1/18th scale O-ring inspired Military action figure line with new designs, sculpts and articulation.
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I wanted to give everyone an update of where things stand with the Strike Force project. There has been a resurgence of O-ring projects in the last year, and we are glad to be a part of it. Matt and I want to thank everyone that came to Joefest and met with us.
Strike Force Alpha has become a big part of our lives and we appreciate all the friends who stopped by to look at the samples and chat with us. We made some new friends as well and we look forward to hanging out with everyone again next year.
Strike Force Alpha is hitting the big screen. We were asked to provide painted figures for a new Ron Howard production. The production crew loved our figures, and they made a great Toy Fair booth with our products for the movie. I’ve attached a picture from the set. Thanks Kelli Mix for thinking of us. The booth has a great 80’s feel to it and we hope we make it to the final cut. We will provide more details when we get them.
The part of the update I’m sure everyone most wants to hear is when will the figures ship? The short answer is the figures won’t be shipping in August like we estimated. When we started the project, we used past production experience and the information we had available at the time to come up with a timeline. Manufacturing was tough to mitigate a year ago and, in some ways, has become even more challenging. Delays and cost increases have unfortunately become the norm. Covid outbreaks in the factory, supply chain issues and electrical blackouts in the manufacturing areas in China have also been an issue.
Things have been moving along quickly over the last few months and we’ve gained a lot of ground. Unfortunately, the delays we experienced in the beginning have put us behind. The scanning technology used at the first factory wasn’t accurate enough to take our physical prototypes and turn them into digital files that could be used and there was a conflict with the original factory. These 2 issues caused us to start from scratch both with re sculpting all the figure parts digitally, converting the figures to O-ring, and then moving the project to another factory I’ve been using for a few years.
These issues caused a significant loss of time and money.
The new factory has been moving pretty quickly on this project and I think we gained a lot of lost time. The molds were originally supposed to be finished at the beginning of July. Then I was told by the end of July. I was hoping to get the molds finished before the update, but I didn’t want to make anyone wait any longer. With only a few days left I don’t think they will be finished by the end of July.
I’ve been in touch with our project manager in China almost nightly, and she has been pushing the mold factory to quickly finish these molds. The issue has been the mold makers have also been working on other projects and there are only 2 CNC sparking machines to make close to 200 molds for this project plus the molds for other companies.
There are 3 types of parts being molded for this project: PVC, POM, and ABS. The PVC molds are done, and they are working on the ABS molds now. The pictures are from molds they were making last week. The sample parts from the molds have all been turning out great, you can see some in the pictures. I will check back in a week on the molds and start updating more frequently until production starts.
The fact that you all have invested your hard-earned money in helping us bring this project to life is very humbling and we feel a great sense of responsibility to ensure we don’t let you down. This project will be completed, and you will be happy with the results. Everyone has been extremely patient, and Matt and I want to get these figures in hand just as quickly as you do.
Production has been going quickly on other projects I’ve been working on so once we get the molds done, we should be able to come up with accurate date for the completion of this project. Stay tuned and I’ll let everyone where things stand in about a week.
Its a great time to collect O-ring figures will multiple projects coming to light.
Just got some pics in from the factory. These are Engineering samples from the factory. The factory has mailed all the samples for the Strike Force Alpha project, I should have them within a week. Once they are in hand, baring any unforeseen issues, they will finalize the mold making process.
This first part of the journey has been all work with no fun pictures to show. I think from here on out the updates will be more exciting with more pictures and fun things to talk about.
What have we been doing with our time? Lots of engineering and working with the modelers and the factory to improve the design and work out issues. It would have been much easier to just use the Hasbro proven design but that’s not the approach we wanted. That being said the move from a modern inner structure to our figures to a vintage O-ring style was riddled with problems. The good thing about going through this process was it allowed us to examine and improve each part for every figure. There are over 185 different parts that had to be worked on and this has been a huge undertaking.
We are working on packaging and paint apps now as well. We will be at Joefest this year with the engineering samples as well as some paint designs Matt Lecroy has been working on. So far from the pictures I've seen the figures are looking phenomenal. Hopefully there are no hidden problems, but so far I like what I'm seeing. We lost a lot of time with design changes, but we are starting to gain ground and get things back on track. Here's a little sneak peek of where we are at. I'll take pictures of all the figure samples once they arrive.
One last thing, we added a couple of surprises in the molds for some stands and additional heads.
Sorry for the radio silence. I can assure you the project is being worked on by multiple people every day. We experienced a setback that resulted in a lot of re-work. Not very exciting stuff to make updates about. After the factory scanned the hand sculpted parts into digital files everything looked great. We knew we were going to have some clean up though. As we were cleaning up parts, we noticed a few issues with the geometry. The more we looked the more issues we found. We also found issues when the o-ring design was added into the figures. We were going down rabbit holes trying to figure out what was going on. It was stressful and gut wrenching, but we had to put these problems to bed so we can put out the very best product. We had to go back to the original designer of our sculpting buck and make the changes to add in the o-ring design. Then we had to check and/or recreate every single part to ensure everything was right. 100's of parts and 100's of hours work. Multiple people checking and correcting everything and then assembling the models in the computer and making more corrections. We are finally getting back on track with the factory now. Here are some shots of some of the corrected parts. Updates will be more exciting as we move forward with molds and samples.
Mission Report:
We’ve spent the last couple months putting the Strike Force Alpha action figures under the microscope. Meeting regularly with Craig (Zica toys) who is managing this project in China for us, has provided a fresh set of eyes and new perspective on the project. This was a painful process but was needed to ensure we send the factory the very best prototypes we can. These meetings have resulted in resculpting, painting, and some design changes. Aesthetically the figures will remain the same.
One of the biggest changes we made was to include the O-ring design back into our figure. I’ll say that again, these will be O-ring figures now. The ball joint we were using in the waist limited the travel a little bit compared to the original O-ring figures. We want our products to be at the very least as good as originals and improved where we can. The other item of interest is we are going to make the arm and leg assemblies able to be swapped into original O-ring figures. The other aspects of our design will remain the same including the POP N SWAP features.
We lost a little time in the beginning going through this, but it will pay off later when we don’t run into these issues during production. The factory has the prototypes now and will begin the scanning/mold making process. Once this happens future updates will be a little more exciting. We will provide updates including pictures when available.
Daniel Watts is in the early stages of drawing the back of the cardback. Daniel does things old skool. Pencil and paper, just the way we like it. This piece of artwork features Some of the Lost Squadron trying to escape while being blocked by Kanstruct. In the lead is a character we plan to make in the future named SGT. Hammer. We can’t wait to see the final product.
Speaking of lost Squadron, we originally just showed the artwork for these figures for the Kickstarter. Shown here are the paint samples for the heads, chest, and arms attachments for the zombie battle pack, android battle pack, Atomic Mike, Baron Steele, and Johnie Bullet. All these parts had to me sculpted from scratch by Rodney Greene. Rodney did a great job capturing the look we were going for. We love it when friends help us out in this project.
We still have a few people that haven’t complete their surveys, please do so asap. We want to get you the items you want. I moved the date to the end of November to finalize orders and Charge everyone for shipping and any extra items added during the survey. This will give you a little more time to gather funds if needed.
We are committed to the Strike Force brand and the O-ring format, and it seemed natural to begin work on a female sculpting buck. This is an item that would be either printed out and sculpted on top of or digitally altered as needed. It will feature its own version of POP N SWAP and be a little more feminine than the original O-ring females. We really are just getting started on this so don’t judge us too harshly, we have a lot more to sculpt, modify, and prove out.
Last, but most importantly Thank You for your support. We couldn’t see this dream become a reality without each one of you that has supported us. The presales with Big Bad Toy store and add-ons through the backerkit surveys have been very strong. I think you will be seeing Strike Force Alpha around for a long time.
Strike Force Alphaaaaaaaaaaa!
