blogzilly

It’s a great set. Hope to pick it up.

Forgot to mention the instagram page is @creatusmaximus. I think the one you found is the one I use for family stuff. My bad.

Sorry I missed this. If there’s a notification system, I don’t know how to activate it. 1. On this question I’d like to pause it. I do some retrospectives on my Instagram and at some point plan to cover these, and the dropping of 2-packs, the dropping of blisters (shifting to blind boxes and how it affected the line-up for a revised S2) and all that I need to coordinate all the data points because there is a lot of it and I’m trying to be accurate. DH was a two-pack blister carded line also in the initial design, also pretty much obliterated as a product that would be viable here by the Sales decision to go blind box. 2. Two words. Magnifying Glass! 😆 Skinner would have had his desk, it was design via 3D model, but the blind box decision killed that possibility. Putting my name on the toilet was a very self-serving thing to do. I rarely did anything like it, but since X-Files was my favorite Sci-Fi show at that time…I indulged. Not ashamed to admit it was purely a self-indulgent thing. There was a system or reason for each X-File. I’d need to go through each one though and I don’t have them spread out. But I did have a rationale. There were some canceled figs, canceled accessories, junk like that. Happens in every line. 3. Things I’ve worked on that stand out? The Muppets seem to the most with people. I learned the most by working on it since it went so deep. My favorite S1 PALz is probably Scully…mainly because she’s my favorite character. I’m still a fan at heart, so.. As for what would I have had as special limited stuff? None. I’m actually not in favor of a lot of that ultra rare stuff. I’d rather have the figure variants available to everybody who wants them. hope I answered enough of what you wanted to get answers for. Sorry to not hit everything.

Thanks. It’s totally cool. Having opinions and expressing them is what the Internet is, yeah? Or a big part of it anyway. I’m a bit of an open book online and off, and I wish I’d been around here when the discussions were going on, I could have participated and likely answered some questions that might have curtailed a lot of speculation. That’s mostly where the bulk of it sprang from…the lack of knowledge about me, my intentions, etc. Unfortunately at the time I’d pulled myself offline when my business shat the bed then when I came back I was primarily hanging in disability circles, not in collectibles, and most of my activity was disability related. It’s only been within the past couple of years that I’ve gone back to embracing the toy past online, on social media mainly. My son (the one who became disabled, who I essentially left the industry for) is older now (nearly 15) and he’s a bit easier to manage day to day. Anyway…I haven’t yet figured out how to get notified when there’s new posts here. I try to check in when I can. Thanks for reaching out I appreciate it.

It reminded me of the animated toy, which mainly prompted the question. I understand the squat look you want to get. The team transport idea I think is great (I liked the idea of 3 Cylons in the Raider, for example). I don’t have criticisms, it’s your project, your design, and it could be done a lot of different ways. I appreciate hearing a bit of your thought process, it makes the watching of the evolution of it that much more interesting.

Have you shown what Blackbird you’re trying to model this after? I understand that you’re endgame is to make a Chibi kind of thing, but what’s the basic reference you are using?

Holeeee…sheet. That index…there’s so many I didn’t know about. SO MANY…just like some Minimates that got made over the past 10 years. I thought I was paying attention…I SO wasn’t paying attention.

This post reinforces for me why Kubrick has been an on-again/off-again relationship with me since 2001. Sometimes I look at them at think they’re incredibly awesome, others I’m shaking my head. Yet I buy them. And it’s only due to proximity (the fact that they’re not widely available in the US) that I don’t have a lot more. Always liked the Pantone ones though. This warehouse…the visions in my head are something out of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Is there a Kubrick database as thick as this Minimates one? The one on the Kubrick website is subpar.

“In 2000 Medicom founder Tatsuhiko Akashi and a former LEGO employee created the Kubrick, 2.5-inch (6cm) Minifigures inspired by those included with LEGO building sets. The brand name Kubrick (and its original logo style) was also created in honor of film director Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick is a hybridization of “Kyu,” Japanese kanji for the number 9, and the English word ‘brick’. Nine refers to the number of Kubrick standard body parts, brick is a reference to Kubrick’s similarity to Lego Minifigures.” Not sure if I’m 100% accurate (because the Internet isn’t 100%), but I started using it in listings of extra Kubs I’ve got a couple of years ago, and so far no one has told me to brick off. I’m curious…what’s a “shockingly shite” Kubrick? Can you pick a couple?

I’d like to get some of those. And that 400% Ultraman is pretty sweet.

I didn’t know…and I have no idea how I got it or even why. No recollection whatsoever of having purchased it. But my memory has been getting really weird like that. Too much toy buying over the years. After a while it starts to look like one huge mass with a collective consciousness built to destroy me, particularly every time I’ve had to move.

I missed this somehow (still learning the forum’s ins and outs). Spoiler was the daughter of Cluemaster. Starts as a baddie, becomes good, ends up being the fourth Robin, then eventually becomes the third Batgirl. This was all pre-52. So… but I think she was brought back post 52 in some way. Honestly the continuities in both Marvel and DC are so convoluted now it makes my head hurt to even try to talk about it. It’s even tougher with younger people who have completely different sensibilities based on where they “start” in their absorption of comics mythology. That’s been made even more poignant these days with films being considered by some to be a New Gospel. To each their own. There are some Kubrick figures I simply gave up hope on. It was better that way. Though…I did recently make a friend in Japan, and since I started getting the tickle again maybe I’d have better luck going down that road. What’s your top 3 most awesome “gets” in your Kub-hunting? Oh and speaking of…do you recognize this one? I’m drawing a blank of who he is…

Here’s a shot of the final factory shots I had done back when I was still considering doing an 80s toys satire line that would have needed a new title. The working one was…oh it was just so dumb. But it was these colorized figs that led to their inclusion in Get Bit! the card game.

Hey, I do know what those are, I think. In 2006 I got the go ahead from the company that acquired Palisades to use the body design from PALz for a block figure line. At the time I thought I’d be able to get the tools, turns out I couldn’t get full access, so I paid for a new tool. That was a dumb decision. I should have designed a different product but I wasn’t thinking very clearly at the time. It was a very difficult couple of years. To test the tool I’d run off a couple of sets of brightly colored factory shots. They ultimately worked. ‘Not long after a former co-worker saw me messing with them and asked me about using them in a game he was trying to do, an indie game called Get Bit!. A card game that had been using cards but he wanted to have a play element with figures that lost appendages. I needed the income because things weren’t going well so I said “Yeah, sure.” and convinced the factory to run a very short run (couple of hundred, really not many) of these brightly colored PALz-like figures. He paid me and I got packaging credit. So he puts them in the game and it really improves the overall experience and gameplay and later sold a larger company revives it via Kickstarter, though they added a shark that they ripped off from LEGO after changing a couple of bits. They later created more versions of the game and kinda cut me out of the entire equation, even though some of the original Robot Martini versions of the game (with my name on the box) were in their campaign as rewards. I spoke to the owner, was promised things I never received (like comps and packaging credit) despite him telling me they were tooling the fig on their own (yet the rumor in China (I knew people) was that somehow they got access to the tool I paid for. He was just covering bases and making sure they had my blessing (likely seeing if I was going to have a problem, legally speaking, with the actions they were about to take). Hey…shit happens, people get f—d over all the time in the industry. This particular time wasn’t even the worst thing that ever happened to me, not by a long shot. I really wasn’t going to survive long enough as a small toy company to get anything going on my own, I’d failed hard getting things started. I was smart enough to realize that. Anyway, more versions of Get Bit! did end up getting made, some were laughingly shitty, IMHO. I’ve never seen a physical copy up close but photos are so awful. Artwork is really unprofessional on their Collectors Edition. Looks like a bunch of grade school art. High likelihood that those figs you have are from some version of the Get Bit! game. Attaching pics of the first version (which I also didn’t get, and I was supposed to get comps from the cool kids…funny that!)

I feel a bit weird answering this from November of last year, but I’ve got a couple of HGs on my Kubrick list… First is Beaker, from the Muppets series. Shortpacking him was the crime of the century. The other I’ve wanted for quite some time and never been able to locate is Spoiler from Batman. Theres a carded version of Harry Potter in a Quidditch outfit I only recently found out about, it’s been added to my radar.

Oh yeah…I’m starting to have totall recall on how hard it was to keep track of all the different releases now. Lol. Especially the Walgreen’s and TRU packs and such in Marvel. Turns out I did buy that Excalibur set when it came out, just forgot I did, but the figures are here. No Kang anywhere so I must have missed those packs. Past several days I’ve been doing some assessing and sorting. There were some TWD, Aliens, Tomb Raider packs, all unopened that I completely forgot I bought. Makes sense according to some of the dates on the packs, almost all pre 2015 when things in life started taking significant lefts so I wasn’t collecting as vociferously. The last time I bought a Marvel pack in the store was in 2016. It was a 2-pack of Dr. Strange and The Ancient One. I like Trekker42’s idea of having a collection of one each of a favorite character. I think I’ll start whittling some of these down from what I got here and approach it that way.

I’m guessing there’s some super scarcity to those two I haven’t yet begun to comprehend?

If I could offer a tip…use heat instead of cold. Plastic polymers, when frozen, become brittle and that temp shift can result in micro fractures in the material. The act of separating those parts could result in shattering pieces of plastic away from the main structure or damaging some of the linked internal chains that may not be noticeable now but could affect the figure down the road (warping, discoloration, leeching binders, etc). First thing is to try to figure out what you think might be causing the sticking. If you think it’s plastic to plastic (bad fit or something) then gently increasing the heat is a good bet. But if it’s dried paint you’d need to try something else. Some methods work better than others and they depend on plastic types and amount of paint and a person’s, I dunno…their overall feelings about risk/reward! 😆 I’ve got some chemicals in my garage I use, I could go take a look when I get a chance. But they’re last resort stuff honestly. The first thing I usually do is bathe the thing in hot soapy Dawn water, washing with a fine brush around and into the cracks around that helmet. After patting dry, as gently but firmly as possible Vice clamp the helmet or hair (covered with cloth), insert something like precision needle nose in the neck hole so I can work a grip and do my best to turn the head inside the helmet or hair. That usually does the least damage and works on light paint sticking.

That’s the one. Wow…it’s so huge.

Thanks!

That’s so interesting. Smart Bombs are one of those things that at the time seemed like an OK idea to pursue but in hindsight I wish I hadn’t. Or rather I wish I’d pursued something else first. It’s quite a long story, but the result of it was that making those sank any chance I had to grow my own thing. It’s likely for the best when I look at everything that followed in my life. I used to collect all kinds of block figures too, BHM…Kubrick, Be@rbrick, MM, Dragon, anything I could find. Gorton's puts out a promotional block figure of their fisherman mascot? I’m tracking it down. Somewhere amidst all that, maybe 2025-ish, I zeroed in on LEGO and focused on it almost entirely. That’s still my primary thing that I’ll pick up, if I have any extra money. I’m seriously considering now dumping all collectibles that aren’t block figures and building the ultimate Blockopolis. I thought there was a checklist-style database somewhere around here, though I might be mis-remembering a lot of it. It’s been quite a few years. Gotta admit…sometimes I wish I hadn’t stopped on Minimates. Now I realize how there’s just no way I could ever jump back in. There’s so many. That’s a good thing for them though.

Hi. I was browsing around the web, looking for some info on PALz, and came upon this post. Hadn’t been here in a long while, though I used to swing by more regularly while I was much more heavily into collecting Minimates, Minifigures and Kubrick figures. I never felt very comfortable about joining into any of the ongoing conversations. It has been my experience that trying to explain myself or my actions after I left Palisades (I’m that Ken guy, the one who was responsible for all the horror) has never been very easy to those who have their minds made up. I want to address, specifically, the blind box issue however. I can tell you that on the Product Development side of things, none of us wanted it. We all knew what many of you have stated within this forum…that it doesn’t fly well here in the states. Seems to get a pass with LEGO CMF, but that’s the only exception I know of. Of course the baggies…you can feel those out (the current boxes not so much, so that’s going to be an issue for them. Or is it? It will be interesting to see.) Bottom line is that the Sales Department pushed for it and got it. Why? The company wasn’t doing very well. Smaller retailers, which were keeping the lights on, were rapidly going away. To incentivize them Sales thought that this was a viable solution. It didn’t address the long term problem. It was only a short term fix, which was selling the units to the retailers. It still didn’t sell enough units. It still didn’t sell enough overall product or get consumer exposure and interest. It didn’t do a lot of things. It wasn’t just PALz that suffered. Army of Darkness did also, that got flipped to blind packaging from Series 1 to Series 2. That’s not the only problem with PALz, the blind box, but it’s realistically the biggest. The products in that category which released in blister packs did better than those that did not. X-Files was originally supposed to be 2-packs on cards. So was Die Hard. That was the format moving forward from Buffy. But things change and you try to respond to what you’re asked to do as best you can. I do appreciate what you said about the attention to detail though. Kim (the assistant in PD) ran Buffy. I ran XF and DH. She was an enormous Buffy fan, I’m an enormous fan of XF and DH. You always hope that fan intensity bleeds out to the people buying the stuff, especially those who know the material as well. EDIT: Typed this in Notes on my iPad. No idea why the text is huge. Sorry about that.