Happy New Year!

So it's now 2008 and already it's shaping up to be a very busy year. I stopped taking on commissions late last year in hopes I could slowly catch up on my list, but with 2008 shows and possible SDCC commitments, it's still going to be a long wait for all the folks waiting very patiently for a custom piece. On top of that, I really hoped 2008 would be the year I could work on some personal pieces that have been on my mind for the last couple years now- we'll just have to see how it all pans out.

I had also intended to redesign my website over the holidays- if you happened to check it out recently you'll notice it still looks the same. While I toyed around with some redesign ideas in my head, the actual focus over the holidays was updating my Actionscript so that all my galleries would be generated from external XML files. My site galleries were already pretty Actionscript heavy, and each time I added new content meant me having to add info to data arrays in the Actionscript and republish the site- not fun. It really started getting big and ugly, so I figured it was about time to clean things up a bit and get on the XML bandwagon. Anyway, the code is all set, and I just need to convert one more gallery to XML, and then I switch gears and think about the redesign again.

On the art front, I took a little time and posted a 2007 retrospective of all my custom toy and artwork on the Kidrobot Discussion Board. You can see the thread here. It's always fun seeing them all in one spot- makes me feel like I actually accomplished something last year :) I also have a show coming up on the 25th- the "Get A Grip!" Custom Moneygrip show at myplasticheart in New York. If you happen to be in the area you should check it out. No sneak peaks of my piece here either- you'll all have to wait for the show. And last but not least, I have a new interview up on the ToyToons website here. Enjoy!

The Artist Formerly Known As...

So I finally got around to changing my username on the Kidrobot Discussion Board. Okay, so you didn't even know I wanted to change my name huh? Well, here's the story.
Back when I first joined the KR board in early 2006, I wanted to stick with a username I could easily remember. Well, since I used "ryanc44" for my Yahoo IM name/email (yes, now all you stalkers will be able to find me on IM now), I figured I'd use a modified version of that- hence rc44 was born.
Fast forward to about a year ago- as I started getting some recognition for my art and custom work through the board, I realized that my username is what people remembered me by, not necessarily by my real name. Then one day I just decided to Google "rc44" to see what popped up. Low and behold I had a few entries on the search results, but the majority were all about a racing sailboat. Huh? Yeah, that's what I was saying to myself. Anyway, I didn't give it much thought beyond that, and it faded away.
So fast forward to about two months ago. I started to notice that a few old people on the Kidrobot discussion board seemed to have new names. Now it didn't appear that they had created brand new accounts all over again, but in turn their old accounts had been updated with new names. This got me thinking. Why not see if I could get my current "sailboat" username updated to something actually meaningful- like my website name? Now that's an idea... So as of today, rc44 will only be known as a sailboat, and reactor88 is now the guy on the Kidrobot Discussion Board that makes the Spade-Skull custom toys. Yeah, I figure it will confuse some people for a little bit, but that small setback will be worth it in the long run. Heaven forbid I decide to change the name of my website on day...