Happy Holidays!

The presents are for you though!
New ROBO FORCE page! More clues about the Zetonian's greatest nightmare, HUN-DRED!
New MORDLES page! The Explorers are on the move!

I hope everyone is having a fun holiday season and here's a Maxx build to get your creative spirit flowing! Meet DEEP DIVE MAXX ZERO!

Inspiration and Descendant

Pictured: a Block in robotic configuration, and what Matt D. calls "Tomy Maxx".



The lineage of robotic figures goes all the way back to the walking tin-toy robots of the 1950s, passes through various Marx and Ideal figures in the 60s, Star Wars, Micronauts and Star Team in the 70s, Robo Force and Transformers in the 80s, Z-Bots in the 90s, all the way through to today.
I bring this up because a lot of people ask me about licensing. Over the years, all of these different lines had robots, but they each had something unique to bring to the table. So my question to "you" is - what do you want a license for?

Manufacturing is a gamble. Any business is a gamble. You are trying to express something (or/and make some cash while doing it) and why would you want to hamstring your business by being locked-in to something which manages expectations? Is the robot in the above picture Maxx Steele/Maxx Zero, the invincible warrior of the Robo Force? Some people have stated they don't think it is, because their view of Maxx is something different - a bulky, suction cupped, bendy arm robot. Or a giant personal assistant robot who could actually talk. Nothing that anyone can do would meet those expectations.

Given a choice, I would have pursued my own original property*. I've spoken about it before - we were actually thisclose to an entirely different original concept being the launch line from Toyfinity. What expectations would people have if the line was something never before seen? None. It can be anything, as Glyos is. The relevance of the Block in the above pic, for people who are somewhat new to Glyos, is that the partial inspiration for it WAS Zeroids and Robo Force. That's part of what I love about the Block, and Glyos overall - it is like many things in aspects, but it isn't a copycat.
So, my advice to anyone who has dreams of starting their own toy line is to ask themselves "what is it that I want to have inhabit my life for the next few years?" Do you want to be dealing with licensors and quotas and all of the rest that goes into a standard license? Where's your inspiration? Why settle for "Crystar" when your Crystar is out there?


*I know this begs the logical question "why did you get licenses then?" The answer is really two-fold: one, I wanted to bring back the Mordles, and I'm sure any original property I would have conceived would have had a Mordle-inspired figure in it somewhere. Two, as I have said many times previously, Maxx didn't get a fair chance at retail because of the environment he was introduced into. If Robo Force was released in 1982, the conversation might be entirely different; 1984 was not a place where Robo Force as a concept was going to be able to stand up against Transformers and Go-Bots. Letting Maxx rot away forever in limbo was not something I was willing to let happen.

Troop building

One of the things we were working on was a "standard" Dred Trooper.
What do you think of this guy, in these colors?

New Mordles page! Maxx pre-order update! Happy Anniversary Robo Force cartoon! And more...

 

The Mordles comic is updated with a new page! 

Also, friend of Toyfinity Daniel Hartzler reminded me that the Robo Force cartoon first aired 30 years ago this week. So jump over to YouTube and watch the one-and-only Robo Force cartoon!

 Robo Force cartoon! (part one)

So, update on the Maxx pre-orders - it looks like the figures will be shipping to you in January.

Let me explain why. Matt Doughty and I received samples of the figures, and there were some tweaks that needed to happen to make the Maxx editions they best they could be.

First, this was the first time we have detail-lined the Maxx figure. There were a few areas that we added, and a few we subtracted, to make it look the best that it can. Secondly, we had to remove two of the paint applications on the Ultimate Maxx. His elbows will no longer be a shade of gray. You can see how the unpainted elbows look in the picture below.

There were two reasons for this - in the original concept, we were going to run the arms in plain black, and then paint the elbows on this edition. However, we would have wound up with a situation where the black on the arms, guns, hands, Maxx's head, etc would have been a shade different than the arms. So we made the decision to paint the arm tubes for the most aesthetically pleasing look.
What you can't have on this particular figure, as was clear from the samples, are three painted parts touching each other so tightly. Ever wonder why a McFarlane figure might break right out of the box? In some instances, the PAINT bonds to other paint and it fuses together. There was a concern of that happening, so we removed the gray application from the elbows. I'm not too sad about it though - if you want a preview of what it might have looked like (and have the Genesis Edition of Maxx), swap those elbows onto the Ultimate Maxx. It isn't as aesthetically pleasing as leaving the elbows what we have now officially named "Maxx gray".
We also had to lose the black paint application on the center core part of Maxx's chest:

I took a chance because I wanted to add a new level of detail to a figure of this type. But it isn't possible to do (and maintain the integrity of a paint application of this type) because of the ability to disassemble the figure. I didn't want people to get their kits and have that paint app scratched just from the figure being assembled in the factory (and in turn, easily scratched when you assemble the figure), so we cut the paint application. It also had a tendency to leave black marks on the other parts of the figure. Lesson learned. You might see that paint app again if we ever use the chest as the head of a figure.

If anyone has any questions about these changes, please feel free to send me an e-mail.

I'd rather have the figure be great and delayed a month than to rush something to you that isn't going to work.

We're working on Cruel to be the next Ultimate Edition. More info on that project soon, as well as the debut of the Chronicler Mordles!

Classic Maxx samples are in!

What a wild ride it has been.

When I started the process of bringing back Robo Force with Matt Doughty and my partners in Toyfinity, I had visions of a Maxx which was painted well beyond what Ideal could (or would) do in the 80s. And now he is here.

I'm proud to say I am very pleased with this early sample. Now, some revisions have to be made; this is the first time we have detailed lined Maxx, and there are some areas which need revision from this sample. The elbows you see here are placeholders on the Ultimate Edition - the final ones will be the same highlight grey from the rest of the figure. I'll keep you updated as to when we might expect the full order to arrive in the US (we might miss Christmas on this guy), along with some behind-the-scenes pics of the work that goes into reviewing a sample.
Painting a figure this small with so much paint has been a big experiment. If we do more Ultimate figures in the future, there are a few paint apps on this figure which may not ever be replicated - so this guy is going to be unique even if demand rose to make him again.
I think the level of paint has thrown some people, because you just don't get a lot of figures in this scale which are so heavily painted. The chest was a particular challenge - the original Maxx had a very specific stickered chest which made it easy to put color in whatever patterns they wanted. I think we had over ten revisions of the chest pattern before picking the one you see above.

Keep an eye on my Instagram (@toyfinity) for more quick pics of the figure with other figures, as well as more Toyfinity fun.