Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Jet lagged!

Sorry for the shipping delay on the return of Geihoza wave - had a ten hour layover last week going to C2E2 AND a couple hour flight delay on the way back that I'm still recovering from.
Look for shipping notices to start hitting tonight. Thanks for your patience!

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Breaking down the ROBO FORCE's KNIGHT OF DARKNESS press release...

Now that you guys know Robo Force's the Knight of Darkness (which I have to state every time at the start for trademark reasons) is the real deal, here are some of the fun things from the fake press release I put out on April 1st:
- I said I was from Grover's Mill, which is more famously known as the place where Orson Welles said the Martians landed during "War of the Worlds". Thanks to BUCKAROO BANZAI for reminding me of this.
- a lot of the verbiage - "a grim-masked menace..." and so on - comes from the Ideal catalog description of the Knight.
- "the awesomest bad guy from the greatest space franchise" - I really wanted to make sure people knew it was fake from the first paragraph. No one should take a "serious" press release seriously that has the word awesomest in it, unless it is about ENCINO MAN: GENERATION TWO.
- also, "he was just too evil and imposing for the children of the time, who had never seen such an evil and imposing character in any medium ever" makes joking reference to another space-based character that became famous in the seventies for his evil. (Yes, I'm referring to Mork from Ork)
I was just really riffing with the hyperbole throughout the release.


- part of the fun was just throwing a TM after EVERYTHING. Speaking of which, sorry - I do not have the rights to "Starcomm". And "Robo Force's Space Team" is such a horrible knock-off styled name that I had to write that in there. But it was actually considered as the name when we thought S.T.A.R. Team wasn't available.
- I do actually dream of acquiring the DOCTOR DETROIT™ license.
- I misspelled "Glyos" as GYLOS. It's a common error, but I wanted to specifically call it out in the release.

The first release from Toyfinity's S.T.A.R. Team will hit your shelves this year!

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Geihoza and the Geists are in the store now!

I'm updating this from the airport in Chicago, so forgive that there's no direct link - but your demands are met! Geihoza and his minions are loaded in the store now - get some today!

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

The return of GEIHOZA and the Geists! Thursday 4/24/14 at 9 pm!

HE IS BACK.
GEIHOZA!!!!!
And his Geists.
Toyfinity - Thursday 4/24/14 at 9 pm.

Shipping will start next Monday for these guys - I'll be entertaining Toyfinity fans in person at C2E2 in Chicago this Saturday (and the Kane County toy show on Sunday). Say hello if you are there!
Club Mordle members - don't forget to bring your member cards for free Vision Mordles!

Saturday, April 19, 2014

So, ROBO FORCE's KNIGHT OF DARKNESS...it's bigger than that.

Before we get started, check out this link over on Plaid Stallions about the announcement of S.T.A.R. Team back in the 70s! Just saw it for the first time, and I'm marveling at the proto pics, especially ZEM-21.

(again, thanks to PlaidStallions for their assistance in keeping the Knight of Darkness alive in our conciousness over the years, as well as the above STAR Team catalog scan)

So, Robo Force's Knight of Darkness...I already told you guys that it is true. He is back. But it is more than that. Robo Force's ZEM is back...and Kent...and the Zetonian Scout....

Robo Force's THE S.T.A.R. TEAM IS BACK.

I mean, who would prepare such a great piece of artwork just for an April Fool's Day joke?
Now, if you have been following the Robo Force comic over on Toyfinity.com, you have already seen a dulled-metal green-faced robotic entity there, the Star Hawk ship, the head of ZEM-12, and the all-new Nemesis Enforcement Mechanoids. The S.T.A.R. Team is BACK.


We have big plans for the Knight and the S.T.A.R. Team here at Toyfinity, including all-new toys. If all goes well, you'll see the first figure in the all-new S.T.A.R. Team THIS year. If I get my way, you'll even have a bigger and better Star Hawk to carry the Team into YOUR adventures.

Toyfinity - your place for retro properties and all-new fun!


Legal indicia:
S.T.A.R. Team TM Ideal Toy Corporation 1970,1971,1977-1985
Knight of Darkness TM Ideal Toy Corporation 1976-1983.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

ROBO FORCE comic updated!

http://www.toyfinity.com/comics/?c=3&p=12
An all-new page in the Robo Force comic is up now! Click above for the latest happening in Zeton!

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Shipping updates! Combined shipping! And about the Knight of Darkness...


Hello all!
We're fully back in action after a hair-raising series of horrific snafus during this most recent round of sales and shipping. Let me run through them for you:
- before I get into this, let me say that this is not written in anger. I am mad that I could not ship things out as fast as I have in the past, but mainly, I wanted to relate "two weeks in the life of an independent business owner" to you.

- also, the combined shipping refunds are coming this week.
- this is going to be long.

- I moved out of my house on March 1st, the house I have lived in for the last decade. Now when I say this, I mean my physical self moved from the house, but my stuff was still there. Some of it. Some of it is in storage. You ever moved FAST? The second after you say "I'm putting this here so I won't forget where I put it", you A) will forget and B) it will be in the ABSOLUTE DEEPEST LAST BIN-BOX YOU FIND.
- the most recent order of stuff needed to be shipped somewhere, so I had them mailed to an associate's house.
- The order was gigantic - the biggest one for Toyfinity yet. 41 boxes!!!! Took three total days to process and catalog.
- Due to some wacky madness, I had to move the entire inventory from where it had been shipped to a storage area in the space of about three hours. Total weight of the order was over 600 lbs.
- had the biggest bitch of a time getting internet access in my new shipping and receiving location. They make these things that are supposed to like, you know, give you the ability to access the internet on your computer and stuff...turns out my ultimate villain was an anti-virus program on the computer which was just turned off and not uninstalled as was previously thought. So, two weeks of "why isn't this router giving me internet? Yes, I deleted all of the anti-virus software. What do you mean Kapersky is still in the directory structure? WHERE'S THE UNINSTALL?" delayed the shipping to everyone. Thanks to HeWhoKnowsAboutComputers for the assist(s).
- oops! Moved out of the house but had no shipping materials with me. Another trip back to the old homestead where my stuff was living - but not me (its all moved out now, again solely by me and Ms. Nova). Pack a car full of packing materials and then back to the storage area.
- PAYPAL: FOR THE LOVE OF EVERY DEITY POSSIBLE, WORK OUT YOUR MULTI-ORDER SHIPPING ISSUES (and shipping issues in general). The aforementioned inability to get the internet through the computer that has served me dutifully since 2010 meant I couldn't just say "ah well, no one gets boxes." I pulled a computer from yet another friend and put that into service. So, that meant:
  • installing my label printer on that computer.
  • installing my heavy-duty non-label printer on that computer.
  • and my "insert profanity here" "favorite", JAVA UPDATES!
I'm not a computer whiz, but let me tell you this - every time Java updates, SOMETHING breaks. Without fail. I'm hearing from others in the Glyos Network that non-US shipping is messy right now. But for me, it was ALL shipping. Java would not load. Java crashed Firefox. Java crashed Chrome. I even opened Internet Explorer. "You need 64 bit Java AND 32 bit Java". So finally, Java was updated.
- Oh yeah, MULTI-ORDER SHIPPING. So PayPal and USPS teamed up to work together - since PayPal crushed every single payment processor that meant anything back when eBay bought them. In spite of this, they don't actually work together on anything, seemingly. Here's something funny for you - do you live in a "court"? I used to. If you abbreviate your legal address as "Ct.", PayPal recognizes it...but USPS DOES NOT. Er, sometimes.
Now, how would you choose to let some poor idiot who has to ship four-hundred plus boxes out to his customers know this?
  • give him a message that says "this address is not formatted per USPS guidelines".
  • give him a message that says "PayPal shipping is not available. Sorry for the inconvenience."
  • give him a message that says "Please add funds to your PayPal account. USPS shipping could not complete this transaction."
If you said ALL OF THE ABOVE, then you'd be right! Somehow, I'd never run into these issues before in my previous digs. At least, not to the extent where it delayed everyone's orders.

We had the sale on the 23rd of March. Stock was moved to storage on the 24th. I was ready to go with the computer on 26th. There was a convention in Massachusetts on the 29th which I had already paid for my table for and had to be at, along with some related business that had to happen on the 28th that involved a stuffed-to-capacity Uhaul van. So I had ONE DAY to ship as many boxes as possible.
On the 26th and 27th, I packed like a madman, having over 100 boxes ready to go. Printer is installed on new computer. I choose those boxes in Multi-Order Shipping, which I have used multiple times before...and cue the error messages. I have the funds from the entirety of the last sale in my account from PayPal, so that error message does not make sense. I'm going through Google answers and PayPal answers and there's evidence that maybe it is down for everyone. Maybe it is....so I start going through them ONE BY ONE. That seems to work. That's when I get the message about the address formatting. So, a person doesn't know how to write their own address? It is mind-boggling that one person ships one package to me at this point.

In the end, I worked it out, but it's something that can totally smack you if you aren't prepared for it.

- came out of the house with three trash bags full of packages, drove over to the post office, and someone next to me is furiously pointing at my car and making the "roll down window" motion. Yep, flat tire!!!!

I'm proud to say the orders from that first night for US-based customers are all shipped now.
The rest of the US orders that came in after are being worked on, as well as the non-US orders. Hoping to have them out today. It's been a real trip to work through this round! But I'm super happy (even with the journey above) and enjoying the reactions you've shared with me as you've received the items.


Ah, and one other thing:
Here's the uncut original artwork by James Groman from the first Mordles comic. ROBO FORCE's The Knight of Darkness has always been there.
More on the Knight later this week after the shipping is finished!

AND FINALLY -
THANK ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

The Return of the Greatest Villain from ALL of the 70's Space Franchises - ROBO FORCE'S THE KNIGHT OF DARKNESS!


April 1st, GROVERS MILL NJ - Somber. Powerful. A grim-masked menace that strikes terror into the bravest heart. A perfect bad guy for long hours of imagination and excitement. - Ideal Toys Catalog 1978 So read the official description of the awesomest bad guy from the greatest space franchise in the 1970's, Ideal Toys' SPACE TRAVEL AND RECONNAISSANCE (S.T.A.R.) TEAM™ - THE KNIGHT OF DARKNESS™. And now, HE'S BACK.

Shipping begins!

We're back on track and shipping notices should be hitting inboxes today.
Sorry for the delay.
In the meantime, did you get your Commander Sullkren in the recent Onell sale this past Sunday? His power jumpstarted the Mordles, you know...

Back to action!