be more confusing than helpful, so I was psyched when I saw the first versions of what would become the all new additions to the now growing Bio Jumper collection.

Each time we work on something together, Marty and I get to know each other a little bit more, and this collaboration was no different. I feel very fortunate that Marty continues to create these crazy toys with our little crew. Hopefully by the end of the year some more Jumpers (and maybe even a Beast or two) will join the ranks of the Glyos System, and if they do, it will be thanks to the exceptional talent and dedication of The GodBeast.

Thank You!

You guys have once again shown incredible dedication to our scrappy little crew! Our deepest thanks to everyone out there tonight for taking the time to join in on this release! We live to fight another day thanks 100% to your collective generosity. We will continue to keep the prices locked in to what we all are used to, especially in these weird economic- and just generally odd- times.

Get ready for some fun stuff as we go into the end of 2011!

Real Type Hurricane

The latest round of new stuff is LIVE!
Please refresh onelldesign.com/store and see what's lined up.

These Real Type colored Glyans have been a long time in development and to see them finally make it this far is a bearded fool's small dream come true. Thanks to all of you guys for supporting the creation of our new kid on the intergalactic block. Hopefully he earns a place on the workbench.

This launch is also extra special for us because we have the honor of releasing a special version of Xodiac from the OSM. I personally want to thank Mel and the Four Horsemen once again for letting us do this. It sounds corny, but this is another dream come true. I've loved OSM since I discovered them as a kid and have always wanted to see them represented in different colors and styles. I hope you guys dig the duds we slipped on ol' Xodiac for this run.

Last but not least is the introduction of the Rig Wing. Gigantic thanks go out one more time to the man, Phil Reed, for playing such a crucial role in this new look for the Rig. We definitely have some more variations on tap that we hope keep you interested in our little vinyl cube of strangeness.

Speaking of the Rig, something kind of insane is in development for what we hope is an October release. If you like vintage Transformers then you might like what we have on deck.

Jesse and I will be heading overseas in September to put some time in on a few special projects and then we will be hitting NYCC in October. If everything lands just right and the universe behaves, we should have some pretty interesting new items to debut at the show (and online of course).

Enough of yet another text mountain, we hope you have fun tonight and maybe find something that looks good!

Alternate Reality

Thanks to a chance encounter with Pheyden long ago, Xodiac learned of the Glyos System and how to travel through the Edge of Space to get there...

After suffering intense damage in pursuit of a rogue Traveler, Pheyden found himself drifting near the Edge of Space. Unable to generate enough energy to warp to safety, he started to fade into the dreaded Edge. Suddenly, from within this nebulous zone, a strange alien, Xodiac, appeared. He offered to save Pheyden in exchange for the Secrets of Glyaxian Technology. Left with no other choice for survival, Pheyden agreed to Xodiac's cosmic deal.

Now, many cycles later in a time of widespread conflict, Xodiac returns to the Glyos System, summoned by his bond to Pheyden and his old alliance with Glyaxia Command....

The Basics

Mission Details

We're back to the regular program after a small break! Spent the last week and a bit with our families and also caught up on the behind the scenes operations. From here on in things should be pretty fun as far as new stuff goes.

Speaking of new stuff, the final assortment of the summer is ready to roll out this Friday, August 26th at 9PM EDT. Here are the details:

United Glyan Forces

-Glyan Relgost Marine Division (Seafoam Green/Grayish Blue) $8
-Glyan Relgost Wing Division (Grayish Blue/Seafoam Green) $8
-Glyan Esedeth Desert Assault Team (Sand/Ochre Brown) $8
-Glyan Esedeth Hostile Environment Team (Ochre Brown/Sand) $8

-Glyan Spectre Division (GITD Green with Light Green visors) $6
-Glyan Classified Division (Black with Gray visors) $6
-Glyan Stealth Division (Clear Colorless with no paint application) $6

Gendrone Revolution

-Argen MK IV (Gold Metallic/Red visors with special tampo printing) $8
-Phaseon Gendrone Revolutionary (Gold Metallic/Red visors with special tampo printing) $6

Axis Joint Sets

-Relgost Marine Division Set (Seafoam Green) $4
-Relgost Wing Division Set (Grayish Blue) $4
-Esedeth Desert Assault Team Set (Sand) $4
-Esedeth Hostile Environment Team Set (Ochre Brown) $4
-Gold Metallic Set $4
-White Set (Restock) $4

Phase Arm/Gobon Blaster Single Sets

-Relgost Marine Division Set (Seafoam Green) $2
-Relgost Wing Division Set (Grayish Blue) $2
-Esedeth Desert Assault Team Set (Sand) $2
-Esedeth Hostile Environment Team Set (Ochre Brown) $2
-Gold Metallic Set $2

Rig

-Heavy Armored Rig - Relgost Wing Divison (features an all new Wing Attachment Configuration) $25


The Outer Space Men

-Xodiac Glyaxia Command Special Edition (Fully Painted in Gray, Black and Light Blue with Clear Colorless Accessories and extra set of "bent" arms, also features a special Glyaxia tampo print on his chest) $12

That's the skinny on what's in store (and in the store) this week!

Special Note - The Glyaxia Xodiac is a triple crossover with the combined forces of Mel Birnkrant and the Four Horsemen. This version of Xodiac is the guest "Traveler" for this wave, helping to train the Glyans to be better soldiers and maybe teach them some Space History 101 from the Milky Way. HUGE thanks to Mel and the 4H for letting us play around with one of their creations, it is truly a dream come true! I am personally crazy about how this figure came out, a true testament to the craftsmanship that those guys put into everything they do.

Thanks for reading this mega mountain of text! More pics as the week continues!

Rig Wings and Mr. Reed

The Rig has received an all new attachment!

Simply called the Rig Wing, this Armored Mechachunk gives the standard Rig a different look and feel. This first addition is due out at the end of this month (August) and is operated by the Relgost Division of the Glyan Forces.

I also wanted to take a moment to share a little background on this new version of the Rig. Months ago when our old friend Phil Reed was in town for a visit, I showed him some sketches of what would inevitably lead to this new Wing part. These scribbles were the result of multiple conversations with Phil about what kind of expansions we would like to see for the Rig in general. Since we both had a love for inverted wing designs, an actual wing became the primary focus for the next step in development. After analyzing tons of reference material from 8-Bit Shooter artwork to the crazy Peacemaker UAV from the old movie Deal of the Century, I landed on, of course, a very Real Type looking armored wing.

Some time at the shop with Ron and then a round at my desk yielded an all new master to send to our crew in China. As I kept Phil updated on what had become a point of interest in our discussions, we both became more anxious to see the final product. So much so, that Phil became a benefactor for the project, contributing funds to the actual tooling process which helped to expedite the process of the full production. Now the new Rigs have finally landed and we could not have done it without Phil's inspiration and generosity. Phil, I can't thank you enough for the endless support you have always shown for what we do over here. This new Rig is dedicated to you my friend.

Enter the Glyan

Parking Lot Dangers

Saw these two rickety piles of twisted metal in a parking lot carnival in our area. Have any of you actually been on things like these?

Also, all the SDCC Non-Con orders start shipping this week.