Jesse DeStasio of Toy Pizza fame reached out and asked if we want to do a Q&A about his new Kickstarter,
Action Figure of the Month Club. Of course we scraped up some questions from some conversations we were having with friends about the topic, and dumped those here for you. Thanks for answering, Jesse!
He was also kind enough to share an original illustration of the
Device Ninja Poster artwork, so enjoy!
Click here to see the Kickstarter with 15 days to go.
1. How will Action Figure of the Month affect your semi-regular surprise Toy Pizza drops? Will those still continue? - Glyos News Dump
We
will still have drops in the store throughout 2019, but they will be
smaller in nature. Also, instead of All-Ins once or twice a year, the
focus will be smaller boxsets that tell a specific story (the recent LA
Knights set is a good example). -Jesse DeStasio
2. Will any of the figures be available in Toy Pizza drops after they go out to club members? - GND
Yes,
pending availability. It's a bit of a moving target at the moment, but
the intent is any surplus will be on the store sometime long after the
AFTOM club has been fulfilled. -JD
3.
Do you plan to reserve anything specifically for the club - for
example, glow in the dark, or metallic paint, or some other feature? - GND
Yes
to all of those. Ultimately it will be depend on how many backers we
get, but I'd love to see really cool styles go out to club members. -JD
4.
Will the club be 100% Toy Pizza characters and IP, or might there be
guest appearances from other members of the Glyos family? - GND
I
would say it'll be 90%-99% Toy Pizza related. There are a couple of
interesting opportunities that have presented themselves, but nothing is
solidified yet. I also did some polling and overwhelmingly our
customers wanted to keep it just KOTS. But....if I saw an opportunity to
collaborate that was too good to pass up, I would take it. -JD
5. Do you have any plans for some sort of ridable thing - a vehicle, a creature with a saddle - for your toy line? - GND
Sadly,
no. No vehicles, no beasts of burden. The days of those anniclary items
being affordable are long gone. As much as I would love to have
something like that, the tooling burden is too great and your customer
base is much smaller. Sad. -JD
6. Do you expect to have newly tooled parts or entirely new figures in every month's drop? - GND
Depends
on how much we raise. Right now I think at least 1/3 to half of the
months could end up being new parts or entirely new figures. The nature
of planning something with so little runway means we'll be relying on
our existing tools to get the first few months done. But the good news
is "existing tools" includes two very big projects no one has seen yet.
So even in those cases, there will be some newness. -JD
7.
The Glyos-compatible community is tightly knit, but sort of hard to
follow all the goings-on. Is there any chance you might include
call-outs to other compatible figures in the boxes as well? - GND
It's
an interesting idea, but we don't have boxes (just pvc bags) and there
isn't much opportunity for cross-selling. In that polling I mentioned
early, I was surprised that the feedback from customers was they want a
more pure-KOTS experience. I admit KOTS is a bit of an anomaly as far as
other Glyos lines go...there is a much more metered cross-over with
core Glyos. -JD
8. Is there a
core action figure-adjacent kind of toy you want to do but haven't done
yet? A playset, figure stands, or other distinctive display or storage
items? - GND
I'd love to do it all! I have designs for a
couple mechs that would be financial suicide. I think at the end of the
day we are a figure company and for the immediate future we have to keep
growing that business. -JD
9.
There have been a number of Kickstarters and other projects making
brand-new NES and GameBoy games lately - from ROMs to actual full
manufacture of a cartridge. When do we get the Knights of the Slice
8-bit extravaganza? - GND
Ha! I dream about this all the
time. Drew Wise, who's probably the best pixel artist out there, and I
have discussed a Snatcher-style RPG done the old school way. Like an
interactive narrative. The problem with ideas like this is- it's very
difficult to take myself off the actual production of the figures to do
other things. At this moment we have 4 different products in different
stages of the production cycle amongst three different factories. If I
skip even a day of answering emails, the wheels come off the cart. -JD
10.
With sporadic releases from Hasbro and Mattel, it's entirely possible
your Action Figure of the Month project may be the only 3 3/4-inch
action figure being released during several months in 2019. Do you plan
on doing anything special to reach out to fans of the size that maybe
haven't taken the plunge on an indie figure or a Glyos figure yet?- GND
Absolutely.
In many ways this campaign is tailored more towards new fans than
current fans. I wanted to create a great jumping on point for people who
might be new to the hobby or have been on the fence about Glyos or
KOTS. My hope is, by tapping into the idea of the mail-away surprise
figures we all got as kids, there would be a universally happy memory
people would embrace. So far, the theory's proven true. -JD
11.
To date, your figures have primarily arrived bagged. Will we ever see
special carded or boxed editions of your Glyos-compatible characters?
Perhaps little white boxes with bags that say "Toy Pizza" on them? - GND
I
have started doing our first carded figures within the past few weeks,
with a official launch of them at DCON later this month. It took a long
time to find the right printing house and the right approach. Each
carded figure will be hand deco'd or have resin pieces and the cardbacks
will be hand drawn. -JD
For the club, the packaging
is super-super important to me. I've budgeted a quarter of the entire
cost to solely go to how these will arrive. While the plain white mailer
is appealing to me and you, we do have a lot of younger customer that
that would be lost on.
But yes, I'm zeroing in on what our
presentation will be and it's one of the most crucial elements of what
will eventually arrive in your mailbox. -JD
12. Will all of the figures in the subscription program be Glyos-compatible? - GND
Again,
with a couple opportunities on the horizon it's tough to say. But I
would say i'm 90% certain every month will be Glyos-compatible.
For me to break the streak of having each month work with the other, it would have to be such a tremendous bonus. -JD
Continuing Kenner Star Wars cantina alien tributes, Onell Design shrinks its plans with Pheytooth.
Referencing Kenner's off-model but official Snaggletooth figure,
Pheytooth takes the Pheyden mold and knocks out the shins. It works
nicely - and the shins are here if you need them.
Wave 77! What is assumed to be a Kenner Snaggletooth Pheyden joins more ninjas Marvelous and Teenaged Mutant. This is another fantastic drop and a lot of it - but not all of it - can still be bought. Click here to see the November 29 2018 Onell Design drop menu.
After a wonderful run of Adventure People tributes, Onell Design turns to a galaxy far, far away with Greeden.
Based on a very specific style of figure from Kenner, their 1979
off-model Cantina aliens were official products with the kind of
authenticity usually reserved for bootlegs. Thanks to a lack of good
scrap and apparently lax approvals, we got a figure with a good
approximation of the mask - but a costume that seems out of a daily
sci-fi newspaper strip. Never being one to miss a good tribute, Onell
Design ran with Greedo's look and applied it to Pheyden.
I was expecting a glow-in-the-dark version of Jack Asteroid - which we got - but to get a new character like Zero Gravity too? I'm surprised. He costs more than the original Jack Asteroid figure and has less paint, but the dude friggin' glows.
The fully Glyos-compatible astronaut has alternate bent/straight arms
and can be taken apart at nearly every point of articulation, and then
some. That little moon ingot pops off, the helmet dismantles to 3
pieces, and the figure has an ab and a belt joint. The mold should
look familiar - it was first released as the glow-in-the-dark Alpha
Phase Metamorpho in 2010, and was subsequently released as multiple
Metamorpho and Jack Asteroid bodies, most of which was reused for other
figures in the first couple years of the line. It's the perfect generic
humanoid template, they could keep more heads coming and I'd probably
buy even more redeco figures.
Some of these are really clever. The Glyceptor
references Fisher-Price's Adventure People Alpha Interceptor pilot, a
blue-capped human inside an orange space suit with silver gloves and
some distinctive markings - which this deftly references. The clear
Sarvos helmet has a lot of color on and under it, giving it a magical
otherworldly quality that does a good job of selling the idea that this
might be from some weird part of space.
Wave 76! What is assumed to be a Kenner Greedo Pheyden and more monsters than you could hope for - and a whole line of monsters and Outer Space Men that I wish I ordered all of, but just ordered some. Click here to see the October 25 6 2018 Onell Design drop menu.
Now this is nicely obscure. The Pheyalien is a tribute to 1983's Alpha Star Alien [FOTD #643]
- a toy I treasured as a kid, had to sell as a slightly older kid, and
then re-bought as test shots and a MISB sample I opened in college.
Over the years I've seen a lot of this with different spray and deco
changes, and this Glyos tribute to it seems to be of the most common one
- a yellow figure with lots of exposed underbelly and green eyes.
Figures like the long-awaited Astrodite
make me wish the Four Horsemen's "Hopper Block" figure stands came out -
she could benefit from a display stand. The exquisitely-sculpted
figure made her debut at a Toy Fair-adjacent Four Horsemen-run party and exhibition
where toy nerds ran rampant in 2013. We were waiting for this one for
five years, continuing the proud tradition of making fans wait for The Outer Space Men.
The figure finally shipped to American fans in 2018, with some mail
orders taking a little while, but the important thing is she landed.
Effectively a female Commander Comet [FOTD #330],
Astrodite takes the same Glyos-based construction and gives you a new
character whose ankles touch and make her hard to balance. It's still
awesome.
Wave 75! Pheylien, a new mold, and a couple of mystery figures await you. Click here to see the September 6 2018 Onell Design drop menu.
New molds in Glyos are far apart these days, so a new figure like the Mechabon Gendrone Revolution
is exciting. It's $20, but it does double duty as a Gobon-adjacent
robot and as a new form factor for ToyFinity's RoboForce. You get a lot
out of this mold, with lots of big parts and cool weapons. The last
all-new mold I recall was the Villser, which I must confess I have yet
to actually purchase. But the Mechabon, this is the thing. You want
this.
Absolutely no toy line has the right to employ the phrase "a long time coming" like The Outer Space Men.
The line is 50 years old, and some of the toys took nearly 40 years
from concept to product. The 45 years it took to get Gamma-X makes Cthulhu Nautilus seem speedy by comparison - the figure was teased in 2011 as a concept drawing, while the coloring and head were based on toymaker Mel Birnkrant's massive imagination. In addition to The Outer Space Men, Birnkrant also came up with dozens of other lines like the unrealized Monstro-City, and this 2018 Cthulhu Nautilus head looks a heck of a lot like a Cthulhu-inspired creature from that toy pitch.
Wave 74! Vlixden, a new mold, and a couple of mystery figures await you. Click here to see the July 12 2018 Onell Design drop menu.
I can't believe this exists, either. I'm very excited as I type this.
On Thursday, July 12 - your next Onell Design launch! New figures of unknown origins are coming... although that green could be a hint. Vague overtures about Gobonness have been established. Lists of new characters are unavailable. It's under a week out, so will we see a big surprise? Exciting!
About a year after the similar Neo Astrovos [FOTD #1,797], the yellow Retro Altrovos
was a mystery figure of a figure I actually had as a kid. It pays
tribute to the yellow Astro Knight from Fisher Price's Adventure People
series, which I got from a neighbor at a garage sale at some point. The
bizarre yellow figure had angled shoulder joints and legs fused
together, removing vehicle compatibility while augmenting its ability to
look like a super hero. This figure takes the color scheme and applies
it to the template we saw last year - and of course, I love it. It's
also not too far off from Samus Aran, which I'd absolutely love to see
some day - of course given my druthers, I'd probably pick something more
esoteric for one of these figures. But I digress.
Generally speaking, you can't go wrong with a good mystery figure. The Glyrecon
is the Alpha Recon driver from the old Adventure People line, but in
Glyos form. You get a cool helmeted head, a Pheyden head, a bird head,
and a bunch of armor bits. It didn't sell out opening night, so
hopefully you got one if you wanted one.
Wave 73! A lot of color, wild tampos, and an awesome mystery figure may still be in stock as of my writing this. Click here to see the May 30 2018 Onell Design drop menu.
From Onell Design: Cosmic Regeneration drop 9:30 PM EDT on Tuesday, May 29. What's in it? We have no idea. But click here for the post announcing it.
I can't say no to a nice homage, and 2016 was packed with them. Glyninja Ukoro
is a tribute to the Shredder, a famous nemesis of the green teens.
"Oroku Saki" has been lovingly recreated in grey Glyan Glyos parts with
an add-on Neo Sarvos armor bits. It's a gem.
If you love Adventure People, Onell Design shows you their love with Piloden!
This one is an interesting take on something that could have been a
straight redeco. The original Adventure People Alpha Pilot (in grey)
used the Alpha Star Pilot's body, but cast it in grey. Onell Design
paid homage to this figure last year, but this new one has a different
head - Pheyden's. They also did some snappy things with the paint that
continue to make me think Onell Design can do literally anything at
this point.
Ullmoriun! A lot of pink and a mystery figure are up for grabs. Click here to see the April 15 2018 Onell Design drop menu.
If you love Glyos, Sunday is the day for you! 9:30 PM Eastern will get you... something. We don't know yet, but this post at Onell Design confirms there's going to be something!
Another freebie! The Copper Crayboth
you see here came in a box in 2018 - but it looks a lot like a picture
of the Sendollest Crayboth from 2015 which I don't (think I) have.
There aren't a lot of comparison photos of these things out there, so
this could be that one - and if it is, I'll correct this in the future.
The
2017 (and so far, 2018) Onell Design Mystery figures have been
thematically based on Adventure People Space figures of old. Alphaden was decorated to vaguely match the pilots of the Alpha Probe vehicle, complete with variant hair coloring.
For a toy line that has proven popular, The Outer Space Men captures the imagination with strange designs. Like this one. The Cosmic Radiation Xodiac
is the second Xodiac figure to have a beard, so I reached out to series
designer Mel Birnkrant to ask what the deal was with the beard - is it
meat? Is it hair? "It's both!" He told me - hey, that works.
Adventure People-inspired Onell Design Mystery figures continue with Optivos! I was assuming that an Opticon homage would use the Core Block [FOTD #592] vinyl mold, alas it was not to be. We haven't seen any vinyl since 2016, either. (I think.)
Task Force Volkriun! The classic military green deco is back, with some orange and some new molds. Crossovers with Maxx Zero and Knights of the Slice are just some of what makes this batch nifty - and there's another mystery figure. Click here to see the February 25 2018 Onell Design drop menu.
The Deathboto
continues the surprising customization potential of the Noboto mold.
Gobon's robot pal has been all sorts of things, even Gremlins or Ninja
Turtles, and earlier this year he was a Skullboto. The Deathboto takes
the same template, but the red parts are black and he has awesome red
dots in his black empty eye sockets plus a painted crack in his skull.
For plastic, it's very metal.
I'm a big fan of the Outer Space Men figures, especially the occasional crossovers done with Onell Design. Astro-Nautilus Redborg Syndicate
was stamped out in clear yellow plastic with a hefty slathering of
paint and a nice armory, too. It also costs over twice what the
original release did in 2010.
This one came out fairly late. Sometimes you never know what you want until you get it. I liked seeing the various Outer Space Men in various colors, but the pigment-free versions left me a little cold. I rather liked the three figure designs that didn't previously get the White Star treatment, more than many of the ones that did. When we were teased that White Star Gemini
would exist, part of me was a little miffed it wasn't in color. But
I'd be lying if I said it didn't turn out nicely - there's a lot of blue
here that breaks up the white. It's good. I won't say it's as amazing
as some of the other Gemini they've put out, but it's very good and it
does a nice job of showing you the sculpting. Unlike, say, the clear
ones. 
Redborg Rises! Astro-Nautilus guest stars with mystery figures and a whole bunch of green things. It's great! Click here to see the January 28 2018 Onell Design drop menu.
Does this one look familiar to you? The Outer Space Men Cosmic Radiation Metamorpho
is new, but a glow in the dark Metamorpho was sold way back in July of
2010 as the very first release of this line, a San Diego Comic-Con
exclusive. I reviewed it
shortly before Figure of the Day launched - and it's different. This
new one has a greenish hue rather than a bone one, and has completely
different decoration. 
I missed the Sarvostar
but Matt had one and sent it to me - thanks, Matt! What I love about
it is that it looks just like the vintage Alpha Star driver. What I
didn't like was that my vintage Alpha Star driver cracked at the crotch
while I was taking these pictures, which is surprising given that it was
a sealed-box one I bought in college to replace the one my parents made
me sell as a kid, and saw little to no actual playtime. I guess life
isn't fair, but I digress. This set has a scarf, four heads, two
bodies, and a set of limbs - just enough to not make two full figures.
The alternate parts are to make a variant Alphaden Commaynder or
whatever it is, based on the bearded sci-fi figure from Fisher Price of
old.
Surprises are fun, and the Traveler Xycoss Clone
was surprising design taking cues from a few of the Adventure
People-themed figures from 2017. The sub-line was a treat, and this
clear red figure has silver markings while the Rayexx and Pheytron
figures sported other colors. The Traveler Xycoss Clone isn't as
ornate, but it's plenty cool.