Lost Projects: Villser Soldier

One of the major dark forces in the Glyos System is the Villser entity. Existing as a kind of cross between multiple "absorbing" mutants and aliens from popular sci-fi (specifically John Carpenter's The Thing and Aptom from Guyver) the Villser serves as a somewhat faceless threat that lurks just beyond sight. There is also more than a dash of Lovecraft in its origin as well as appearance.

A few years ago I thought about actually rolling out a Villser Soldier, which was to tie in with a story arc we were kicking around at the time. This version of the Villser was designed as a warrior that could blend with its fellow soldiers and become more powerful, adapting to whatever challenges might arise.

The idea of sculpting a more monster like figure was really appealing, and the plan was to sneak a Pheyaos/Chaos head in as well. Mori and I had discussed pushing the crossover aspects our Pheyaos character a bit more, with a direct connection to Phase/Bio Pheyden. This element of story actually ended up resurfacing in the Gendrone Chronicles Part 2, which Ralph and I are still picking away at (and he has done some crazy art for).

Sculpting on the Villser Soldier actually did start, and I was cranking along, but somewhere along the lines the project started to alter, and something new was born. To add something new to the figure's functionality I kept going back to all the joint concepts that had been amassing, thinking about what would give the figure a kick. One thing lead to another and the Axis Joints were born. At the same time, elements that went on to become the Hub Set were also built, as well as something that should surface in 2013, which we have been calling the Swing Joints. This poor project's parts landed all over the place! The work on the Villser Soldier ended up being responsible for a number of our most integral building sets.

Maybe one day this odd duck will come to fruition, but for now it exists in spirit within the tiny parts that it inadvertently created.


PS -Cady even got in on the designs, as you can see her little scribbles all over the drawings.

Art Hustle 2010 Complete Sketch Card Set

These sketch cards are from the original Art Hustle set that came out back in 2010. A few have been posted before, but I don't think all of them have ever been revealed. The bottom ones were cut out so that the card is the shape of the drawing.

When I was little it was fun to clip out drawings and carry them around. They didn't last very long, but I remember it being neat to pretend that they were toys. PVC holds up a little better.

Lost Projects: Bendirions Part II

While going through the stacks of sketches I gathered up some more concepts for the Bendirions range. Notice the Repoclaimer Pilot design that was a possible bendy candidate. That guy was a ringer!

Thanks for the feedback on the last post! These old scribbles have been gathering dust for a number of years and it's been fun digging them out to share with you.

More concepts are on deck for tomorrow!

Lost Projects: Bendirions

This is a strange one, but I promised you some stuff from the vault...

For a number of years I concentrated on trying to make a bendy line, called Bendirions, that were much in the same vein as the beloved original bendy Outer Space Men. The approach was to design the body types in a way that took full advantage of the inner wire articulation, so most of the characters needed to be a bit lanky. To add some variation to the skinny crew, a couple of beefy characters were generated. These stocky aliens would have been shot in a very squishy PVC, to take a beating like the Mordles used to in Rocks & Bugs & Things.

I imagined that these guys could grapple and twist up together, even spiraling into bigger beings. Different sizes would represent the various species and some of the Bendirions would even sport slide on armor.

I still kind of wish that we could make at least one of these oddballs come to life. It would be fun to introduce a few Bendirions into the current Glyos ranks and see what kind of weirdness might occur. Bendy inner phantoms inside of a clear Armodoc would be something.

Bendirions. More than just a cruddy name!

Concepts: Syclodoc

I'll try to keep the text brief on this one!

The Syclodoc was a concept that really came into focus in August of last year. I had been thinking about adding a new head to the Armodoc, so I did the normal crazy person pile of sketches, eventually arriving at the "Monodoc" design (though I also liked the simple straight visor look). I even took a few passes at some multi eyed heads, but the single peeper won out.

While I was drawing, I was also playing with some of my old Moon Platoon and Space Britains figures from back in the day. Both toy lines influenced the process, and of course as previously mentioned the iconic Zaku from Gundam was on the brain.

I was initially going to hide another mini visor face on the back side, but decided to emulate the Deep Space Glyan/Hub Set "helmet" instead. So technically, with the right paint job, you could make a beefball Deep Space Syclodoc by reversing the head.

It's been fun playing with the new Syclodoc, and we may just get some more parts to evolve the Armodoc again in 2013.

Phase Defender

This contained build was designed to take advantage of the new paint application to the top part of the old Phase Arm. For years I would make customs using the Phase Arm top piece as a head, developing a small team of "Phase Hunters" that I imagined as a kind of offshoot Gendrone creation that would shadow the Travelers. I usually had some form of a Phase Hunter floating around my little games since we first could use the production parts.

With the introduction of the Hub Set some brand new twists and turns have been added to the equation, allowing for more options in the contained build department. When these new colors were put in for production, they seemed like a fun point to get the new painted Phase Arms into the mix.

Based on the data after many different releases over the years, I've noticed that lots of you buy the accessory sets in pairs. Many orders will come in on a drop night that have 2 of each Phase Arm Sets, 2 Axis Joint Sets and 2 Hub Sets in matching colors. I figured it might be easier to be able to grab all of these in one shot and cut down on the torture of button clicking when everything is going live. It also gives a chance for some contained builds to be available for those out there that are not completely into the act of building but are interested in the end result. Not to mention it consolidates things on the production management side, from shipping to database entry. Hopefully this approach makes some sense!

The Phase Defender is pretty simple, and versions of it have been laying around here for a while, but having the actual newly painted parts helped tighten the final combination that you see above. I really wanted to nail a convincing configuration that could be assembled from only our "accessory" sets, right out of the factory.The longer proportions were incorporated because I was also thinking about using this as a Delphi base body at one point (it can be converted to an even taller design with a few tweaks).

The full build is made from 2 complete Phase Arms, 2 complete Gobon Blasters, 2 complete Hub Sets and 2 complete Axis Joint Sets. Originally I had the back collar armor across the chest, which gave it a pretty interesting look but hindered the movement too much. I also had turned a scarf upside down and put it over the Phase Arm top head turned sideways, which looked kind of spaceknight-ish. I ended up going with the most basic mechanical choices which I think make this little guy more fun to actually play around with. It has a solid feel in hand and holds together well in the pocket. Expect to see this configuration show up again in the not too distant future.


Developed by Traveler Ullexono to act as personal bodyguards for the clandestine Council of Travelers, the Phase Defenders have been outfitted with an experimental Advanced Integration Intelligence , giving them the ability to reconfigure at much greater speeds with heightened precision. They are capable of independent thought and have been described as superior to the Buildman Gendrone for combat purposes. 


Shoot over to our buddy Phil Reed's Battlegrip.com to check out some great illustrations of the Phase Defender and Syclodoc he whipped up over the past few days. Thanks Phil!

The Council Of Travelers -UPDATED INFO-

UPDATE: Due to some shipping delays that were confirmed just a bit ago, the release date is now planned for Wednesday, DECEMBER 12th, at 9:30 PM EST. So the drop is now on 12/12/12. I'm sorry for the date hopscotch, but shuffling things ensures that we have everything on hand before the sale, and I don't like taking chances with the increasing holiday shipment backup from overseas.  

Leading up to the new date we will be posting some special things that have never been made public before, from production color mechanical drawings (and DIY files), to completely forgotten sketches and pics of lost sculpts.  Kind of like the Twelve Days of Christmas, but Glyos style. 

I hope you guys are OK with the date change. We promise to make the extra time leading up to the release well worth it!



Sorry for the delay! Photographing these colors made my eyes cross -as per usual! The "Plum" color is especially challenging to nail consistently, mainly because old PMS 3375 is in the highlight role again. I figured we had to end the year with that hue somewhere in the mix! It just screams "sci-fi" to me. The Plum color has a special place in the internal history of Glyos, originally being the first color selection for a specific character back in the early days of production. Can you guess who it was? This combination was what inspired the Dimension Drifters Custom Corps, which was also influenced by the Sentinels from X-Men, those glorious mutant hunting bastards!

This round has a few "contained" builds that will be available straight from the store, fully assembled. The cost is simply the sum of all the components combined. We have received numerous requests to offer these types of builds in their complete form, so let's see how it goes! The Council Guard Phase Defender is made from parts that are only available in its particular build formation. Gendrone Legion Argen MK VII (a nice mouthful) in his Rig Killer form will be available in a complete form and also as the separate components. I look forward to seeing what you guys think.


 There will be purchasing limits on select items: 

-Armorvors (2 gold limit and 4 clear limit per customer) 

-Travelers (3 of each style per customer)  

-Syclodoc (2 limit per customer)

 With that being said, here's the list!



The Council Of Travelers


-Traveler Urballim Pheyden (Metallic Gold with Blue painted eyes) $8

-Traveler Mordireus Sarvos (Day-Glo Clear Magenta with White painted eyes -includes extra head) $8

-Traveler Neo Legion Pheyden (Metallic Light Blue with Gray detail lines and Red painted eyes-includes scarf) $8

-Traveler Ullexono Pheyden (Dark Purple/Plum with Gray detail lines and Aqua painted eyes-includes scarf and extra head) $8

-Traveler Naspoth Sarvos (Plum/Dark Purple with Gray detail lines and Aqua painted eyes -includes extra head) $8


-Extra Set Council Guard (Plum with Gray detail lines and Aqua painted eyes -Phanost head, Scar Pheyden head, Pheyden chest and Pheyden Pelvis) $4

-Extra Set Neo Legion (Metallic Light Blue with gray detail lines and Red painted eyes -Sarvos head, Phanost head, Scar Pheyden Head, Sarvos chest and Sarvos Pelvis) $5


-Crayboth Nuldireus (Day-Glo Clear Magenta with no paint) $4


-Phase Defender Council Guard (Plum with Gray detail lines and Aqua painted accents -Contained Build made from 2 complete Phase Arms with special all new Aqua painted accent, 2 complete Gobon Blasters, 2 complete Hub Sets with special Aqua painted accent and 2 complete Axis Joint Sets) $22



Gendrone Legion


-Neo Sincroid   Gendrone Legion (Metallic Light Blue with Gray detail lines, Red eyes and double white tampos -includes Glyan head) $8

-Buildman Argen MK VII  Gendrone Legion (Metallic Light Blue with Gray detail lines, Red eyes and double white tampos) $8 

-Phaseon  Gendrone Legion (Metallic Light Blue with Gray detail lines, Red eyes and double white tampos) $6

-Gobon  Gendrone Legion (Metallic Light Blue with Gray detail lines, Red eyes and double white tampos) $10

-Rig Killer Argen MK VII  Gendrone Legion (Metallic Light Blue with Gray detail lines, Red eyes and double white tampos -Contained Build made from 1 complete Buildman, 1 complete Phaseon and 2 complete Axis Joint Sets) $22

-Hub Set  Metallic Light Blue with Gray detail lines, special Red accent paint and double White tampos $5
NOTE-Each Hub Set is sold in a specific Drone configuration.

-Axis Joint Set  Metallic Light Blue with Gray detail lines $4

-Phase Arm/Gobon Blaster Single Set  Metallic Light Blue with Gray detail lines and all new Red painted accent $2



Armorvors 


-Armorvor Aurustell Elite (Gold Metallic/Black with Red visor accents and Black furry head) $8

-Armorvor  Stealth MK II (Clear Colorless/no paint) $8



Glyaxia Command



-Syclodoc Neutralizer  (Red/Maroon with Gray detail lines, Black accents, White tampo and mono eye -Armodoc body featuring an all new head sculpt, also includes a fully painted original Armodoc head as a bonus) $25 


Thanks for your patience while I got this pile together!

Syclodoc!

The Armodoc design has finally received a brand new head! This new sculpt is a tribute to the various cycloptic characters that we all grew up with, from the Zakus of Mobile Suit Gundam to Shockwave from the Transformers and especially those bad guy robots from the old Berzerk arcade game by Stern (and more than a little bit of Breakman from Megaman thrown in).

I sculpted the master during our recent trip to China, working on it in the hotel room at night and at the factory during the day. My favorite tools managed to make the trip, so that made the process feel much more natural, even though I wasn't in my normal zone. Thanks to Ron whipping up a quick dome buck before we left, I had a solid foundation to chop away at.

I imagine that this new Armodoc operates more like a machine than a free thinking being, created to do the bidding of some very controlling entities who don't like curious travelers...


 Specially developed for dark missions of questionable intent by Glyaxia Command, the Sycloriun Engineered Armodoc, or "Syclodoc", possesses nearly limitless destructive capabilities.

Through the use of stolen Sycloriun technology, this new breed of Armodoc has been specifically created to obey the direct orders of Glyaxia Command alone, not subject to the same core directives of previous models.

Moving to secure its dominion over all of Glyos, Glyaxia Command dispatches a lone Syclodoc to investigate a particularly strange gathering near the Edge of Space...


More pics later today as well as the list of stuff for this coming week! I've been editing like a maniac!

Metallic Approach

Above are a couple shots from the upcoming wave. The light blue metallic is close to the original Legion hue from back in the early days, but with a little extra kick. This particular color selection pays homage to a classic toy from my youth, that being Rom.

There are a decent number of colors in this release, ranging from a clear tint that seems to glow with neon intensity, to a color combination that has been long overdue (and a personal goal to finally hold in my hands).

New pics will appear over the next few days, leading up to the full figure list at some point during the weekend. The plan is still to release on November 30th at 9:30 PM EST.

We're getting excited to wrap up the year with this round!

Back On Track

Thank you to everybody who sent their good vibes our way after the storm. Compared to what NYC and Jersey went through (and are still going through), we were very, very lucky. After some serious clean up work (chainsaw assault) and multiple visits from the electric company, phone company, cable company, local electrician and the all purpose Chris Coxen, the daily activity has just about returned to normal.

The plan is still to release new stuff at the very end of this month (November). At the moment, it looks as though Friday, November 30th will be the day we go live, at the usual 9:30 PM EST. A new product list will be going up soon, just need to verify a couple last details with our team overseas before that happens. Hopefully this drop will round out 2012 in a fun way, at least in relation to little plastic aliens.

I've been drawing like a fiend for multiple projects, working at our dining room table so I can hang around with the kids at the same time. CC seems to be really getting into using markers, as well as telling little stories through her doodles. Michelle taught Cady how to operate the sewing machine, and now Cady has one of her own to use. I can't believe she is able to make her own plush creature from start to finish now. Looks like creative strangeness truly runs in the family around here.

Now that Sandy has come and gone, I keep thinking about the night that everything started falling down, right at the height of Sandy's wind attack. Michelle believes that I might have been warped a bit from seeing nature go on a rampage to such a wild level, and maybe she's right. That being said, I also feel like being in that storm made me even more aware of how lucky we all are.

Alright, enough of my pseudo philosophical crud. Back to the fun stuff!

Mercenary Alert

11.2.12.11.2.12.11.2.12.11.2.12...

A Visit From Sandy

Well, that was a mean storm. Power was restored from the street late last night (temporary until full repairs next week), so we are getting back to regular operations.

We lost four trees, with one of the biggest (and also one of my favorite) trees breaking in half and literally just grazing the front of our house (and wiping out the street power and some phone lines). The downed lines set off a pretty intense fireworks show. The craziest part was that I actually witnessed the big tree split, as I spent the entire length of the storm outside frantically repairing things and clearing downed limbs.

Before the major brunt of the storm, we got a little preview of Sandy's power, as our chicken barn took a hit that luckily didn't wreck too much when it came down, although the entire barn roof rests about a half inch lower (the door had to just about be torn open to get in). Man was that tree heavy to move. The chickens made it though!

Our old fence was also smashed by falling trees. It was while I was working on getting the fence back up that the big tree cracked apart, as I tacked parts together to hold through the winds.

Some other areas in town were also beaten up, but for our location I'm pretty sure we got the "Nature's Revenge" special treatment. We're feeling pretty lucky though, as that big tree could have really caused some major damage had it snapped only a few feet lower.

I'm catching up on emails today and shipping the rest of the orders from the last week out as well. The net connection is in and out, so we will be a little bit behind until we are 100% back to full power (which should be early next week).

We hope that everybody who was affected by Sandy is recovering at a steady pace, we're thinking of you guys.