It's Been a Busy....Three Months?!

I guess I need to confess at not being a very good blogger. That would be a start. It's been nearly three months since I last posted an update.

The new online store still isn't finished. I've been butting heads with tech support at the software vendor about some little, but very crucial stuff. Then I finally got around to checking the new site with Windows IE7, and damn...looked like crap! So, much head-butting and head-scratching and the new site still isn't ready. I'm getting close to scrapping the whole thing and starting over again with different software, but I'm not sure yet.

Other than that, we've been busy with gallery shows...this last weekend was the opening for Toy Karma. Mark Nagata curated a kick ass show for us. Really kick ass. Also, major thanks go out to Steve Forde of Go Hero for helping a ton with the setup as well as Bob Conge of Plaseebo Custom for pitching in. Matt, Jason and Sarah also for hanging out and, for the most part, really staying out of the way (which was what I needed)! :p As a result of this show (well, maybe not as a result, but it definitely has something to do with it) we're going to be making a concerted effort to carry more kaiju/JP vinyl at Rotofugi. We're not giving up on western vinyl, just expanding our horizons. Look for more RxH, Dream Rockets, Rumble Monsters, Cronic and the like in the future of the Roto!

Since I last posted we've also announced two projects that we're manufacturing in conjunction with Squibbles Ink: Shawnimal's Ninjatown blind box mini-plush and little vinyl busts called "The Family" by Chicago bad ass Brian Morris. Both projects are rolling along, more or less smoothly, but deadlines are looming and I don't know exactly when we'll release stuff. Let's just say that we want things to be pretty darned good and we're not quite there yet. But we'll get there.

Finally, I've got some other stuff brewing on the side burner that I really, really want to announce...but it's just not yet time yet...so I guess you'll have to wait a few (okay, maybe six) months to find out what I'm hinting at. Let's just say it's gonna be awesome and it's gonna be a lot of work, but in the end it will hopefully result in some very, very cool artsy toys.

So, to recap...I suck at blogging, Toy Karma and kaiju rule (show runs all month), Rotofugi is making toys with our good friends and we've got even more big news coming down the line but it's not time yet. Next gallery opening is October 5, "Practice Make Perfect ... and Other Lies" ... solo show by Brian Morris!

New Online Store Update

We're still hard at work developing our new and improved online store. I'm proud to say it's coming along really nicely...I'd say we're maybe 90% of the way there on the "look and feel" and 80% of the way there on functionality. I've found a few minor annoyances with the store software we'll be using and am busy developing work-arounds. Once I'm happy with it then I have to begin the arduos task of importing, testing and tweaking all of our current products. That should be fun.

In the end, I think our customers are really going to like the improvements and the overall polish is a lot higher than our current setup. I've intentionally gone for a layout that is reminiscent, albeit much improved, of our current online store so in a lot of ways the new setup will still feel familiar...just better!

I don't have a definite timeline for the switchover, but if I were a betting man, I'd put my money on "sometime in July."

Mmmmm....Cheese

Took a bit of an early night tonight and went down to Cleo's for a snack. If you're ever in our neighborhood I can't recommend a better place to spend an evening with friends. Good food, cold beer, a great outdoor area and friendly staff are among their better selling points but the best thing of all is the deep fried Cheddar Cheese Cubes....not on the menu, so consider this an insider tip!

Something in the Works

We've got something in the works...well, actually, a lot of things. But one main thing has me geeked out right now: I'm headlong into developing a new, improved online store for Rotofugi. I'm learning and cutting and pasting a lot of CSS and ASP right now and kinda loving it.

The new version should have lots of fancy new features like wish lists (save items for later), gift registries, product ranking/comments, sorting by lots of different criteria and more. But at the same time I'm also trying to keep the design simple and straight-forward. It's a challenge, but one that I'm enjoying.

So...if anyone out there has any great CSS or ASP resources that will blow my mind please forward them along. I'm definitely no programmer, but if I can cut it and paste it and somehow wrap my head around it I can make stuff work usually.

Upcoming Gallery Show or a Fortuitous Happening

One thing I might be using this new blog for is to talk about upcoming projects that maybe aren't quite ready for me to fully announce on our regular site. Sometimes I'm waiting for some info to be confirmed or maybe I just need a piece of artwork or a photo, but regardless of what it is I often have a tidbit or two in the works that isn't quite ready for a full post on our offical site or forums.

A good example of the above is the new show we've got planned for our gallery in June. We originally had Travis Lampe scheduled for June, but then he had something come up and we needed to move his show to December of this year. I'm actually kind of glad that the show got moved, it gives Travis some more time to work on awesome paintings of things like hot dogs (if you saw the show at 32nd and Urban you know what I mean). But it did leave a glaring gap in our gallery schedule.

I try not to panic when something like that happens...I usually have other things to worry about, and I had even started to relish the idea of maybe taking the month off from the gallery and perhaps squeezing in a vacation.

But then someone we know from the designer toy business just handed us a gimme, and a good one at that...so we've got a June show afterall! Friday, June 8 will be the opening for a new show in our gallery by Attaboy.... we couldn't be happier. Atta's done a lot in the designer toy genre that we like including the Axtrx figure plus he and Annie publish Hi-Fructose magazine and we just couldn't pass up the chance to work with them a little closer. We don't have the full details yet (like the flyer image and that sort of stuff) so we haven't officially announced the show yet, but I feel pretty confident that if you show up that Friday there will be some great new Attaboy art in the gallery and plenty of cold soda to drink.

So...thanks to Larry and Sarah of Fakture Gallery (formerly of Denver, now a traveling act) for helping us fill the June gap and get Attaboy into the Rotofugi Gallery. It's gonna be a fun night!

As If We Don't Have Enough to Do

Those of you that know us from buying toys from us at our website, rotofugi.com or visiting our store in Chicago may or may not know this, but our little store is just a bit time consuming. Whitney and I work, on average, 14 hours a day and pull more than our share of 16 hour days and the occasional overnighter.

Why in the world then would we be starting yet another website to keep up with? To be honest, I'm not entirely sure! I'm thinking I can use this spot to relate some of the things we've learned over the past three years, to "think outloud" about our business and the designer toy industry and maybe I'll post some more family related type stuff that really isn't appropriate on our regular site. I guess we'll just have to see.

Regardless, I'm hoping to get to the point where I post here on a fairly regular basis in one form or another, so this should be, at least, somewhat amusing. Until then, have a good night!