Discussion · bonfire.cafe

@MountainTownToys@retro.social · 5 hours ago

The original plan for our new Soledad figure had been to release her along side the other three Sky Pirates as part of wave one, but the time constraints of the Designer Art Toy Show in August meant that we had to push her release back.

So we had planned to release her right after the show.

And then we had Apple Festival (which turns our small town into an amusement park for most of the month of October) and then we got some client work, which took over our little workshop for a few weeks (big rush job, trying to get toys out in time for Designer Con) and then I looked around and it was November.

And so Soledad joins the crew almost two full months after we had originally planned. Sometimes that's the way of things.

She's here now, and that's what matters.

A Soledad action figure. She's a sky pirate, in a grey costume with dark brown/black boots, light brown skin, and short curly black hair. She's made of plastic.

Mountain Town Toys

@MountainTownToys@retro.social replied · 5 hours ago

Soledad will likely be the last member of our skypirates crew to launch this year.

Current plans have us releasing 9 more characters in this line after the new year, and I'm still working furiously to get our first Sky Pirates playset finished (The Aerie, secret mountain base of The Blackbird.)

We've also got designs in the works for a cutlass and a bottlecap canon, which I hope to bring into production soon.

These things always take longer than I expect, but I think you can agree that these results are better than what we've done before.

Mountain Town Toys

@MountainTownToys@retro.social replied · 4 hours ago

In the meantime, we've got three other sky pirates also available.

Jacques, our french-candian rogue; Bart, engineer of The Blackbird; and Leyla, our homage to Princess Leia.

They're available individually or in a 3 pack: https://www.mountaintowntoys.com/product-tag/sky-pirates/

They don't have all the polish of a professionally produced, factory made toy. This is partially a byproduct of them being the first toys the @djsundog sculpted and the first batch of toys that @ajroach42 assembled and painted by hand, but it's also a fairly intentional statement of purpose.

It's possible for us to produce a more polished, factory perfect look. We have more experienced sculptors in our organization, and we have people with a steadier hand on the brush (heck, we have paint masks and air brushes and even a UV printer.) They're working on some new toys that I think will really wow everyone. When we aim for Perfect toys, they will be.

But I wanted this first batch of characters to feel personal. I wanted to paint them myself, in spite of my unsteady hands. I wanted to ship these early sculpts, in spite of the fact that we could produce things that are technically better.

Because I wanted it to be obvious that this first batch of toys was made by people. Sure, we used some machines. Sure they're injection molded. But we're just normal people, and we decided to do a thing, and by gum we did it.

Two Bart toys, each with different facial hair and different balding patterns.

Jacques, Bart, and Leyla, wearing identical uniforms.

Mountain Town Toys

@MountainTownToys@retro.social replied · 4 hours ago

You put Jacques or Leyla next to Luke or Han or Leia and there's no question that these are the same kinds of toys. Sure, the old Kenner toys might be a hair more polished, but especially on the early figures, it's a pretty minor difference.

And the difference, mostly, is in the quality of the paint job.

But I'm proud as hell of my paint job on these toys. In spite of my long history of fine-motor issues, in spite of my unsteady hands, I painted hundreds of recognizably human characters, and they look pretty dang good.

I understand that this kind of "folk art" (or is it "folk punk art") or "Outsider Art" toy isn't going to be for everyone. We'll have some more traditional fair coming next year.

But these toys are everything I wanted them to be, and I'm just giddy that they exist and that I get to share them with people.

Mountain Town Toys

@MountainTownToys@retro.social replied · 4 hours ago

Anyway, that's enough of me being excited that I get to do this kind of work professionally.

I'll go back to being quiet for a while until we have something else to share.

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