Maybe send your design out to a few vinyl toy companies? I mean, that stuff is shit hot right now, and the fact that you already have a good number of designs does not hurt it at all.
Seems pretty solid actually.
Are we free to mock up our own custom ones too? I love painting these things.
Are we free to mock up our own custom ones too? I love painting these things.
She already said yes to that.
Iruka, you know, in terms of vinyl toys, you could design so many cool things based off of your style and drawings (characters and creatures alike). They're totally suited for that kind of thing. Hell, at the least I wish you would do comic illustrations or something. Something of such a matter should really be done with your art, because it's really original beyond the "average" good artist.
srsizzy on
BRO LET ME GET REAL WITH YOU AND SAY THAT MY FINGERS ARE PREPPED AND HOT LIKE THE SURFACE OF THE SUN TO BRING RADICAL BEATS SO SMOOTH THE SHIT WILL BE MEDICINAL-GRADE TRIPNASTY MAKING ALL BRAINWAVES ROLL ON THE SURFACE OF A BALLS-FEISTY NEURAL RAINBOW CRACKA-LACKIN' YOUR PERCEPTION OF THE HERE-NOW SPACE-TIME SITUATION THAT ALL OF LIFE BE JAMMED UP IN THROUGH THE UNIVERSAL FLOW BEATS
Maybe send your design out to a few vinyl toy companies? I mean, that stuff is shit hot right now, and the fact that you already have a good number of designs does not hurt it at all.
Seems pretty solid actually.
Are we free to mock up our own custom ones too? I love painting these things.
Page three has all the files you should need. As for sending some companies my idea... I've been thinking about that. I may at least send kid robot an email asking them if they accept partnerships that way. I'm a little concerned about doing some sort of copywriting as well... I'm generally a trusting person, but Im afraid that may backfire on this for some reason. Any thoughts on how to go about that?
Srsizzy, Thanks! My parents are pushing me to try to make and sell teeshirts, so expect a thread with that coming up soon so I can get them off my back. After I whore out for the anime convention, I plan to make a series of short, confusing comics based on dreams I've had over the years just to practice comic making. So theres that.
Oh, I didn't notice those on the last page. I have some crits considering the paint jobs. What kind of paint are you using? Acrylic? When comparing your mock ups to the actually paintings, it's kind of messy. I think you might want to use smaller brushes, and perhaps a more..."solid" (?) paint. The intricacies and cleanness of the details in your mock ups is really cool, but kind of lost in the actual paint.
srsizzy on
BRO LET ME GET REAL WITH YOU AND SAY THAT MY FINGERS ARE PREPPED AND HOT LIKE THE SURFACE OF THE SUN TO BRING RADICAL BEATS SO SMOOTH THE SHIT WILL BE MEDICINAL-GRADE TRIPNASTY MAKING ALL BRAINWAVES ROLL ON THE SURFACE OF A BALLS-FEISTY NEURAL RAINBOW CRACKA-LACKIN' YOUR PERCEPTION OF THE HERE-NOW SPACE-TIME SITUATION THAT ALL OF LIFE BE JAMMED UP IN THROUGH THE UNIVERSAL FLOW BEATS
the first one is rough because i didnt sand it down enough. The second one is much smoother and neither of them are steelwooled yet. the yellow one is also tiny. so I was using a tiny ass brush. I bought some flow encreaser and I wish I had the money to experiment with other paint types, but these will have to do. its all due next thursday.
I'm guessing you can't just pay the school and keep cranking these things out at the lab, then? I'm sure there's a way you could make more without ordering in bulk.
How do the legs, ears, and tail hold up? The tail and ears in particular seem like they'd snap off fairly easily.
nah these guys are pretty hard. Ive been carrying them around in my sweatshirt pocket and they havent had so much as a scratch even bumping up against each other. I'm sure they'd break if you tried, but other wise they are fine.
You said something about copyrighting your stuff earlier. I know that in music, artists that are starting out put their work onto a CD or write out the music, seal it in an envelope, write their intitials over the seal and mail it do themselves. That way if there is ever any kind of dispute, you have proof that you came up with the idea first as the mail service people will have stamped the date on the envelope when being mailed.
This works as long as it remains unopened obv! hope that useful to you!
zero_one on
0
NakedZerglingA more apocalyptic post apocalypse Portland OregonRegistered Userregular
edited May 2008
sell the unpainted ones!
I think you said they were 2.50 to make? sell them unpainted for $5-7.00 and make yourself some easy money!
I'm leaving school on saturday, and Im waay to busy to get prints off to sell to you guys but the end of the week . The problem with doing this in mass this way is mostly that it takes hours to get the a print, I can only do 3-4 at a time, and I would have to seal them with superglue my self for them to be durable enough to survive shipping.
In the large scale, it'd be better to get the vinyl run if I had the money to make the investment. Its something that, after I do some research, I will probably put on the back burner as an idea for in the future.
Have you ever considered submitting them to a toy company for distribution? You could print off your batch of 3-4 blanks and treat them with glue, then send them out with photos of painted ones and copies of the paint scheme sheet you posted earlier in the thread. If you were feeling ambitious, you could include the package design you're doing as well.
It'd probably entail a few days of work after your classes end (including setting aside a day to actually mail them out) and it seems better than relegating them to the back burner, as that's typically where ideas go to die.
Yeah. My only worry about that would, again, be the copy write issue. I actually sent kid robot an email (though, with no images, so that may be the issue) and got nothing. I'll probably try to give them a call. The idea is enticing, so if I can make the right contact I'll check it out.
I wouldn't worry too much about the copyright stuff - smaller businesses tend to be more ehtical than not about that kind of thing, and I assume that like any creative industry, toy designers/manufacturers wouldn't be too inclined to return an email from somebody they know nothing about, especially if there's no material included. If anything legal did happen, you have an abundance of proof that would hold up - it's a graded school project, so there'll be dated records of it, and you can always point to these threads (also dated).
If you're really worried about it but still want to try your luck with submitting it to manufacturers, maybe just send photographs and paint schemes? It might not be a bad idea to try and obtain some phone numbers for companies you'd like to see make Foos, and find out if they have any submission policies. Also, if you go to any big cons, there'd likely be reps you could hit up and show your stuff to as well.
I didn't really think about the thread as a record. I don't really have any papers from the class, but I do have my teachers word. Well, alright. I generally don't worry about this stuff, I mean I dont watermark my crap or anything, but i don't want to get screwed just because I'm trusting. I guess I'll make some phone calls when I get home.
I've never really thought about cons... Baltimore has otakon and a few comic cons, but I haven't seen a toy one. I'll have to look some up.
Thanks guys, by the way. The encouragement really made me confident that I could actually see this through to some level of completion, and even if I don't get some sort of run of toys out of it I have a portfolio piece.
I know it's been said (by just about everyone to have posted in this thread) but these look amazing.
I'd love to have one of the little ones on my desk at work.
I don't know much about paypal or any other online payment service, but would it be possible to easily set up a site to take pre-orders? Then if enough interest was generated to pay for an initial run great, otherwise people would be refunded their cash (less whatever processing fees would be involved up to that point).
This project is quite amazing. I would probably buy one as well.
There are several websites with with which you may sell craft/handmade/custom items from, and I think it is pretty easy to setup a basic Paypal store/Google store, if you wanted to go that route.
I'm sorry, mt.... Because I was to lazy to learn a vector program, I actually just made the think by hand, so there is no file, save for these blurry pictures of it flat:
Posts
Seems pretty solid actually.
Are we free to mock up our own custom ones too? I love painting these things.
Iruka, you know, in terms of vinyl toys, you could design so many cool things based off of your style and drawings (characters and creatures alike). They're totally suited for that kind of thing. Hell, at the least I wish you would do comic illustrations or something. Something of such a matter should really be done with your art, because it's really original beyond the "average" good artist.
Page three has all the files you should need. As for sending some companies my idea... I've been thinking about that. I may at least send kid robot an email asking them if they accept partnerships that way. I'm a little concerned about doing some sort of copywriting as well... I'm generally a trusting person, but Im afraid that may backfire on this for some reason. Any thoughts on how to go about that?
Srsizzy, Thanks! My parents are pushing me to try to make and sell teeshirts, so expect a thread with that coming up soon so I can get them off my back. After I whore out for the anime convention, I plan to make a series of short, confusing comics based on dreams I've had over the years just to practice comic making. So theres that.
How do the legs, ears, and tail hold up? The tail and ears in particular seem like they'd snap off fairly easily.
And if so, how much would you charge for that?
This works as long as it remains unopened obv! hope that useful to you!
I think you said they were 2.50 to make? sell them unpainted for $5-7.00 and make yourself some easy money!
Yes. If the popularity of blank Dunny toys are anything to go by you could do well with this.
In the large scale, it'd be better to get the vinyl run if I had the money to make the investment. Its something that, after I do some research, I will probably put on the back burner as an idea for in the future.
It'd probably entail a few days of work after your classes end (including setting aside a day to actually mail them out) and it seems better than relegating them to the back burner, as that's typically where ideas go to die.
Yes! God, yes!!!
If you're really worried about it but still want to try your luck with submitting it to manufacturers, maybe just send photographs and paint schemes? It might not be a bad idea to try and obtain some phone numbers for companies you'd like to see make Foos, and find out if they have any submission policies. Also, if you go to any big cons, there'd likely be reps you could hit up and show your stuff to as well.
I've never really thought about cons... Baltimore has otakon and a few comic cons, but I haven't seen a toy one. I'll have to look some up.
Thanks guys, by the way. The encouragement really made me confident that I could actually see this through to some level of completion, and even if I don't get some sort of run of toys out of it I have a portfolio piece.
the design just clicks with me
I'd love to have one of the little ones on my desk at work.
I don't know much about paypal or any other online payment service, but would it be possible to easily set up a site to take pre-orders? Then if enough interest was generated to pay for an initial run great, otherwise people would be refunded their cash (less whatever processing fees would be involved up to that point).
There are several websites with with which you may sell craft/handmade/custom items from, and I think it is pretty easy to setup a basic Paypal store/Google store, if you wanted to go that route.
http://www.etsy.com/ is one I believe.
I'm sorry, mt.... Because I was to lazy to learn a vector program, I actually just made the think by hand, so there is no file, save for these blurry pictures of it flat:
.