Last week, Carson shared an update against his Operation: Recall campaign, highlighting the wide assortment of paint master images shared throughout his social channels all of last week. You can check out the update in its entirety below –
Operation: Recall Recruits,
If you’ve been watching the Operation: Recall Facebook or Instagram pages this week, then you’ve been seeing daily drops of “paintmaster scale masters.”
Here’s a GIF showing all nine that we are rolling out this week for marketing purposes.
What are “paintmaster scale masters?”
The accessories, figures, and heads were oftentimes sculpted by three different people (Mark Gerwig, Bill Merklein, and Mike Good) and there were some scaling inconsistencies. For example, Mike’s heads were usually ~10% larger than Bill’s heads. These paintmaster scale masters were created to ensure that (1) the 3D scans of the hand-sculpted figures and heads were scaled consistently for production, and (2) the accessories were scaled appropriately for our line-wide scale of 1:18.5
How did we arrive at 1:18.5? The average American male is 5’9”. We are making our 3.75” figures the height of the average American male. As you can see in the paintmaster scale masters, we’ve indicated how tall these characters would be IRL. The height of our figures will vary from 3.5″ (Runback) to 4″ (Bear Claw) to show this variance in toy form. This is something that Ron Rudat, Mark Pennington, Kirk Bozigian, and Bill Merklein all asked for back in the 1980s. They’d always wanted variations in the buck during their time on G.I.JOE: A Real American Hero, and after all of these years we are finally executing on this idea!
I hope you’re as excited to see these figures come together as I am.
So, what about the rest of the figures?
We are developing 19 “year one” figures. Paintmasters for the first nine are complete and shown below. These figures are ready to go to the factory for scanning. Matter of fact, four have already been digitized at the factory and we’re working with those 3D files now!
(1) Bear Claw is a Survivalist, and while he spends a lot of time in the field, his pet raccoon Wilson is never far behind. Ron Rudat completed design for this figure, with Kirk Bozigian reviewing. Figure sculpt by Mike Good. Accessories modeled by Mark Gerwig. Paintmaster by Matthew LeCroy.
(2) Breacher is a Forced Entry Specialist, complete with his Belgian Malinois Hellhound. Mark Pennington completed design for this figure, with Kirk Bozigian reviewing. Figure sculpt by Bill Merklein. Head sculpt by Mike Good. Accessories modeled by Mark Gerwig. Paintmaster by Ray Murphy.
(3) Bengal is an Indian Sniper and Counterintelligence Specialist. Ron Rudat completed design for this figure, with Kirk Bozigian reviewing. Figure sculpt by Bill Merklein. Head sculpt by Mike Good. Accessories modeled by Mark Gerwig. Paintmaster by Matthew LeCroy.
(4) General Mortífero is the mysterious enemy commander. Mark Pennington completed design for this figure, with Kirk Bozigian reviewing. Figure sculpt by Mike Good. Accessories modeled by Mark Gerwig. Paintmaster by Chris Scott.
(5) Lilith is a U.S. Army Paratrooper. Ron Rudat completed design for this figure, with Kirk Bozigian reviewing. Figure sculpt by Mike Good. Accessories modeled by Mark Gerwig. Paintmaster by Chris Scott.
(6) Mzimu* Corps are Infiltration and Sabotage experts. Mark Pennington completed design for this figure, with Kirk Bozigian reviewing. Figure sculpt by Mike Good. Accessories modeled by Mark Gerwig. Paintmaster by Matthew LeCroy. *Ghost in Swahili
(7) Midnight Ops Retelo is a Communications Specialist, complete with his carrier pigeon Homer. Ron Rudat completed design for this figure, with Kirk Bozigian reviewing. Figure sculpt by Bill Merklein. Accessories modeled by Adam Bradley Freeman and Mark Gerwig. Paintmaster by Matthew LeCroy.
(8) Retelo is a Communications Specialist, complete with his carrier pigeon Homer. Ron Rudat completed design for this figure, with Kirk Bozigian reviewing. Figure sculpt by Bill Merklein. Accessories modeled by Adam Bradley Freeman and Mark Gerwig. Paintmaster by Matthew LeCroy.
(9) Salty Dawg is a U.S. Navy Construction Mechanic (Seabee). Ron Rudat completed design for this figure, with Kirk Bozigian reviewing. Figure sculpt by Mike Good. Accessories modeled by Mark Gerwig. Paintmaster by Matthew LeCroy.
(10) Dark Reapers, (11) Runback + PAC-DOG, and (12) SHHHH are all cast and their paintmasters are in progress.
(13) Clanker + Tank and (14) Sol Eagle were just cast, so those are next in line for paint.
(15) Night Raid + Ozzie and (16) Scrounger + Luna were just dropped off for casting.
(17) Cadavers just got a new head and new forearms in, so those will dropped off for casting with the next batch.
We are working through sculpture revisions for (18) Damselfly and (19) Snakeheads before casting.
How about packaging?
Doug Hart has been hard at work on package paintings! Here’s a look at his latest masterpieces:
Doug is currently working on Runback + PAC-DOG, and then we’ll kick off his last 5 “year one” paintings.
An update on timing, and a plea for patience
I received a request for a refund from a backer today, ironically after I’d begun work on this update. I made it clear that all Kickstarter funds have been or will be spent on development and manufacturing the 19 figures that we’ve funded during the Kickstarter and BackerKit periods. The initial Kickstarter goal of Dec. 2023 was estimated based on developing four new figures with the creative team, and manufacturing five (including Retelo, who had already been developed). We are now 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. Development and manufacturing will take as long as it takes. We are looking at having figures in hand as early as next summer. They will come in waves of four, and you can opt to pay for intermittent shipping, or to hold until all are ready to save on shipping. 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!
Thank you ALL for your support and your patience as we bring these figures to life!
– Carson
Operation: Recall is the campaign that ignited the o-ring renaissance, so needless to say, I know I speak for many when I say that I can’t wait to have these in hand!
Who’s your favorite O:R character so far? Sound off in the comments below!
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