Sunday, 9 December 2007

zombie mate from riot68...

A custom mate flipped in today from the UK. Riot68 finished his first custom mate ...

das mo

Friday, 7 December 2007

mo´s zipper pull mates...

just want to show you the prototypes i got today for the mate zipper pulls. i got them printed with a 3d printer in 2,5 and 3 cm height. as 2,5 cm is too small, i plan to go for 3 cm zipper pulls. the fellow needs some smoothing and priming first. let´s see - quite a challenge to do minimolding i fear!




das mo



Monday, 3 December 2007

Little update...

Mates,

the 10 DIY mates I shipped to Royal Oak in October finally arrived at LIFT. Kent sells them for 45USD only - so US toy fans go for it!!!

I was quite busy working on graphics for my tales of mo island series and the mate zipper pulls coming up soon. Stay tuned for updates and put aside some of your xmas money for new stuff from Munich!!!

das mo

Monday, 12 November 2007

MOnster mate....

Mates,

as the minor outstanding improvements will not be visible on a small picture anyway, I would like to present to you my first custom painted toy ever! ;D

My monster mate:





das mo

Sunday, 4 November 2007

big red mate...

painted a mate for my buddy "big red".

so - this is how the little fellow looks like sanded , primed and painted...


das mo

Thursday, 1 November 2007

Tuesday, 30 October 2007

Studio Pics of DIY Mate...

Daan from customtoyworld.com provided me some nice pictures of his diy mate today. They are too nice too be hidden on my disk:






Please make sure to pay customtoyworld a visit. It is a new fast growing platform for toy makers, customizers and lovers!!!

Do not miss the interview with Okkle from UK with some first pics of his first custom mate! ;P

Cheers

das mo

Sunday, 28 October 2007

first customs sneak...

Mates,

I am about to finish the sculpting activities on my first two customs. Have a sneak preview on them...

Shark Mate - gills missing so far:



Monster Mate - teeth will be glued in carved mouth after painting is done:





das mo

Friday, 19 October 2007

New point of sale in Munich...

Mates,

as of today the Soda book store in Munich is selling my little fellows! In case you are around make sure to drop by! Apart from some nice toys there are plenty of great books and magazines around....

das mo

Monday, 15 October 2007

First customs awaited...

Mates,

there was a first bunch of orders from UK and US mainly. Thank you!

Now there are some great toy artists working on some mates and I am awaiting the first results. I also started to work on some customs and will post some pictures soon....

There are still some mates hanging around in my apartment, so make sure that you grab yours soon! ;P

das mo

Friday, 5 October 2007

Update...

Mates,

in the meantime I have boxed 25 diy mates, shipped the first diy mates and found a point of sale in Detroit. I will post you the link as soon as the store starts the preoders! Soda Books in Munich will also have some diy mates available soon!

As some molds start to get brittle, I will start replacing one by one soon to have cleaner casts again.

Since last night, there are some news on Vinyl Abuse and Plastic and Plush ! ;D

Cheers

das mo

Tuesday, 2 October 2007

Monday, 1 October 2007

mo´s mates are on sale...

Mates,

finally: due to your support and feedback during the last weeks, I am finally able to start selling the first 10 diy bundles of mo´s mates! Casting goes on every night....

As stated before I am in contact with some stores in the UK and US for hopefully being able to cut down costs for you. This actually depends on how much money these stores want to make. I really hope it pays of for you! Actually there is also some issues to be solved with the complex german tax laws....

Apart from that I send out my mates from today on myself!!!

Although I was forced to invest much more money than planned into this project (do not tell my girl - it was plenty of cash), I would like to keep the announced price of

26 Euro (37 USD, 18 GBP) including paypal fees.

Please feel free to pay more to work on my break even! ;P

As international bank transfer seems to be quite expensive (especially from the US), I would like to go for paypal. You can also go a different way, if cheaper for you, as long as the money arrives.

Now we get to the worst part - shipping costs and toll fees:

In general shipping costs are the same for 1 to 6 diy bundles and do not increase significantly for 6+, so tell your friends, grandmas,.... about my mates and always remember: These guys do not like to travel alone! ;D

Within Europe it is not a big deal. National shipping is 4 Euro. International 9 Euros and there are no toll fees. For the US it is around 13 Euros plus some toll fees. I actually was not able to find out, how those guys calculate it. For some bigger orders from Rotofugi I payed around 10% of the value of goods. Might be similar in the US!? Please get back to me on other countries. So:

1. Please place your orders via Email - mail[at]das-mo.net
2. I will get back to you on specific costs and my paypal account
3. When money arrives, I send out your mate
4. You place some wicked design on the diy mate
5. If are fine with it: You send me pics and confirm that I can print and publish them.
6. I will be very happy!!!!!

I think this is it....

Thanks for supporting me on my little project!!!

das mo





Sunday, 30 September 2007

the mates army assumes shape...

production runs fine so far....

the first ours of mate home production ran quite well. let´s hope for this to continue...

Thursday, 27 September 2007

I finished the master body tonight and made my first experience with Mold Max - nasty stuff! It is sticky as bubble gum and I messed around quite well! ;) Now I have some modern piece of art on our living room table, made of legos, silikon and everything that was not able to escape...


Boxes...

The master is almost done, so I will be able to work on the mold soon...

Let me share some insights into my print shop formally known as living room in the meantime:

Thursday, 20 September 2007

Back on track...

Mates,

today the new material arrived and I found some time to work on the master body.

Hope for the best!

das mo

Tuesday, 18 September 2007

Bad weekend...

Actually my weekend started great. Coming home from work a big package blocked my door. It was few gallons of Smooth Cast 305 that I ordered the other day. I didn´t expect it to arrive before the weekend, so I switched plans from printing the boxes for the mates to casting mates. So far so good...
First I broke the master. Fixing the master head in the master body, I managed to break off the whole front of the "collar". Great! Well, at that point in time I was not too frustrated, because I still had the mold, right.
So, get ready for casting. The first two bundles came out fine. When I started the third one, it was getting dark and cold outside, so I decided to continue inside with an open window for the necessary fresh air. 30 minutes after having poured the resin inside the molds, I realized that the resin did not transform into a solid smooth white toy but a slug-soft something, which actually decided to join the silicon mold here and there. It tooks me several ours to clean the mold. It was not perfect, but I hoped for a good next cast anyway... So - mates, when the SC manual tells you that this resin needs to be kept dry even during the casting process - believe it. It sucks water even from the air like a black does and ruins cast and mold!!!
Next day I gave it another try. This time I used a lot of release agent to be sure that everything goes well. Air was dry. Let´s do it! After the standard waiting time of 30 minutes, I entered the room and was really happy to see a solid white material. This happiness ended quite abrupt, when I demolded the body and realized that parts of the mold stuck on the cast.
So - here I am. No master, no mold and only few casts, which are not perfect enough to become the master for a new mold!

I will get back to you, when I have a clue on how to continue....

das mo

Wednesday, 12 September 2007

Way forward...

after taking a decision on how to do the packaging last night, I ordered lots of resin this morning. Finally! I decided to go for the Smooth Cast 305 one, which some of you should know from the designer toy forums. It is pretty expensive, but the quality rocks and the solid material will provide you heavy customization potentials.
Tomorrow I will start collecting the different items for packaging. The boxes will be illustrated manually to give this custom toy a adequate package.

I´ll keep you updated!

das mo

Tuesday, 11 September 2007

Issues, issues, issues,...

Mates,

the funny part of my project is over and I am currently trying to find ways to cut down production costs. The resin is quite expensive, but as I do not want to go for a lower quality one, its hard find a solution on this. Apart form that some traders only sell to companies and shipping costs are almost unacceptable high for heavy chemicals.
As recognized by other toy makers before, getting the packaging done on your own is tough. I am fan of fancy packaging, so I am trying to put some additional time and money into that. I hope people will appreciate that! ;)
When those things are handled, I can finalize my pricing calculations and inform the toy world about mo´s mates going on sale!

Until then I hope that you will work on the templates. Can´t wait to see what you have in mind when looking at the DIY!!!

Best Regards

das mo

Friday, 7 September 2007

Decision taken...

the little fellow was baptised "mate" in a fancy ceremony last night! ;)

"DIY mate" will hopefully be joined by some other mates soon ...

Stay tuned!

Wednesday, 5 September 2007

Templates for Bundle 1...

I just prepared templates for those of you, who plan to customize the little fellow*.

Template for the can head.

Template for the basic head.

I am looking forward to all your crazy ideas!

das mo

* I still have not decided about the name! ;(

Both versions side by side...

I sanded off the second body yesterday. This is the two versions you will be able to put together with bundle one. I actually plan to put few caps in different colours to the box.


Tuesday, 4 September 2007

First casting results...

So - after few weeks of work the first set was successfully casted: