One thing I am particularly excited about is my figure design process. I have been a huge fan of action figures for the last few years, and I collect a variety of figures and statues from different toy and statue manufacturers.
I decided while I am working on my own comic, characters, and worlds, I would make my own action figures. Today I thought I’d share a little bit of my journey and process on this endeavor so far.
We’ll start off with none other with our hero, Firestone!
Firestone is pretty much one of the many characters that I have come up with, and the main character of my current comic, titled “FIRESTONE”
He is a 17 year old adventurer, who lives with his grandfather, helping him run antique shop, “One Mans Treasures”. He has the ability to use and control fire. He and his grandfather recently moved and opened the shop to get a new and fresh start on life. Many new adventures and troubles await Firestone in this new world.
He is one of the characters that I have had in my mind, and heart for a long time.
From a distance, I based the character “Firestone” on myself, mainly in his appearance with having long thick dreadlocks/wicks.
I gave him a jumpsuit because I liked the simplicity of the design.
I have two versions of Firestone, one that releases in blue, and one color variant that releases in red.
Personally, I think the red color option makes sense right now, because it reinforces and easily conveys the idea and basis that Firestone has fire abilities.
Blue can work for this idea also, but for now, I think it makes sense to go with red. Personally, blue is my favorite color, so I really wanted to go with it, but for now, I think it may just take a back seat. For the blue color, I also took inspiration from one of my childhood favorite fictional characters, Sonic the Hedgehog. Some of Firestone’s personality was clearly inspired from the late 90’s and early 2000’s Sonic the Hedgehog video games, which I loved very much as a child. I also took some inspiration from Cyclops from the Marvel and Capcom fighting video games. (He looked so cool in his red and blue jumpsuit colors!)
Much later, I will likely change Firestone’s outfit and fire color in the story… But for now, I am enjoying where I am in the process.
Lastly, I am still producing figures behind the scenes, learning all that I can about toy production, finding ways to make these figures amazing. I am very proud of myself in coming this far in my journey. I am currently doing the design process myself, and investing all of my time, money, effort and energy into this current chapter and work in this stage of my life.
I am extremely proud of myself, as I feel as though sometimes I am not where I want to be right now, and sometimes, I get hard on myself for not getting enough done, or restarting my comic after spending so much time and effort laboring over it already. However, I tell myself to keep pushing forward, refocus into a state of gratefulness, thankfulness, and gratitude, keep moving forward, never stay complacent, and keep improving myself everyday, even if it is only one percent.
Posts like this are for the believers, as I know I will continue to thrive, and attract the right people who want to join me and walk alongside me on my journey, even if no one is watching at first. It is also a way for me to document my process, and when the time comes, I would like to make a short film or series on my character creation process, and my journey so far.
Anyways, what are your thoughts on my toy designs and process? Let me know your thoughts! Thank you.
