EXTRA LIFE REVEALS!!!

This post will show all 12 figures from the Extra Life Series. I'll update it each day until they are all revealed.

My buddy @llexileon was learning game coding a couple years back, and he actually made a Space Invaders style game with my Squib artwork. That's pretty much why this label exists. It also ties into the Squib skateboard that @finessebrand made for me. 

This figure only exists due to a happy accident. It was originally one of the Ultra Rare figures in Series 2 as a silver P800 figure. For some reason, the factory included these gold labels with all the other Limited Edition labels. Andy Poon did the art work, and you can follow him on Instagram @andypoondesign.

Way back when I was doing Mini 10-Doh! Series 1, SpankyStokes suggested I contact @hydrosevenfour to do a label. I love his art and his work ethic. This is his 3rd Mini 10-Doh! label. One was a limited edition figure, and the other was in Series2. This label was an option for Series2, but I chose the Snow Owl instead. It's not exactly "family friendly", so you might want to display it up high.

I made these labels during the Loot Crate production run. I used to take a blank grey Mini 10-Doh! with me while traveling and take photos of them. New York City, Hong Kong, Death Valley, and New Zealand are some of the places I did this. I also made specific labels like this for NY, HK, and SD, but I'm not sure if those will ever be released.

I've known Jerome Lu almost a decade. We used to work at the same toy company and I was even his boss for a short period of time. We also used to share booths at conventions, and he had a figure in Mini 10-Doh! Series 1. We just never found a good time to release this figure, so the time is now. You can follow Jerome @jromonkey on Instagram and check out his work at www.hyperactivemonkey.com

I haven't made too many Glow in the Dark figures and haven't had a lot of lady designers do artwork for 10-Doh! figures. This one just so happens to checks both of those boxes. Cat Sze did the art for Hong Ly, the creator of Tofu Girls. You can keep up with them at https://www.facebook.com/tofugirls and @tofu_girls on Instagram.

This label was first seen as a Grey label in the DIY Mini 10-Doh! Series. I also posted an image of this Red guy years ago, along with a Black and a Blue version. Those probably will never be released though. Mini 10-Doh! figures can't hold a lot of things, but they can hold a business card. So, you can use this guy as a name plate and a single business card holder. Ha.

This figure really shouldn't exist. I had another gold figure all labeled up, because the factory printed a gold version on accident. Buuut, I jumped the gun, and the timing of this release didn't mesh with the artists timing for his own projects. Oops. So, Linda Panda (my wife) stepped up and cranked this beauty out at the last minute. This Series has had quite the journey. Ha. You can follow her @lindapanda on Instagram.

Spanky Stokes (@spankystokes) supports our little slice of the Toy Industry as much as anyone else out there, and has been a huge supporter of my stuff from the beginning. Alex Rivera (@playfulgorilla) did the illustration and we originally release this as a black figure at Dcon way back when. So, this label is truly getting a second chance.

This guy was originally an Ultra Rare gold figure in Mini 10-Doh! Series 2. It's based on the question mark block from classic Mario games and little bit of Brad Pitt from Se7en. Now he's a platinum mystery box, so pricey.

Way back in 2013 I did a Design-A-Label contest for Mini 10-Doh! Series 2. There were 70 entries by 49 artists. Crazy! There were tons of great entries and this one by Reno Msad (@renomsad on Instagram) was one of my favorites. I had it printed to be a Limited Edition figure, but once again, I could never find a good time to release it. It's great to have it be part of this Series. Maybe I'll have to see if there is something I can do with some of those other entries. Ha.

Obviously, a homage to Mario Boo characters, but Simpsons fans will appreciate his name a bit more.  This is a brand new figure designed specifically for this Series. He is replacing the mini version of my 10-Tris! figure. I forgot that the factory only sent me the back labels of 10-Tris!, so I had to come up with another replacement figure. I'd never done a transparent label and wasn't sure if it would look good. Luckily it did and now we have a transparent figure, instead of another grey figure.

So, there they are. 12 new figures that got a second chance in the Extra Life Series. Hopefully, people enjoyed seeing them revealed and appreciate the insight into the series creation. They'll debut at SDCC 2018 booth #5150. They are extremely limited compared to previous series, so get them while you can.

MINI 10-DOH! EXTRA LIFE SERIES

So this is the "kinda big announcement" I was talking about. It's a new series of Mini 10-Doh! figures. WOOHOO! It's not really Series 3, because it doesn't really follow the same formula that I used in Series 1&2. I don't plan on going back that formula, so maybe this is Series 3. Ha.

This is a very honest explanation of how this Series came to be. I'm not one for hype or spinning the story to sucker people into buying my stuff. This time around I'm folding all the boxes, applying all the labels, it's not easy being a one man assembly line. Ha! I hope you like the figures and appreciate the stories behind them.

Making toys is expensive, and it can take years to see a return on your investment. Especially, when the money that trickles in slowly, goes to paying monthly bills. I could have done another Kickstarter, but they take a lot of time & effort. I want my next Kickstarter to be for a new figure, not just a new Series. This Series was only possible because I had a bunch of extra blank figures and wide variety of extra labels. I just needed a way to tie them all together.

These figures were never intended to be in a Series. Most of these labels were printed during the production runs of Series 1&2. They were intended to be Limited Edition figures, but for various reasons, the labels sat in a drawer for years. 

You might be wondering what's different about this Series. There are 3 major changes in this Series.

PACKAGING SIZE

I decided to use the Limited Edition packaging proportions, but as a blind box. This reduces the amount of packaging required, which reduces cost and waste. Woohoo!

QUANTITY PER CASEPACK

Mini 10-Doh! Series 1, 2, and DIY all had 20 figures in each casepack. The Extra Life Series only has 12 different designs in total, compared to 16 in previous Series. This is partially due to the amount of labels I had to work with, but it also leads into the last change. 

RARITY

I eliminated the rarity scheme completely. If you buy a casepack of 12, you'll get the complete set. No commons, no uncommons, no rares, and no ultra (your never gonna complete your collection, unless you buy it on eBay) rares. There's only one of each figure in a casepack. 

This guy kinda had to be the 1st to be revealed, because I used the graphic for the packaging. On the right you get a hint at the figures that will be announced over the next 11 days.

Like I mentioned, this isn't Series 3, but it still needed a name. I wanted it to have a name that hinted at the reason it exists. This is essentially a second chance for these figures, and I felt that "Extra Life" fit pretty well. A couple of them you may have seen before in some form, but most of them have never been seen. One was a happy accident, and there are to 2 that were created specifically for this Series.

Another side effect of this being an unintentional series, is that almost half of the designs were done by me. Usually, I only have 1-3 designs out of 16, but I only had so many labels on hand. People will either love, hate, or not care about this. I just thought I'd explain why it is the way it is. 

SDCC 2018 10-FINITY EXCLUSIVE

These guys are ready for SDCC...pretty much. Ha. There are bound to be a ton more people out there that will recognize him after seeing Infinity War. Hopefully they sell well. 

I've been a fan of Thanos and Silver Surfer since back in the early 90's when the Infinity Guantlet was 1st introduced. I definitely don't buy every figure. I buy the ones I really like, and the ones I can afford. Ha.

The one on the left was a test print I did at home. I wasn't sure if I could get good metallic labels printed, but they turned out great.  

This is the final version. Applying the labels has been very difficult. Any imperfection on the surface or even a spec of dust can cause an ugly bubble. I've done my best to make them the best they can be.

 It's always great to have finished stacks of figures. I'm essentially a one man assembly line and doing anything 100 times takes a bit of time. Podcasts and music make it much more tolerable.

LONG TIME, NO BLOG

Apparently, life got busy. I got married, helped make another human, and recently had to deal with some minor health issues. Soooo, here's the 1st of several announcements that I'll be posting over the next couple of weeks.

 I can't believe it's been 7 years since these figures debuted. There were a couple minor issues that bugged me about the packaging, so I finally got around to fixing them.

 On the left is the new packaging and on the right is the old one. Like I mentioned, I was never completely happy with the packaging. It was a bit too small, so the hands and feet made it bulge out a bit. It opened from the sides which made it easier to bulge and deform, and it was glossy. Booourns.

So, this is a bit of a refresh for the Large 10-Doh! figures, which is long over due. The factory that produced these figures did a great job for the most part. Unfortunately, some labels were poorly applied, which was really annoying.

  The other issue was that they continually mismatched the hands and feet. This has been such a pain. It's not like they made more lefts than rights, they were just careless. I estimate the mismatch rate could be as high as 20%. It's also been expensive to send out a replacement hand or foot to the customers that got a duplicate part.

Now, I have stacks of these new pretty non-shiny boxes, and it will be a long so process to swap them out and fix all the mismatches. Fun times ahead. Woohoo!

Of course, I didn't have to put more money into an old product. Buuuut, I have to double check all the hands and feet anyway. I figured that updating the packaging would differentiate the figures that are good to sell, and it might help me sleep better at night. Ha.