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.
One of the coolest Peanuts poseable figures, ever, is the dancing Snoopy that was originally produced last year as part of the Forever Fun Peanuts Christmas line. This little guy, as we love to say in the biz, has multiple points of articulation and is authentically detailed. To be precise, little Snoop here has 7 points of articulation (9, if you count the ears!) and is the most poseable version of the figure we’ve ever released.
It is always a real challenge translating a very stylized 2 dimensional comic strip character into 3 dimensions, much less incorporating articulation points that make sense and don’t violate the character’s basic shape. Round 2’s art director, Jamie, worked closely with the sculptor and provided very specific direction in order to accomplish just that. The Peanuts licensor was kept updated every step of the way and helped ensure that the sculpt stayed true to Charles Schulz’ character design. The result is an aesthetically-pleasing figure that’s full of personality, poseability and displayability. (That’s a lot to pack into 3 inches of plastic).
Dancing Snoopy returned as part of the “It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown” line, and now includes his very own Easter basket accessory and clear stand. Easter Beagle Snoopy was available at select CVS Pharmacy stores and Time and Space Toys. Hop on over to foreverfun.com for more info!
Christmas is almost the only time that I can see my whole family together in one place. All my siblings and their extended families gather at my mom’s home. There’s gift giving, music, a huge meal and lots of games afterward. For that reason, it’s a favorite time. This year, I gave my mom a gift of the Peanuts Deluxe Dancing Snoopy with sound. I told her it would look perfect in her formal living room as part of her Christmas décor. It was a hit with the whole family, young and old – when my mom wasn’t playing Christmas songs on her piano you could hear the Vince Guaraldi music coming from Snoopy’s piano.
The other day, I noticed that Dancing Snoopy was still on display in her living room. He looked like he was welcoming spring by dancing a jig. He adds a bit of whimsy to her room? Surely, he reminds her of the wonderful Christmas with all of her family. It makes me smile just looking at Snoopy on top of his piano on top of her piano.
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…
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Sculptors start their work and I supervise via email.
- 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.
- In the meantime, I spec the color for every product to guide the factory.
- 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.)
- The factory sends test shots of the new item for me to review. I make comments to them for anything that needs improving.
- 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.
- 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.