Heads up! Last night, there was a HUGE update shared on the Operation: Recall Kickstarter page! You won’t want to miss out on this, so check out the details below –

Ron Rudat and Mark Pennington have been busy! Don’t believe me? Have a look at all of the green on this Gantt chart… 

As we shared in UPDATE #26, Ron Rudat and Mark Pennington finished ideation for all 17 new figures back in September. 

Then we moved into line reviews with Kirk Bozigian, where we went over all 17 new figures to help narrow down the ideas and decide which elements to push forward. We solicited feedback from the concept creators in advance of this meeting, and shared their input with Kirk as well. We shared the Line Review for Waves 1 and 2 in UPDATE #27 and we posted all of the ideation markups on YouTube. 

Then we shared the Line Review for Waves 3 and 4 in UPDATE #28 and we posted all of the ideation markups on YouTube. 

For the last couple months, Ron and Mark have been chewing through the line review feedback and they’ve been hard at work creating revised line art for each character, as well as sculpt sheets for each figure and their accessories. One peek at Steps 4 and 5 in the Gantt chart above shows how far they’ve come. But, let’s look at some art instead! 

Stunning, right? I’m still a bit in shock that this is all really happening, and ALL OF YOU are helping us do it! 

If you love seeing this kind of preproduction documentation, consider adding the Operation: Recall book to your pledge. You’ll find it in the add-ons. This book will show the creative process for every figure.

While Ron and Mark have been hard at work revising figure designs and drafting sculpt sheets, I’ve been busy breaking in the Formlabs Form 3+ high resolution resin printer. The first task for this machine is to create the “bucks” (articulated armatures) that Bill Merklein will be sculpting on.  Curious about how this technology works? Check out this four minute video on YouTube! 

While I was breaking the Form 3+ in, Mark Gerwig (yep, the insanely talented guy behind Mark 2 Design) was working to customize our bucks. Since the first Joe Fest O:R panel, we’ve been thinking through how and where to add size variance to the O:R figures. We think we’ve cracked the code. As of this moment, 10 of the 18 figure sculpts will be standard size, while the other 8 figure sculpts will vary by 0.25” in height and/or width.  This video shows six of the seven different buck sizes that we are planning.

We are still finalizing the bucks, and these may change. But soon, very soon, I’ll be headed up with sculpt sheets and bucks for Bill Merklein. I cannot wait to see him bring these figures to life!

Just this past weekend we kicked off sculpting with, you guessed it, a line review! Mark Gerwig joined me and Kirk Bozigian as we took one last look at six figure concepts bound for the third dimension. This is a long one, so, maybe pull it up if you’re having trouble sleeping? 

A note about Kickstarter updates, for those wanting more…

As you can see, there’s been a ton happening! I apologize for the lack of frequent Kickstarter updates, but I prefer for Kickstarter updates to be full of great content. I’m aware from my own backer experience that every Kickstarter update hits your inbox. In my view, your inbox is sacred. I don’t want to spam you with updates that don’t have a lot of meat on the bone. If you are one of those backers that prefers more regular content, please follow 3DJoes on YouTube, like Operation: Recall on Facebook, follow Operation: Recall on Instagram, or even Twitter.  We post there more frequently with smaller updates. 

What about BackerKit?

We raised $365,974 from 1,225 backers through Kickstarter, and we officially passed $100k today on BackerKit! 

We are now up to 1,473 backers, and we have raised $467k total. We are only $13k from the final unlock, Salty Dawg! General Mortífero is our last bonus figure, and he also unlocks at $480k. I have no doubt we’ll get there. Then we’ll need to prioritize our next goals. Comic books? A vehicle? More figures? YOU will decide. 

We’ve decided to extend the BackerKit window for a couple reasons: 

1. We’d like for all of you to be able to at least view Ron and Mark’s final line art, sculpt sheets, color studies, and presentation art before having to lock in your figure selections. I’d love for you to see some sculpts as well. As you all know, these concepts can and do evolve. We want to make sure you are getting all of the figures you want. 

2. We will not need money for manufacturing until this fall at this point, so there’s no reason for us to go ahead and charge you. Please, save your money, invest wisely, and pledge for more great toys! 

BackerKit will close on September 5th, Ron Rudat’s birthday. Let’s make it a big one, and maybe we can begin funding development of year two by then? That would be yet another dream come true. 

If you can’t find your BackerKit link, you can recover your survey here: https://operationrecall.backerkit.com/  

The Operation: Recall BackerKit Pre-Order store is open to the public! Please feel free to share this store link with friends and family, so they can join the Operation: Recall Army: https://operationrecall.backerkit.com/survey_stores

We have several months of great times ahead, watching each of these concepts evolve into fully sculpted figures with accessories. 

Let’s ROLL!