For the last six months, we’ve been elbows-deep in melted plastic, failed molds, and the kind of stubborn optimism that keeps you going when your twentieth test shot comes out looking like modern art instead of an action figure. This weekend at the Designer Toy Art Festival in Philadelphia (August 9-10), we’re finally unveiling what happens when you mix revolutionary joy with a whole lot of trial and error.

What We’re Bringing

This isn’t just a booth, it’s the culmination of late nights, stubbornness, and the belief that play matters. Here’s what you’ll find:

The Toys We Learned to Make the Hard Way

Making these toys has been a hard fought battle. Every Sky Pirate, every monster, every space hero is a small victory against the idea that toys have to come from faceless factories.

• Spacehawk: Our take on Basil Wolverton’s 1940s cosmic lawman, now in 3.75” of hand-painted rebellion.
• The Sky Pirates Crew: Jacques, Bart, Leyla: the outlaws we built from the ground up, one stubborn mold at a time. (Meet Jacques)
• Monstrous Minis: Squishy, weird, and unapologetically handmade.

📖 The Stories That Started It All

The toys wouldn’t exist without the stories that inspired them:

• Mountain Town Comics #1-4: Reprints of golden age classics, including Spacehawk and Microface.
• The Mysterious Air Pirates #1: Our dime novel tribute to the kind of stories that used to be sold for a nickel—and smuggled radical ideas into readers’ hands.

Preview The Mysterious Air Pirates (PDF LINK).

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Why?

This isn’t about nostalgia! It’s about proving that play can be rebellious, that small batches beat soulless mass production, and that joy is its own kind of resistance. Every figure we’re bringing to Designer Toy Art Fest is a middle finger to the idea that creativity has to be corporate.

So if you’re in Philly this weekend, come say hi. We’ll have early releases, festival deals, and maybe a story or two.

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