Incoming! Carson from Operation: Recall has shared not one, but two awesome updates! The first comes via an update on the campaign, with the second coming in the form of a Roll Call Update! Read on to check it out!
Hello Operation: Recall Army!
As I mentioned in UPDATE #40:
(1) Physical sculpting is complete! Bill Merklein and Mike Good have completed sculpting all 18 figures!
(2) 3D modeling and prototyping is complete! Mark Gerwig has completed 3D modeling of all Year One accessories, and we’ve printed and tested them all.
See UPDATE #40 for some visuals for 1 and 2.
Here are some additional progress updates for the rest of the team:
(3) Doug Hart continues bringing these characters to life through his vibrant and action packed paintings! He has now completed 10/19 paintings.
(4) Mark Pennington and Ron Rudat have completed all design work, and delivered their final presentation art.
I’ve updated the Operation: Recall Roll Call to reflect these awesome new visuals!
Beautiful, right?! It’s an incredible honor to be leading such a talented team of legendary toy makers. THANK YOU ALL for helping fund this adventure.
So, what else is happening?
(5) Mike Good is working on some additional heads for us, and they look amazing!
Bringing Clanker + Tank to life!
I’ve already mentioned, and shown, the amazing art Doug Hart continues bringing to Operation: Recall… but I thought you might enjoy a peek at the process!
Here’s a look at how we team up to make sure the illustration will fit the packaging perfectly and match the figure and accessories as closely as possible.
First, Mark Pennington created the figure and accessory sculpture sheets. Using these illustrations, I created the cardback layout showing how I anticipate the figure and accessories will fill out the cardback. Note: this is by far our most crowded cardback, so nailing the artwork in such a small space was vital. Then I sent that layout to Ed Morrill, along with tons of info on the figure and accessories, just like they did in the 80s! Ed and I have a kickoff call once he’s absorbed this info, but probably just because we are friends and it’s fun to catch up. Ed sent back the sketch marked #1 above.
Once I’ve got Ed’s sketches in hand, I compile tons of info on the figure and accessories for Doug, and I shoot reference photos using a body blank and 3D printed accessories. Tons of fun! This is labeled #2 above.
Doug digs in and starts laying out his linework. Doug sends this to me when he’s ready for review. His first draft is labeled #3 above.
I share this sketch with Ed Morrill and gather his feedback. Clanker is a very textured figure: between his fabric clothes, ribbed padding, and home-crafted armor plates… there’s a lot of elements to be mindful of. Compound that with the fact that Mark Pennington’s line art varied from Bill Merklein’s sculpt quite a bit, and I decided to really go to town marking up each piece of padding and armor. You can see my markup in green and orange in #4 above.
Next, Doug creates amazing package art! He’s using a combination of airbrushed and brushed acrylic paint, and he layers prismacolor pencils on top. His painting is labeled #5 above.
I share this art with Ed Morrill and gather his feedback. After that, sometimes we’ll give him some feedback, and sometimes we’ll call it done. For this painting, we decided to add some rim lighting on the legs and waist from the glow of the jet-pack thrusters.
Every step of this journey has been a blast.
A plea for patience.
The estimated delivery date of Dec. 2023 (on Kickstarter) was estimated based on developing four new Wave 1 figures and manufacturing five (including Retelo, who had already been developed). We are working to deliver 19 figures instead. That’s over 4X the development and manufacturing work. We are all working as quickly as possible to develop this line, while ensuring that the creators have an enjoyable experience. I’m not going to press folks needlessly, or cut corners to meet an arbitrary deadline. I will always go for quality over speed. Development and manufacturing will take as long as it takes. I hope you all enjoy the creative process along the way!
Want more frequent updates?
If you want more granular and frequent updates, and you want to see many more photos than the highlights shown here, please give the Operation: Recall social media channels a follow!
Facebook.com/OperationRecall
Instagram.com/OperationRecall
Thank you ALL for your support and your patience as we bring these figures to life!
– Carson
Operation: Recall Roll Call!
Design: Ron Rudat and Mark Pennington have completed all design work.
Accessories: Mark Gerwig has completed all accessory sculpts.
Figures: Mike Good and Bill Merklein have completed all figure sculpts. Some sculpture revisions are underway.
Packaging: Doug Hart just past the half way point on package art, delivering Clanker + Tank this week.
Paintmasters: Matthew LeCroy and Chris Scott are cranking on paintmasters, and we look forward to showing those at JoeFest.
The Roll Call page has been updated to show Ron Rudat and Mark Pennington’s presentation art and/or Doug Hart’s package paintings. Check out the latest here: https://www.operationrecall.com/roll-call.html
Backers can update their orders here: operationrecall.backerkit.com
If you haven’t enlisted yet, you can still join the Operation: Recall Army here: operationrecall.backerkit.com/survey_stores
Let’s ROLL!
There you have it! I can’t be more excited for this line to drop. It won’t be long now!
Did you get in on Operation: Recall? What figures did you get? I’m all in!
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