fatcow Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 Hey guys! As you may have read in the other thread, we decided to go with the name grounhog suggested for our alternative fitness facility. RetroActive should be opening sometime in September of this year and we are very excited about the project. I want to chronicle the construction, brand creation process and eventual opening of the gym on this forum and while I have been a member of many other online communities, I have yet to come across such a pleasant mix of the traditional fanboy with actual real world intelligence and experience. Thank you to everyone who helped in the other thread ... here we go!!! Things we are still working on figuring out, THE DECOR! We have a general theme we are going with, and it is a broaaaad one. Retro toys, vintage furniture , comic books, movies and music. So far I have planned a lot of wall art, some posters Zach at DST was kind enough to link me to, and plenty of comic/movie related unique fine art pieces. We also have Luke ( from Luke's toy store ) possibly getting his own display case ( thinking of dark polished wood with a nice metal plate with www.lukestoystore.com on it ) with some of his customs. I have a modest collection of DC mates and will doing a display with them, not sure how that will work. I also have a a custom hal jordan, kyle raynor and green lantern sinestro along with the dc lantern mates so I'm thinking of doing a seperate lanern display and possibly buying a replica GL or a set of all the different rings to display. A friend of a friend is selling me a back to the future replica hoverboard. ( LOOKS AMAZING ) We have money to spend, but I am confused on how to cover surface area with cool looking items that don't break the bank. Also I am turning to the internet for advice because being a massive fanboy it is hard not to decorate a place of business like I would my own hobby room! Anyone who has any suggestions regarding decor? Links to cool or cheap items? Prop replicas? 12 inch figures? Statues...anything that you think would be aesthetically interesting PLEASE send it my way. We are also looking at music, movies and tv items but since most people here as far as I know are isolated to toys and comic book collecting I didn't ask. If I'm wrong please feel free to speak up. Pretty excited about this guys, we have just placed an order for our first batch of equipment that will be going straight into a storage unit. Hope everyone has a wonderful day and this message isn't too annoyingly happy or needy. p.s. Still in search for BB gators ( ANYONE?...couldn't help myself ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karamazov80 Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 (edited) Congrats to the Minced Pig on choosing the name! Good luck with it, FatCow. Edited May 4, 2012 by karamazov80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcastick Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 (edited) Best wishes FatCow, hope it all turns out for you! How about a display where folks can send you custom minimates, where it can show off that person's work, minimates and characters in general? Each can get a small name cards with character name, artist's name and their website. And maybe each card can get a QR code that goes to an article about that character, i would suggest a wikipedia article. Just an idea, thought I'd throw that out there. Edited May 4, 2012 by jcastick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
groundhog7s Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 (edited) What an honor to have a place named after my suggestion. Of course, if the place goes bankrupt, I'm sure I'll be the one to blame. Now I'm glad I didn't suggest the name I had originally planned, Squirrel Girl Fitness Center: A place to work your nuts off. Where exactly are you going to be located? I'm sure this will be a stop on next years trip to C2E2. Edited May 4, 2012 by groundhog7s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatcow Posted May 4, 2012 Author Share Posted May 4, 2012 What an honor to have a place named after my suggestion. Of course, if the place goes bankrupt, I'm sure I'll be the one to blame. Now I'm glad I didn't suggest the name I had originally planned, Squirrel Girl Fitness Center: A place to work your nuts off. Where exactly are you going to be located? I'm sure this will be a stop on next years trip to C2E2. Wicker Park most likely. You guys will HAVE to stop by! c2e2 is my new favorite yearly event. And to the earlier idea, its GENIUS. How do I get customizers involved though? What sort of incentive do I offer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcastick Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 I would say just get the word out that you are looking for customizers to submit their work to you for display at your gym.....hell, doesn't even have to be limited to minimates, have a shelf, section, own display for statues, larger scale figures. Find folks who would want to do murals, paintings or other types of wall art of different genres of retro to current characters from movies, comics or cartoons. I, for one, wouldn't need an incentive..... just having my work on display and something showing where folks could see more would be incentive enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatcow Posted May 5, 2012 Author Share Posted May 5, 2012 I would say just get the word out that you are looking for customizers to submit their work to you for display at your gym.....hell, doesn't even have to be limited to minimates, have a shelf, section, own display for statues, larger scale figures. Find folks who would want to do murals, paintings or other types of wall art of different genres of retro to current characters from movies, comics or cartoons. I, for one, wouldn't need an incentive..... just having my work on display and something showing where folks could see more would be incentive enough. Well JCA I guess you are the first one aboard! Haha. Congratulations? I had an idea...which I think is complicated but a lot cheaper than buying a 3,000 dollar life size statue. It involved dressing mannequins in premium retail costumes and using those as "life size" statues...anyone think this is workable? Any costumes that would work particular well with this...totally out of my element here. I have never had the kind of money have as start up capital for the gym to spend on my own hobbies, or well I have but its been spent on taking care of the family etc. But now I get to decorate a gym ( one of my passions ) with another one of my life-long pastimes ... so trying not to make it look like my ideal hobby room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatcow Posted May 5, 2012 Author Share Posted May 5, 2012 NEW IDEA So I was planning a display of minimates, since I love them and they are visually appealing. I want to build a minimate gym...and have all my DC/marvel and bb mates working out in it. Anyone have any suggestions on what to use? clay? can i buy premade stuff? anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punisher Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 I would definitely look for dollhouse items at stores like hobbylobby or online. Also i would be glad to donate a few minimate posters and things and offer some customs to display! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatcow Posted May 5, 2012 Author Share Posted May 5, 2012 I would definitely look for dollhouse items at stores like hobbylobby or online. Also i would be glad to donate a few minimate posters and things and offer some customs to display! finding a gym for minimates is harder than i thought Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSTZach Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 WWE figures used to come with great barbells and dumbbells (do they still call them that?). Some of those might work at a smaller scale... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcastick Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 http://www.mindspring.com/~gminiatures/ http://www.mindspring.com/~gminiatures/weightequip.htm Saw these online....might work for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatcow Posted June 21, 2012 Author Share Posted June 21, 2012 Wow, its been a while since I updated this, not sure if anyone is interested but I've been hard at work and we are a few months away from opening. I will upload more pics as we progress, still need to get together more minimates for our huge minimate display/front desk piece. We are planning on using some lego buildings not quite sure what. Among assorted props we have a cap america shield, thor hammer, iron man helmet replica, back to the future hover board, famous movie license plates, batman cowl, a green lantern, various movie posters and comic cels. If anyone has any cheap toys ( old or new ) to suggest that are particularly nice look and big enough to display in a small or medium number as opposed to the amount of mates we need, it would be greatly appreciated. In addition to this we have the best personal and group training in Chicago! Woop! Ready to get this going and help fuel my geekery. Thanks again to everyone on MMMV who has been so supportive of me starting a new business, I truly appreciate the wisdom everyone offers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellpop Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Nice logo. One decor suggestion: the Batman Black and White Statues. There's a bunch of them (at least a dozen) so you could scatter them about; they're all by different artists, so they're unique, but they're all Batman in grey tones, so they tie together. As far as reaching out to the wider geek community, I'd really suggest contacting Dan Pickett (AKA Julius Marx), the head honcho at Action Figure Insider. He's a really nice guy, and really well-connected, and might be able to hook you up with some helpful contacts. He's also a Minimate fan, so you know he's good people.:biggrin: Here's the AFI contact page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatcow Posted June 21, 2012 Author Share Posted June 21, 2012 Nice logo. One decor suggestion: the Batman Black and White Statues. There's a bunch of them (at least a dozen) so you could scatter them about; they're all by different artists, so they're unique, but they're all Batman in grey tones, so they tie together. As far as reaching out to the wider geek community, I'd really suggest contacting Dan Pickett (AKA Julius Marx), the head honcho at Action Figure Insider. He's a really nice guy, and really well-connected, and might be able to hook you up with some helpful contacts. He's also a Minimate fan, so you know he's good people.:biggrin: Here's the AFI contact page. You sir are awesome! I will definitely get in touch with AFI. I will look for these statues right now, eBay has been our primary source of prop and decor procurement in terms of movie replicas and such so hopefully I can find some deals on there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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