Notices by Andrew (Television Executive) (ajroach42@retro.social), page 2

So we're getting all our old resin cast figures back in to production as injection molded toys.

We're building gang molds for our keshi style figures so we can make 4 or 5 of them at a time.

We found a plastics manufacturer local to us who helped us create a new plastic compound for toymaking, which is just a wild thing to write down and has the potential to genuinely upset the way toys are made, if we can get a few more details worked out.

We've developed a few new techniques for coloring our plastics, and built ourselves a new, much heavier duty injection molding machine, and Sundog has gotten pretty dang good at modeling up new molds.

And we've got a few new designers who have decided to partner with us, so we'll have even more sculpts very soon.

Anyone here have any experience with NY Toy Fair as an attendee or an exhibitor?

We're considering taking Mountain Town Toys to Toy Fair in 2026, both as a way to get our lines in the hands of retail buyers and customers, but also to get our manufacturing services and design services and new plastics in front of other designers, as a boutique option for smaller runs, as an alternative to PVC toys and overseas factories.

This seems like an ambitious thing to try for, but I can't tell if it's Ambitious like a thing we could reach or "Ambitious" like something we shouldn't actually try to do.

So, any experience with toy fair? Wanna talk about it?

And there's so much R&D happening. So much R&D. We're trying new techniques and material every week.

We've got plans to try a bunch more!

Which leaves me with a question:

Watch out spacehawk!

I live a weird life these days.

Spent no less than 20 minutes this morning uninstalling what I can only describe as ransomware pretending to be a trackpad driver.

I'm glad I don't use apple hardware on a regular basis, and even more glad I don't have any windows machines in my personal life.

If you find yourself needing windows drivers for an old Macbook pro trackpad, I highly recommend avoiding trackpad++ which is a scam disguised as a device driver that attempts to disable your system when you uninstall it.

There's a decent open source driver called mac-precision-touchpad. If you search "uninstall trackpad++" it will be the first result. That's telling right?

It's apparently "bring your sorority to the mountains" day.

I would like to hire someone to make some milled alluminum molds into which I can inject molten plastic.

I have had very little luck finding someone who is willing to do this kind of work for toy manufacuring. A few firms who appear to specialize in it ghosted us after seeing our files (which, yes. Okay. They were complex sculpts. But we can go simpler! I'm flexible! Just talk to me!)

I'm based in the US, and would prefer to work with a person or a small business.

Do you know anyone who wants to take on some fiddly milling projects to help us bring some toys to life?

Big old theater a few towns over is doing metropolis with live organ accompaniment towards the end of next month.

I think I might go see it, if I can scrounge up any other interested parties.

Eventually, we'll make things that are playmobil inspired skypirate toys, and skypirate inspired other things, and start making not-playmobil inspired Skypirate toys, and not Skypirate inspired playmobil style toys, and other other things that have nothing to do with either of those things.

Eventually.

But, for now, we've figured out how to make some damn fine toys, directly recycled from consumer trash and industrial waste, and we're going to put them up for sale soon!

All the characters are CC-BY-SA, all the stories we're working with are either CC-BY-SA or in the public domain.

We're going the distance, it's all coming together. I couldn't be more excited.

So! If you want some hand made, recycled, #SkyPirate #actionFigures to bring and spread some joy in your life or the lives of people around you:

1) Keep your eyes pealed, we'll be doing a big announcement post, and a video ad, and some other stuff within 10 days, when we launch the ordering portal on the website.

2) Go ahead and let me know! Reply here or send me a DM and I'll get your name on the list and reach back out when the toys are ready.

ALRIGHT!

HERE WE GO!

We're making action figures! and we're mostly using recycled plastics!

Here's the first release candidate of a #Skypirate action figure for our #Skypirates Playset which we're building for #assemblyRequired, which is Feb 1st and 2nd (leaving in 5 days!!.)

We still have a bunch of work to do to finish assembling and painting the action figures, getting the playsets in order, and doing all the packaging, before the show.

There are still some minor changes to come, both before this upcoming show and after, but this gives you a general idea of what the figures will look like.

We're injection molding these action figures.

We're printing the molds in water washable resin (hopefully, one day soon we'll graduate to something plant based, but that's for another day.)

The toys are based on characters from 1910s literature and film. You can see some of those films on our Television network (which is powered by, among other things, peertube. Hi @video)

Check the playlist: https://vod.newellijay.tv/w/p/nQmSoz1U7RUUVqSLQdeGn2

These action figures were designed by @djsundog and manufactured at the #EllijayMakerspace.

The action figures are made out low density polyethylene, that's the stuff Milk Jugs are made of. Sometimes we make them out of milk jugs, sometimes we make them out of industrial regrinds, sometimes we make them out of fuse-beads (which are themselves made out of industrial regrinds.)

If everything goes to plan, tomorrow I should have the final #handmade #ActionFigures finished and ready to package.

I might still need to do some cleanup and detail work. We'll see how long my wife wants to hang out at the studio, and if I manage to finish it all.

That leaves Tuesday for finishing whatever I don't finish tomorrow + designing and printing the packaging. Then Wednesday and Thursday will be about finishing up our promotional materials, assembling the playsets, flashing our gameboy games, building the landing pages, making our business cards, and designing our table displays.

Anyway, if you're looking for some #revolutionaryJoy,

Sundog and I have built a whole universe of skypirates. We have action figures, we have an in universe newspaper, we have dossiers on pirates that have not been produced yet.

We have plans for video games (and I thought of a method for building a second today that ... well it's almost too good not to do. If I don't forget, I've probably nerdsniped myself in to it) and I have half a board game finished that I'll revisit soon.

We have 100+ year old movies, including #filibus, which you must see if you haven't. It's an absolute delight.

And we're going to make many more things. Maybe more videos, maybe comic books, maybe a short story collection, or even a pulp novel?

I went looking for ways to give my energy, attention, and money to real people instead of billionaires.

To keep that money, energy, and attention in my community, rather than letting it be exported.

And ...

Well, I found some ways to do that! But they were small. I was still mostly dependent on Google or Netflix or fucking Amazon for entertainment (and even when no one was getting paid, I was giving my time and energy and attention to things that were produced to reinforce ideologies that I find repugnant. Copaganda is a problem, and it's everywhere!) I was still mostly dependent on some big box retailer for books. I was still eating at corporate owned restaurants.

It was hard.

So, you know, be the change you want to see in the world.

Now I run a bookstore, and I stock a *ton* of self published books (hell, I even published a few myself!) I run a record label, and I help people release music. (People like @DoctorDeathray who's music you should listen to), I make food for our community, I run a television network, and I make toys. I run a pottery studio, I host a market for local artists. I buy my stuff used when I can.

I do these things because it means that other people can spend their time and attention and energy and money on the things I help to release instead of enriching a billionaire or spreading their ideology.

(It's not perfect! Some of the things I use still come from billionaires. No ethical consumption under capitalism, right? But I'm doing my best to provide more ethical alternatives.)

I feel much better about toymaking today than I have any day since last week.

We still don't have the bodies for our action figures ready, but I think we have a technique that will get us some tomorrow.

I finished cleaning the keshi figures and getting them ready. I haven't packaged them yet, but we've got several dozen that look good. 15 - 20 that look okay, and 20 or so that I'll end up shredding and reusing.

We have 25 gameboy cartridges with packaging. I have 40 in universe newspapers about sky pirates. I have posters on canvas, and cheaper posters on cardstock.

I still have about 25 resin cast toys in packaging left over from the last show.

We're making new action figures. I have good heads and good legs for our action figures. We should have bodies soon. We have boats for the playsets, and we've started painting them. The paint looks really good.

Tomorrow, we should have bodies and arms, and then we'll start to work on accessories. Swords, gliders, grappling hooks.

We're doing good! It's going well!

Now, if we can't get torso's figured out tomorrow I'm going to start resorting to wacky measures. There are some alternative ways that we can go about making the bodies.

I think what we're planning right now is our best option. It's the one I've been the most confident about one of our mold designs.

But, if it doesn't work, there are some techniques that I've used in the past that do work. I don't think the results will be as good, or as fast but I know it'd work, so if I have to go that route I will.

Either way, we'll have some action figures by Monday and they'll be great!