Mickey's Magic Choo-Choo

Mickey Mouse and choo-choo trains have been associated since Disney first introduced Mickey in 1929.  As a result of this iconic relationship there have been scores of Mickey Mouse choo-choo toys produced over the decades.  Fisher-Price, founded in 1930, was one of the first toy companies to climb aboard.

As was the case with most children's toys way back then, things were simpler.  Nothing was battery operated, even plastic toys were decades away.   These Mickey Mouse trains, produced by Fisher-Price, were pull-toys that made noise when rolled. pretty basic preschool play but also typical for the era;
 

..Cut to present day Fisher-Price, and the popularity of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on The Disney Channel.  The computer animated series has a decidedly retro aesthetic, reminiscent of old school Disney.  To me, it captures the same subtle appeal of the show Rolie Polie Olie, a show I enjoyed watching with my kids when they were tots.  It was a very playful style and I enjoyed working on all of the toys that Fisher-Price ended up producing for the Mickey's Clubhouse line.
The revisiting of Mickey's Choo-Choo was a part of that experience early on.

The idea here was for a battery operated train with Mickey driving, but there was a new twist, which is actually an old cartoon gag brought to life;  the idea of laying the track down as the train rolls forward.  In this case, as the train rolled over the track each section would automatically be picked up and fed back up to the front.  Frankly, I was glad that I didn't have to figure out exactly how to make this function, I was trusted with the simpler task of designing and styling the train, and its cars and accessories.

It did go through some early sketch iterations, some of which went into these more refined drawings.
The first deals with the main theme and mechanism,  others address the track details, featured cars, and accessories;

..and in the end this is what the final product looked like;

The mechanism around this feature was a challenge to work out, but the end result truly does look magical.
Take a look;

creating Strong-Bot

The Transformers toys have had an ongoing popularity since they hit the American market in the mid 80s. They enjoyed a huge initial impact, spurring comics, more than one animated series, and of course the recent movies have introduced another generation to Optimus Prime.

Well, back around the turn of the millennium Hasbro was exploring the idea of tailoring Transformers to the preschool market, specifically through their Playskool brand.  It seemed like a natural progression, and in 2002 Playskool introduced their new 'Big Adventures' Transformers line;  Cheetor, Gorillabot, Mototron, Aerobot, and Speedbot.  Aside from being more playful and chunky in design, the main difference between these and the classic Transformers was the simplicity of the transformation, key for toddler play.
It was also around then that I was called in to come up with some ideas for the next wave of their new 'Go-Bots' line, as they were now called. The new line was comprised of both 'animals' and 'vehicles' assortments, I was commissioned to design a few Go-Bots with a construction theme.

These are the sketches I came up with;

Pretty rough beginnings. Fortunately at this early stage these didn't have to be fully though-out transformations.  It was the basic concept and theme they were looking for, with a transformation that seemed simple and plausible.
Out of the above they liked the 'Dozerbot' most,  having me do a clean-up and render for presentation;

  














The method of transformation was worked out, and the 'dozerbot' came to be known as 'Strong-Bot' in what was to become the first wave of 'Go-Bots' released.  In later lines the dozerbot was re-named 'Scrap-Bot' while the dump truck Go-Bot assumed the 'Strong-Bot' monkier.

 


















Ultimately it didn't matter much to me what he was called, I was just tickled having designed a Transformer.

Thomas the Tank: Take-n-Play series

Over the years I have had the honor of being involved in the creation and development of many Thomas the Tank toys that have come from Fisher-Price.  Including their wooden line (similar to Brio brand), Trackmaster and die-cast lines, Take-n-play line, and other licensed specials, that covers a significant amount of toys produced for Thomas.

I love working with the Thomas license and I've had a lot of fun designing for the different categories and their sets.  More recently, the world of Thomas has been expanding in the media with spin-off shows like Flynn the fire engine and Jack & the pack.  It's exciting to be working on those as well, and hopefully I'll be showing more as they hit the store shelves.

In the meantime,  here are a few of the 'Take-n-play' sets Fisher-Price Brands asked me to design for Thomas;

This smaller basic set explored a couple of themes, but relied on simplicity and the key compact storage that the Take-n-play line promoted.
Ultimately they decided to go with the 'Tidmouth tunnel' theme here;

Here is a Take-n-play set incorporating a pirates' treasure theme.  The final version came together from a number of concepts I did, combined with more in-house development.

The case was similar for the 'Blue Mountain' quarry climb set, which initially employed a very cool mechanism.  The mode of track play changed when a knob is turned, the mine shed flips up and open, revealing another level of track.  It offered some very cool play in a compact space, but it was passed on for something that was equally portable, and offered more presence;

Blue Mountain Quarry set closed

Blue Mountain Quarry set open

There is more to show from the 'Take-n-play' line, including my work on the big 'Misty Island Rescue' play set, which I'll post soon.
For now I'll leave with this, the 'Sodor Engine Wash' set. It has a working washer mechanism and features a water-activated color change, allowing a "muddy" Thomas to get all cleaned up.

Sometimes there are a number of iterations in developing a concept like this, other times it only requires a couple of passes to nail it.
There are varying reasons that factor into this, often it's just a matter of quickly exploring the best options, then synthesizing them into a more cohesive final version, ..maybe with some minor tweaks.
This is another one of those cases where it went pretty unchanged from the first pass to the toy store shelf, which is always fun to see happen.

more posters

It has been a little while since I've posted illustrated works for promotional posters, which are always loads of fun to work on.  The majority of what I've generated up to this point has been for Arcana comics and Rough Sketch Studio, specifically; Koni Waves, which has seen its initial arc of success in published form, and is in some stage of development as a film project or TV show. Exciting possibilities, but nothing definite as of this writing.

In the meantime, there have been a few 'Art of.." books to which I've contributed,  as well as the occasional isolated project, like the following illustrations.
The first was done for the relaunch of Captain Action, an action figure line from the mid 1960s, who has his own comic book. The current redux includes a counterpart heroine called 'Lady Action';

Another was a quick commission done for last years' ComicCon in San Diego, to cross-promote 3 of Arcana's leading published heroines;  Koni, Jinky, and Eve.  The theme was 'Arcana's Angels', my treatment was titled 'Angels raising hell';

It's not immediately apparent that the huge explosion behind them takes the form of a skull.
















"Anything strange or other-worldly, ..not just aliens, vampires and zombies."
I like that kind of freedom, which eventually pitted Koni against a swarm of nasty looking 'hellbats';

.. and inspired this poster involving a vintage Corvette and some vintage pteranodons;

Little People

A perennial favorite among parents and kids, 'Little People' have become a part of contemporary childhood as much as Radio Flyer, Frisbee, or Legos. There's some basic fun play that endures, along with the actual product, allowing them to become toys that are handed down for generations. 
Fisher Price introduced the first Little People sets in 1960, and though they have expanded and evolved over the past 50 years, they have retained their signature identity and irresistible charm.
I have been fortunate enough to work on a lot of Little People concepts over the past 20 years. Some have explored new approaches for classic Little People themes, different play patterns, innovative twists on existing ideas, ..one of the most recent being the 'Wheelies' line, which combines classic LP character play with vehicle and track play.  It's an exciting new direction and I'm thrilled to be a part of it.  I'll post a few of those soon.

In the meantime,  here is one of the very first Little People concepts for which I was brought in by Fisher Price. Their 'Discovery City' took Little People character play to a (then) new level of action, lights and sound FX.
Initially it was called 'Smart City', and sadly, I don't have a copy of the color rendering to post.  This job was done before the advent of the internet and emailing scanned jpegs,  back when I sent original art to clients via FedEx. ..Oh, those primitive times!..  

Designed years later, another example of putting an interactive twist on a classic theme, the Little People 'Pop N Surprise' train set;

As I said earlier, there have been a lot more over the years, these being just a couple, and I'll post more in the future.
The following project was more recent, and in celebration the aforementioned 50th birthday.  Fisher Price wanted to reproduce a line of classic Little People play sets to mark the occasion, and I was called in again.  As much as everyone loved the idea of simply re-releasing these sets as originally produced, some trimming was required and the approach ended up being more simplified and commemorative in nature.  The sets produced were the Little People Farm, the Little People House, and the Little People School.
Here are those designs;

 Here is how they turned out;

.. I also came up with a design for the Little People A-Frame House set, which I thought was awesome as a kid (though I never had one).  The actual A-frame home design was hugely popular in the late 60s to early 70s, at this point acquiring a dated mid-century charm.  I admit, I was pulling for this one to be in the line, but alas; it didn't make the cut.

..simplified, as the others in the line, but still a delightful trip back in time.
For those of you who don't remember the original;