Monday, March 24, 2014

State of the Horde Address: The Final Post

Well, that's it. Stick a fork in me. I'm done.

After over a year of sporadic blogging and constantly feeling guilty that I let something I worked so hard to build atrophy like a limb without a blood supply, I've come to the conclusion that it's time to let it all go.

The truth is, ever since I started working my current job, which in turn has inspired other extracurricular creative endeavors, I just haven't really had the time to devote to the blog. Also, I honestly feel that the nature of the internet has changed, at least from my point of view, and blogging, an activity that I once loved dearly, just isn't very efficient in regards to how long it can take to express something and how much reach one can achieve. Basically, the payout isn't worth the effort. 

I find myself using more and more social media outlets to express my love for all things geeky and I can reach way more fellow geeks in a fraction of the time, inciting far more discussion and more easily find new faces with which to share my thoughts and whatnot.

I guess that blogging in general just feels a little too archaic and too much like a chore to me these days.

I had big dreams for the Dork Horde, with the idea of creating a sort of "clubhouse" where people could join up and we could all promote each other's blogs and maybe one day have meet ups with t-shirts and all that fun stuff. But those dreams were born out of a time when I worked from home and had tons of spare time to devote to the idea. Now, all of my energy goes toward other things. And I have to just accept that.

I sincerely thank everyone for sticking around and reading my ramblings over the years, whether you were readers of the now defunct Geek Orthodox, or stuck with me through my Hey! Look at... experiments or discovered the Dork Horde more recently.

Just because I'm stopping my blogging efforts, I'm still all over the internet and still sharing geeky thoughts and images. If you're so inclined, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram at @reisobrien where I post all kinds of stuff.

You can also see my side projects at bimtoy.storenvy.com and follow my BimToy work on the BimToy Facebook page. 

Just know that I keep my personal Facebook page very private, only adding close friends and family. Sorry. There's a million other ways to stay in touch with me, though.

Anyhoo, that pretty much ends the blog. I won't be deleting it, like I did with Geek Orthodox, so it'll be here for posterity. But I am disabling comments, because quite frankly I'm sick of moderating the spam comments.

So that's that. I'm officially done with blogging. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Behold... Occulticus!

Here's a shot of my latest kitbash custom figure, "Occulticus", which will be available only at Emerald City Comic Con. Limited edition of 5, signed and numbered, bagged with a header card, all for a measly $20! 

Pluggity, plug, plug!


Thursday, February 20, 2014

Ghostbusters Pops!

Out of all of the toys I've designed since joining the Funko team, these Ghostbusters Pops may be my absolute favorite. I know everyone has seen these all over the web but I'm feeling a little braggy.

Also, this post is actually my way of testing out the Blogger app on iPad. Who knows, maybe it'll help me blog more. ;)

Now to test this "insert picture" button...






Okay, now to launch this bad boy and see how it looks. 





Friday, February 14, 2014

The Papercraft Star Wars That Never Was!

Just clearing out my desk for the big move (Funko is moving to a larger facility) and I came across this mock-up for a papercraft Darth Vader that we pitched a while back, but was never produced. I thought he turned out pretty cute. Too bad he'll remain one-of-a-kind!




Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Kookycraft Paper Action Figures That ALMOST Were!

Hi gang! Been a good long while since I did a good old fashioned blog post and a Facebook conversation from this morning got me thinking about the Mixo Kookycraft paper figures I designed a while back.

Some of you may remember these from a couple of years ago, before I got hired on at Funko.

They were a cool idea, but never really caught on, despite our pushing them as hard as we could at SDCC 2012. Oh well. They led to me landing my dream job, so all's well that ends well, I guess.

In total, we released 4 different DC superheroes...


And 2 Masters of the Universe figures...



But what I thought would be a hoot is to look at the ones that got designed, but never put into production! So here we go...

For the DC series, we had planned to start getting into villains and I actually designed a Joker and Riddler...



For MOTU, Beastman and Teela were next on the list...


We were planning a foray into the world of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers...






 And for you music fans, we even looked into having KISS figures made, as seen here in my hand-built mock-ups...


And I olny got as far as making a John Lennon one for our Beatles Yellow Submarine pitch...


And that's about as far as we got.

Looking back, this was a trying time for me, but also very exciting as I daily faced a new adventure in the worlds of licensing and design.

I sort of wish these had taken off better, but if that had happened, I may not have ended up where I am now, so it's probably all for the best.

Given the choice between paper or plastic, I'll take plastic any day. :)

Check back soon, when I'll take a look back at our Boxos line of mini stylized papercraft figures that almost were!