This has been a monumental year for DST and Art Asylum. We released 34 action figures, 125 Minimates, 10 retro figures, 5 twelve-inch figures, 7 replicas, 21 busts, 17 statues, 1 Ultimate Quarter Scale figure and over 30 exclusives! As if that wouldn’t keep us busy enough we also modified our Marvel license to concentrate on Marvel Select and Minimates, got our Star Wars and Indiana Jones lines up and running, introduced several new products into Toys R Us stores nationwide and set up deals to deliver some truly awe-inspiring stuff in 2009.

With that in mind, I present “2008: My Favorite Toys”!

Top 5 Action Figures

1. Battlestar Galactica Cylon Centurion - Hands down, best figure of the year. When I first saw the designs for this figure I never thought we’d be able to pull it off due to all the additional articulation, interchangeable parts and working pistons. Flash forward a year and color me impressed.
2. Star Trek II Saavik - This little lady had to make my list, if only for being the first Saavik figure to actually resemble Kirstie Alley (sorry Playmates). I can remember a discussion about which actress to base the action figure on (Kirstie or Robin) and everyone agreed to stick with my girl Kristie. If only everything else were as easy to settle.
3. Marvel Select Arachne - Arachne made my list because I felt somewhat responsible for her getting the shaft in years past. I’m a big Spider-Woman fan so when we released our first Julie Carpenter version at San Diego Comic Con I was pleased. Then I saw the pages of Omega Flight and Marvel Comics Presents where they basically redesigned her entire costume, thereby making our brand new action figure obsolete! This Arachne was my chance to put things right and I’m very glad we could include her in the assortment.
4. Marvel Select Hulk - When you have to triple-strengthen the cardboard and adhesive for your action figure, you can tell you’ve got a great Hulk figure on your hands!
5. Stargate Season 10 Daniel & Teal’c - While I’m a big Stargate fan, these particular figures made my list because I invented them in about five minutes. Seriously! While trying to come up with an economical yet timely and fan-focused Stargate item I combined parts from several past releases and realized I could make both the Ori Daniel and the “Unending” Teal’c with virtually no additional costs. Getting them approved by DSTChuck and making it all the way to your collection? Priceless.

Top 5 Minimate Releases

1. Marvel Series 2: Iron Man Movie - Two words. Removable. Armor. Ok, three more words. Best. Minimates. Ever!
2. Avengers #1 Box Set - I don’t think I can find enough good things to say about this set. Sure I wish we could have included Thor in there for a “real” Avengers #1 set, but this gets us two all-new founding Avengers, a Kirby Hulk and an important version of Iron Man - plus TONS of new pieces for a variety of costumed looks. My current configuration? De-armored Tony Stark, Ant-Man and Modern Wasp (sniffle, hope to see you soon Janet!).
3. BSG Razor Single Pack Asst - This is the set that delivered amazing new retro Cylon sculpts AND a dead Six - ’nuff said!
4. Marvel Series 19 & 20 - I have a special place in my heart for these series of Minimates. I was fortunate enough to have quite a bit of input into both lineups due to DSTChuck’s back requiring surgery and an extended break from the office. I pushed as hard as I could to get as many X-Men included as possible while still representing the Avengers and Spider-Man, but never in a million years did I think I’d be able to add Havok, Polaris, Angel, Archangel, Apocalypse AND Ms Marvel on the list! If you’re curious, Ms Marvel = X-Men because of the whole Rogue/coma/”oops I stole your powers” thing.
5. BSG Series 4 - Laura Roslin, Tom Zarek, a two-legged Felix Gaeta, an undead Cally Tyrol, Lab Baltar, Head Baltar and the cantankerous Doc Cottle all in one series? I must be dreaming!

Top 3 Busts/Statues

1. BSG Cylon Bust - I love this bust so much it’s currently on the main shelf in my Battlestar Galactica-themed bathroom. Has Season 4.5 started yet?
2. BTVS Essence of Willow Statue - Ah, Buffy - my first true passion. This Willow statue not only lights up my Buffy collection, it doubles as a night light! Doing smiles on any action figure or statue sculpt can be disastrous, but in this case I wouldn’t have it any other way.
3. BSG Mark II Viper Statue - Whether you prefer your Battlestar Galactica new school or old school, this Mark II Viper design is just dripping with retro sci-fi goodness. I can’t even count how many times I’ve popped off the cockpit canopy and put my BSG Minimates inside, but it’s got to be a few hundred at this point.

Top 3 Exclusives

1. Marvel Select Red Hulk (Big Bad Toy Store) - When we first came up with the idea for a Marvel Select Red Hulk exclusive we didn’t know much about the character or even how long he’d be sticking around in the Marvel Universe but it’s safe to say I’m loving this character. Now if we can only figure out who the heck this guy really is!
2. Civil War Minimates Box Set (Action Figure Xpress) - We really pushed the envelope with this set by including so many extra pieces but I think it’s pretty clear that peopled loved this set for that very reason. I’m still managing my Marvel Comics addiction so it should be no surprise to anyone that Civil War remains one of my favorite comic book storylines (even if the ending did kind of suck).
3. Invaders Minimates Box Set (San Diego Comic Con) - Another Marvel Minimates pick, big shocker! The multi-generational aspect of the Invaders really appeals to me because it’s one of the few times a team is tied to one particular time period. The X-Men and Avengers have gone through so many changes over the years that it’s kind of hard to keep track, but the Invaders don’t really have to worry about that. They’re a World War II Nazi-fighting team and they don’t stray from their wheelhouse.

Top 3 Replicas

1. Back to the Future Flux Capacitor - I didn’t have a lot to do with this particular replica, but I’ve always loved Back to the Future and anything related to time travel. Now if I can just figure out how to install it in my DeLorean…
2. Star Trek Communicator - The only thing that would make this replica better is more Uhura
3. Mouse Guard Trio Statue - True these little guys aren’t exactly replicas, but they are life-sized!

I blog. I also read blogs. I also recognize that that first sentence is actually not really a sentence at all. I am full of content today gees! So there is something so very wrong with blogging about blogging. Does it mean I hit rock bottom? Will there be some sort of Blog intervention, most likely not, but I still feel kind of like I am trapped in a blogging limbo here, oh well here it goes…

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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

Hello Everyone,

Uriel here! Gonna take a moment or two for a quick into. Currently, I’m one of the two artists that are responsible for the 2D artwork which serves as control art. This is just a fancy way of saying that I get to draw the Minimates from scratch so others can know what they are going to look like. It’s largely very fun work, taking a favorite character and transforming them into a Minimate and seeing it ‘come to life’ from the 2D stage to the final 3D prototype. Invariably there will be some challenges, like having to get the likeness of an actor or actress who has distinctive features that may not translate readily into Minimate form. This can be very exciting at times since there’s a lot of input from the creative team and the final result always looks great and I end up learning something. Designing the super hero sets of Minimates has its own challenges in the way of their various interpretations throughout the years, from colors, to hairstyles and costumes. Getting the right version is as important as getting Madonna’s beauty mark on the correct side of her face (only seen in early pictures). But the greatest reward from all this comes from seeing or hearing that the fans and collectors are happy with the end results. That kind of feedback is definitely fuel for the fire. Well, now you know ‘who’ and ‘what’, I think that next time I might tackle trying to summarize ‘how’.

Till next time!

All kidding aside my Name is Jennifer Lleras (insert friendly hand shake here). I came to work with DST two years ago after I finished up with college and the inevitable graphic design chump work we all have to do to get our foot in the door. I have always been an artist and I became more focused on graphic design in high school when I realized that doing oil paintings wasn’t going to put food on my table, seeing how computers and I get along so well, it was a perfect fit.

Being part of the DST graphics team is to put it lightly is my dream job. There aren’t too many places where you can work on and around the ground floor of toy design. I get around as far as work goes, the other designers and I split up the awesomeness and we get to do our share of ads, boxes, marketing stuff and the like.