Interview > Matt Doughty, Part II (The Outer Space Men)

You can read Part I of this interview, about the history of Onell Design, here.

PG: So tell me how Outer Space Men came about.

MD: I love toys that go all the way back into the 1920s. Anything that was a toy, I was fascinated. The Outer Space Men came out after Major Matt Mason…

And they were supposed to be kind of like those old Remco He-Man knock-offs–“plays with” Major Matt Mason.

Exactly. But what happens when someone “knocks off” someone else but they are superior to it? That’s sort of unprecedented now. Outer Space Men was so damned cool, it would replace playing with Major Matt Mason. (more…)

Interview > Matt Doughty of Onell Design (Part I: Onell)

Real Name: Matt Doughty
Specialty: Toymaker
Base of Operations: Onell Design
History: Onell Design is a small, family run toy company that strives to create an environment filled with creative potential. Building out just a little bit every year, each person involved in the day to day operations does their work with a passion matched by a desire to connect with those that enjoy what Onell has to offer, however tiny it may be! Matt Doughty, Michelle Doughty and Marc Beaudette love running Onell, and it continues to grow only because of the incredible people out there who support all the crazy projects they get into! So get ready for more interchangeable figures, 8-bit games, special collaborations and sporadic blog posts as 2010 rolls on…and remember to stay creative!

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Want more Major Matt Mason? Mattel wants to know

MVC-005F

MVC-005F by johnnyapollo, on Flickr

So, I’m way behind on this, but a few weeks back Power Pal Pixel Dan asked me to help promote the fact that Mattel is apparently curious about what kind of interest there is in a Major Matt Mason comeback.

Part of me wonders whether this is partly inspired by the success of Glyos and the Outer Space Men; I suppose it would be way too much to hope Mattel would work with the Four Horsemen and Matt Doughty on creating a new Matt Mason line. (more…)

Interview > Brian-Man of Spy Monkey Creations, Part III

This is Part III of a multiple-part interview with Brian “Brian-Man” Stevenson of Spy Monkey Creations, conducted by PGPoA contributor VENENOR, about SMC’s brand-new toy line, the Weaponeers of Monkaa. You can read Part I here and Part II here. –PG

VENENOR: It’s great that fans of the Weaponeers are taking to the evolution of the Crystal Gohlem. At the end of the Prologue we saw that the revived Crystal Gohlem accompanied the Stranger back to his world. I’m looking forward for that tale and the story’s progression. I’m especially interested since it could lead to a much more evolved version where he ultimately becomes fully Gearo.

Now, can you give us an insider’s view on the development process starting with the concept stage leading up to final product?

BRIAN STEVENSON: The entire process took around 5 months. That’s from initial concepts to final product on the table at Power-Con. In the early days of Spy Monkey Creations we wanted to make figures. They were going to be 3¾” scale and similar to the JLU figures. We scrapped that idea because it was going to be too centered on customization. There really didn’t seem to be that many customizers out that could keep a line like that alive. From there the fantasy based weapons came about after demands from fans saw the early custom weapons we made for ourselves. Those did very well but as a company we just didn’t feel comfortable surviving by only producing swords and shields for He-Man figures. There are companies and groups out there, like ours, which fit into this mold as a third party company making stuff for other toylines. We just didn’t want to rely too heavily on another company and solely continue being third party because we wanted to build our own cohesive toyline. In order for us to really grow and become something that isn’t considered third party we decided to take our next step. (more…)

Spy Monkey Armory Series 1 Goes On Sale Today at 3pm ET

Just a reminder, the Spy Monkey Armory Series 1 will be on sale exclusively at www.spymonkeycreations.ecrater.com at $20 per set/colorway starting at 12pm Pacific Time (3pm ET) today. Be sure to check out my review, and also check out the neat designs Matt Doughty of Onell Design created with them.

Some notes from SMC:

PayPal will be our exclusive payment provider. We will no longer be accepting checks or money orders.

Shipping costs:

Domestic USA:
– 1 or 2 sets ship for $2.82 via First Class Mail
– 3-6 sets ship for $5.15 via USPS Priority Mail
Small Flat Rate Box
– More than 6 sets ship for $10.85 via USPS Priority Mail
Medium Flat Rate Box
Canada and Mexico:
– Up to 6 sets ship for $12.95 via USPS Priority Mail Intl.
Small Flat Rate Box
– More than 6 sets ship for $32.95 via USPS Priority Mail Intl.
Medium Flat Rate Box
International:
– Up to 6 sets ship for $16.95 via USPS Priority Mail Intl.
Small Flat Rate Box
– More than 6 sets ship for $47.95 via USPS Priority Mail Intl.
Medium Flat Rate Box
We are charging the exact shipping rates provided by PayPal from the USPS, and tried to go with the most cost effective shipping methods available. We wanted to add a low cost shipping option for small International orders however our current store and payment set up does not allow for that. We will continue to explore shipping options as we grow and will do our best to give our customers the best options available to us.

Poe’s NYCC Wrap-Up

Arkham City Titan Joker

You can see all my photos from NYCC here.

This was my first trip to New York Comic Con. After not having visited New York in years, I was there twice in about six months. The NYCC was held in the Javits Center, just like Toy Fair.

I was only at NYCC for about a day and a half, but I made sure to visit all the major toy booths. Hasbro, Mattel, Bandai, and Square Enix all had a significant presence. I also visited the Four Horsemen and, of course, attended the Mattycollector panel on Saturday. (more…)

Review > Granthan Division Rig, Mk II (Glyos)

[toc title=”Table of Contents” class=”toc-left”] When I first interviewed Matt Doughty of Onell Design, he was hard at work sculpting the Rig (you can even see it under the lamp light in this pic). While I was there, we discussed vintage toys we’d enjoyed, and I mentioned having owned the Macross 4 Part II set of vinyl toys as a kid (I believe my parents bought them at Hobby World Town at the Hanover Mall). I mentioned how fond I’d been of the yellow figure (no idea what his official name is–I’ve never actually seen an episode of Macross), and Matt, being Matt, knew exactly what I was talking about and agreed it was a great piece.

What’s interesting is that the Rig would turn out to be very similar to that Macross figure–a hollow vinyl robot who had the same smooth, chunky feel. The difference, however, is that the Rig, being a product of the Glyos world, would be more than just a bipedal robot. Through a couple of simple twists, it could be two different robots, a spaceship, a tank, or whatever you imagine it to be. (more…)

The Third Annual PGPoA Four Horsemen Interview

PGPoA’s anniversary was December 1, and you know what that means–another interview with the Four Horsemen!

As always, I want to thank the fabulous Foursome Horse-some for taking time out of their extremely busy schedule to answer a few questions. In case you haven’t been following it, the Horsemen have been updating their website, FourHorsemen.biz, with frequent shots of the next Fantastic Exclusive, Scarabus. He’s looking incredibly awesome, and he might just be the best FE since Xetheus! (Not a knock on the other FEs, I just love Xetheus…like, a lot.) –PG

POE: For those who may not know, what is the concept behind Symbiotech? Do the figures work together in some way, or does the “symbiotic” aspect have it more to do with the “world” behind the toys?

Eric Treadaway: Symbiotech has been an ever-transforming property story-wise since it’s inception. We originally wanted to create a world where the characters that inhabited this world could look like nearly anything you could possibly imagine, and they’d be set up in pairs that would depend on each other in many ways.

Chris Dahlberg: Then, over over a decade ago now – before we even began making prototypes of the figures, we decided that it’d be cool to not only make an awesome action figure line of this property, but to also incorporate a game into those figures.

Jim Preziosi: That’s where the “tech” part of the Symbiotech name came in. The large characters – the Goleth – would have removable armor that would connect them to the smaller characters – the Pygma – to create a symbiotic link between the two. There were also various weapons and accessories that you could attach to the armor and other weapons and accessories to prepare your characters for battle. A spinner dial connected to the armor would decide movement and battle stats during the game portion, and the armor and accessories would have various values that would allow a character to become more or less powerful during battle.

Cornboy: Since so many other action figure/game hybrids have come along since then and most have failed, we’ve decided just to approach Symbiotech from the “awesome action figure” standpoint for now. If demand is there, once it’s released, who knows, maybe the gaming aspect will make a return in some form or another. There have been LOTS of technological advances since those early days that would allow us to have a lot of fun with that now.

ET: Wait… what was your question again? Haha… (more…)