Dear Readers,

I am all settled in from my move and I am totally making the best of it! I do have a larger cube, although it is clear that our overall space is severely depleted. I have a new desk, and a new group of neighbors and a whole new set of jobs for this month.

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As you know by now we here at the glorious DST have been working day and night, in 24 hour shifts to get all the awesome new UQS (Ultimate Quarter Scale, don’t make me tell you again now!) Star Wars figures ready for you. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent on Darth Maul now. At night I dream about Darth Maul, and his many layers of outfits, and photographing said outfits, and revising the outfits, and blogging about the outfits. I think when I say we are almost there I mean it this time. By there I mean to the point where we are showing these off to the intenets and blogospheres around the world.

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Nice work, DSTRyan!! He toned down my email and relayed all the Quarter Scale problems to the factory. Based on the email I received this morning, it looks like we are back on track. Plus, DSTChuck sent me a DSTRobert email that cleared up all my worries about the joints for production figures. Holy sh#t I think UQS is going to be OK while I’m in SD.

There were problem with having the old Art Asylum method for the boots and gloves, so I had HK try this method where we would tool a half-calf boot so the ankle joint would become part of the actual boot. Factory is holding the cost of the tool with these 2 additional pieces. There is still a space between the leg and boot so we can fit the pants down.

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The softlines portion of Raiders Indy is 100% approved and in my hands (except for the copy for the orient). Progress!!!

Reviewed the first factory sample of Darth Maul’s outfit. Not bad for a first pass. It looks like a few of the clasps need to be repositioned, but 3 minor changes is a small amount given how complex this outfit is.

Factory now has paint and tooling for the entire Darth Maul figure. They also now have the complete outfit, accessories (double sided lightsaber of course), and sounds files….the Sith of few words. Factory is working reviewing what we have sent them and will proceed to the sample stage. We are doing everything we can to get these Star Wars figures to look awesome……you wouldn’t believe how emails go back a forward with the factory just to make sure that Hans Solo’s binoculars look accurate to the movie.

Lots of positive feedback at Wizard World Chicago on the Star Wars Quarter Scale figures! My magic 8 Ball told me that these are going to be a hit for Diamond Select! Mouse Guard has also been a huge success at these conventions. If someone would have told me a year ago that Mouse Guard would be one of the hottest DST products right now, I’d tell them to kick bricks. Well now I’m telling you that Mouse Guard is off the charts!

So I wanted to let you guys in on all the great stuff I have been working on for our new line of Ultimate Quarter Scale Star Wars action figures. Some of you may have seen sneak peeks of these guys at the trade shows and Comic Cons. I have the pleasure of working up close and personal with the UQS figures. First of all let me tell you from a collector stand point, even if this wasn’t my job I would most certainly be buying all of these for myself. That being said from a designers stand point they are indeed the creamed corn of my projects and I love them.

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Today I finished the first pass of listening to all of the potential sound clips for the UQS SW line. You hear all these great lines in movies but you don’t realize how much background noise is there until you isolate them for a chip. The Ultimate Quarter Scale Star Wars figures we’re doing will all have sound effects.