Adventure Time Toys are Out @ Mcdonalds Restaurants UK !

Cartoon Network's Adventure Time  is rad animation series. It was a lot of enjoyment to lead the development of the toy range and work together with Molly.

Large part of good luck  came down to cartoon network being very open to our suggestions , we were allowed to restyle the looks of 32 characters for the vinyl toy inspired figurine range! That was a rare freedom...

So the simple idea behind it was that the crazy loopy animation characters could mix and match to make weird combinations. The heads clip off to go with any body in the range. 32 figurines make for 1024 different possible combinations!  All the figurines follow a proprietary shape , with unique detailing to each character.

The promotion is running for the extended 8 week length at  McDonald's restaurants, UK. In the set , there are 2 character figurines and a sticker sheet.

I have to admit, it is still my fave toy design project to date. I was eager to share about these ones. I hope you enjoy them (:]

GIJOE Inspired Vehicle Design (and many thanks!)

So I'm imagining  GIJOE inspired vehicle to defeat the evil Cobra organisation, that  has developed a secret base on mars. GIJOE must take the fight to Cobra and venture to the red planet. Cobra’s HQ is deep into the core of the Martian planet, GIJOE must be equipped to get to Cobra and must be well armed for the battle about to ensue. And this is my take on it ! :] 

The vehicle toy would be fully equipped with spinning drill to get to the core of Mars. It would have an abundance of dart launchers and disk launchers to defeat the cobra, of course!  The front... bonnet (?) would open to place the figurine inside too. Og, and all the rockets and squeeze launchers would flip or push-fit inside for the 'shielded' drilling mode :D 

Gijoe Vehicle Obj by jolanta on Sketchfab

And here is some 3D development too. Just blocking out the shapes and breaking up into sections for (possibly) further modeling) Tried to maintain angular , mean shapes (Thanks for the advice Rich and Marius ! ) Also, in keeping with scorpion theme, went for rather over-sized rear (thanks to my sister for suggestion!) 

As a little behind the scenes, I've considered some of the existing GIJOE toys as well as reference of vehicle design for films such as Armagedon, Martian. But more inspiration came thinking about what could fight cobra as an equal opponent. Scorpions and mongoose (Thanks Jono!) ! I went with scorpion :] (Thanks to FZD and Tom for cool work that I got inspired by too)

Personally, I felt like this little design challenge was something out of my comfort zone, as I've never designed a vehicle...modeled one, as a tutorial (thanks Alan! )  But it was fun. I was pleasantly surprised it did come together. And a lot is down to some good advice from a fair few people too , many thanks to them.

Thank you for stopping by x

Mcdonalds Happy Creativity Toys

I'd like to share about another set of toys that got out today in French McDonald Restaurants. I was fortunate to lead this project, working together with lovely Molly.

The Theme of the set is creativity and individual customization, using Happy as the main character. In the set you have Happy Canvas that can be drawn on with a pencil; A pencil holder cannon; A Secret Keepsakes that can be customized with sticker decoration and Happy Frame with changeable expressions.

My favorite is the vinyl toy-like Happy Canvas :]

Many thanks for stopping by!

Transformers Figurines for Nestle

  

I'd like to share another  range of toys that I had worked on. Transformers: Robots in Disguise,  for Nestle Cereals.  This particular one was really fun to work on because we were allowed to stylize the looks of original characters: SuperD (super-deformed) transformers that light up once held in front of the light!

And here is the visual from the animation itself, that Hasbro released earlier this year:

How To Train Your Dragon 2 Toys

How to Train your Dragon 2 is an exciting film ! The winning designs were the gliders that offered that similar exciting experience. I mean , who didn't get in trouble in their childhood for having too much fun throwing paper planes in the classroom? :D
Working on these toys, about 2 years ago I was learning the ropes of toy design pipeline with this project:  visualizing concepts as well as representing them professionally, creating production artwork (sticker sheets and pictograms for how to use the toy); revising prototypes with redline drawings etc. etc.
I remember the engineering team doing their absolute best to find the perfect balance between the weight of the plastic and shape of paper wings to make it fly with confidence. Very rewarding when it all worked out well in the end.

Guinness World Record Toys for Mcdonalds' Happy Meal

Something I've worked on that I can finally share with the world (only after 2 years of when it was originally worked on  :D). This should be quite a fun range, cause one's supposed to break Guinness World records playing with each item :] 

Take on record breaking challenges here!

Pencimals

Here is something, pencil animals! They are a fun way to keep the coloured pencils tidy. Plastic body of an animal holds 4 pencils for legs. Arrange a wild pencil terrain around on your desk :D

I thought the type of plastic surface finish could also allow for drawing fur/skin texture with a simple pen or pencil.

I would sure love to populate my table with a nice range of these...  (:]

Wacky Creatures Crayola Toys for McDonalds

A range of Crayola toys for Happy meal has just been launched in restaurants across the UK! I have worked on these at TMSW , following direction from Tom .

The range features pencil Wobblers, Creature creator, Comic Creator and my personal favorite, monstrous Sticker Dispenser! It has a lovely mention at ToyNews too, yay! (:]