We figured we were done with our con tour but since Series 2 is on the way (hopefully before Christmas) we added two new cons we have never been to!

The biggest news is we will be revealing what is in Series 2 and have some really awesome 2ups to show off for display

First up is I-Con in Des Moines on 10/25. This year it is moving to a much bigger venue and we hope to showcase our current product to the local community here.

Then about two weeks or so later is DesignerCon in Pasadena CA (otherwise known as D-Con) on 11/8 and 11/9, and many thanks go out to Matt Doughty, Ayleen Gaspar and Jeremy Sung for making that all possible for us this late into the year!

At this time there will be no real exclusives as in the past, we will be bringing a selection of fully painted Generation Lions and maybe some wild solid color Lions (Glitter, Glow in the Dark). And depending on Lee’s schedule we may debut Volume 4 of the Comic book at these cons.

Here is the first clear at most of him, this is the actual master figure. We are not ready to reveal where he falls in the lineup but he is production ready. We are purposefully leaving him cropped because part of the fun is how he fits in with the rest of the figures.

Think how Goliath fits in and this is along the same lines. Some people will probably complain because he dwarfs a character like Leo or Lapin Loco but that is intentional and if you have been reading the bios you will see how that played a role in Ashur losing the AWF Championship Trophy.

We  use scale in our toyline for numerous things, there are some character we intend to be monstrous but just like in real life there is a weakness for everyone and Takeshi is no different.

Takeshi’s overall design and pose is also intentional, it may look fairly static but once we release him there is a certain “drop” move he can do off the ropes, not to mention a certain accessory looks really over his shoulder 😉

We have seen a surge in new fans since our con season and while I was filling recent orders I noticed our supply of Flesh is running extremely low.

So if you were wanting a Flesh set of Series 1 now is the time to get it. We want fans to be able to get whatever colors they want at any time, but with our work on Series 2 and some other projects not yet revealed it will be a few months before any restock would become available.

This is great news though, we are very happy that we are reaching so many new fans and that we even have a scenario where restocking is on the docket of things to do 🙂

Well virtually everyone guessed the character in that last tease, so here is another sneak peak

To say this figure is epic would be an understatement, as you can see Goliath is right behind him a bit for scale 😉

We posted this on our Instagram account yesterday, TrueCast Studio is always working on new figures you have not seen.

Who is this and will it be a PVC figure for Series 2 or 3?

We received word from the printer today that we should have our 2nd printing by September 1st, so once they come in we will add them in the store for the convention cost of $5.00

This week we will also be working with comiXology to make the first 3 issues available digitally as well as the 2nd printing of the trade paperback for those of you that like your comics on digital devices.

The only caveat is all ads must be removed so its taking extra time since we had about 3 or 4 total that need to be taken out and pages renumbered.

This weekend marked the arrival of Mystical Warriors of the Ring Series 1 to the minifigure mecha of Japan! I have to give personal thanks to Marty “THEGODBEAST” Hansen and Don “Datadub” Kratzer for their behind the scenes work at setting this up.

Sold during this weekends Wonder Festival and later this week beginning online, its part of a board 2014 drive to expand to international markets.

This pic is a personal highlight for us, the man holding our figures and comics is Tak from Zoomoth, a japanese toy company that is popular for making limited edition licensed minifigures based on classic videogames (Contra, Splatterhouse, Ghouls N Ghosts). The fact he would even take a few minutes out of his day to look at our stuff and then decide to buy it makes me feel fantastic about what we are doing.

We currently are trying to negotiate deals with stores in Canada, Australia, France, Italy, the UK, and Mexico to get our figures into their markets. It is our hope by the time Series 2 launches later this year we will have a few alternatives for those fans who want figures but don’t necessarily want to pay international shipping. We are starting by specifically targeting the countries we see International orders come from.

If you are in a foreign country and like our figures and want more (comics, playmats, rings, etc) then feel free to email us the name and address of any stores you think might be interested in carrying them.

Brent Tucker of Spritemare is back with some more 8-Bit Art

There is a reason to all this, multiple reasons actually but we are not quite ready for those to be shared just yet 😉

Around C2E2 we showed you the plate for the AWF Heavyweight Championship toy belt

Well fast forward a few months and the belt is almost ready, rather than sculpt a tiny belt from scratch we figured the best way was to do it in a larger scale and just use the hydroshrink process to get our mini belt. This would also let us make the same belt for “larger” figures that might happen to exist 😉

As you can see there exist multiple sized molds for the belts plate

The belt should be finished soon and then we will evaluate the best way to get it released, we have several options at our feet and as you can see there is always something going on we have not talked about yet

First off Lee and I hope that you enjoyed Volume III if you have not read it before. We felt it brought the Ulric/Sheldon angle to a satisfying conclusion and clearly showed what side a number of the characters are on. Our world is so much larger then you have seen to date and the comics will begin to explore there, the AWF is not the only federation that exists and you will see that and more in upcoming issues.

We don’t have all the specifics yet but we sent quite the assortment of all our products (rings, playmats, figures, comics) to a new retail partner in Tokyo yesterday! Its just another part of our retail expansion that has been taking place over the past few months.

If all goes well Japanese fans should be able to pick any of our products up at the Wonder Festival next weekend

When we have more specific information we will post it, but we are VERY excited as getting our stuff into the Japanese market! That has been one of our biggest goals since it is the home where the minifigure craze started with what we know as M.U.S.C.L.E. here in the US but originally was Kinnikuman in Japan.