Ever since I was a young boy and I saw the DeLorean back out of Doc Brown’s step Van I have yearned to own a car as super cool and bad-ass as the Back to the Future time machine! I know that many other people feel the same way but have had to settle for driving other, far less cool, cars around every day. Well DST is going to help you out with that. If you can’t have the car at least you can have the license plate… that is pretty cool, right? We are working on a very sweet replica of the OUTATIME license plate from the movie. Unfortunately the tags expire in August 1986 so you will need a real time machine to be able to use them!!

Good news for all you Star Trek replica fans out there. We will soon be releasing Phasers, Communicators, and Phaser/Communicator box sets with new packaging! Not only that you will be able to get a special gray handled Phaser at Toys R Us stores! The package has been fully redesigned as per the new Star Trek style guide. I personally can’t wait to display the new style package next to the old one!

It was mid-June in Manhatten and DSTChuck I were are on our way to the offices of Marvel comics (enduring one of New York City’s infamously humid summers in a rayon blend suit and tie). For what purpose would we be on our way to the celebrated House of Ideas and what, if anything, did this have to do with Minimates? Read on and find out! (more…)

Can you DST fans out there believe that we have made over 20 waves of Marvel Minimates? I sure can’t. If you had told me years ago there were even that many characters in the Marvel Universe I would have laughed in your face and made fun of you for being a grown up who read comic books. Well it is true, we are set to release series 23 and 24 on the Minimates loving public! These will be very exciting because they are the first to feature the windows on the front of the box. That’s right, you can see the Minimates before you buy them! This was a very exciting project for me because I got to do a lot of measuring and figuring to get the window in the right spot. I hope you enjoy them. I wouldn’t be surprised if we make it to wave 50!

Hi folks! Since this is a five-Friday month I do not have a planned topic to cover, so I‘ll do a few miscellaneous questions. Next week (9/5) we’ll do Star Trek, followed by Minimates (9/12). We’ll do Battlestar Galactica & Stargate on 9/19 and then we’ll finish up with Marvel & Star Wars on 9/26. I hope you folks are having some fun with these and keep those questions coming. After all its not much of a Q&A without the questions. (more…)

Dear Readers,

When I first came to DST Hasbro was the license I immediately “took over”, I think the first Ad I ever did was for a G.I. Joe bust. While I do (and I go out there on a dorky limb divulging this stuff with you) collect Joe’s as well as Star Wars it was the Transformers part of the Hasbro license that really excited me. I wish I had a back list of all the transformers I have done in the past two years or so, I would venture to say around 25-30 but my Math-foo is weak so that could just be a shot in the dark.

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DSTMatt here with a head’s up for those of you desperately seeking Susan searching for the Ace of Cakes Duff Minimate. Charm City Cakes has put them up for sale!

Here’s the link!

Dear Readers,

Not much going on here in design land, just got some web stories and updates ready for the DST website today. When you think of me, don’t just think of minimates boxes and previews ads, no, think of every little cool graphic you see on the website and cry tears of artistic love for me. A lot of people just assume I make toys, I guess they think I am a sculptor, which I am, but that’s not what my job title is nor is it what I get paid for. I think it’s a hard thing to describe to people but now that you’re getting to know all of us it’s something you should think about. We design way more than just the boxes and ads, we do web stuff, figure corrections, sale sheets, animations, marketing stuff like cue balls and t-shirts for the trade shows, the little cards that hold the bag together on the giveaway figures, everything, blogs, even 100 foot banners! So please, when you think of DST designers think of us as the idiot savants of DST, because we can do it all!

Idiotically savanting my way to the top,

DST-Jen

Not sure I have ever recieved more emails phone calls and questions regarding an unnannounced item as the future Full Size Captain Kirk replica chair.

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Dear readers,

The Ultimate Quarter scale box for the first in our awesome line of 19 inch Star Wars figures is almost done! You know what’s more is I almost like it, I normally get frustrated when I am constricted to a style guide but this time it seems to be working out fairly well. I need to finish up the back of the box tomorrow, which is ultimately the hardest part to get done then I can send her on out to the team for review! I love when things get finished; I love it even more when they get finished early!

DST-Jen