Finally! After many delays and more than a few setbacks, my toy label GENSHI:TOY is proud to announce the release of my second toy Kricky The Alien Frog!

A couple of days ago I visited my distributor’s warehouse (DKE Toys) where we had just received my inventory of “Kricky Frogs” (which is how the Hong Kong manufacturer, ThreeZero, labeled the cases) and a very big smile quickly grew upon my face.

Stack Of Krickys

I want to take this opportunity to thank a few people that helped to make this all possible, starting with my new business partners Shirley and Howard, a.k.a. the Chi-Lees, for their support and for making this project happen; Matt Manos for is invaluable work on the packaging design; Dov of DKE Toys as always for his support, advice and Jedi-like distribution skills; ThreeZero for their professionalism in manufacturing; and last but not least, Visnja Zelenika for her invaluable moral support, patience and inspiration (as well as making the “Krick, Krick” noise when explaining how Croatian frogs sound like… which is what inspired Kricky’s name!)

Details about the toy:

Kricky will initially be available in 3 varieties; the original two-toned Green Kricky at $29.95, the Glow-In-The-Dark Kricky at $29.95 (limited to 100 pieces) and for those of you that love to customize your vinyl toys, a Blank White Kricky at $24.95 (which will be sold through Kricky’s site exclusively, starting within the next couple of weeks!)

Please contact your favorite vinyl toy retailer and ask for “Kricky The Alien Frog” by name!

Though delayed by a couple of weeks, Kricky The Alien Frog is finally on the ship from the manufacturer and headed to the Port of Long Beach! It should arrive on October 3rd and then after clearing U.S. Customs (anywhere from 3 to 7 days) it will be trucked on over to my distributor, DKE Toys.

My excellent freight company provided me with all the details of the shipping process including the name of the cargo ship and the port of arrival. With this information, I found a site that allows me to actually track the ship on google maps… you know, in case of pirate attacks!

Kricky's Ship - The OOCL Tianjin

Tracking Kricky

UPDATE as of 10/02/2009: Kricky is getting closer…

Tracking Kricky 10/02/2009

UPDATE as of 10/03/2009: Day of arrival…

Tracking Kricky 03

I don’t usually quote others, I like to use my own voice, but this particular quote is very relevant and close to me. Allow me to explain…

With the impending release of my next toy, “Kricky The Alien Frog” along with my book of photographs that I’m working on, my next couple of music projects, my social entrepreneur  work and another top secret project that only my closest of friends know about (along with a few other projects that are pending) I was recently accused by a couple of people of being too ambitious and unrealistic; of setting impossible goals for myself and not being practical or grounded enough. Funny, my Father used to say the same exact thing to me 30 plus years ago (ironic though since he, himself, was very ambitious! Looking back on it now, he may have said that to force me to fight back… which I did.)

If only they knew me… more than anything I have ever read before, this quote from the 1997 Apple Computer “Think Different” ad campaign sums me and my lifelong beliefs up perfectly! (It is often misattributed to Jack Kerouac, but, as great as Kerouac was, it was actually written by Craig Tanimoto when he was a copywriter at twba\chiat\day, the agency that produced the Apple campaign.)

I always think back to this quote when people try to hold me back from doing what I want to do (which seems to happen more often than not!)

Here's to the crazy ones...

If you really want to know what I am all about, what drives me to do the things that I do and, despite my occasional fallings (failings?) and missteps, what contributes to the more than a few successes that I’ve had (though not always financial, but always a success on some level) in the wide variety of fields that I work in… then reread that quote again and really meditate on it, because, unfortunately, not many people get it (if they did, then we wouldn’t have such mediocrity in this world.) I’ve lived my life based on this idea (ideal?) of always wanting to change the world, since I was 13 years old (for a very specific reason, but that’s for another post.)

As a quick example that relates to all of this: at my previous day job (whose name I won’t mention) I was working as their senior web designer. They were an eCommerce company run by a bunch of Harvard MBAs who had been in business for 3 years with 12 websites but never actually had a web “designer”; they didn’t get design and they were always so afraid to take a chance, to try something different. They would have countless meetings about what they should do with their sites and they always ended with “Well, let’s just schedule another meeting about it tomorrow.” I finally put my foot down one day and said, “Come on guys, let’s just do it! Let’s try this new design out and if it doesn’t work, fine, we’ll go back to the old design, no big deal… but if it does work, great, we’ve just moved forward!” Simple. Of course it did work, I got a huge raise, then 3 weeks later, after being there for only 8 months, they laid me off because, according to the mutual separation agreement, I “no longer fit in with the culture of the company.” But that’s a whole other story…

My point being, if you are one of the ones that don’t think you can change the world… then you never will!

Update: In a related story, according to John Hopkins Medical School professor and clinical psychologist John D. Gartner, the top entrepreneurs are actually clinically diagnosed as having Hypomania. He surveyed a list of entrepreneurs with a list of common Hypomania traits and 100 percent of them identified with every trait on the list. Scary thing is… so do I. To a “T”. Always have. You can read the article here.

That’s right folks, my next toy “Kricky The Alien Frog” is officially out of manufacturing. My manufacturer, ThreeZero, sent me the email last night along with a few photos of Kricky fresh off the factory floor! (see below)

The cases of Krickys will be put on a ship from Hong Kong next week and should arrive at my distributor’s door step in a couple of weeks after that. More information will be forthcoming on how you can purchase your very own limited edition Kricky The Alien Frog!

After a furious 4 days of back and forth design edits last week, I present to you, the final packaging design for Kricky The Alien Frog! A very big thank you goes out to my new packaging designer Matthew Manos for all of his hard work and for putting up with the pressure of an insane deadline (and a slightly insane Art Director like me!) You really pulled through Matt!

Kricky Final Packaging

The design of the packaging is now in the hands of my manufacturer ThreeZero and in exchange, they have sent me the finalized production prototype of Kricky The Alien Frog! It should be arriving in the next couple of days, so I will be posting pictures of it once I get it in my hands.

They did, however, also send me a photo of this finished prototype, but I am not showing it yet… but lets just say, it really is an alien frog! We have enhanced the colors a bit and altered the design slightly so it really stands out and catches your eye while still keeping with the simple and clean original design.

(ooh I want to show the picture they sent me so bad! But I just have to wait until I get it in my hands and take pictures of it myself. Patience Craigery, patience.)

Though I usually don’t  post anything very political or activismish (I know, that’s not a real word, but neither is automagically and look at how many “professional” bloggers use that!) I wanted to take a moment to post something that is a bit serious and important to me.

I’ve always considered myself a bit of a Philanthropist, though when most people think of a Philanthropist, they picture these billionaires that can donate hundreds of thousands, if not millions, to various charities (and of course, that’s the type of Philanthropy I hope to achieve some day) but of course anyone, really, can be a Philanthropist. And, at least to me, I feel it’s important that everyone who can, should try to be one.

Without going through an entire history of my efforts in Philanthropy, I just wanted to point out my first efforts and my most recent effort (which is where this is all leading to, as I am encouraging everyone to contribute to this… but more on that in a bit.) My first efforts began when I was 10 years old believe it or not. I had been a musician since the age of 4 and my Dad was pretty good at giving me semi-professional instruments for my birthdays or Christmases, but I had discovered the Gibson Les Paul guitar and wanted one badly and there was no way in hell my Dad was going to give a 10 year old kid a Les Paul! So I knew I was going to have to save up and buy it myself.

Now, I didn’t have a paper route and I hated doing yard work, so I knew those options were out, but luckily, I was also a magician (since the age of 6) and I started performing magic shows, first at birthday parties for kids my age, and eventually school auditoriums. My Grandmother made me professional business cards with two little rabbits jumping out of a magician’s hat and before you know it, I had my own little business going (my first steps into entrepreneurship!) I also supplemented this with Clown and Mime work the old fashion way; performing on the streets with a hat out (mostly at San Diego’s Balboa Park.) I did pretty good and was making good money, saving up for my beautiful black Gibson Les Paul Custom! But something happened, I was asked to do a show at the San Diego Children’s Hospital for the terminally ill children. I did the show, and this affected me heavily; there was no way I was going to charge them for my performance. In fact, I wound up performing regularly there for about a year or so and it didn’t matter to me that I was doing this for free, because I was doing just fine with all of my other gigs, and seeing the smile on these kids faces at the hospital was the biggest payment I could have ever received (and by the time I was 13 I did purchase a 1976 Gibson Les Paul Custom, the exact one that I wanted!)

So fast forward to today, the economy has hurt or at least affected most of us. I personally have had to take on a new, more practical business that I would normally not have ever considered before (I even have to wear a suit and tie which goes against EVERYTHING I believe in!) but, compared to many parts of the world, we just don’t realize how good we got it. I mean, the fact that you, my dear reader, are even reading this blog means you have it better than millions of others that have never even seen a computer in their life times.

And it’s all well and good to do your small part and occasionally donate to some charity you see on an infomercial that claims they’ll get the money to a needy child or family, but I recently discovered another, more effective way to make a difference:

Kiva.org allows you, a lender, to lend a very small amount of money to someone in an impoverished country, who is already trying to build a small business (usually selling fruits and vegetables to their village, etc.) and just needs a little more funding to help them carry on with what they do. From the Kiva.org site:

The people you see on Kiva’s site are real individuals in need of funding – not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs’ profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.

This is a powerful thing. Think about it… in my case, even in this terrible economy, I still have this bad habit of going to Starbucks every day during the work week. At the very minimum I spend $5, that’s $25 a week. So what if I don’t go to Starbucks anymore and just drink coffee at home? (which I also do anyway) Then I can contribute that $25 every week to someone in Uganda or Nigeria who will then be able to buy enough product to sell for a reasonable price to their community, thus feeding their neighbors, themselves and their own family. Reread that again… my self-imposed abstinence from my daily Starbucks is feeding a village each week! That is important! Not just for me, but for the world! EVERYONE that is reading this blog should be doing this because it is that easy, it is necessary and it will make a difference to many, many people.

I read a great quote the other day from a fellow Kiva.org contributor by the name of Douglas that said:

Money is like manure. If you stack it up it begins to stink. Spreading it around makes things grow.

I hope everyone considers this and contributes to help end poverty by empowering those that are willing to work hard and who in turn are contributing back to their own communities. You can track my own efforts in this through my Kiva.org profile page.

Finally, please watch this FRONTLINE/World report to see how Kiva.org are helping to build and expand businesses in impoverished countries:

See the full FRONTLINE/World story at PBS.org

(and this is officially my longest post to date.)

My manufacturer, ThreeZero, have just sent me a little video of the Kricky The Alien Frog master mold. This showcases how the head comes off and fits either frontwards or backwards.

From this master mold, the production mold will be made and then the first vinyl sample. If I get this sample in time, it may be shown at this years San Diego Comic Con!

The Dread - Part 1

A new experiment for the 12seconds.tv site; an attempt to tell a story of dread in only 12 second increments.

The Dread – Part 1 | 12seconds.tv (beta)

I recently discovered this 12second.tv site. Basically, it’s a video version of twitter where you only get 12 seconds to post what you are doing. And much like twitter, the vast majority of the people posting are posting how bored they are or how drunk they are or, even worse, themselves just laughing or making stupid faces into the camera for 12 seconds!

Well, I wanted to do something a little more creative. I saw this as a challenge; to try to tell a story within the constraint of the 12 seconds. And I wanted to do this visually, with sound effects and music but no dialog. So this is my first attempt as an internet film maker. I present to you, part 1 of a multi-part series known as The Dread.

(Note: I do hope that everyone reading this checks out the version on the 12seconds.tv site and comments on my little film. Unfortunately, the 12seconds.tv site crops the videos submitted to a squarish format. So to view the full widescreen version of The Dread, please check out my Mac Gallery. Thank you.)

I don’t know how I missed it before, but a friend of mine mentioned that I should check out the new building at Caltech if I’m into Architecture and Photography (which I am!)

The building, known as the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Caltech in Pasadena California, was designed by Thom Mayne founder of the architectural firm Morphosis.

Though it has received many mixed reviews and comments, for me, this is just an incredibly designed modern work of inspiration! And since I couldn’t find any photos online that did justice to this incredible building (Editorial: including the horrendous photography work done by the L.A. Times for their architectural review of the building… Really? An architectural review and this was the best photo they could take!?) I took it upon myself to capture the building the way I thought best represented the idea of a modern Astrophysics work of art facility. Here are my results:

I just received photos back from my manufacturer of the new [re]sculpt of my next toy, “Kricky The Alien Frog“. Originally it was going to be manufactured and released a couple of years ago, shortly after my first toy the “Broken Heart Robot” was released, but due to financial circumstances and other obstacles beyond my control, I was unable to continue through with moving the project forward.

Luckily, things are now moving forward. The manufacturer has been paid and the manufacturing process has begun (again.) The first step is re-sculpting the figure based on my design (see photos below of the sculpt.) After this, the manufacturer will make a wax pattern from the sculpt. I will be posting the progress here as I get the photos and samples in.

It’s been a long time coming, but finally, the Broken Heart Robot will have his side kick! Kricky will of course be released under my own toy brand GENSHI:TOY.