It’s almost July — less than half a year away from the holidays. Test shots of our Forever Fun holiday offerings are arriving almost daily here at Round 2. Some of them are far enough along to have test deco applied for approval. I find it exciting to see figures and accessories that were a figment of our imagination just a year ago, turned into tactile objects with all their deco glory. Sometimes the factories need specific direction, and there’s no better way than to show them! In the photo, you see Jamie applying paint to Franklin’s winter cap. Once he achieves the look he’s going for, he’ll snap a photo and email it to the factory. The finished image is in the top right corner. Franklin is a new poseable figure that we’ve added to our Forever Fun Peanuts Christmas line of products this year.

Round 2’s Creative Team consists of a small, fiercely dedicated group of individuals who juggle a variety of responsibilities. As most folks know, we don’t just make great holiday figures (Forever Fun), but we also produce models kits (AMT, MPC and Polar Lights), have a slot car line (Auto World), a 1:18 die-cast line (American Muscle) and a custom die-cast line (Auto World Custom & Premium). As you can imagine, with such a variety of projects, there’s never a dull moment at Round 2. (Maybe our mascot is a kangaroo because we’re always jumping from one project to another!)

In any case, I’d like to introduce you to the people behind the products. (In future entries, I’ll plan more detailed individual biographies of my fine cohorts.) As seen in the photo above, from left to right:

Jamie Hood is Art Director for Forever Fun and Model Kits, and on occasion contributes to Auto World as well. Jamie’s primary focus is product development, and he has a particular talent for reviewing sculpts, test shots and dealing with production-related issues. (If you’ve been following Jamie’s excellent entries on our model kits blog, you already have a fair idea of Jamie’s many talents.) With our Forever Fun holiday lines just starting to get under production, Jamie has been reviewing test shots and pre-production samples of Rudolph, Peanuts and Little Drummer Boy on an almost daily basis the past month or so. In addition to those responsibilities, Jamie is an accomplished artist; his most recent contribution, art-wise, at Round 2 was his stellar illustration of the Enterprise-E for our Star Trek model kits line.

Bob Plant (that’s me) is Creative Director at Round 2. Mostly that seems to mean that I get loads of e-mail and sigh a lot. (For variety, some cursing is involved occasionally, as well.) Other than that, well, I guess describing my job is a little tricky — mainly I try to make sure that things keep rolling and that I provide any support the creative team needs to get their job done. My background is in graphic design, so I still design some of our packaging as well, and recently have particularly enjoyed working on model kit boxes and instruction sheets. I’m a Trekkie/Trekker from way back, too, so it’s been a thrill being involved with the Trek kits. I can’t tell folks how exciting it is to be bringing back some of this vintage styrene — the Mr. Spock kit and the UFO Mystery ship are particularly thrill-worthy and absolutely make my geek heart jump for joy.

Terri Rach (that’s pronounced “rock,” and she, indeed, does) is Art Director for Forever Fun, but she also contributes to our other lines as well, particularly in a graphic capacity. Terri’s background in graphic design and advertising has been invaluable — she’s equally adept at designing a poseable holiday figure blister card as she is putting a model kit ad together. Terri ran her father’s ad agency, Impact, for many years, before striking out on her own as a freelance designer. Among her many clients were Playing Mantis and Round 2. At last, we convinced her to come on board full-time, and, in addition to her fine graphic skills, she’s proven herself to be an excellent conceptualist and product developer, working on Peanuts, Rudolph and Little Drummer Boy, developing both product and packaging.

Mike Groothuis is Art Director for Auto World, American Muscle and Custom & Premium. Mike’s focus is packaging design, but he also has his hand in the development of product as well, and is responsible for much of the beautiful and highly accurate pad print artwork that can be seen on our 1:18-scale American Muscle die-cast, as well as our Custom & Premium vehicles, which cover a wide range of vehicle types, from vintage delivery trucks to dragsters to funny cars. Mike is a fantastic photographer, and recently completed photography and packaging design for our line of classic automotive kits. Mike also specializes in photo-realistic renderings of automotive subjects; his illustrations have graced packaging art for Playing Mantis, RC2, and Greenlight. Be sure to check out Mike’s Auto World progress reports (and his excellent product photography) at www.autoworldblog.com.

John Greczula is Art Director and Brand Manager for the automotive segment of our model kits. A styrene kit fanatic from way back, John knows more about the history and the many permutations of MPC and AMT car kits than anyone I’ve ever met. His knowledge has been invaluable in restoring (“backdating”) these classic kits to their vintage glory. John’s obsessive attention to detail has helped ensure that the kits we release meet even the most serious model kit fan’s expectations. John is also a graphic designer who handles his own packaging, having a particular knack for accurately recreating vintage model kit boxes. John’s obsession with styrene car kits is nearly equaled by his peculiar fascination with the Gorn, from Star Trek the Original Series.

Tony Karamitsos is Brand Manager for Auto World, American Muscle and AW Custom & Premium. Tony has serious real-world experience with automotive restoration (specializing in muscle cars), which makes him perfectly suited for our automotive lines. Tony’s unparalleled attention to detail and intimate knowledge of many makes and models of cars have helped ensure that Auto World’s die cast and slot car lines are the most detailed and accurate on the market. Tony is one of the hardest-working individuals I’ve ever met – Tony runs a successful business as a DJ on weekends, restores cars in the evenings, (and occasionally drag-races them!) while still finding time to spend with his wife and three sons. (Three weeks ago, I saw him doing some serious partying with his wife in Vegas, but perhaps that’s a story for another time…)

Andy Jewett is Art Director Web Services and manages our many websites and blogs, from Forever Fun to Custom & Premium to Model Kits and everything in between. Andy is the most recent addition to our team, and his sardonic wit and enthusiasm helps keep us entertained. Andy is one of those multi-talented individuals who can handle the intricate inner-workings of our many websites while still making sure that everything looks pretty on the outside: he’s a true tech with taste. Andy has a great sense of design, and is also an accomplished comics artist, whose work has a distinctly indie (as in “independent comics”) bent. In the jack-of-all-trades department, Andy recently completed a couple of illustrations for our Rudolph packaging.

There you have it folks – a small taste of the personalities behind the product, and a big, big part of the reason why I look forward to coming to work every day.

Most of the Forever Fun Christmas holiday products are in production. Final approved packaging files have been sent to the printers. Here at Round 2, LLC, a steady stream of test shots of the poseable figures and PVC figurines are being reviewed and painted deco samples are being scrutinized for quality. Printed press proofs of packaging files aren’t expected back for a while. That said, production samples of Forever Fun 2009 product items DO NOT exist!

However, our various customers still need something representative for their planning purposes. These buyers have rooms where they actually set up shelves with the products they have chosen for the season. This simulates their store aisles for management to walk through and review. What we do to satisfy this need is shown in the image. You see fake representations of our 2009 items: boxes of Peanuts Deluxe Figures, a Mini Figure Pageant Set and trays of Peanuts poseable figures and Rudolph poseable figures. This is done with color printouts of the packaging pasted onto heavy board. The packages are cut and/or scored, folded and taped together. The figures shown are flat pictures and cardboard cutouts. The cart represents a good part of a days work. Maybe from far away, you might be fooled into thinking they are actual product. From REAL far away!

The calendar at the Forever Fun department at Round 2, LLC is fast-forwarded one year. All 2010 VALENTINE and 2010 EASTER product proposals are due to our sales reps. – for spring seasonal presentations. And back to today, we are in the middle of production of our 2009 HALLOWEEN product and beginning to release 2009 CHRISTMAS product specs and packaging to the factories.

Within the next week or two we will be setting our plans for our 2010 CHRISTMAS products for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Little Drummer Boy, and Peanuts - Charlie Brown Christmas. From planning product to actual product samples, there are multiple stages of things going on in this department — all happening at the same time!

Not a whole lot to report this week. I’ll be finishing up all of the color specs for the ’09 holiday season hopefully. In the meantime, here are some images of mockups and tooling patterns for upcoming items. Take a look around for them this coming Fall and Winter. Let’s see, we’ve got…

Peanuts push puppets will be available this Halloween at CVS pharmacy while Christmas versions will be available at other retailers. The engineering issue that last year’s Rudolph push puppets had has been completely corrected.

Deluxe Snoopy is looking sharp in his Tuxedo. This is actually a hand made mockup I did as a sales sample. He’ll look a little more dapper when the production tux gets finished. He’ll come with his black piano and Woodstock who will also be sporting a bow tie.

Angel Sally and Woodstock in a manger will be featured in our play pack assortment this year. Charlie, Lucy, Linus and of course, Snoopy round out the poseable figures in their costumes for their Christmas pageant.

It’s no surprise when I wake with a Christmas song stuck in my head. Although it’s early April, Christmas is all around me. Charlie Brown Christmas poseable figures are grouped and arranged for their holiday portraits. Rudolph® the Red-Nosed Reindeer figurines and Frosty Deluxe Figures are waiting in the wings. These images will put the finishing touches on the Christmas packaging that is under construction here at Round 2.

Other folks in the Forever Fun department of Round 2 have been busy as Christmas elves: There’s sculpts to review for new figures and accessories, product specifications for paint and deco to be finalized and approved, licensor and legal approvals to pursue, late show samples and mockups to be gathered and shipped, mock-up packaging samples to be assembled and sent to sales reps and buyers. We’re all wrapped up in Christmas work, even our office cat! He can’t resist any opened Christmas box.

Hi. Thanks for stopping by. I’m Jamie Hood, art director for Round 2. I am part of the team that develops our Forever Fun product. My primary responsibility for our products is coordinating day-to-day development of our holiday line of play and display items which covers great properties like Peanuts, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman and new for this year- Little Drummer Boy. This means I research the subject matter (Watch TV, read comic strips and get paid for it? It doesn’t get much better than that), develop control drawings, advise sculptors, spec’ colors, check test shots, supervise tooling changes and otherwise try to keep my fingers in as many cool projects as I can manage (and sometimes more). I’ll do my best to share some of the stuff that goes on around Round 2.

Right now, we are in the home stretch of developing the product for the coming Christmas season. Other members of the development team are hard at work on packaging while I have a few projects still in the sculpting stages. I get images of progress made by the sculptors and give them guidance where necessary. Once the sculpts are done, they get sent to me so I can review them in person, then forward them on to the licensor for their approval. As I wait on sculpts, I concentrate on spec’ing all of the colors for the factory. Our development goes something like this…

1. The creative team brainstorms ideas for each product in each license. We do this by meeting for a few hours a day scattered over the course of a month or so.
2. We share our ideas with Tom Lowe, the owner of the company along with other sales support and production staff to get their input. Soon after, we share our ideas with our sales reps to show them our plan and gain their input.
3. We start finalizing our plan although it remains flexible through the selling season to be sure we overcome opportunities and challenges that arise over the course of the season.
4. We begin asking our factory for quotes for our proposed product and I begin drawing up plans for items that require new sculpts. This involves studying the subject matter, finding appropriate show images that show as many angles of the element as possible. Many times I do control drawings that show the item from every side and indicate the scale.
5. Sculptors start their work and I supervise via email.
6. Once sculpts are finished, I have them sent to me so I can take a final look before forwarding them on to their respective licensor. The licensors may ask for changes that are executed by the sculptor.
7. In the meantime, I spec the color for every product to guide the factory.
8. The sculpts then go to the factory and are used to create steel tooling. (it’s magic as far as I’m concerned. I don’t really know how it’s done.)
9. The factory sends test shots of the new item for me to review. I make comments to them for anything that needs improving.
10. The factory produces the product and has it tested for safety, etc. At the end of which pre-production samples are sent for our final review.
11. The product is shipped to the retailers and by that time, we will be about one quarter of the way through the whole process for the next year.

This really is a simplification of the process. Each year has its own hurdles to overcome but for the most part, this is generally how it goes.

I go through certain times of the year when my desk shows just how busy I am. This week just happens to be a regular week but my desk already seems over-run. I’m showing a picture just to show some of the things that have my immediate attention. Let’s see… There’s a sculpt of Rudolph’s cave for a mini figurine set, Little Drummer Boy figurine painted mockups, new sculpt elements for this year’s CVS Peanuts Music and Motion skate pond set, and fabric samples for our Peanuts poseable play packs.

Round 2 and its various brands finally enter the 21st Century (gosh – that sounds so futuristic) with the launch of our brand-spankin’ new blogs. Welcome to the very first Forever Fun blog, where we, the FF creative team of Terri, Jamie and Bob (and perhaps an occasional guest star or two) will endeavor to provide a more casual, behind-the-scenes look at the creation of product based on some favorite classic holiday characters, namely Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Peanuts and Frosty the Snowman!

We’ve been producing poseable holiday figures, mini figures, playsets and more based on these classic properties for the last several years. Prior to that, the previous incarnation of the company, Playing Mantis, handled the product, with much of the same creative team involved. So – we think the brand is in good hands.

Hopefully, our blog entries will be informative, insightful and fun. No boring blogging, bland blogging or soggy blogging allowed. After all, with a brand name like “Forever Fun,” we’ve got a lot to live up to.