Reactor-88 Blog Has Officially Moved

With the close of my 3-inch Custom Dunny sale (note the Cavemen are still available), I'm officially moving my blog over to my actual domain/webserver here. Note, I am in the process of moving all the posts from this blog over to my new one (yes, it is possible) as well as giving my new blog a new look, so please excuse the mess for a while. I think once everything is all set up, I'll have a Grand Opening post and give away a little button/sticker pack or something fun. So please update your bookmarks, RSS feeds, etc. to my new blog address: http://blog.reactor88.com. See you there!

Time for a Change

So if anyone has been following my blog since my first post (not likely) you'll know I've been meaning to re-vamp my website for a few years now. It was cool back in '06 when I made it, but it's now 2009 and in web time three years is an eternity. I think since early 2007 is when I decided I really needed to start thinking about a refresh, but at that time I was really getting busy with my artwork and custom toys. Needless to say that's been consuming all my time, so even though the website was always on my mind, it was buried far in the back.

Fast forward to late 2008. I started to think I should ditch my Flash site and Blogger blog, and go back to HTML and install Wordpress on my server. Since I'm a web designer and was a Web Developer/E-Commerce Technical Manager at my old job for a handful of years, I also figured there's no excuse for me using a canned blog sitting on someone else's server. Needless to say, the lack of time once again trumped me getting my act together and getting a real Reactor-88 blog, and in turn updating my website.

Now fast forward to two months ago. Seems everyone is opening an Etsy or Big Cartel store. I usually don't have much stuff to sell (most of my work sells through galleries or are direct commissions for clients), but I do like to make custom minis and throw them up for grabs once in a while. I also have a handful of older customs that didn't sell, and I'd like to do some other fun stuff like t-shirts, small prints, and maybe even some original resin figs and other goodies. So I thought it was time for me to look into setting up an e-store. After a little research, it seemed Big Cartel would be the best option for me, though far from perfect. The basic version of their store is free, but it's really limited and didn't have enough functionality for my needs. The pay versions were better, but since I would only put things in my store a few times a year I determined it would actually be a waste of money- and I don't have a lot of money to waste these days...

With that, I figured now was definitely the time to get Wordpress and a nice shopping cart system running on my server. I just finished a big freelance Flash/Web project (and promised myself not to do any more serious freelance web work for a while) and I've already cut way back on the number of art shows I'm doing this year. So 2009 is mainly about commissions and getting this web overhaul completed. I was conerned configuring this stuff and getting it up and running would be a pain, but Media Temple made it super easy with their "1-click" installs of Wordpress and Zen Cart. Thank you Media Temple. Hopefully the local setup will be almost as easy- I'm putting a lot of my faith in MAMP...
So I will officially be moving my blog to my own domain/server soon, as well as setting up a real webstore which I'm guessing will take a bit longer. Following will be a new website- possibly Flash again, or maybe a mix of DHTML/AJAX/Flash- I've yet to figure that out.

So to make a long story short, this will be one of the final posts on this blog. I will make a final announcement here when the switch over happens. But some of you might be wondering, "Hey, when/where are you going to sell that last batch of custom Dunnys you made?" "This was the only reason I read your dumb blog!" Don't worry, I will be posting information on how to purchase the Dunnys on this blog soon. Thanks for your patience.

New Custom Minis for My Big Cartel Store

So last year I started to check out basic webstores. Since most of the customs I paint are commissions and I don't really have any merchandise, there has never really been a reason for me to have a real webstore. I have a store section on my website, but it has no store-like functionality, which is kind of lame. I figure another reason to have a store is just to get the added SEO brownie points, since my regular website is all Flash-based. I do have some old customs laying around that it would be nice to get them up somewhere where people might actually see them. Finally, some of these webstores are FREE (for a basic setup), so there's really no reason not to have one- right? So with my research I decided on Big Cartel- mainly because everybody else I know has one. Maybe there's some other good options, but I don't know about them.
Now that I've decided which webstore I would use, it's now a matter of setting it all up and the most important thing- having something to sell. So since the beginning of the year I've been trying to sneak in a little time to paint some custom minis (while I work commissions and shows.) The above picture is what I've been working on for the webstore. All 3-inch Dunny customs (my mini platform of choice)- there's Caveman Dunnys (Tog & Bonk), a Spade-Skull Dunny, Yokai Dunny, and a Pug Dunny. Note the Pug Dunny won't be for sale- he is a tribute to my oldest Pug Pancho that recently passed away, so that custom will be kept in the family.
If all goes well, my webstore should be up and running by the end of the week. I'll make an announcement here and on Twitter when it's up.

Spring Cleaning

So while most folks were enjoying the long weekend, somehow I got into a spring cleaning mode. Granted I did partake in a pool party/BBQ at my folk's house on Sat, but beyond that I was getting cleaned up and organized. It started with the desire to clean up the mountain of toy boxes that had taken over the space under my work/painting table. It had gotten so bad that I could not even sit in front of the table because there were so many boxes under there. Since about 50% of the toys I buy are for painting over, I ended up throwing out a lot of the boxes, but the rest I took down to the storage space (along with a bunch of other random things.) Once the bottom of the work table was cleared out, it was time to tackle the top. I can't remember the last time I was able to actually do any work on my work table- the mound of junk that had accumulated on top was a good foot high and completely covered it. While in the process of doing this, I got sidetracked a bit by cataloging some of my art and toy collection, but that's a whole other huge project that I'll have to tackle some other day(s). Once the top of my work table was finally clean, I jumped to the cupboard under my bookshelves (opposite of my work table) and the storage area under my bedroom TV- mainly because I need space in those areas to throw some of the junk that came off my work table. If you notice in the picture you can barely see my printer (on the left) sitting on top of a box on the floor- that has been that way since the X-mas '08. I plan to get either a small dresser or a printer/storage stand so I can get it up off the floor and get a little more storage space- that might be the task for the coming weekend. Anyway, now everything is nice and clean, uncluttered, organized and ready to go. Although I've gotten to really enjoy painting and doing my work out in my living room- hmm...

Reactor-88 Rubber Stamp

So I recently had a custom art stamp made with my spade-skull logo. This had been on my "to-do" list for I don't know how long, but after talking to Drilone about them and seeing his sig stamp, it got me motivated to finally just do it. I didn't want some modern, plastic encased thing though- I wanted something that was a bit more warm and natural. So after a Google search I came across a site that made custom art/crafter stamps mounted on a nice little maple block. Usually they don't have handles, but I opted to get one for a little bit extra. It turned out the handle was totally unnecessary and if I had known my stamp artwork was going to be engraved into the top of the block, I wouldn't have covered it up with the handle- oh well. Anyway, I really dig my little wood stamp- now I just need something to stamp and I'll be happy.

New Reactor-88 Stickers

I finally got my new Spade-Skull stickers in over the weekend. These are a bit more fancy than my original batch. They are about 2.5 x 3 inch, die-cut, two-color on clear vinyl, with back printing. The good people over at Sticky Rick's did these up for me and they came out really nice. Rick has been printing stickers for sticker-fiends all over for many years. If you need any stickers made, you should drop them a line and get a quote. Anyway, like my little buttons/pins, I'll be dropping a few stickers into each of the packages I ship out- fun stuff...

Dr. Mario Virus Dunny Set

I wanted to work on a fun little side project before I started my next client piece. I'd been playing Dr. Mario on my old SNES (yes, I have a Super Nintendo) over the holidays last year and noticed that the three little viruses were pretty cool little characters. Following the along the same lines as the Dig Dug trio I completed earlier this year, I figured creating this virus set was a no brainer. I have a few more ideas for some custom mini sets, but I will be picking up my next commission this week so the fun side projects will have to be put on the back-burner once again.

Spade-Skull Buttons/Badges

I got some little 1-inch Spade-Skull buttons made. Another thing I've wanted to do for ages that I finally got around to doing. I'll throw one of these into each package that I send out along with a few stickers. Speaking of which, my new stickers should be ready next week or so- these are much nicer than my old batch. Hopefully they came out right. I still want to make a Spade-Skull rubber stamp- that is next on my list.

Humans Beware

Also coming up on April 10th is Humans Beware - I.W.G. Custom Art Show. The show is curated by Drilone and being held at Rocketworld, creators of the Insurgents Wilderness Gruppo Toys. This is Dril's first foray into curating, and he's doing a top notch job. There's an impressive 80+ artist lineup that will not disappoint. Some sneak peaks have been showing up online, such as Cris Rose's Vespbear. My custom I.W.G Bear is almost done- there might be some sneak peaks in a bit so stay tuned.

New Moon - Myplasticheart

Here's the flyer for the New Moon show at Myplasticheart. Curator John Wong hand-picked 25 artists to interpret the signs of the Chinese Zodiac. I chose monkey- really for no special reason other than I think they're kind of cool. Also I opted to not paint a custom toy for this show. Instead went the 2D route and painted a canvas or two. So if you're in NYC on April 10th, be sure to check it out.

2009 Show Listing

Here's what I have lined up for 2009 so far:

Attack of the ILLAZILLA
March 2009
Mini Tour (Various Locations)

Humans Beware
April 2009
Rocketworld (San Francisco, CA)

It Came from SkullBrain
April 2009
Super7 (San Francisco, CA)

New Moon
April 2009
MyPlasticHeart (New York, NY)

Vinyl Show
August 2009
Black Maria Gallery (Atwater Village, CA)

The Disney Stitch Experiment 626 Project Tour is also still traveling throughout this year. I believe they've added a few more stops- when I get more info I'll post it.

Lastly, I'll probably have a couple of customs at SDCC again this year. I just need to confirm (this was discussed before last year's con) and make sure I have enough time since the show at Black Maria might need a lot of time to prepare for.

iPhone Background #4

I found some cool carbon fiber desktop patterns the other day. The one I liked was still a little too plain, so I embossed a Spade-Skull into them and cropped it down to iPhone size. For a widescreen desktop wallpaper size (1680x1050), click here.

Twitter

So I jumped on the bandwagon and created a Twitter account. I heard about Twitter a while back, but didn't really get what the point was. I'm not sure if I get the point now either, but I figured I'd give it a shot. Anyway, since I'm not a fan of phone texting I won't be 'twittering' that much, but if you'd like to follow me anyway, click here.

Dig Dug Dunnys

So once all my 2008 show commitments were complete around November last year, I started working on commissions again. To keep from burning out, I like to work on some 3-inch customs just for fun while I'm working on projects for clients. Since everyone always wants Spade-Skulls, it's nice when I can turn out some small customs that are different once in a while. I have a list of custom ideas that I'm hoping to get to one day, but since I'll probably be painting commissions for another couple years, if I ever expect them to see the light of day they'll have to be in mini form. This newest set of minis is from that list. Dig Dug was one of my favorite video games when I was growing up. I remember spending hours at the arcade on just a couple of quarters, constantly glued to this game. With all the incredible video game consoles these days, the simplicity of games like Dig Dug probably wouldn't hold many folk's attention now. But I have very fond memories of this game (as well as many other 8-bit games) and still play it once in a while. So I decided to pay tribute to it by creating this little set of 3-inch custom Dunnys.

Update- These little guys got a quick feature on Toysrevil- thanks Andy!

Updated Reactor-88 Homepage

I figured since it was the start of a new year, I should start off with something fresh for 2009. Note- I've been talking about redesigning my four year-old site now for the last few years, but it's always taken a back seat to other commitments. I figured since it still might be some time before I get around to a full redesign, I should at least try to update my background image. When I first put up the site, I thought my techie/satellite/robot art image was cool and worked well with how I wanted my site to be portrayed. I initially created that image in 2002 as part of my Chaos Module series of digital art works. Well, it's now 2009 and while it still may be cool in some way, it's not really the look and feel I want my site to have. So I've drawn out a more organic vine pattern incorporating my Spade-Skull logo, but still kept it in the distorted, layered and slightly digital style that the satellite robot image had. Hopefully I'll get some time before 2010 to do a full redesign of the site, but until then I think this is a good start. Happy 2009!