Nori News

Blast off 2012

2012-01-13T12:11:00.003-05:00

Hello 2012. I was early signing off for 2011, so it won't hurt that I am little late announcing 2012. I spent the last month in Asia and had a lot of time to plan this coming year for Nori Toy. Below is a short tour of the adventure.

In Malaysia I got to see the freshest of sea monsters in the market. Nori managed to escape unscathed.

There is really quite the appreciation for sculpture in a lot of other cultures. It was great to see so many public works.

I got to see buildings that were once the world's tallests, but still some of the tallest.

I found where a bat bike was stored. The DC store seems to be quite popular in kuala lumpur. Each one had a bike as well.

Just some clowns in Gentang. Why so serious?

The movie version of my idol.

Theme park in a mall. Those are roller coasters ove head.

After a few weeks in Malaysia I got to spend a couple days in Singapore. They were preparing for New Years Eve, so there was quite the energy flowing around.

I have a soft spot for 3rd party independent projects and was happy to see this Devastator in person at the China Square. I met Andy from Toysrevil for lunch and he showed me around to a few great shops. A special thanks to him and his hospitality. Its a shame we wereso caught up in toy talk that we forgot to take a picture together.

Another shop there had some works from famous designers. I am a big Touma fan, so this was especially cool for me.

I stopped by the Play Imaginative store to pick up a few things. Its getting funny how many things I collect these days, the stores won't even sell. More than a few stores had items I had been looking for my personal collection and they were for display only.

After our short stay in Singapore we headed to Japan. Nori managed to keep a low profile and avoid any sushi chefs.

On new years we checked out one of the large shrines there.

We spent some time in the electric city.

Mazinger Z!

I also got to check out things like the Kaiyodo museum. I am huge fan of the toy sculptor Yamaguchi. I have been collecting his figures even before the revoltech line.

I was also luck enough to see the new life size Gundam statue.

Towards the end of the trip we decided to see Mount Fuji.

In the airport they had an impressive origami museum.

During my time there I had some time to practice drawing. I chose to experiment with an app by Adobe called ideas. it uses vectors rather than pixels to create lines. Below are a few sketches I did.

It may be obvious, but I love curry. Mostly curry from Northern India, but I was able to discover new curries in Malaysia, and Japan.

To see more images from the trip as well as future project images and news follow us on Instagram and Twitter. You can also rss feed this blog to get regular updates or like our facebook page.

Now that I am back we are already very busy. We are working on some new projects with Villain as well a a couple other independent projects. As for Nori Toy we are building the rest of the studio now and hope to have it done by the end of the month. Our new design of the site is established and now we are working on the code end of things and hope to have it done in the near future. I am not going to give away all the news for 2012 just yet, but you will be seeing a lot more of Nori in coming projects that will require a lot more of my time drawing. So happy new year to you all and we look forward to sharing more exciting news with you!

2011 NT in review

2011-11-05T23:32:00.000-04:00

This might seem a little early, but its rightfully so as I will be spending the rest of December out of the country. Its been a busy and hectic year with lots of changes and new perspectives on how we do things.

Things we did this year

Learned basic Chinese, reading writing and Speaking. I need to work on a larger vocabulary, but I have the basics down.
您好！

Relocated from Knoxville Tennessee to the St Louis area. We miss the Mountains, but we like it here.

I made some games with Villain. I focused a lot on QA work this year for their IOS games.

Archetype Cadet
Matchlings
Minions
Lil' Birds

I also worked on some projects that are not yet ready to be unveiled, but I will share once they are finished.

Worked as technical editor on a book on making IOS games with Tyson McCain.

Art of the App Store

I mostly finished a St185 Gtfour car project that will likely wear the Nori Toy badge when autoxing next year. The car is done for now, but we have a few things left to do to it in the spring to prep for race season. I might need to take it on a road trip to the Tail of the Dragon next spring.

Since last summer I have worked on established a new visual style for the future Nori Toy sites as well as laid out the plans for Nori Toy and its 2012 relaunch. See our facebook, twitter and blog to get an idea of the direction we are going. When I return to the states I will be finishing up the new studio and we will be returning to making toys, shirts, prints and working towards relaunching the online store.

That covers the short list of projects I have dealt with this past year. I will be spending much of December in Malaysia, and Singapore. Hopefully I will get to meet up with Andy from toysrevil to chat about toys. The first week of 2012 I plan on being in Japan. I will be sharing pictures via instigram @noritoy.

To keep up to date with all our projects and news you can like us at facebook and follow us at twitter. Don't forget to add our blog to your RSS feeds buy using the tools on the right. Next year I will writing articles on topics from art and print to game design and toys. Have a great rest of the year and thanks for all the support!

ebay

2010-12-27T23:16:00.003-05:00

We have now started listing items on ebay to clear new/old stock. Many with heavy discounts. We have 100% perfect feedback on ebay. Add us as a favorite seller to keep posted on new items for sale. Nori Toy Ebay Store.

Tweet Tweet

2010-04-13T12:53:00.000-04:00

Added twitter feeder to the right of the blog. Check it out and follow.
http://twitter.com/NoriToy

Ultra Bolt Commander TF mod

2010-02-24T15:54:00.002-05:00

Here is a quick video of the additions to the "Ultra Bolt" combo that I took slightly further. I added parts from the Fansprojects City Commander and the CC upgrade missile parts. You can learn more about this combo through the video CollectionDX posted.

SLM Qigong mapping project

2010-02-22T21:31:00.002-05:00

This is part of a 4D project I am working on. These are two photos I selected out of many that map out my hand movements while doing Qigong that is influenced by a SLM machine. The reason my eyes are red is because the machine has two LEDs in front of the eyes that flash rapidly while binaural tones are produced in my ears. I am wearing light gloves to track my movements, and the shutter is opened and closed every interval of the SLM. The SLM will change brain waves and take one down to a deep state of meditation. You can read more on Sound Light Machines online.

You can check out the images at my Deviant Art gallery.

Final Submissions for CE Toy Design

2010-02-17T13:29:00.002-05:00

Check out TRE to see the submissions for the CE Toy Design contest. My submission is on the first page, second row, far left.

The Agitating Agent.

Happy Chinese Ney Year and Valentines day

2010-02-14T11:19:00.002-05:00

Gung Hay Fat Choy, and Happy Valentines day. Hope everyone has a good one.

Yoka Show update

2010-02-13T11:25:00.000-05:00

See a gallery of all the Yoko in the show at the TRE site.

CE Design Competition

2010-02-07T23:21:00.003-05:00

I did a quick entry for the CE design competition. You can read more at the TRE blog about it, and see my entry below.

Yoka Show update

2010-01-25T22:11:00.003-05:00

Following up the premiere of the Custom Yoka Show in November at DesignerCon the show is making it’s SECOND stop at Black Maria Gallery in Los Angeles. Come party with us at the opening on Thursday, February 18th.

February 18-23, 2010
Opening Reception Thursday, February 18, 7:00 - 10:30pm
Black Maria Gallery, Los Angeles CA
www.blackmariagallery.com

The nice folks from Designer Con also sent us some quality shots of our Yoka custom.

Master Collectables Wheeljack Kit WIP & Review

2010-01-09T20:29:00.015-05:00

I recently received a Transformers Classics Wheeljack conversion kit from Master Collectors meant to transform the Classics Sunstreaker or Sideswipe into Wheeljack. I had been excitingly waiting for the kit until I actually took a closer look at it. I think the kit has potential, but I also think it will take a good deal of work to make a nice finished product. I do not intend to bash on this product, because I love that people produce fan made kits for collectors, and I do not want to detour people from continuing to do so, but I will give my honest critical review on this product.

Before I get too much into the kit, I will first give some details about the character this toy represents. Wheeljack was a Scientist/ Engineer from the G1 Transformers cartoon. His vehicle mode was a Turbocharged Group 5 Lancia Stratos. While I think the Group 4 Stratos was a far better looking car, both would likely never been seen on the roads in the US at the time of the TF cartoon, thus making it a horrible disguise. As a kid, those kind of things really did not matter though, we were more concerned with just how cool it looked, and that each character had their own identity in both robot and alt modes.

Now onto the kit. I received the kit in a brown soft envelope. My first concern is that the USPS already destroyed the resin parts, but I was happily surprised that everything was packed in a nice hobby case that I could use later for spare parts. The kit included a printed postcard with their drawing of Wheeljack, instructions, two sticker sheets, and the parts in resealable baggies.

There is a dramatic range of quality on the parts. The roof/cockpit area of the car will require the most clean up. The roof line, and pillar are not perfectly formed and there are some scratches and nicks.

Here you can see the parts test fitted. In atl mode, there will be lots of left over parts. The head of course will be inside the vehicle but I chose not too connect it until I have repainted it. I do not know how well the neck hole will hold up to repeated removals, so I prefer to be cautious.

Here are the parts connected in robot mode, less the head.

I am not keen on the lack of detail of the parts in the rear view and you can see where the shoulder cannon will need to be cleaned up with the seam line. The wings also lack the nice lines that are on the front of them.

One concern I have is the front air dam may effect rotating the waist. The resin parts used here are very thin, and I feel I will need to be careful when posing the figure.

I knew the kit was going to be resin, and there was a chance there might be some extra flash or something to clean up, but there was not really many flash issues on the kit. There was however some casting issues, and it is a bit messy in some spots, and will need to be cleaned up to match the quality of the toy these parts are going onto. Each of these parts have a different level of quality, and the reason is most of the parts were cast from bits of other toys.

When I first opened the case the first thing I recognized was that the shoulder cannon was a toy I had as a kid. I actually still have it, but it is in storage, which is why I did not post pics of it. They added the peg so it could be mounted in the hole that already exists on the shoulder of the Sunstreaker toy, and they just made a mold from that. They even included the button that was spring loaded and would have sent the missile flying. My issue with this is that they copied something and did not bother to improve it. You can even see where the cast the screw that held this together into the mold. They should have filled the hole, and cleaned up the seams before using it to make a mold, and it would have been a nicer gun for very little work. In the image, on the far right you can see what used to be the button to fire the missile, and above you can see the hole where the screw would have gone. You can also see all the original seam lines.

The next part that was a direct copy was the head. The head is a recast from the Energon Downshift figure. They did not do a great job of painting the mouth area, so I sort of wish they didn't even bother painting it. The head is fitting for the character though, but it is also not an original piece. This also suffers from having the screw hole in the back of the head, which they should have filled and made look more like a finished piece.
In this image you can see the head that came in the kit compared to the Sunstreaker head that was on the robot. I think I can make it look better with some new paint.

In this image you can see the screw hole that was left unfilled. If you look close, you can even see the Phillips head screw inside.

The flux capacitor looking thing that was on the top of Sunstreaker was recast to be used as the attachment for the wings of Wheeljack. This was not a bad solution, I just wish there was a place to store it when in alt mode. Considering the other recast parts and the quality I can only assume the wings were cast from something else as well. I think they look like a part that might have been from a Gundam or some other mecha model kit.

Wheeljack's handgun also looks to be a recast of a gun from a model kit. There are no screw holes, but there is a seam line which is why I suspect it was from a model. I am not sure what model, but it reminds me of some of the guns that came with the SD Gundam kits. There is a slot on the back to connect it to something else, which is not included in this kit.

Then there is the body parts for the car that make it into a Stratos. The wing has two holes in the top of it that looks like they might have connected to posts that would go to a car in a model kit. I could be wrong, but it looks like they made the part under the spoiler themselves so that the new spoiler can slide on over the stock spoiler. They may have scratch built the whole spoiler, but then the post holes would not have made sense for them to add. The front air dam also looks like it came from something else. It has extra pegs on the bottom and some holes from what might have been the original ABS casting. Its not bad, its just thin in some areas and may be fragile.

Finally we have the roof/cockpit area of the car. This is the section that should really help define the car as the Stratos. This really looks like the only part of the whole kit that they might have scratch built. The sad part is, that this piece also has the worst quality. The roof line that is above the windshield is a little rough as is the A-pillars. The windows are also sort of rough and need to be smoothed over. Looking at the vents on the roof, it looks as if those were glued on to the roof that the mold was made from. Looking over the whole piece, it looks like they either heavily modified part of something else, or they sculpted over top of the Sunstreaker roof to make their own design.

Does it work? Well, from pictures I have seen of completed kits the finished product has potential. The colors and stickers make it clear that this is Wheeljack, and to a person not familiar with the Stratos, it would be an acceptable rendition. For me, the alt mode seems alright. The Sunstreak alt mode is inspired by a Lambo of some sorts, but with some borrowed elements of other super cars. This car is far too long to be a Stratos, and is lacking some of the other engine vents, but most people will not notice. The windscreen will be the most noticeable difference. In their response to questions, Master Collectibles says they had limitations on how they designed the windscreen. I think rather than trying to go under the hood, they could have had the window overlap the hood to get a better curvature. I do not think this would interfere with transformation. As for robot mode, that is really to be decided once I have finished the kit, so I will continue to review as I do my WIP for if the robot mode really is worthy of this upgrade.

It is worth the price? It really depends on how you look at it. This is not as much as a custom kit, as it is a kit bash that has been recasted. A kit bash tends to involve using parts from other robots to build a new custom robot. In that respect, you would likely pay decent price to have sourced all the different parts to customize to make work for this. Whats keeps this from really being a kit bash like I described is that these parts have all been collected, modified and recast in resin, for what would first appear to be less work for a quick customizer. The problem is, that these parts really are not as great of quality as one might hope, and there is very little in the way of what was originally made, so that keeps this from really being a kit with original inspirations. Its all parts from other items, some that have been slightly modified and some that have not be modified at all. If your a huge fan of G1 Wheeljack, and the Classics line of Transformers with a passion for customizing, then this kit might be good for you, however I think for what it is, it is too expensive. I think this kit could have been much more reasonable to purchased if it was at least 33% cheaper, or a higher quality of parts for the final product. I will be starting on my WIP so if you want to see how this kit turns out, stay tuned. I may be tempted to customize this kit further to make myself happy with the final piece.

Merry Curry Christmas from Nori Toy

2009-12-25T20:34:00.001-05:00

In the VP news

2009-11-21T16:38:00.003-05:00

Looks like someone took a nice picture of our custom on vinyl pulse.
Check it out: 3rd pic down on the left.
VP Early Look at Yoka Show

2009-11-16T22:33:00.002-05:00

Here is a quick drawing I did in Corel painter of the Forest Guardian character for who ever purchases my Yoka at the VTN show.

You can download a larger format one at my DA link: Click here

Yoka Custom video

2009-11-15T23:01:00.002-05:00

Here is a short video that has some of the WIP pictures and some more views of the Yoka custom.

Custom Yoka Show: WIP Part 8 (DONE)

2009-11-06T14:50:00.004-05:00

Yoka is finally done. I decided to loose the arm armor. I just don't think it was working with the design. I added face paint, his loin cloth, and did some touch up work on him. You can now see the design I did on the back of the wood and some better photos of him patrolling the forest.
You can download higher res photos at http://offensivetheory.deviantart.com/
I will be packing him up today to ship off in the Morning for the VTN show.

Custom Yoka Show: WIP Part 7

2009-11-04T14:17:00.001-05:00

Here I am making the last adjustments to the armor fitment. Since the flock adds mass, I wanted to remove some of the wood material to fit better without removing flock when it is put on or taken off.

Custom Yoka Show: WIP Part 6

2009-11-03T20:33:00.003-05:00

Here is the Yoka flocked. I am going to do a little touch up work on him, then I will add some new details to his costume. If you look closely you can see part of the sketch he is based on. I hope to get him done in the next couple of days so I can get him shipped off by the end of the week.

Custom Yoka Show: WIP Part 5

2009-11-01T14:29:00.005-05:00

I am trying to wrap this up over the next couple of days since I really do not have much time left to send the custom in. This is also my first time flocking a figure, so I am having to take a little time to make sure I get it right.

Here is the arms being flocked. Nice and fuzzy.

Since I am flocking the custom I made some eyes and nose that will stick out further so they are notice beyond the flock.

Custom Yoka Show: WIP Part 4

2009-10-25T19:56:00.004-04:00

Today I did a lot of carving. After the first arm was done, I used this piece to carve the left arm.

Here is the Forest Guardian with all his tree armor. Once my new paint material comes in, I will work on the bear some more and try and finish the project up.

Custom Yoka Show: WIP Part 3

2009-10-25T19:49:00.005-04:00

And now on to part three of this project. I painted Yoka with a Tamiya brown paint.

I started carving the arm pieces.

Test fit of the helmet once the paint dried.
I think the brown may be a bit too chocolate for me. I may paint a new brown. I ordered some materials so I may change the design a bit more once they get here if I have time.

Custom Yoka Show: WIP Part 2

2009-10-20T23:42:00.003-04:00

So I am running out of time and I have a lot going on. I did make some progress today at the expense of a new wood tool. The tool snapped while working on removal of wood material. I removed all the bark material and sanded the wood to be very smooth.

I also made it to where Yoka can wear it on his head. You can sort of see the theme I am working on with this custom. He will be a forest guardian.

I had to wash Yoka again since he was covered with saw dust. In the morning I am going to primer him before going to the Doe Doe office. I have two days of nice weather so I have to get my base coats done.

Custom Yoka Show: WIP Part 1

2009-10-13T20:17:00.005-04:00

So I am working on a custom for the Yoka show at the Vinyl Toy network that's on Nov. 21. I am going to make one of my characters from Nori's story. I went up to the Tail of the Dragon Sunday and found a nice piece of wood. I do not like to cut up living trees so I was lucky enough to find a piece that had fallen from a tree, naturally I presume. Here is the blank figure and the piece of wood I am starting with. I will post updates as I make progress. So far I have carved the wood some and gave the vinyl a nice bath to get the oils off so that the paint adhere better. I do not have a lot of time to get it done, so I will be working rappidly on it.

FT-86

2009-10-06T23:57:00.005-04:00

Toyota announced the possible production of a revisioned AE86 concept dubbed the FT-86. It is a rwd light sports car powered by a Subaru engine. This was a joint project of Toyota and Subaru after Toyota acquired Fuji Heavy industries.

I think the profile and rear looks decent, but I am not keen on the front bumper at all. The profile seems to barrow from the Nissan 370Z and GTR but does seem to hint towards the 2000GT.

I did a quick photoshop of the Front to get maybe make it more palatable.

I removed the headlight vents. I think this greatly improves the front. You can see after and before.

I then took the grill from the Gtfour RC bumper and fitted it to the center along with an intercooler for the future FI of the STi engine. ;) The last picture has the RC hood vent, but I am not as keen on it. I think the car can have some potentionly good looks with a new front bumper fitted.

Fansproject Superion add on kit in!

2009-09-04T14:40:00.003-04:00

We have gotten our Fansproject Superion kits in and they are seven-kinds-of-awesome.

Here is a quick comparison we took of what the Hasbro version looks like compared to the kitted version.

We have two left in stock for $44 + shipping. You can email us via the store's link if you would like to pick one up. If I post them up on ebay, I will add a link.

Stay Tuned

2009-06-30T22:12:00.002-04:00

We hope everyone is having a great summer. Stay tuned for many new things coming from us at Nori Toy. We are in the process of designing a whole new site and online shop as well as working on new print projects and iphone games.

Trepidation Munny custom

2009-05-14T20:22:00.005-04:00

I just wanted to share my latest custom. You can check it out at my Deviant ART account.
http://offensivetheory.deviantart.com/

Nori Toy's summer of 2009

2009-05-13T11:37:00.002-04:00

Hello all,

We just wanted to inform you of some changes coming in the near future.

Nori Will be opening it store again this summer and announcing some great new screen printed posters. Stay posted for updates on these poster's their artists and the new NT site. A date has not been set yet but the new projects will start this summer. Also keep your eyes open for iPhone games we are working on with Doe Doe games.

New drawings on Deviation

2009-04-02T00:37:00.003-04:00

I added three new drawings to my deviation account. Check them out.

http://offensivetheory.deviantart.com/

BailOut App

2009-03-11T11:48:00.003-04:00

Check out the game from DoeDoe games. I had been working with them lately on some projects and this is their first official title.

http://www.doedoegames.com/bailout.html

Ebay Sales

2009-01-11T18:16:00.005-05:00

While we have a new site now, I am still in the process of working on the new online store design. So for the time being I will be listing some items on ebay to reduce inventory. Follow this URL to see our current auctions.

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/neoncannon_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZQQ_mdoZ

Nori Galleries

2008-12-27T01:44:00.004-05:00

Many of our projects can be seen in our galleries. We have images of mixed media on Deviant Art and photos on flickr as well as video on KnoxTube.
The galleries are also linked on the right sidebar of our blog.

What's this about?

2008-12-27T00:30:00.003-05:00

Hello world,

What is Nori Toy?

Nori Toy is the brain child of Josh Coldiron, a graphic designer and illustrator in Knoxville, TN. Nori Toy offers screen printing services for textile and print making as well as retailing limited edition vinyl toys, custom-toys, plus prints and shirts of our own design.

Nori's Story

Nori is a seaweed monster who fled Japan to escape evil ninja sushi chefs. Nori's adventure brought him to Knoxville, TN where he became friends with JC after Nori saved him from an evil machine. Seriously you should have seen it, it was insane. The battle was truly epic.

What's this blog all about?

This blog is more or less the news feed for current projects or art we are working on and any updates about the site. We will also announce any new products and have the occasional commentary or review on things around the web.