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- September 27, 2008
CRIS ROSE: RUNCIBLE RESIN - THE FUTURE'S "GREEN" MACHINE!
Runcible, Cris Rose's first resin figure! Edition A, a Run of 5 hand cast, hand painted artworks, also attached are a few "work in progress" shots of the moulding process and an initial paint-test.
Runcible is a gentle, nature-loving robot ,who has found himself in a world without humans or robots. Nature has reclaimed the planet, so he tends the plants and animals while trying to find out what happened to the family he was part of...
Each Edition has something different cast into the clear head, the visual representation of what Runcible is thinking of as he has no voice. Edition A has a leaf, the most basic element of plant life.
"I will have all 5 plus a special "Grandfather" one off custom, available for preorder on Sunday 9/28/08 @ 18:00 GMT via my website www.crisrose.co.uk! RRP is £39.99/$74 for the regular release, and £120 for the "Grandfather" version."
For updates on these releases and Cris' other artworks, please check out www.crisrose.co.uk or check out my Flickr at Flickr. He's also on Twitter at www.twitter.com/crisr/. Or he can be reached by email at cris@crisrose.co.uk
Backstory
Runcible was created in London, 2108 - the life's work of one man. He had long realised that the reason why people rejected the idea of intelligent, humanoid, robot companions, was because their cold and emotionless forms always seemed to be hiding something sinister. They couldn't be trusted.
This, combined with the unrealistic energy demands of such complex creations, had stunted robotics for a century and kept the whole of society from moving forward...
His technological solution was brilliant, his social solution simple. Runcible was the first to be powered by a self-repairing Nanomagnetic core, drawing the power he required directly from the earth's magnetic field. No fuel, no pollution, no maintenance required. He was made without a voice or face - instead he was given a giant clear head into which all his thoughts and feelings were clearly projected, meaning that he could never conceal his true thoughts.
The acceptance was instantaneous, and the social effect overwhelming. People no longer feared him as he wasn't an attempt to imitate and replace them.
With unlimited financial backing given to his creator, Runcible would soon be made rendered obsolete. However his creator was very fond of him, and quickly ensured that he would made a permanent member of his family by exercising his newfound power and wealth and having him declared equal to humans in every way. There was still fear though, so a provision was made stipulating that no robot would ever be created equal to man again. Law was passed.
Soon the robots outnumbered humans as Mankind reached a new golden era. With robots taking over basic tasks mankind was free to dedicate himself to higher concerns.
One afternoon, April 2318, Runcible was wandering the family estate deep in the English countryside, tending to the grounds and collecting wood from the forest he himself had planted 200 years previously. He'd been happy to spend his time helping raise subsequent generations of his family, and helping them continue his creator's work. Runcible found himself at the very centre of the forest, where a tree bigger than any other stood. This was the single Oak his creator had planted as a small child, and where he now lay buried inside it's hollow.
It was then that the mistake happened. The blast knocked him to the floor, deactivated. Runcible lay next to his creator in that hollow for 140 years as nature reclaimed the planet.
Runcible was reactivated by a young Deer that nudged his foliage covered body, and he found that mankind was no more. Nothing man-mad had survived intact, except for him, protected by the forest and the mightiest oak. After some basic repairs to his corroded body, he wandered the country looking for a reason why this had happened, but found nothing. So he returned to the Forest and decided that as no humans remained, and it was nature that had saved him, that he should continue to tend to the grounds as he always had and become friends with the animals that inhabited it.
Edition A finds Runcible at this point, 350 years old, decayed and coming to terms with his new existence.
Edition A "Grandfather"
My late Grandfather was the inspiration for Runcible, having worked all his life as a radio repairman. Runcible too is a gentle repairman of limitless ability, so it seems fitting that i should recognise the inspiration that lead to his genesis with a custom to accompany every run.
Edition A "Grandfather" contains an original 1940/50s radio part of my Grandfather's - unique and beautiful in it's own way. I have a limited number of these parts that i'm willing to part with as part of this project, some pristine, some decalyed, but 1 will be incorportated each time an Edition is released.
As you can imagine, the uniqueness and sentimental value of this piece is high.
Future Releases
Runcible Edition B will be available in the next few months as a Run of 10 that will be available exclusively from They Walk Among Us in Richmond, London (www.twau.co.uk).
Around the same time, the second figure, the 3.5" Rotund robot will have his first Edition. Rotund is a little robot, another creation of Runcible's creator, designed specifically for children. He is discovered by Runcible one day, and after several months of searching for parts, repairs and reactivates him! The cost will be at least half that of Runcible, and the runs will be higher.
There will also be a third figure, larger than Runcible, called Reaper...
September 23, 2008
ARGONAUT RESIN NEWS:
What tha!
The Argonaut Resins' backstory:
Editor's note: A little about Argonaut Resin, that answers the questions: Why resin? and Do Cell Phones Kill?
Eric Nocella of Argonaut Resin gave us the low-down on
new high end resin toys:
Me and a few friends are trying something new with limited run hi-end resin toys. I'll be doing most of the sculpting, casting and molding but none of the painting. If we do any paint that will be handled by the artists involved or the resin will be sold in white (or tinted) castings so customizers can do their magic like they do on all the blank DIY vinyl toys that are out there now.
Lately I've been transitioning away from the vinyl stuff because it takes too long to get done (6 - 8 months if you use a factory in China for production) and it has a limited control factor for the artist. With the resin concept we're starting out with simple small one piece mold designs right now that can be painted up quick and in various versions. We'll no longer be stuck to making 100 - 500 pieces all one colorway. The limited resin gives the artist some major freedom to do whatever he or she wants and how many pieces and designs they want. No limitations what so ever, so if they want just a handful of a few different designs they can have it done. We'll even be able to go back to the original design and remodify it on the fly and add and take away features as seen on the CPK line. All the resin toy lines will be very limited to like maybe 10 - 25 (or more if the artist really wants that) pieces give or take, and the designs will get more interesting and cast in various other mediums as we go. The cool factor of this is resin prototypes are used to make the vinyl toys in most cases so I figured why not just stick to that and bypass the vinyl stage? We're even talking about exotic hand made packaging (more on that later).
We currently have a few artist / designers on board other than myself - Jared Deal is one of them and his Halloween project is almost complete. We'll be revealing who the next few artist's are soon hopefully after all the specs for their new designs are settled. I'm trying to keep this affordable as well so artists can take a crack at getting a design out there and not have to spend ridiculous amounts of money and time to do it. There is a catch tho - they have to promote their own design to help it sell. Everything will be sold through the Argonaut Resins online web store: http://argonautresins.bigcartel.com/ and all updates will be featured on the blog: http://argonautsresin.blogspot.com/
As for the CellPhonesKill line - I kept hearing on the news one day that cell phones can do all this damage to us the longer we use them and that at some rate they may even kill us. That made me wonder what a killer cell phone would look look like and I came up with the CPK idea. There will be a few more variants with crazier themes like in Wave 3 (the Static and BlindmansBluff variants). I even named the first wave of color tinted versions after all kinds of dangerous stuff just to mess with folks. No real backstory but a crazy little fun story making light of killer electronics.
As for the Jared Deal Halloween project - Jared's working on the backstory for that and I'll get that info to you as his project developes more.
visit Argonaut Resins Bigcartel Store
Also visit their blogsite Argonaut Resins Blogsite
ARGONAUT RESIN NEWS: CELL PHONES KILL WAVE 1!
CellPhonesKill Wave 1
$20.00
Argonaut Resins first release!!! CellPhonesKill are 4 inch limited edition resin DIY (do it yourself) toys. Pinkeye, Ghost, and Frostbite are from the Wave 1 edition. One of each are available at this time for $20 each.
$20 includes shipping and handling anywhere in the *US.
*Email us for shipping prices outside the US.
Visit Argonaut Resins
August 31, 2008
SUPERGIRL & LARA CROFT!
Welcome back to another reach into the Toybox. We have shown Tonner Doll quite a number of times since the inseption of this column. Well here they are again! First with the San Diego Con exclusive DC Supergirl limited to just 200 pieeces. This is just an exquisite doll. Coming in at almost 16" tall with lots of articulation and a cool outfit this is one not to miss.
Tonner Doll also landed the license for Yowza, check her out. Damn she is hot, armed and hot! You can go here to find out more about Tonner or how to order this version of Lara or other dolls: Tonnerdoll.com See you soon! Toygodd
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