Squid Kids Ink

SO ANALOG in GAME INFORMER

2011-12-08T17:30:00.000-08:00

a couple of weeks back Ben Reeves from Game Informer, contacted me about having the 10-Doh! figures being part of Game Informer's 2011 Holiday Buying Guide. of course i said yes, because it's a huge opportunity for tons of people to see my stuff. it's actually quite an honor for me to be selected. my stuff is on the same list as Optimus Prime. WOOHOO!!

once i finally got to look at a copy, i got the great surprise of seeing my figure represent the entire Holiday Buying Guide in the Table of Contents.Woohoo!!, again.

this is from the PDF of the spread that Ben sent me. it looks much better than if i would have scanned it in. unfortunately, there were some mistakes made. incorrect name, wrong website, and wrong price. not sure how or why, but things like that are bound to happen sometimes. people are still able to find me, so it's not so bad.

the same mistakes were made on the website, but they quickly fixed them once i let them know.

here's the link to check out the live website and see the other products they liked.
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/09/08/2011-holiday-buying-guide.aspx?PostPageIndex=2

they also did a video recap of some of their favorite items and we made the cut. someone even commented about liking the figures. woohoo!! here's a link to the video. they talk about our stuff starting right at 11:30, but that's only if you don't have time to watch the whole video.
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/11/06/holiday-buying-callouts.aspx

i've already seen a big increase in sales after being featured in the magazine. lots of people are giving them as gifts. it's very exciting and gratifying to know that people will be opening something i made on X-mas day.

10-Doh! TOPS GEEK CHIC DAILY LA HOLIDAY LIST

2011-11-26T00:06:00.001-08:00

while at D-Con Alexei Bochenek of Geek Chic Daily LA stopped by and introduced himself. a couple of weeks and emails later this was sent out to all of their subscribers. 10-Doh! managed to top this list. needless to say, i'm very happy about that.

you can check out the real post here:

http://bit.ly/vyTQlD

i sent him a couple of figures to give away as part of their contest. you may be able to still enter the contest here:

http://bit.ly/rKexlQ

Tokyo Pop was also kind enough to post up something about our Black Friday deal that just ended. #1 again, WOOHOO!!

seriously though, i really appreciate everyone at Geek Chic Daily LA and Tokyo Pop for posting all of this stuff. i'm terrible about marketing, advertising, and generally gettin the word out about my stuff.

BLACK GOLD FRIDAY SALE!!!

2011-11-20T18:18:00.001-08:00

this will be our first ever Black Friday Sale. the So Analog Gold 10-Doh! will be on sale for 35 bucks each instead of the usually 50 bucks.

these debuted at Comic Con 2010 in San Diego. the original plan was to only have them at conventions, but that had changed. ends up that i just don't do enough conventions. we only exhibit at 4-5 conventions a year and only in California. then i just happen to forget to bring that figure to D-Con this year. so, that makes an already limited figure, extremely hard to get for most people.

i know that some people may get upset that the figure is now available online to anyone, but if i don't move some figures, i can't make more figures.

the So Analog Gold 10-Doh! figures will be available in the same old location at midnight Thanksgiving.

http://squidkidsink.bigcartel.com/

remaining figures will continue to be available online at the regular price of 50 bucks after midnight on Black Friday.

D-CON 2011

2011-11-11T18:18:00.001-08:00

this was our 3rd year at D-Con and it just keeps gettin better. it's hard to tell from the photos, but people were lined up behind those columns.

we set up on friday and saturday morning. it's always takes longer than we think it should.

we only got to walk around before the show started, so we didn't get to see much other than empty booths. overall saturday was a pretty busy day.

here is Linda Hong at our booth puttin on a happy face.

these 2 beautiful men are Chito A-Word and The World Famous Tracy Tubera. Chito did the graphics for our KnockOut!! 10-Doh! and Tracy did the graphics for Super Double Ninja Battle Bros. they were there sellin some of their fancy drawlings.

we had some co-workers take at convention life. our friends at Mana Studios and Neil Winn were also showin and sellin stuff.

D-Con felt slightly more official in the new location this year. Ayleen and Ben did a great job making it easy to sign up, set up, and tear down. it's the easiest most casual show we do. i hope that never changes.

we didn't sell as much as we thought or hoped we would, but it was still a good show for us. 1 day just doesn't seem like enough time for D-Con. hopefully it continues to grow, so we can actually have some time to enjoy the show as well. i barely had time to take photos and look at anything, but 1 busy day is still better than 2 slow days.

DOKTOR A = AWESOME

2011-10-16T23:49:00.000-07:00

A-mazing

i met Dokor A after D-Con last year. our friends George and Ayleen from October Toys and Toybreak fame introduced us and we all went out for lunch one day. i happen to have some castings in my car because it was the day after D-Con, so i gave him a Squib Kid to customize.

i know this figure was done a while back and some people may have seen it already, but it's ridiculously good. i had to post it for more to see. he also said he was goin to do a Squib custom for a show next year. i can't wait to see what he comes up with next. you can check out more of his creations at http://spookypop.com/

MONSTOBERFEST 2011 OPENING NIGHT!!

2011-10-11T21:30:00.000-07:00

the turnout for Monstoberfest was pretty good. they had Dr. Sketchy's "undead" zombie drawing goin on out front.

Chito had 2 illustrations in the show see his stuff at www.kwestone.blogspot.com. Andrew Bell had a pretty awesome zombie candy corn.

unfortunately, these 3 didn't have great placement, so it was tough to get good photos. check out there stuff at www.lindapanda.blogspot, www.vivdesigns.blogspot.com, www.gohyperactivemonkeygo.blogspot.com.

Mana Studios had these and other on display. you can see more of their work at www.manastudios.biz

the paintings on the left are done by Neil Winn, see more at www.neilwinn.com. the painting on the right was done by Paul Wilson.

they had my stuff on display out in the middle and behind the counter. seemed like good placement to me.

this was only year 2 for Monstoberfest and overall i think it was a really strong show. there was a wide range of art. tons of creepy stuff, some cute stuff, traditional and digital painting and a decent amount of sculpture. i know we sold some figures, but i don't know how many yet. i think most people are still on tight budgets, but i know some of the art sold. hopefully each year continues to get better.

SQUID KIDS INK at MONSTOBERFEST 2011

2011-10-03T23:20:00.000-07:00

it's that time again.....??? Halloween time, which means Monstoberfest time. our friend Irene is curating the show again this year, so we'd never say no. Linda, Chito, and Jerome are all entering art pieces as well our friend Vivian Nguyen and some other folks we know.

this project was planned a while ago, but i always planned on debuting it at Monstoberfest. here are a couple of rough sketches

So Analog is all about remembering long dead technology that a lot of us grew up with. Linda Hong threw out the idea of Night of the Living Dead while i was in Hong Kong, so i ran with it. here's a comparison image of the original NOTLD poster and my refined sketch.

for Monstoberfest i did a small run of 10 prints at 11x17. each is signed and numbered and will go for 30 bucks each. #1 will be framed and goes for 50 bucks.

i'll also be debuting my NOTLD Technology 10-Doh! figure that night for 35 bucks each and is limited to 100 pieces. or you could grab a print and figure for 60 bucks. that's an amazing 5 dollar discount.

the show opens at 7 and we'll be there for a bit. it's a tiny little gallery in Orange County, but i've seen some of the art already and there is a wide range from super creepy to super cute. stop by if you can.

SQUIBS INVADE LONG BEACH AQUARIUM

2011-09-17T22:00:00.000-07:00

off to see some fishes at the Long Beach Aquarium. woohoo.

you can't miss the guy, or maybe girl.

they have all kinds of creatures to see. this photo doesn't show how huge that clam really is.

these were by far the largest crabs i've ever seen. the just seem like giant bugs to me. not too appetizing

more fishes

i always like seeing Jellyfish and other similar creatures. we were actually allowed to touch some Jellyfish. not these ones of course.

i didn't get any decent photos of the Sea Horses, but the Sea Dragons turned out ok. and we didn't get to pet that Jellyfish either.

the shark feeding time was fun to watch. it was a bit crowded, but it didn't take too long to get a good view.


Baby Kermy wanted a photo with my Squib. couldn't refuse that photo op. afterwards, Chito took us to his local comic shop, Amazing Comics. it's a very good shop. lots of toys at decent prices. i even got my Silver Surfer TPB for less than cover price.

the Long Beach Aquarium was pretty crowded when we were there on a Thursday. it seemed a bit expensive, but i figure it take a lot of clams to feed all of those fishes, ha (lame). we only spent around 2 hours there, but i'm sure you could spend a lot more time and watch some of the movies.

they have a lot of areas to touch a lot of sea life and other things to do. i can't believe it took me over 10 years to finally take a visit.

10-DOH! DEBUT AT GALLERY 1988 ON 9-16-2011

2011-09-13T23:22:00.000-07:00


above are some low res images i snagged form the gallery website, but you can read the important parts. Gallery 1988 Venice, Sept 16th - Oct 8th.

for the first and last time this little beauty "Skel-10-Doh!" by KwestOne will be for sale. he never wanted to sell it before, but he's now willing to part with it for a price.

also available for the last time "Star Smasher" by Mana Studios. this stands just over 13" tall. maybe i can convince Jay to let me keep it, if someone doesn't snag it at the gallery.

for all of those people out there that can't spend a paycheck on some 1 of a kind art, this pretty little number will be available for the 1st time ever. Andrew Wilson was kind enough to do another label to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of everyone's favorite golden game. titled "It's Dangerous to Go Alone", this is the 2nd 10-Doh! gold figure and is limited to 100 pieces.

here's the front label

here's the back label


also, each "Dangerous" gold figure also comes with 5x7 mini print by Andrew Wilson.

i'm not a huge fan of art openings, but i'm sure i'll be stopping by the gallery to take some photos and see the other artwork. it's only a few days away, so spread the word if you can. if the gold figures don't sell out, i'll put them up for sale on the website after Oct 8th. that way some non-LA people can get their hands on one.

SQUIBS INVADE PALM SPRINGS

2011-09-13T21:34:00.000-07:00

this was our first trip out to Palm Springs and the sole purpose was to ride on the tram.

the tram on the left is the old version and on right is the new fancy version. the new ones can fit 80 people, only takes 10 minutes, and rotates 360 degrees twice each way.

up top it was around 30 degrees cooler and a completely different environment.

this is a fake panoramic shot from up top.

the station at the top had lots of viewing areas and places to sit and relax.

this little buddy was brave. he was hopin we'd share our Trader Joe's lunch. he was brave, but unlucky.

see if you can spot the Squib.


we spent around 4-5 hours hiking around, eating lunch, and looking around the visitor center. we got a little lost, but not bad. after all of that, it was time to return to the heat. blah.

it costs around 25 bucks per adult to ride the tram. that seems expensive, but we spent a lot of time up there and had a great time. i'd recommend it to anyone that wants to get away from LA for a day.

10-DOH! PACKAGING DEVELOPMENT

2011-08-06T20:19:00.000-07:00

so, i'm not a packaging designer, but i did it anyway. here are some images showing the development for the 10-Doh! packaging.

this was the first pass. i thought i'd use the pixel art from the So Analog label, but that presented several problems. this would have been a blind box with the figure version being marked on the back. not ideal or effected. it also makes the packaging too specific to the So Analog labeled figure and not a general 10-Doh! package.

i decided to make it a window box. which is more expensive, but allowed me to show the label graphics of each figure. i had planned to still use the pixel art for the graphics. it wasn't until the last minute that i came up with the idea to make the box look like a cartridge in a slipcase. seems like a no-brainer, but i got lucky. these are some of the sketches that solidified the idea.

this is the final graphic layout for the packaging. like everything, there are things i would change, but there just wasn't enough time. maybe down the road a bit.

one of the best things about the packaging is that they look like a stack of old games. of course the figures look way better out of the package, so please open them and enjoy.

here are the final front and back views. i really tried to keep the packaging simple and compact. the hands and feet are stored in the bottom and support the body, so it shows through the window.

i'm still pretty amazed that this whole concept worked out as well as it did. i didn't really show off the packaging at all before SDCC, but everyone that has seen it, seems to like it.

INTRODUCING SQUID KIDS INK's O.C.P. (OBSESSIVE COLLECTOR PROGRAM)

2011-08-04T21:28:00.000-07:00

there is nothing i hate more than not being able to complete a collection. i'm sure there are things i hate more, but when it comes to collecting toys, an incomplete collection is just painful for me.

i wanted to make sure that the people like me, would be able to get a complete set of these figures if they really wanted to.

so, i smashed my self diagnosed toy collecting O.C.D. (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) with my love of Robocop, to come up with Squid Kids Ink's O.C.P. (Obsessive Collector Program)

this is the only way you are guaranteed to get all 9 figures that debuted at SDCC 2011. this even includes the Convention Exclusive So Analog GOLD figure and all 8 mini prints.

i also wanted to give a price break for the O.C.P. members. so, at a convention you can get them all for $300 even, or order them online for $315. the extra $15 is to cover shipping, because i can't set up separate shipping prices on the web store.

SQUID KIDS INK at SDCC 2011

2011-08-02T23:05:00.000-07:00

so, here's a quick wrap up of our experience of exhibiting at SDCC for the first time.

we decided to take 2 cars fully loaded. the top image is us parked at Mana Studios in Orange County picking up some last minute casting. the bottom image is us unloading everything on to pallets behind the SD convention center.

SD is a great city for Comic Con. the weather was very nice this year. not very hot at all, but then again, i was stuck inside behind the booth all day everyday.

setup went pretty well. my little brother Dylan wasn't allowed inside while all of the fork lifts were running around. so, he got to watch X-men First Class. not a bad deal for him.

the setup of the rest of the convention was pretty amazing to see. tons of time and effort goes into the ridiculous spectacle the SDCC has become.

here's a quick little photo of almost finished booth and a nice shot of George lookin like a deer caught in some headlights. good times.

even though each day was completely draining, we managed to catch a late showing of Captain America. it was one of the best movies of the summer for me.

i'm thankful that i didn't get the Mattel Back to the Future exclusive. it was pretty lack luster and over priced. and look, another remake that doesn't need to happen. woo...hoo?

so, it was a slow start for us at the show. our 10-Doh! figures were stuck in customs for at least 11 days. i had to drive back up to LA on Thursday. luckily Chito decided to take the journey with me. it was a huge relief to see them at the DKE warehouse. we loaded up some as quick as possible and got back to SD around 9pm. we only had to miss half of the show that day, not too bad.

this is Troy Perkins. he bought a blank white 10-Doh! and asked me to draw Moon Knight on it. i'm a Moon Knight fan, but i don't draw Moon Knight. Troy was able to find the current Moon Knight artist and he did an amazing job on it.

Pirates 4 was one of the worst movies of the summer for me, but i couldn't resist takin a photo of him holding a Squib.

SDCC seems to be 90% lines. we tried to save money by takin the shuttle to and from the hotel. after a really long day, the shuttle line seemed to take forever.

i have really low expectations for Rock'em Sock'em Steel and Ghost Rider2, but i'll probably still see both.

more stuff...

i barely saw any costumes this convention. it really is more of a mainstream crowd than the smaller shows we do. Hasbro was givin out Prime truck hats and the guy above actually transformed it into his robot form, pretty awesome. and the Dragon Rascal was pretty sweet.

i used to love the Smurfs, but there is no way i'm paying to see the new movie.

here's a pretty awesome sword competition happening. and Adventure Time was all over the place, maybe a bit too much, maybe not.

move is always a big question mark at a new show. this one was a mess. gettin everything loaded up wasn't that bad, but we ended up waiting at least 3 hrs for them to deliver the pallets to our cars. ended up being a very very long day and late night. we'll do it different next year.

so, our very 1st SDCC booth went pretty well. we had ridiculously high hopes goin in. it's hard not to get caught up in all the hype and BS that SDCC has become. after a day or 2 we reassessed our expectations and met our more realistic revised goals. it was our best show so far and we'll definitely do it again.

it wouldn't hurt my feelings at all, if the show shrank a bit. get rid of a ton of the huge movie, TV, and video game dog and pony shows. it's difficult to compete with multi-billion corporations gushing out free stuff to everyone. but i guess plenty of people get excited for all that jazz. and i have to admit i'm one of those people. Dylan was able to get me a Sword of Omens and a deck of Young Justice playing cards. i also spent a ton of money on Hasbro and Mattel figures. i have a really bad habit/addiction/obsession.

it was great to get to meet a lot of new people and see their reactions to our products. it's by far the most rewarding part of doing any convention. each show just keeps getting better.

SDCC EXCLUSIVE SUPER POWER PRINT PACK

2011-07-17T09:02:00.000-07:00

so, even way back when i started this project, i wanted to showcase the artwork as much as possible. the prints were supposed to be limited to the 1st 100 figures in each style, but i wanted to make some available to the people that can't afford a bunch of figures.

these are the 6 prints that come in our SDCC Exclusive Super Power Print Pack. it includes So Analog, Hyperactive Monkey Kong, Super Nightmare Princess III, So Analog GOLD, KnockOut!, and Super Double Ninja Battle Bros. i only made 50 print packs and they'll only set you back 10 bucks for the whole set. so, make sure to get them before they're all gone.

this is the header card for the print pack.

this print pack doesn't include the prints for Smash the State or Double Kraken. those 2 figures are limited to 100 each and you can only get the prints with those figures.

special thanks to the artists for putting even more time and effort into doing extra artwork for the prints.

NEW BUSINESS CARDS

2011-07-14T23:30:00.000-07:00

here are some of my new business cards. i kinda went overboard with the varieties, but i still printed them all.

this is the first one i finished and printed. then i realized it looked like a card for a musician. i also don't have many B-Side figures available, so i felt like i should additional business cards.

the label areas worked great for my info on the B-Side card. the A-Drive label still worked ok.

this card is based on our current postcard that we started handing out at AX 2011. it was even more difficult to get normal business card info on there, but it worked out well enough.

so none of the cards above had anything to do with Squibs. which up until now was our mostly widely known brand. so, i decided i should make a business card that had both Squibs and So Analog represented.

i scanned in these 2 sketches from our last Wonder Con banner. Jerome and i sketch something on each one of the name banners that the conventions provide. we then hang them up on the front of our tables.

i designed this one to look like it came from my sketchbook and put the list of products we make. it also has spot UV on all of the ink to give it extra contrast.

apparently, i like spending lots of money on things i just give away. then again, i don't hand them out to everyone. they mainly go out to people that are interested in doing business together. i also give them out to people that buy DIY figures. so, if you buy a A-Drive, you get an A-Drive card. Buy a Squib or a Squib Kid and you'll get the sketchbook card, and so on.

OUR 1ST SO ANALOG SHIRT WOOHOO!!

2011-07-13T23:42:00.001-07:00

so, i've been sketching these So Analog tombstones for a while and i finally had time to turn some of them into a new Tshirt

these were the first rough sketches in my note book. i always ended up drawing a bunch of boxy graves and that never worked well. i actually had to plan it out a bit better, because all of the shapes couldn't just be boxes.

i ended up just redrawing all of the graves separately. then i retraced everything in Illustrator. it seemed to take forever.

i rescaled and rearranged all of the sketches into a decent composition, but like everything, it continued to evolve while i was coloring everything.

it took a long time to get this shirt down to a 3 color shirt. i haven't done many Tshirts and this was my 1st 3 color shirt. i added in some logos and icons so the tombstones weren't toooo plain.

this is how they ended up. they'll be available for the first time at SDCC 2011 next week, and as always, they'll only be 15 bucks.

we used Jakprints for these shirts, and we should have most sizes from XS all the way to XXXL. unfortunately, it wasn't the best experience. they weren't able to get certain sizes in every color. that happened twice and it also took at least 3 weeks to get them in. we've already moved on to a local shirt vendor.

EXCLUSIVE GEEK OUT!!!

2011-07-13T23:14:00.000-07:00

so, i've been buyin SDCC exclusives since i first went to SDCC back in 2003. that's not gonna change anytime soon. but what did change is that i actually have my very own SDCC 2011 exclusive this year. woohoo!!

it just really sunk in once i saw this on the SDCC website. it's not like it's front page news for them. you have to click on exclusives, then click on "Squid Kids Ink", but damn it's cool for me to see it on this site.

so, here he is again.

i've had customs and other products that i've helped with, on display at SDCC before. but this i did from start to finish and all self funded. there was a pretty steep learning curve, so hopefully the next project goes a bit smoother.

i also want to thank Spanky from http://www.spankystokes.com/ and Andy from http://toysrevil.blogspot.com/ for also helping get the word out for my new stuff.

SQUID KIDS INK on DODGE THIS!.. WOOHOO!!

2011-07-11T19:13:00.000-07:00

so, early last month i was asked if i would be interested in doing an interview on Dodge This! for The Game Station. i'm not a fan of doin interviews, but i gotta get better at gettin the word out there. the interview was over in a flash, but now i can relive it over, and over, and over, and over again. woohoo?????

special thanks to Jerome and Will Lu for settin it up for me. you can click on the link below to watch me in my awkward mumbly glory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA_MTgQlBck

and for those 15 people (and i'm sure there will be more) that didn't like the interview.....suckit.

SO ANALOG PREMIER at COMIC CON 2011

2011-07-07T00:38:00.000-07:00

so, it's been a challenge, but my very first really real "Designer Toy" is about to debut. this is an image of the 1st 8 figures that will be available at San Diego Comic Con 2011.

these bad boys stand 7" tall. the bodies are made of ABS while the hands and feet are made of PVC. the blank white figures are gonna go for the low low price of 3o bucks.

SO ANALOG "the game"
i guess this guy would be considered our mascot/main figure. all of the figures with artist labels will be sold for 35 bucks. the 1st 100 of each style will also include a bonus 5x7 mini print. these prints aren't exclusive to SDCC, and 6 of the prints will also be available in a print pack for 10 bucks. i'll post more on that soon.

SUPER NIGHTMARE PRINCESS III
i've been a big fan of Andrew Wilson's artwork for years now. he was kind enough to do a custom figure for our D-Con 2010 10-Doh! custom show. after that went well i bugged him to see if he would be interested in doing a label for me. aaaand...he was.

KNOCKOUT!!
this lovely lady label was done by Kwestone a.k.a. Chito A-word.

HYPERACTIVE MONKEY KONG!!
we've been sharing convention booths with Jerome Lu for 2 years now. so, i had plenty of time to convince him to help me out.

SUPER DOUBLE NINJA BATTLE BROS.
the world famous Tracy Tubera was kind enough to take the time to relive and mash up some childhood memories.

DOUBLE KRAKEN
i've been friends with Andy Poon since 2006 when he worked on the Storm Hawks show and i worked on the Storm Hawk toys.

SMASH THE STATE!
i contacted several artists that i admire, Kozik was one of the few that replied and agreed to do a label. ended up that he was the only one that would actually deliver.

SO ANALOG GOLD
who looks like a million buck? this guy does. and he would cost that, if he were actually made out of solid gold. thankfully, he's affordable at the amazingly reasonable price of 50 bucks. this version is our "convention exclusive", so he won't be available online or in stores. we only made 300. if we don't sell out of them at SDCC 2011 we will have them available at other conventions like D-Con, Wonder Con, and Anime Expo.

this is pretty much a dream come true. i was able to do this as a self designed and self funded project. it was a huge risk on my part, but hopefully that pays off. the whole shipment is still on the water, but should be arriving soon. i got my fingers crossed that they arrive and clear customs in time for SDCC. of course the big question is "will people buy them?" i can only hope, because i have a lot more planned for this year and next year.

of course i didn't do it all alone. thanks to all of the artists. they really came through with great artwork. Jay and the Mana Studios gang kept the resin flowin long enough to get the production figures finished. Frankie and his guys at CDP in China did a great job with the engineering of the figures. my good friend Cavour dealt with all of my nervous and nagging emails. he also introduced me to Emily at Concept Garden, who found a factory willing to do the project. Wilson for taking the time to accompany me to the factory for a visit. Terence from the factory for gettin it all do in a very short period of time. special thanks to Linda, Jerome, and Chito for workin a long sweatshop style day to prep and crank out all of the label art. also, Anthony Nex for take photos for me, again. and of course, as super special thanks to my Linda Hong. she has been understanding and amazingly supportive of my goals and dreams. i only hope that i'll be able to do the same for her someday.

SQUID KIDS INK at AX 2011

2011-07-05T20:52:00.000-07:00

this was our 3rd time having a booth at Anime Expo. we had our 1st ever booth at AX 2009. we've come a long way in 2 years. of course, we still have a long way to go.

move in was a breeze this time. we didn't have to carry anything at all. definitely our quickest move in yet. that giant 10-Doh! was our big addition for this show.

the convention had a pretty good turnout. saturday was pretty hectic.

we spend 97% of our time behind the booth, so it's tough to see all of the costumes running around. it's even more difficult to get good photos.

here's Jerome devaluing some of his artwork. unfortunately, that line wasn't for him. the blue mats were a life saver, or at least foot savers.

one of the best parts of AX is the crowd. there is always something to look at, even while sitting behind a booth the whole time.

a fan's husband had a balloon booth in artist alley, she stopped by and gave us this squid balloon animal. i tried to stop by and say hello, but he was super busy when walked by. we saw some amazing balloon creations like Gir, Darth Vader, and Charizard. now he's sittin on my desk at work.

i've never been a huge Gundam fan, but i like this version. one day i hope to actually watch Full Metal Alchemist. and we finally got a slightly new setup with more levels and display cases.

unfortunately, the whole show wasn't great. some cheapskate chump decided to snag one of our blank 10-Doh! figures. funny thing is that they left the right foot. apparently, they had no morals and they're stupid. my new sign got a few laughs and eased the pain a bit.

the 4 day show flew by. over all it was a great show for us. we had tons of repeat customers and lots of new ones as well. move out was a bit chaotic and the people weren't nearly as friendly as they were during move in.

special thanks goes out to all of our fans and supporters. we weren't planning on doing the show next year due to the fact that it's so close to SDCC. as long as the AX fans keep supporting us, we'll keep showing up.

so, as we were entering the convention center on the last day of the show, i realized i had lost my little grey Squib. i retraced my steps back to the car with no luck. so, it was a long day, hoping that he was safe at home.

as we pulled up to our apartment, i saw my little buddy sittin on the back steps. i had to jump out of the car and get him, while Linda parked the car.

this little guy has been all over the world with me, along with my other 2 little buddies. they are the prototypes for our plush figures. so, that means they are high dollar and not replaceable. i'm amazed that no one left our apartment building the whole day. or, they didn't want to disturb his nap, and i'm very thankful for that.

WHO NEEDS A HUG????.......of death!!!

2011-06-25T23:41:00.000-07:00

so, this sketch was intended to be a Devil Squib that i plan on using as a badge or icon in the storybook i'm developing. but at this point in time, Squibs aren't well known by the masses of people out there. so, removed the horns, wings, and tail cuz i didn't want to confuse all the new folks out there.

shirts aren't cheap to make, so i try to make the most out of the screens. this time i did 3 versions rather than 2.

the black one

the grey one

the white one

this graphic is for the internal tag. i haven't seen a sample yet, so hopefully it isn't too complicated.

these will be available for the first time at Anime Expo 2011 at the LA Convention Center. they'll still be the same low low price of 15 bucks. we learned a lot from our first time ordering shirts, so this time we ordered all sizes. everything from XS to XXXL. i'll put them up for sale on the website after Anime Expo, for the people that can't make it to the show.

i sure hope people like the new design, if not, i'll have plenty of new shirts to wear for a while. ha.

SKI at ANIME EXPO 2011 BOOTH #844

2011-06-14T18:15:00.000-07:00

LA Convention Center July 1st - 4th
so, this will be our 3rd Anime Expo. i guess that means we've officially been exhibiting for 2 full years. Anime Expo was our first show and it usually goes pretty well for us.

once again, we'll be sharing a booth with Hyperactive Monkey. still gotta keep those costs down. we'll have all of our Squib stuff as well as some So Analog stuff. This will be the last show that we have our 10-Doh! resin available. i have a very small amount left, so if you're in to limited edition resin figures, you might want to swing by.

SQUIBS INVADE E3 2011

2011-06-09T18:11:00.000-07:00

you should never invade a place on an empty stomach. sooo, we had to eat before running around E3 for a couple of hours. our Hyperactive Monkey pals stumbled across this place last year while we were exhibiting at Anime Expo last year. we go there for the Pupusas, but i call them Poopas, cuz it's more fun to say.

let the advertising/marketing begin. it was a non-stop barrage of lights and sounds with a side of free stuff.

at this booth you had to earn your prize. 4 out of 5 shots had to hit a single duck with a Nerf Maverick. my years of shooting co-workers in the face has finally paid off. well, paid off more than the instant gratification of their wincing faces. ha. unfortunately, the mini devil duck prize was lame.

i'm a huge Gears Geek, so i had to take a photo. gonna murder me some Locusts come September.

i'm not a huge Sonic fan, but he loves Squibs. a free Klondike Bar was a good reason for us stop and take a break.

i'll have that shield someday, but the suit is unlikely.

i can't wait to play Arkham City, and by that i mean, i couldn't stand waiting in line at E3 to play Arkham City. we wasted at least 40 minutes in the shortest line ever. we later found out they had been letting the fat cats in through another entrance.

just some cute stuff i saw, except Rachet, he's not so cute.

in the battle between Squib Vs. Dragon........... Squib won.

some of the cool things on display.

E3 always has a lot of booth babes and cos-play characters. here are just a few of the characters we saw.

looks like Indian Jones was havin a garage sale. his self respect wasn't for sale though, he lost that while filming Crystal Skull. abomination.

another year, another E3. this show was ok. the crowd wasn't too friendly though. too long of lines, not enough game stations to play at, too many self important big wigs in suits and other grumpy/pushy people.

if you're not in "the industry" and can't get in, don't worry, you aren't missing much. the interweb and G4 have great coverage. you always see more that way anyway.

SQUID KIDS INK on TOY BREAK 170.. WOOHOO!!

2011-06-08T00:34:00.000-07:00

so it finally happened. we first met George and Ayleen way back in 2009 at Anime Expo. it was our very first time having a booth at a large convention and they happened to swing by our booth. we've since seen them at several cons, become regulars at D-con every November, and we meet up for dinner every once in a while.

they invited us on the show way back when, but scheduling conflicts and the fear of soul stealing cameras delayed our appearance.

sooooo, we finally made the time to be on the show. i mustered up enough courage to get in front of a video camera for more than 10 secs and we finally got to enjoy some Blind Box Time.

check out episode 170 to see a sneak peek at what we'll have at booth 5137 at SDCC 2011.
http://www.toybreak.com/episodes/170/index.php

i stole the photo from their facebook page and i don't think the link here will work. i'm not too interweb savvy.

SQUIBS INVADE BOT CON 2011.....barely

2011-06-06T00:17:00.000-07:00

Bot Con was at the Pasadena Convention Center this year. the entrance was pretty lack luster, but they did have the giant Optimus Prime inside. so, if you didn't see it at SDCC 2010 last year you had a second chance at Bot Con 2011.

apparently KRE-O (Lego Transformers) is on sale now. i really just want the mini figures. luckily they were give out free Optimus Prime figures. best part of the Con for me.

some pretty cool Bot costumes, Starscream was over the top, but not necessarily in a good way.

i've never wanted a mini van until now.

why is that chef so happy? cuz Chito and him are now really good friends.

Squibs don't grow on trees, especially after Chito has been in the area.

we swung by Rocket Fizz as well. it's a giant candy store with tons of soda varieties. healthy?.... no. but who cares, you don't have eat and drink it all at once.

so, that was our Bot Con 2011 experience. it was a small show with really expensive exclusives, minimal variety, and a $20 entrance fee per day. i may love transformers, but i probably won't go back every year. i do love the snacks in Pasadena though.

SQUIBS WELCOME KAEDIN!!!!

2011-06-05T23:49:00.000-07:00

Kaedin Nathaniel Mitchell was born at 4:13 am on 4-8-2011. we took a quick trip out to Colorado to visit my first nephew in early May.

these little buddies couldn't resist this new little buddy.

here's the happy dad (my brother). of course everyone took turns holdin Kaedin. even Gramps (my dad) showed up. sorry, no photos of mom on my Iphone.

he's definitely our youngest fan.

COMIC CON 2011 UPDATE

2011-05-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

so, there was a mix up with our Comic Con booth for this year. we were supposed to have a corner booth in the Toy Growers Courtyard, but unfortunately that won't be happening. we'll be close to that area, but not quite in that area. we could have had a standard booth in there, but we felt we really needed a corner booth.

our new booth number is 5137. it's close to Artist's Alley and close to the dreaded Tshirt Tower of Terror that dwarfs everything that falls within its shadow. we shouldn't be too hard to find, so please stop by and see us.

10-Doh! CALL FOR ARTISTS "RESULTS"

2011-04-05T15:43:00.000-07:00

the deadline came and went and here are the results. the artists only had 1 month to turn in their artwork, so i'm very happy with the turnout. we 17 entries and only 1 winner. even some artists from around the world took the time to participate. so, here are the entries in no particular order, except the last one.

Allison Revilla

Ashley Hay

Luis Alonso Arias Escobar

Bryan Bramley "Shez"

Aug

Abell Octovan

Dennis Coyle III

Chris Dobson [alto]

Catarina Carvalho

Alaina Ashley Cooper aka "alaina likes drawing"

Alaina Ashley Cooper aka "alaina likes drawing"

and the winner is......

Tom Katari Design & Illustration

and there you have it. Super Gaffiti Kid will be turned into a really real 10-Doh! figure later this year. i wanted thank all of the artists that took the time to participate in our little contest. hopefully, we'll be making plenty more 10-Doh! figures for many years, so i'd like to do another contest down the road. we should have some figures for sale at SDCC this year, so keep checking back for more updates.

WONDERCON 2011

2011-04-05T13:01:00.001-07:00

it was our second year exhibiting at Wonder Con and setup took us a while. we arrived at 1 and move in went smoothly. but, we didn't get out of there until 7. i think we were just tired and we were movin really slow.

tons of people showed up all 3 days. friday was the slowest day, saturday was crazy busy, and sunday was short but steady.

we had our standard booth again, and had our new So Analog resin figures for sale. we also brought some of the customs from our Dcon custom show.

i love me some Captain America, i sure hope the movie is good. i tried the new game and it seemed decent. the other image of the Tshirt tower of terror. our booth was suck behind this monster. it made the show feel claustrophobic for us. we still got plenty of traffic, but that doesn't mean i didn't want to burn that ugly mess down.

we didn't get to see all of the costumes out there. they always get stuck up front taking photos for hours. these were some of my favorites. you gotta love Ax Cop, Adventure Time, and Bat Wolfman was pretty funny.

this M.O.D.O.K. was awesome. Galactus was pretty good too.

we always eat good up in SF. our friend Daisy made us fancy individual bread puddings with fakin bacon. we actually had ice cream for dinner one night. then we always end our trip with breakfast at the Millbrae Pancake house before we head home.

no convention blog update would be complete without some sleepy time photos. it's hard to see Jerome cuz of the glare, but he was snoozin away in there.

overall, Wonder Con was a great show. sales weren't quite as good as last year, but still ok. we had lots of repeat buyers which was encouraging, and hopefully we made some new fans. we plan on being back next year and hopefully in a better location away from the Tshirt tower.

10-DOH! CALL FOR ARTISTS

2011-02-28T19:18:00.000-08:00

This is an open call to all artists. Squid Kids Ink is looking for some creative and clever labels for their new line of 10-Doh! figures. The selected submissions will become part of the 2011-2012 line of So Analog figures. All selected designs will be on display in the Squid Kids Ink booth at San Diego Comic Con 2011. The rules are down below, and the deadline is March 31st so get crackin.

download templates here
http://squidkidsink.com/soanalog10doh_template.zip

Rules-
-Open to the whole wide world.
-Multiple entries are welcome.
-Subject matter should be somewhat family friendly.
-All submissions must be original artwork. No copyrighted characters or artwork will be accepted.
-Both front and back labels must be submitted at the same time and both are required to be chosen.
-Files must be submitted by email on one of the templates provided at 300DPI in PSD, JPEG, or AI file format. Make sure they are CMYK for color correctness.

All entries grant Squid Kids Ink the right to reprint the artwork in future SKI books. All selected art will become sole property of SKI to be used on an actual 10-Doh! figure and a mini art print that may be included with the figure. No artwork will be reprinted to be sold as a stand alone item.

Artists whose artwork is selected will be notified by email no later than April 7th. They will also receive 5 production pieces of their design.

Please send all submissions or questions to nate.squidkidsink@gmail.com. Make sure to put "10-Doh! Call For Artists" as the subject of the email.

SO ANALOG IN GERMANY????

2011-02-08T23:25:00.001-08:00

sooooo, way back when i first posted the So Analog custom show announcement on SpankyStokes.com, a lot of websites picked up on it and re-posted the images all over the place. it was pretty exciting to see the great reception of the figures were getting.

i was contacted by GEE magazine from Germany. they asked if it was cool to print some photos in an issue of their magazine, and of course i said yes. i'd never heard of the magazine, but then again, i haven't been to Germany, yet.

they were kind enough to send me a copy of the magazine and that arrived this week. below is the translation that my magical iPhone did for me and makes sense, mostly.

Audio cassettes, NES modules and disks are yesterday's technology? Not for Nate Mitchell. In his "So Analog" figure includes the collection of the artist let Datentragern inspiration from the past. These heroes of our childhood, say modern silver discs in the fight - dusty and forgotten is different.

i'm currently working on doing a small production run of the 10-Doh! figure. i'll post a real update once plans are finalized.

WAY BACK WHEN

2010-12-20T12:55:00.000-08:00

i started sculpting when i was 19 or so. and it's been at least 10 years since these images were published. i used to send images of my sculpts into all the toy magazines. some magazines had contests and others were just to showcase fan work.

i think this is the first magazine that published one of my sculpts. the sculpt was based on a friend of mine that wanted to be a pro wrestler. it was sculpted out of the original white Sculpey in Kemmerer WY. this guy fell in the oven and smashed his face. i did my best to repair the damage, because i already learned the lesson of not finishing things. apparently i hadn't learned how to keep a figure stable while cooking.

so, i have a terrible memory and i can't remember which order i sculpted these figures in. most of the photos were taken all at once. Darkness was sculpted while i was living in Tempe AZ. the only reference i had was the movie, so i just had it play constantly while i was sculpting.

i sent the same photos to several magazines, so there are a lot of repeats. i lived in Moab UT for about 3 months, so that's why it says i'm from Moab. all sculpts were done in AZ and WY.

i was a big Predator fan for a long time. i based this off the cover of Predator: Big Game issue #1. of course it doesn't look anything like that. this was the first time i ever used Super Sculpey. he was sculpted in WY and has removable armor.

these 2 figures were both sculpted in AZ. i was a huge fan of Alex Ross at the time, and Earth X was his current work back then. Oink is based on a comic a friend gave me.

this was the big contest i won. the Abe figure was one of my first sculpts and was supposed to be for a Toyfare video game contest. he was made of regular Sculpey and fell over in the oven. i didn't get around to fixing and finishing him until after the due date. i later saw the results and another Abe won that contest. lesson learned.

another reprint, but this page also included an image of some of Hot Toys early products.

it feels like these were sculpted several lifetimes ago. these aren't my first sculpts, but they show the 2nd stage in my sculpting life, maybe stage 1.5. as you can see, i used to sculpt figures that weren't available to buy. McFarlane toys eventually made real toys out of Darkness and Predator, but i never bought them. now i try to create my own characters and sculpt those instead of existing characters.

SKI WILL BE AT COMIC CON 2011 WOOHOO!!!

2010-12-18T22:15:00.000-08:00

we got this letter a week or so before D-Con in November. i have to say it was a big surprise. we stood in line at Comic Con and turned in an application with a couple postcards, but didn't expect to get a booth for 2011.

we kept hearing that there is a 6 year waiting list, but some how we only had to wait 6 months. i'm sure that exhibiting at Wonder Con, APE, Anime Expo, and all of the others shows helped out a bit. we're hopin to have some cool stuff ready for the show.

HAL-0 CUSTOM PROCESS

2010-12-02T23:15:00.000-08:00

upper left image shows the castilene armor pieces that i sculpted for this custom. then a quick wash before assembly and paint. i decided to make a small run of 10 and it turned out to be way more work than expected. as you can see there are tons of pieces once you multiply everything by 10. ooops.

the bodies and armor were cast in a green tinted resin. the hand and feet were cast in black. Jay helped me assemble and paint some of the armor. each green piece got a black wash and then some silver dry brushing. ended up being 90 pieces that needed to worked on and eventually sprayed with dull cote.

the labels were created in Illustrator. it took a while to find the right material for his visor, but i eventually found some gold mirrored styrene. it was expensive and a pain to cut, but looked much better than any paper i found.

there may only be one Master Chief, but it was cool to have a nice little army of Hal-0's for a while.

so, if you missed seeing this guy at D-Con, here he is. it's kinda freaky to see my distorted reflection in the label, but i couldn't take the photo without it showing up.

i made 10, but i'm only selling 9. they're available for $150 each and will be signed and numbered.

DESIGNER CON 2010

2010-11-29T20:56:00.000-08:00

this was our 2nd year at D-Con and like last year it was very casual and easy to set up. Ayleen and Ben do a great job of managing this show. the free pizza is also very cool.

it's also affordable enough for Squid Kids Ink and Hyperactive Monkey to each have a booth.

we had our first ever custom show at this years D-Con. my new figure 10-Doh! was the focus for the show. we had 29 customs on display at our booth.

John "Spanky" Stokes was kind enough to do one. he also had his huge new mascot on display.

Jasper also did a custom and was one of the first to jump on the open canvas. Jerome and i should have chipped in. maybe next year.

here's a couple of shots from beginning to end. it rained in the mornin, but tons of people still showed up.

it was a great show for us this year. the booth was busy all day and we sold quite a bit of stuff. met a lot of new people and got to meet some of the artists that did customs for the show. this was the first place to pick up any of the So Analog figures. they should be available online soon.

10-DOH! CUSTOMS AT D-CON 2010

2010-11-29T19:58:00.000-08:00

it was a lot of work to keep track of 30 artists and their customs, but it all worked out pretty well.

special thanks to Anthony Nex of Nex Photography for taking the time out of his busy schedule to help a guy out.

Valley Dweller

Dave Martis "Zombie Warz"

DrilOne

Dan Cote

Carlos III "Gun Smoke"

Vivian Nguyen "So Anabob"

Tucker Johnson from Dynamo Development Labs

Carlos Aguilar

Kwestone a.k.a Chito A-Word

Jasper Santos

Ayleen Gasper

Mike Petrosky "Rumble"

Rumble with Soundwave

Jerome Lu's "Game of Death"

Scott Tolleson

Mana Studios

Nate Mitchell "Hal-0"

Tracy Tubera "Super Mario Fighter II"

Nathan Hamill "Super Sabacc Challenge"

George Gasper "Toy Break"

Mana Studios

Wayne Loosey from Dynamo Development Labs

Paul Wilson

Linda Hong "Super Panda Cub"

John "Spanky" Stokes-The "Face" Troll

Dou Hong "Pintendo"

Sarah Lee & Casey Hirai

"Slimer's 90-Day Ice Cream Diet"

Andrew Wilson

Nakanari

Rsinart

i wanted to thank all of the artists that made the time to do a custom. it was quite the learning experience putting it all together. i'm sure i'll do things a bit different next time.

all but 2 artist delivered figures for the show. one guy dropped out due to health issues and the other guy is just MIA. Nakanari and Rsinart's figures showed up too late to have photos taken. hopefully, i'll be able to get some taken soon.

we sold 5 customs at the show and 1 since then. i've returned some and some i'll keep to display and sell at other shows. i plan on doin more custom shows, so keep an eye out in 2011.

SQUIBS INVADE REACH

2010-11-29T19:10:00.000-08:00

so, the world famous Tracy Tubera was kind enough to get us into the Halo Reach launch party at The Fantasy Factory a couple months back. it was the best geek party ever. the lower photo is me and a couple of the guys that worked on the game.

we got to play some Halo Reach multiplayer before it came out. we also got some fancy free truck food, free copies of Reach, and Jerome had laser beams coming out of his head.

B.O.B. preformed. not my kind of music, but it distracted people so i could play more games. and Justin Beber ran around like a chicken with his head cut off, then ran off.

here we are pretending to be celebrities..... or something.

more goofy photos and Chito makin out with Kat from Noble Team.

here i am "geekin out" with Mal (Nathan Fillion) and Wash (Alan Tudyk)

i'm not a big celebrity nerd, but i had to ask for a photo.

to top off the night, i was able to get a photo of Olivia Munn holding one of my Squibs. Mike and Jerome also made sure to say hi to her.

so, i'm not a big party guy, or a fan of meeting celebrities, but that was the best possible party i could imagine. free food, free ice cream, free games, and meeting Mal, Wash, and Munn, not a bad day.

SO ANALOG PIXEL ART

2010-11-10T00:24:00.001-08:00

pixelated B-Side

pixelated A-Drive

pixelated 10-Doh!

so, i seem to have a knack for finding the most difficult way to do things some times. i sketched these out on graph paper, then darkened on the graph lines that created the basic shapes. then i (with the help of the very patient Linda Hong) rebuilt them in Illustrator brick by brick. not the easiest way i'm sure. Jerome Lu also introduced me to the program Pixen, so hopefully that will speed up the next pixelated images i try to create.

SO ANALOG "10-DOH!" CUSTOM SHOW

2010-11-10T00:06:00.000-08:00

this is the first announcement that i sent to www.spankystokes.com. Spanky has been very supportive of my projects, so i like to send him announcements first. not the best marketing strategy. i should flood the all the interwebs with announcements, but this one seemed to spread pretty far on its own. it was a very pleasant surprise.

here's the final list of artist that committed to doin a custom 10-Doh! for D-Con. some famous, some soon to be famous. we may have a couple more added at the last minute, but i'm really happy with the list.

all of the customs will be for sale at D-Con on Nov 20th. i'll be posting images as soon as they are available.

INTRODUCING "SO ANALOG"

2010-10-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

so, here is the beginning. a couple of quick sketches way back in 2008. how time flies when you have too many projects goin on. the idea was to make figures out of old tech items that everyone used to use. i still need to finish the wings and halo.

i kept goin with the idea of old dead technology. i have a bunch more drawn up, but those are in another sketchbook and i haven't scanned them yet.

i built these 3 first in Rhino. i wanted to cover 3 areas, audio with the cassette, computers with the floppy, and video games with the NES cartridge.

as you can see, the original NES cartridge was almost an exact replica. apparently, i thought that would be cool, but then realized they all needed a lot more style and life put in them.

these were started way back in 08. just so happens that Mana Studios didn't have a 3D printer back then, so we had to use Morpheus. unfortunately, the parts weren't printed well. each one had areas of deformation. they gave me a small discount, but this little hiccup really derailed the whole project.

it's challenging to balance a day job, side business, and a personal life. it took a full year for us to get back to these figures, after the momentum was killed.

the cassette was re-output again, so he was even further behind the other figures. we also have some babies in our future, hopefully.

here's one of the first resin castings of 10-Doh!. the hands and feet were sculpted in castilene and taken to wax.

same as above, but this is fella is named A-Drive.

notice, still missing the someone.

finally, we got all three figures in resin. these guys were primered grey and black. most of the figures will be cast in colors from now on.

these were the first customs i did and they don't exist anymore. i did these temporary labels as a test. i later pulled the labels off and relabeled them. now scroll down.

here's the final A-Drive. his silver areas are a complete pain to paint. i'm hoping we can create a mask to make that a little bit easier.

finally, B-Side caught up with the other 2 figures. it took a while, but i'm happy with the way he turned out.

and here is 10-Doh! the most popular fella. all 3 were on display in the DKE booth at Comic-Con 2010.

group shots.

we are doin a custom show of 10-Doh! at D-con on Nov 20th in Pasadena. there should be around 30-40 artists participating, but we'll see how many actually show up. we'll also have some blanks ready and maybe a couple of surprises.

i hope to go into production with these figures sometime in the near future, but it all depends on if i can afford it.

HAPPY ACCIDENT

2010-10-20T23:30:00.000-07:00

Steve James brought by a couple of boards before APE and this was one of them. the shop just happen to use a black board instead of a plain wood board. actually turned out pretty cool. so, now i have a exclusive 1 of a kind super limited special edition Squib board.

i haven't taken out of the shrink wrap. if i do, i'll post some better photos.

SQUIBS INVADE ROB DYRDEK'S FANTASY FACTORY

2010-10-20T22:03:00.000-07:00

over the summer we were invited to stop by and visit the world famous Tracy Tubera at the Fantasy Factory. we got to see Tux as well.

we watch the TV show all the time, so it's always cool to go see the place in person. we met Big Cat while we were there, but still haven't met Drama or Rob. maybe, one of these days.

my little brother Dylan has spent the last 2 summers with us, and this was one of the things he wanted to do while he was in town. he had some fun in the foam pit and relieved some pressure in Drama's other office. ha.

the world's largest skateboard is pretty impressive.

more foam pit fun

we never get to drive the cars, but it's still fun to pretend.

went to Philippe's for lunch. my Grandpa introduced me to this place when i was 15. i try to go there whenever i'm in the area. the place has been around for 100 years. they have to be doin something right.

special thanks to Mr. Tubera for being such a gracious host and tour guide. i'd give him a tour of where i work, but he use to worked there. so, i don't have much to offer in that department.

SQUIBS INVADE COMIC-CON 2010.....kinda

2010-10-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

Comic-con is a madhouse. it's a fun madhouse, but still a madhouse. i've been goin for at least the last 7 or 8 years, but only as an attendee. i usually run around looking for new art/sketchbooks and exclusive toys.

we always see a lot of friends there. Mr. Dan Cote (creator of Zen the Intergalactic Ninja) was there signing his new 3D Zen poster. i always try to stop by and say hi to Greg Broadmore. i met him in New Zealand back in 04 while working on King Kong toys. i don't know Stan Lee, but it's always cool to see him, and the there is an old guy givin him the ol' stink eye in that photo. we met Linda Le aka Vampy Bit Me at WonderCon this year. she was super nice, so we say hi whenever we can. unfortunately, i don't know Sponge Bob personally.

once again, here is the world famous Tracy Tubera struttin his stuff, being famous, signing autographs, and getting free toys all over the place. he did spread the wealth a bit. i managed to ride his coattails a bit and got some free toys as well.

my Squibanimals custom was on display at the Toynami booth. it was pretty cool to see him on display.

thanks to Dov at DKE for displaying some of our Squib plush and debuting our So Analog figures. they were at the very bottom, but still got noticed. the Squibs will be available through DKE as soon as i can get our inventory into Dov's hands. So Analog will be for sale at D-Con on N0v 20th in Pasadena. we'll also have our first custom show there too.

Optimus and Ecto-1. i love them both. now all they need to do is combine them.

Ironman suits were old news this year, but old news at Comic-Con means you get close enough to actually see things and take photos.

some Green Hornet action. let's hope the movie is good.

i've already ordered this Thanos statue, cuz he's one of my favorite bad guys. and one day, i'll actually own one of those Captain America shields. hopefully soon.

the beautiful San Diego Convention Center. unfortunately, Comic-Con has out grown this building. we're on the waiting list to get a booth, but it's a long one. maybe we'll get lucky next year.

it's impossible to see everything at Comic-Con, let alone show it on my meager little blog. i would recommend that everyone experience in person at least once in their life. unless you hate cool stuff. if that's the case, stay home and watch sports.

APE 2010

2010-10-18T22:20:00.000-07:00

unfortunately, i forgot all 3 of my Squibs on this trip, so the photos aren't quite as fun. hopefully you still like some of them.

i'm not a big jelly bean fan, but i do like Jelly Belly jelly beans. they had a great free tour, but didn't allow any photos inside. a bit disappointing, but still very cool. i had to take a picture of the VW Beetle because we play Slug Bug every single day.

The Duke and the creator of Star Wars, kinda. they had portraits of a bunch of people, but these were the best ones that were in photo friendly areas. pretty cool bean mosaics.

the best photo of the trip was when i caught both Jerome and Linda sleeping in the car. i only meant to get a photo of Jerome, so it was a happy accident to catch Linda too. we played some Ping Pong and lots of Connect Four. for some reason, i did really good at Connect Four. maybe everyone else just did really bad. either way, it was fun.

it was our first time at APE. we never even checked it out as attendees. the show seemed like a huge Artist's Alley. there were a ton of talented people there and lots of nice people. unfortunately, that didn't translate into big sales numbers. we did better than break even, but it was a slow show.

here is our friend Ed Rodriguez promoting his book Kiki Koki. check out kikikoki.com to see more. Jerome was nice enough to give an interview while at the show. i declined because cameras steal your soul and i don't like interviews.

the show was decent. we did get to meet some new people and hang out with good friends, but it wasn't a great show for us. we probably won't be back next year, but you never know.

SQUIBS INVADE MANA STUDIOS

2010-10-18T22:08:00.000-07:00

well it wasn't really an invasion, and if it was, it happened a long time ago. i see the gang a Mana Studios on a regular basis. Jay Garcia is the Head Honcho there and has the business cards to prove it. we've known each other for at least 6 years now and he's helped me a lot with a ton of my personal and professional projects.

no photos of the inside for now, it's all top secret in there.

SQUID KIDS INK IN MONSTOBERFEST

2010-10-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

once again Irene Medonis was nice enough to invite us to be a part of an art show she was putting together at Rothick art haus. i decided to do a Zombie Squib for the show.

this guy started the same way as always. a little bit of clean up and a healthy coat of primer. i also had to take a hammer to his head. just so happens that i tried cracking through the thickest part of his head. after all that, i drilled a bunch of holes all over his body for the stitching.

during the painting process i had to make some brains out of aluminum foil. i couldn't find a spoon that was the right size, so i took a little trip to Target and still couldn't find anything except plastic utensils. it ended up working out really well. i had to modify them a lot, but it was a decent challenge.

this is how he ended up. the knife, spoon, and fork worked well. the biggest time consumer was the wire stitching. i had a very short period time to finish this guy and it was a lot of fun to do.

here he is on display at the opening on Oct 9th.

here's Chito, Jerome, and Linda with their artwork for the show. i'm sure they have nice photos of their work on their blogs. Tracy Tubera also had a piece in there, but he didn't show up and i took a terrible photo of it, so i didn't want to post it.

the show was great. we got to see a lot of good friends and i even saw some family. the artwork was very good and they managed to put a bunch of paintings up without making it feel crammed. if you are ever in the OC you should check out Rothick art haus and see what their current show is. they also have Dr. Sketchy's live model drawing sessions, so check out their site www.rothick.com

while we were up in San Francisco for APE i found out the somebody decided to snatch up this guy. i was kinda hoping he wouldn't sell. i'm still not fold of selling my customs, but i'm happy somebody wanted it. hopefully i'll have time to make more.

SQUIB TECH DECK INVADES TARGET

2010-10-18T20:46:00.000-07:00

so, Steve James not only helped get a Squid Kids Ink board made, he also had it made into a Tech Dech. i've had an early sample for months, but it was still exciting to see it actually in the store. i'll be buying everyone i see, so if you want one you better get out there and get one while you can.

i still haven't opened one, but i will soon and post some more photos.

SKELANIMALS CUSTOM SDCC 2010

2010-07-19T20:05:00.000-07:00

our new friend Mitchell Bernal stopped by our booth and offered me the chance to customize a Skelanimal for SDCC. it was a nice little surprise at AX2010.

so, i started with a cute blank white puppy.

i've only done one other custom in my life. i'll post images of my MOD:one rabbit someday. i took one of my 5" Squibs and cut off all of the legs, then sanded him to fit the head and hot glued the 2 together.

next step was to add some tentacles. i used Magic Sculpt which definitely has it's pros and cons. it was probably only my 2nd or 3rd time using the stuff and it went pretty well. the 2 long tentacles were the most difficult part, and in the end i had to sand those quite a bit.

here is the final sculpt. i used part of a paint stick for the wood piece and real nails. the laser blaster was built out of Styrene, washers, and an acrylic sphere.

painting isn't my strong point, and i generally don't like doin it. the primer and base coats were the most work, or at least took the longest to do. seems like it was mostly waiting for things to dry. it also didn't help that the figure was so front heavy. he always wanted to fall forward and did once or twice.

so, here's the final custom. i added a chain, a "S" logo dog tag, and a base for stability. the rest of the paint was pretty fun to do. i didn't want to worry about clean lines and precise painting, because it's just not my cup of tea. i was able to avoid that by putting "black ink" at all the connection points.

i only had 11 days to customize this figure. it arrived on July 6th and had to be delivered by July 16th. i probably spent 30-40 hrs working on it during those nights and one weekend. this bad boy is gonna be on display at SDCC 2010 at the Toynami booth. if you don't get a chance to see it there, it will be traveling to all our future shows too.

AX 2010

2010-07-18T21:29:00.000-07:00

so, there was a crazy long line for pre-registration on setup day. we were just walking around to get something to eat. i'm so thankful we don't have to wait in those lines.

set up took longer than usual. we had to park in the structure, rather than unload in the back like last year. very annoying and very tiring. we didn't bring a dolly cuz they said we wouldn't be able to use it, but no one cared and plenty of people were using them. lame.

these fellas weren't really the welcoming committee, but maybe someday they'll be that popular.

AX 2009 was our first convention where we had a booth. it went well enough that we decided to come back in 2010. we've accomplished a lot over the past year. a lot of people remembered us and we met a bunch of new people as well. over all a good show.

here's our friend Willy A-word enjoyin a little cos-play as Keroro. always entertaining.

here's Jerome pretending to be a photographer. he hasn't given me the photos he took. the photo on top was taken by me with my iPhone.

one of the best things about AX is the crowd and all of their costumes. i took some photos, but it was tough being behind the booth most of the time.

we're big fans of SSFIV and this group was pretty entertaining. no Gouken though, maybe next year.

this Zuko/Toph battle was way better than the movie, and the Lego Storm Trooper was pretty awesome too.

now time for lots of costumes.

quite a few Yokos this year, but i only got photos of 3.

this was a big group acting out what looked like a Pokemon Vs. Yu-Gi-Oh battle. first time i had ever seen that.

on Saturday i customized 4 little Squib stamps. i didn't sell any, but i'm ok with that. i'd rather keep them for myself anyway. i always seem to be able to get a nice photo of someones nap time. i'm sure someday i'll be the victim of one of these photos.

The End. we cleaned up super quick and had a dolly to help. we also did our traditional Pinkberry visit afterwards.

so, AX2010 went really well for us. well enough for us to come back in 2011. we might not be the perfect match for the crowd, but the crowd is usually very supportive of our work. technically, it was our best show yet, but we would have done better at WonderCon if it ran for 4 days and we didn't sell out of product. next year should be even better. special thanks to all of those people that stopped by and bought something.

HONG KONG INVASION

2010-07-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

these little buddies were hangin out in front of the HSBC building on HK island.

some stowaways hopped aboard the Star Ferry in HK harbor. it's always been a nice relaxing way to get back and forth to HK island.

here's a little behind the scenes for you. doesn't usually happen, cuz i'm usually the only one takin photos. the lower night scene was taken from the Avenue of the Stars. the top night view was taken from The Peak on HK island.

i don't have a lot of Squib photos in HK. which is surprising considering how many times i've been there. then again, i've only been there once since we got our shipment in. my buddy Fraser did take some other really good photos, so i'll post those when i get them.

ESTES INVASION

2010-06-29T15:40:00.000-07:00

this little guy predicted DOOM and GLOOM.

thankfully it was only a reasonably small fire that was put out by the next day.

we managed to do a little bit of rock climbing while we were up at Old Man Mtn. it was more like rock scrambling, but still lot's of fun.

Estes Park CO is a pretty amazing place. pretty typical touristy town, but the scenery is incredible. we also had some of the best ice cream and cookies there.

we were over in Colorado for my brother's wedding. it was great to see some old friends and family. my dad even got some video of a bear that came around the cabins one mornin. unfortunately, i was sleeping, so i missed out. at least he got the video.

E3 2010 INVASION

2010-06-29T12:03:00.001-07:00

i'm doin my best to get these little guys out every event i can. of course we're usually just spectators, but it's still fun to take photos of them when i can.

i'm a big fan of G4 and even though they don't know i exist, it was cool to see their E3 stage.

im not the biggest fan, but i've played my fair share of Halo. i am a fan of the full size sculpts they had on display.

i was looking forward to Marvel vs. Capcom 3, but i think i'm gonna stick with SSFIV. i still like the Bioshock characters even if i didn't play the second game yet. and then there is Chito playin a Contra-like game.

the Killzone 3 line was way too slow to wait in, and Fallout New Vegas was behind closed doors. we got to try out Tron, but it was rough. i sure hope they can make it better before the release date.

we could never afford a Turbo Graphics 16, so i never got to play the first Splatterhouse. not sure about the new game, but this guy was looking pretty angry like my little buddy here.

'nuff said.

so, i've been to E3 around 4 times now and it's usually the same. loud and kinda annoying, but lots of booth babes around. there are some really long lines that take forever and some very short lines that also take forever.

it's one of those places that is cool to see in person, but is better to watch on TV. G4 covers it pretty darn well and usually covers all the stuff that most people aren't allowed to see in person anyway.

someday i hope to have a Squibs video game out there, but that is still down the road a bit. maybe one day a Squibs video game will be at E3, maybe.

CAMBODIA INVASION

2010-06-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

so, here are some photos of my trip to Cambodia in May 2010. my buddy Fraser and i decided to make the most of a work trip and take a mini vacation to Angkor Wat. it was a last minute trip, but well worth the money and time. it really felt like we were part of the show The Amazing Race, at least for around 48 hrs.

you can barely see it in the photo, but the condensation in the plane was crazy. it looked like someone had turned on a fog machine. and like usual, i eat Nasi Goreng when ever i can. it always reminds me of my trip to Indonesia.

i'm a big fan of clouds and on the flight in we saw some of the best clouds i've ever seen. Cambodia was pretty flat. i didn't know what to expect, but it looked pretty normal from way up in the air.

we landed at 530 in Phnom Penh, but our bus to Siem Reap wasn't scheduled to leave until midnight. so, we walked around a lot. that's me buying a sugar can drink. my Squibs were hangin out at the Garden Bar with us, and we only saw 5 giant cockroaches there.

we were supposed to be back at 11pm to leave by midnight, but the bus didn't show up until 1am. we the bumpiest 6hr bus ride ever. with hardly any sleep, we arrived at 630 am and went straight to a hotel. they had awesome fake snoopy "California Dreamy" blankets, but no sleep, we just cleaned up and got straight to sight seeing.

our first stop was at Bayon. it's hard to describe how cool these places were. and the photos can only half way capture it. the whole trip was so short that it feels like i wasn't even there. one of my favorite places was Bayon. the faces were huge and all over the place.

WARNING: some images below may offend certain people. i apologize for being an ignorant pale face, but i was obviously unaware of certain do's and don'ts in Cambodian culture.

so, here my Squibs hangin out with some local ladies and enjoying the views.

apparently, these Squibs are praying and offending all at the same time. this was the point that a nice young lady said "stop being an idiot" or something close to that. seems that putting Squibs on the decapitated bodies of their ancient gods is not a good thing. i was unaware, and was just looking for a funny photo.

here is a photo of Tattoo from Fantasy Island with my Squibs. he was our tuk tuk driver while in Siem Reap. this guy was great, but the other guy in Phnom Penh was a greedy, greedy man. i could have given him a $20 tip for a 10 minute ride and he still would have complained.

surely, these are as offensive as the other photos, but with absolutely no explanation of what the statue signified, i chose to take another amusing photo. to me, it was simply a 5 headed snake. i turned it into a 2 snake and 3 Squib headed MONSTER!!!!

these photos were taken around Angkor Wat and Bayon. i love monkeys, but they freak me out. once they get close, i'm afraid they will run up my body and eat my eyeballs.

remember the first Tomb Raider movie?.... well, i barely do. apparently, part of it was filmed here. so, i'll have to watch it again to know what i'm looking at this time. the trees were growing straight out of these temples and destroying them. definitely one of the best places we saw.

we stayed until sunset, or at least we thought we did. by the time we got back to Siem Reap the was an amazing double rainbow sunset goin on. by the time we got back to our hotel the sunset was really over. at least i got a couple of shots with my iPhone.

that night we at dinner i met a nice little lady. she was a real sweetheart and apparently a regular at the restaurant. i'm pretty sure it was the food we ate there that made us sick for the next 2 weeks. at least the cat is a good memory.

we woke up at 330 the next morning to check out the sunrise at Angkor Wat. it was still hot, but nice compared to mid day. it wasn't the most amazing sunrise ever, but in that location any sunrise would be pretty cool.

the Angkor Wat was great sunrise, but that wasn't as interesting as the floating village. and by interesting, i mean horrible on just about every level imaginable. our tuk tuk driver suggested we take the riverboat tour. we were running low on cash and ended up paying in 4 different currencies. USD, HKD, Candian, and Cambodian.

it was the dry season, so the water was extra grimy and shallow. boats were getting stuck and spraying the filthy water on other passing boats. luckily, you could pull down curtains to defend yourself.

our tour guide wasn't a licensed tour guide, but he spoke really good English. Fraser took the photo of the person in the single person "boat". they had some crocs at the tourist stop where you were required to buy a drink before leaving. and take a look at the pajama girl. this was a very common style for the ladies. i think that style is a bad choice for both the ladies and the fellas. it was painful to look at.

it was an interesting 1.5hr tour, that i would never recommend for anyone to ever take. we saw tons of kids selling stuff everywhere we went, but here all the kids had snakes. then we saw a kid with missing arm, a kid with severe burns, and a toddler get beat with a stick by his mom. then she apparently threw him in the river. luckily, a guy in another boat went out and picked up the child. it was clearly a different world and culture. so far, it was the worst thing i've witnessed in my life.

when we arrived on Friday, it was clear that we didn't have enough time in the weekend to take two 6hr bus rides. so, we got a nice 40 minute plane ride back to Phnom Penh instead. it was a nice little break from the heat and humidity.

BEWARE: TERRIBLE THINGS WILL BE DESCRIBED.....seriously.

i took one photo of the angry Squib before entering the Killing Fields. i knew it wasn't a happy place before goin in, but had no idea how bad it really was. we only had a half of an hr to tour the place. it wasn't enough time to get the whole story, but it was enough time to see how horrible people can be too each other.

the 2 kids lived just on the other side of the fence and seemed very friendly. then their older brother came along and it quickly turned into another plea for money. the people were in Cambodia were very nice. unfortunately, most of the time it was so you would buy something or just give them money.

the images look peaceful enough, but if you can read the signs, they say how many people were murdered and buried there. the largest grave held 450 people. most only contained around 100 bodies. all of this happen around 30 yrs ago and was happening throughout the country.

this monument was built to hold hundreds of human skulls that were all victims of the genocide. the fenced off area is where some bones still show up after it rains. babies were smashed against the tree in the upper right hand corner, so that they wouldn't grow up and seek revenge.

and here is Fraser and Odd Job getting ready to part ways. it was a very short trip, but we saw a ton of stuff in such a short period of time. it was one of the most amazing and horrible places i've ever been.

so, Cambodia was a great experience. it was definitely on of the hottest and most humid places i've ever been, but still enjoyable. i don't know if i'll go back anytime soon, but that's only because there are so many other places i haven't seen yet.

WIZARD WORLD ANAHEIM 2010

2010-04-25T10:14:00.000-07:00

this was the line to get in on the first day Wizard World Anaheim 2010. it looked promising, but failed to impress soon after these photos were taken.

we had a decent location, close to the front, but the show was pretty small. we probably could have been in any location and had the same results.

WW decided to color coordinate the cars on display with our Squibs. pretty nice of them. the first was Red Mist's car from Kick Ass.

then they also had one of Mad Max's cars.

then to top it off they had the best time machine ever on display.

Hyperactive Monkey? i think NOT!!!

so, Wizard World was a bust. we came about 50 bucks shy of breaking even. not a great business model. we heard that a lot of people didn't even know about it. but, i also heard a lot of people wanted to wait and see how this year goes, and then possibly go to next year's show.

it basically seemed like a expanded Frank & Sons show with extra celebrities. which is fine, but that really isn't our crowd. hardly anyone understood the DIY concept. most people seemed to be looking for cheap deals on stuff they already knew about. i hope that some of the other booths did well, but overall it seemed like it was a rough show for everyone.

we made a last minute decision to do the show, and it was a good experience. even if that experience was a reality check after having a great show at Wonder Con. we did meet some new people and saw some familiar faces, but basically, it was a boring show and still very draining. by far our worst show to date, but Anime Expo is bound to be better.

WONDER CON 2010

2010-03-31T00:12:00.000-07:00

here is our new postcard/flyer that we just got printed. it shows off some of the products that were available at Wonder Con and will be available at our other shows throughout the years to come.

this is the other side of the postcard. basically just re-using the banners graphics that Chito did for us.

so, we had to airship some of our products to get them in time for Wonder Con. it cost a ton and ate up all of our potential profit, but at least we had stuff to sell.

here's Linda Hong checkin out the goods. it may look like a lot of product, but we only had a maximum of 20 pieces per style.

before and after. this little toaster of ours is the perfect vehicle for us. we are able to take out the back seats completely and load it up with squidy goodness.

our little navigator did a great job gettin us to SF. these guys were pretty popular, so this little guy found himself a new home on the last day of the show.

Squibs are carnivores and thanks to Man Vs. Food we decided to check this place out on our way through San Jose. it was pretty tasty.

this was our first time having a booth at Wonder Con and were pleasantly surprised to find out we get to drive through Moscone Center. the wait wasn't too bad either.

it was also our 1st corner booth, and setup took a bit of time. once again Jerome provided the Magic Cubes. they seem to keep us pretty well organized.

front doors to Moscone Center. this must have been the set up day, because no one was out front.

this was the line on opening day. it was tough to get a good photo, so this was the best view i could get.

some final tweeks before the show opened. Linda Hong put hearts in the eyes of our Colossal Squib for this show. it worked out as a great way to debut our new plush items. our grey guy was by far the most popular. we're not sure if it's because he looks happy, or because he's on the banner, t-shirts, and a bunch of other stuff. either way we're happy people like him.

here are some photos of some of our other products and some customs. Dou's robo Squib was a fan favorite. Robin's mermaid was also very popular. the image of the crowd was taken during one of our raffles. we had a great turnout each day.

this is the Hyperactive Monkey side of the booth. who knew monkeys and squids could coexist so well together.

in this battle between men, no body won, but the scars run deep.

these curious little Squibs wanted to know how chocolate was made, and Ghirardelli's was the place to find out.

we answered 50 video game questions online to get our special Encom badges, just to find out that they were handing them out to anyone and everyone outside of Wonder Con. lame. the event was poorly executed, possibly due to weather, but it was still worth goin to it.

so, that pretty much wraps up Wonder Con 2010 for us. it was by far our best show yet. it was great to see peoples reactions to our stuff. boys and girls, young and older liked the plush. we sold out of a lot of things, mostly because we only had limited quantities.

we got in a super small shipment of more plush due to the factory correcting a mistake. all that means is we happen to get a small amount of product early. this has given us the opportunity to get a booth at Wizard World in Anaheim on April 16-18th 2010. we'll have less than we had at Wonder Con, but it's better than nothin.

SQUIB PURSES

2010-03-30T23:59:00.000-07:00

here are some rough control drawings for our plush purses.

here are some rough concept sketches for the purses. we had to find a way to use up the amount of fabric we were required to purchase. this was one way to do it, so we didn't have to make a thousand of each of the other plush. it allowed us to make more variety and in smaller quantities.

so, here is our little press release for our Squib purses that we did for spankystokes.com. we had a small amount available at Wonder Con and Wizard World Anaheim. We finally got our main shipment in and they are now available on our web store. woohoo.

just a couple of quick photos, i hope to replace them with better ones soon.

these all have a 3' strap and a little zipper pouch in the backs of their heads. we learned a whole bunch of lessons with this little venture. maybe i'll explain some of it some day, but today is not that day. quite the pain in the butt..... but we are happy with how these turned out. they come in the same 3 styles as the other plush items. we haven't officially named them each individually yet. we might not ever name them, you'll have to wait till the storybook comes out some time in the not too distant future.... hopefully, not too distant. ha.

SQUIB PLUSH

2010-03-27T13:26:00.000-07:00

this is the first plush Squib ever made. Linda Hong worked her magic to make this guy happen. i learned how to sew stuffed animals in school too, but she just has a knack for it.

these early samples didn't have irises and pupils in the eye sockets. for the DIY resin i wanted the people customize them and fill in the blank eye sockets how they saw fit. that concept obviously doesn't work as well for the plush.

maybe this was the first plush Squib ever made. i really can't remember, but neither could Linda, so it's ok. this little buddy is still MIA somewhere over seas. hopefully he'll return home someday, hopefully.

this is the sample that was made based on the model we sent. very similar, but refined. still no eyeballs. it was better to send illustrations of the eye designs to manufacturer, rather than try to embroider them ourselves.

this was our first sample with the embroidery done. not cheap, but we had to see how it would look. we made slight modifications to make them more bulbous, but that was about it.

here are some images to show the 3 styles and 2 sizes of the final product.

our plush vendor did an amazing job for us. we couldn't be more happy with his service and our how they all turned out.

this is the image we put together as a press release on spankystokes.com. i just took a bunch of photos on my iphone really quick. i'm pretty happy with how photogenic these little guys are.

so, here are some images of what it was like unloading the truck. the driver took the 4 pallets off the truck. i had to unload the pallets, so he could take them back. then i had to carry the 135 boxes up to the 2nd floor of our place. even light plush Squibs feel heavy after a while.

after at least an hour of moving boxes, this is what it looked like. i couldn't get all the boxes in this photo. it's hard to tell, but those are stacked about 6 feet high. it was pretty claustrophobic. we have since rearranged and only blocked one or two windows. sunlight burns me anyway.

so, these plush guys cost us a pretty penny and was a huge risk for us, but we learned a lot of lessons during this little endeavor. shipping and customs were the main hurdles for us. it was our first time dealing with that part of the process. the big challenge now is movin them out of our home and into other homes around the world. should be a fun experience.

SQUIB SKATEBOARD

2010-03-19T16:39:00.000-07:00

here's the image from our little press release on spankystokes.com. i took the photos on my iphone with hipstamatic. it's a pretty cool app. you'll be seeing a lot of those types of photos from us for a while. at least until wonder con.
so here is the board graphics with a simulated wood background. i wanted the board to look it was part of my sketchbook, at least a little bit and i like the natural wood showing through.

Steve James of Finesse Skateboards helped me get this board made. it will be available at wonder con 2010 for the first time anywhere. we should have some available on our website after wonder con, but most will be available through Finesse.

NYC INVASION

2010-02-21T17:59:00.001-08:00

some Squibs invaded NYC last weekend. they were hard to spot sometimes, but they were there.

we found this fat cat in a record store. he wasn't very amused, even if i was.

this giant guy was stalking his prey outside of the tokidoki store. don't worry, they weren't customers.

just outside kidrobot, maybe someday soon we'll have some product inside for sale.

window shoppin was the only way i could afford anything.

Squibs on top of the world......or at least on top a giant munny for now.

so, i didn't take a ton of photos while i was in NYC, and i only had my iphone with me. at least i got a couple of shots. hopefully once we get our shipment and people start buying these little guys, we'll see photos of the Squib invasion all over the world.

PARIS INVASION

2010-02-07T20:29:00.000-08:00

3 little stowaways flyin for free. sneaky, but not really sneaky at all.

fresh off the boat errr..... i'm mean plane. Squibs landed at CDG in Paris France on Feb 3rd 2010.

this is me and a little buddy after a 11hr flight and lots of walkin.

apparantly, Paris has laser cannons on most of the amazing structures. what's even better is you can rent destruction time on them for as little as 1 Euro.

Eiffel Tower Defense System test #1.

this lady was obviously almost scared to death by the awesome death laser battle we had.

target detected, prepare for DOOOOOOOOM!!!!

fat asians were also targets of the massacre

Giant Squib vs. Giant Snake in......BATTLE FOR THE LOUVRE
SPOILER ALERT!!!!!! Giant Squibs always win..........ALWAYS!
.

BEWARE......the sneak attack.

booty call at the Louvre......very nice.

very first photo of a Squib with a celebrity.......kinda.

look, but don't touch.

TRIO DE LA TERREUR!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

sooooo, here are a some of the photos that i took on my short trip to Paris. thankfully, i didn't have to pay for the trip, cuz Paris is an expensive place.

anyway, these 3 little guys are the first samples of our new Squib plush. Linda Hong and i spent a lot of time and money gettin these little guys produced. our shipment will be arriving in a couple of months, so be sure to check back later for availability. we may have some for sale at Wonder Con, if the shipping costs aren't ridiculous.

it was tough to take photos of these guys around Paris and i got plenty of strange looks. it was also a challenge to take photos in the Louvre while still being respectful of the artwork. we managed to not set off any alarms and never even touched any of the art. and don't worry, no Squibs were harmed during any of the photos.

SQUIB KID CUSTOMS

2010-01-31T22:11:00.001-08:00

so, i never thought i'd see a squib kid with this much gear on him, but i like it. dou did an amazing job on this guy. hopefully she continues helping us out.

we've sold quite a few of these guys so far. hopefully people will start sending in photos of the customs they do. dou gave this guy to linda and i as a x-mas present, and it only took me a month to take photos. not too bad.

CUSTOM SQUIBS

2010-01-31T21:19:00.001-08:00

this is the first custom squib ever done. i spray mounted aluminum foil all over this bad boy about 2 years ago. i used a dremel to grind out the bite mark and printed out SKI strip to finish it off. it's super simple, but worked out really well.

Chito A-Word based this fella on his samurai squib postcard.

linda hong cranked out this little guy just before D-con. another cute panda from linda panda.

this guy was a rejected casting. the wall thickness were so thin at a couple of spots, that i could poke holes with my finger. this guy should have been thrown away, but i have a hard time throwing away anything. once i started making bigger holes, i could see some strands of resin inside that looked like guts or brains. that was enough to give a direction and way to save him.

jay and dave of mana studios worked this guy up for me. rivots, guns, metal, and tentacles. how can you go wrong?

irene medonis did a fancy candy skull type paint job on this one.

another one by linda hong. it's based on the postcard i did for our postcard pack.

soooooo, here's the first batch of custom squibs. most of them were on display at D-Con, but i wanted to post some better pics of them. these are the result of the trial and error period of casting up the squibs. the bottoms were too bubbly to sell, but of course we didn't want to waste anything. thanks to everyone that took the time to customize a squib. hopefully it's just the beginning. i plan on posting photos of as many customs that get done. sooo, please gets your hands on one and get creative.

IN THE BEGINNING.......kinda?

2010-01-10T16:19:00.001-08:00

all of these images are part of my original website. i had no idea what i was doing, so try not to laugh at the overall awesomeness of it.

i haven't read through all the text from these pages in well over 2 years. hopefully it's all correct.

so these little guys started way back in school and i just recently saw another deviled egg figure out there. of course the sculpts are different, but it is a similar concept. i guess that's what happens when you don't your ideas out there quick enough. i figure there is plenty of room in the world for all kinds of egg figures. it's not like mine was the first egg figure ever.

1st girl sculpt ever and still the only one. maybe someday i'll do another....maybe.

Mr. Freeze is still my favorite Batman villian. even after The Batman animated series totally butchered his story by making him some punk diamond thief. LAME. how can you go from a man willing to sacrifice the world to save his wife, to a simple thug that got in an accident? i did like the styling though.

these figures have been frustrating for a long time. i've tried at least 3 times to see if Mirage and Peter Laird would be interested in letting me license out and produce these figures as a vinyl toy. unfortunately, they weren't too fond of the idea. i think TMNT as a brand is more than strong enough to be seen in a variety of styles. they've allowed tons of comics artists put their spin on the Turtles. maybe i didn't have a big enough name as an artist, or maybe it was a money issue, or maybe they just didn't like the styling. at least NECA got was to do a collector toy line. it was good to be able to buy good TMNT toys again.

this sculpt also got in front of Mirage for a bit. they like it for the most part, but wanted me to change the gun. i guess my artistic interpretation strayed too much. it obviously didn't go anywhere. i wanted to continue sculpting the other 3 figures, but priorities change, and TMNT has never been a priority for me. i sculpted at least 5 different styles of TMNT figures. i even sculpted a preschool version. i did this because i grew up loving TMNT. i never officially worked on the TMNT toys. i helped out on a couple of products, but nothing i would want to claim. unfortunately, working for Playmates killed my love of TMNT for a while. hopefully, Nickelodeon will turn things around.

so this is what Squid Kids Ink used to be. i had a desire to sculpt and usually sculpted my version of other peoples characters. eventually i grew tired of this and started working on my own designs more. all of these sculpts were done in my spare time while working at Playmates Toys for a 2.5 year period. it wasn't the best place for me to work, so i'm glad that i was able to move on. we made molds and castings of all of these figures. i don't have them up on our web store, because we have a very limited supply, if any. the TMNT figures were never for sale, even though we had a lot of requests for them.

SQUIB KID Development

2010-01-09T18:56:00.000-08:00

i sketched these, rendered them up in Photoshop, and included in our postcard pack. they were intended to explain how and why the Squibs get their arms and legs. hopefully it makes some sense.

i sketched these up after Linda Hong drew up some space Squibs. the one on the left looked like he had legs and arms to me. so, i started developing that idea further.

these sketch were what i started sculpting from. it gave my a good idea of how i wanted him to turn out. like usual, i continued to develop and refine the look through out the sculpting process.

this figure was slightly different than most i do. different only in that i took an existing Squib and ground off all of the tentacles and used that to form the head. that way it was exactly the same as all of the Squibs. then all i had to do was sculpt a body. i used Castilene for the rough sculpt and refined it in wax.

so here he is all cleaned up, sanded, and primed. the head is rotocast and the body is solid resin.

these are some of the sketches i used for our postcard, print, and my custom Squib Kid.

here's one side of our postcard/flyer. we had them out at Anime Expo and we were running out, so we only give them out with a purchase now. it sucks, but even those cost money to make.

and this little bad boy was my first Squib Kid custom. the helmet is real leather with digitally created "S" logo. the headphone lookin pieces were acrylic half spheres that were molded and cast up. then i used coaxial cable on his back. i haven't done one since, but once we put a custom show together i plan to do another one.

i have high hopes for our Squibs and Squib Kids figures. currently we're only planning to continue making blank resin figures, because it's much cheaper than actually producing them in China. and just like with the regular Squibs, we plan on doing a custom show at some point and post photos of all the customs. So, we have blanks available in our web store. just like all of our products, we tried to price them so that we don't lose money and people can still afford them.

SQUIB Development

2010-01-09T14:45:00.000-08:00

in the upper left hand corner is my original Squib sketch. there are times where i get inspired and have to start sculpting immediately, or at least within in a day or two. this was one of those times.

this is the cooked Sculpey sculpt. this guy was sculpted over a weekend just after drawing the sketch from above.

here's the refined wax sculpt.

way back when, i had to pay 500 bucks for a casting to scanned. it was high dollar, but necessary.

and now we have 3 sizes of squibs so far. custom size=4.75", stamp size=3.75", keychain size=1.125"

here is a blank casting that can be purchased at our wonderful webstore now!! we also have Glow in the dark versions available.

Chito A-word helped out with the logo and did some line art for people to use for deco call outs and custom exploration. i plan on posting photos of the customs that people do. so, please purchase one and do something fancy.

Soooo, this post shows a bit about how the Squib sculpt came to be. this has been a great character to develop and has grown into much more than i thought it would. it's pretty much become the icon/mascot for my company and more. we're working on the story and developing the Squibs world even further. of course i have a ton of other projects in the works so it's tough to focus only on Squibs during my limited free time.

Designer Con 09

2009-11-29T21:26:00.000-08:00

so ready for some sweet lovin.

linda hong sandin some squib butt.

long shot of our booths.

top left: battle damaged by nate, top center: blank, top right: metal head by mana studios
bot left: panda squib by linda, bot center: candy skull by irene, bot right: deep blue by linda

i poured, cut, sanded, buffed, filed, polished, and drilled every one of these little metal bad boys. not the most fun in the world, but i like the end results.

our bouncer was back.

howdy

Designer Con came and went quick for us. it was only open for 7 hrs, but it was a good 7 hrs. we took up 2 booths this time. one for Squid Kids and one for Hyperactive Monkey. we met a lot of new people and will hopefully get to work with some of the other artists we met.

due to casting problems we didn't have the large DIY Squib avaible for sale. we did get some good custom Squibs out of those bad castings. we also made up some Heavy Metal Squibs for the show. we are only goin to sell these little fellas at conventions. it seems like people need to feel the weight of them before buying them.

once again, we did just enough business to break even. one more convention, one more baby step. we'll be in San Fransisco for Wonder Con on April 2nd-4th. let's all hope that step will be a bit bigger.

ANIME EXPO 09

2009-11-29T17:44:00.000-08:00

just gettin started.

our intern hardly at work again. Ha.

i swear it's not a sweat shop.

we had our jumbo Squib protecting our booth.

NERD ALERT!!!!!!

i think i ate some bad calamari.

Hello Daisy and an awesome Appa.

Hyperactive? maybe not in this photo.

we had at least 10 people waiting to win stuff in one of our raffles.

who let the white guy behind the booth?

howdy

here are some photos from our first big convention, ANIME EXPO. we didn't do any advertising or promoting for this event. not the smartest move, but we aren't marketing people. we create stuff and hope that some other people will like it too.

Thursday was a slow day, but Fri and Sat went well. Sunday was a short day, but went well. it was a learning experience for us all. i've walked through a bunch of conventions and passed tons of booths, but i never really thought about what it would be like on the other side of the booth. i started to realize how much it takes to catch someone's eye, and even more for someone to stop and take a look up close. it takes so much more for someone to actually spend money at a booth. it's givin me even more appreciation for the family, friends, and fans that support us.

Anime Expo was a great experience for us. we were able to share our booth with Jerome Lu of Hyperactive Monkey and his ladyfriend Daisy drew in the crowd wearing her giant plush Hello Kitty head. we pretty much broke even over the 4 days. not bad considering that no one knew who we were or that we would be there at all. it was another solid baby step for Squid Kids Ink.

Squid Kids Art Show 2008

2009-11-29T15:33:00.000-08:00

sketches colored in Photoshop then printed on canvas.

Linda Hong's digital artwork on canvas in customized frames.

Chito A-word's digital art on canvas.

my custom Squib Kid Pilot. that leather cap was not fun to make.

a blank Squib Kid and Chito's art print.

the world famous Tracy Tubera.......and Chito.

our Squib army ready to march.

here's our intern Chito hard at work. HA!

here's the shortest assembly line ever.

a little show preparation at Mana Studios.

here's Jay layin down some base coats for me.

howdy

these are some photos from our very first art show way back in Oct 2008. a friend of ours Irene Medonis curated the show at GoRilla in Costa Mesa. this was the first time we revealed Squibs to the world. the show went well for us. we sold some prints, t-shirts, and keychain/zipperpulls. the gallery managed to damage Chito's art print, so they didn't take the 40% commission off any of our sales. we didn't even come close to making a profit, but it was nice to not have to give away almost 1/2 of our earnings.