Puggleformer Christmas 2012: Custom Plush Transformers and BotCon Plans

Starscream here, and I am the lord and master

of the GeekCast radio network. Don't tell Megatron.

Say hello to Shockwave. Shockwave, are you certain

you can extract the decryption code without first

nullifying our subject's neural net? I invented

the cortical psychic patch. I am familiar with

its idiosyncrasies. And now, Toycast, with your

hosts, TFG1 Mike and Kelly. Ladies and gentlemen,

it is December 2012 and so far the world has

not ended yet. Thanks Mayans, liars. We still

have a week. This is toy cast the 2012 Puggle

former Christmas episode over the last year.

I've gotten And how many did I get these one

two probably about ten Puggles in the last year,

I guess for the entire year 2012 and usually

how I help Callie promote the stuff besides putting

the links on her fan page as I do these episodes

once a year at Christmas time. Let's talk about

the ones that I got over the last year. So I

think we'll start with the initial five that

I got because I bought one of your shop fills.

I bought the purple one whose name is Claudus.

So I bought him and then you initially made me

Uh, Shattered Glass Optimus, Skywarp, Sound Blaster,

and Fall of Cybertron slash TF Prime Shockwave.

He's whatever you want him to be. Which created

a huge debate on Twitter. I don't even remember

anymore. Well, the eye. That eye on the toy is

pink, it's not red! I vaguely remember this conversation,

yes. When I sent the request to Callie, I wanted

her to use the design of the Fall of Cybertron

TF Generations toy in order to make a puggle

out of it. I was going off a picture that I had

seen on Cybertron .com at first. Where the picture

that they took of the actual physical shockwave

toy the eye was a deep Blood red color it wasn't

it wasn't bright it wasn't it was kind of a muted

blood red color and I said go buy this picture

and I said you could also look at the wiki and

you can go buy that picture Well in the wiki

the toys eye looks like it's pink because of

the light piping and everything else And she

was like, oh yeah, I made a giant yellow eye.

I'm like, yellow? That's not the right color.

I still have that eye. Well, you can make a G1

Shockey for BotCon 2013. That's the plan. So

yeah, that was the first order. So Shockwave,

Shattered Glass Optimus, Skywarp. Do you want

Skywarp? And, um, who's the other one? Oh, Sound

Blaster. Really, really, even though, speaking

of Shattered Glass Optimus, I've got him in my

hand here, even though it's just a piece of black

thread on his panel, I love how it makes it look

like his glass is shattered. I thought that was

really cool how you did that, even though it's

just a piece of - Oh, it's embroidery. Yeah.

Thank you. Well, I'm sorry. I'm not a sewing

magnate. I don't you know. I don't know technical

terms This is why we have you on every year so

you can teach people embroidery yes But no shatterglass

optimus is very very very awesome He will he

goes well with my shattered glass erotimus, which

was actually the first one I ever got from you

Yep, and then sound blaster he uh... he's the

first one that i have that actually has a uh...

the puggle former logo on him yeah that's new

to avoid copyright infringement it works you

know and you've been told by a well not by hasbro

but by bot con that you fall under a teach right

by by peace and clear that you fall under fan

art and it's not what you know you're not You

don't have an entire manufacturing shop where

you you know pump these things out on yeah So

like this is my I've always loved the character

of Skywarp simply because he can teleport and

he's black and purple and those are two of my

favorite colors. And you had originally made

two for BotCon 2012. Yeah, it was 2012 or 2011,

I forget. When did you go? Did you go this year?

2012. 2012, yeah, yeah. I wasn't at BotCon 2011.

Right, right. 2010, I was just a dirt fangirl

walking around. Aww. So you had made Skywarp,

and I'm like, ooh, I want that. So I finally

had you make me one of those. And again, very,

very, very cool. I love how his wings not only

are they glittery, but I love how you're able

to work these into the little accessories, whether

it's accents or wings or the vents. I love how

you're able to sew these into technically what

is a a fabric ball. I just, I love the little

designs and little eccentricities of it, which

is very awesome. I tried to put null rays once

and they ended up kind of looking like mufflers

so I never did that again. Was it for a Starscream?

For a Starscream, yeah. They had an old Vents,

the old Vents style too, the really big ones.

Yeah, never again. If you really look quite right

now, I'm looking at the ones with the smaller

vents that look proper and I'm looking at the

old one I'm like, what was I doing? Well, you

know, you'll learn over time I mean, you know,

you learn how how things work and what works

for your designs and everything else the next

Yeah, yeah, I got those before I get those the

next ones I got was actually one of your eBay

auctions because Not only does Callie do commissions

every other month, she does ten commissions every

other month, which you can find on her DeviantArt,

which will be linked in the post on the website.

She also does, she started to do eBay Puggles,

and I won your Blaster auction, because apparently

no one really liked that Blaster's visor essentially

jetted out. I barely liked it. Aww. But it's

kind of like he's got a sun visor. It's kind

of oh, I know it's not a sun visor It's kind

of like he's wearing a golf hat blaster on a

golf course No, it makes it bad makes it cooler

because you know how you have those golf visors

to where they're it's just a you know a strap

in the back and then there's just the Rim of

the hat this essentially looks like a rim of

a golf hat and it's awesome It's okay. I like

it. I like it. Now. This is the first one this

and the this one and the The clotus one the per

the all the all purple one Were the first ones

I've had where you've used the butt tags that

you've created Yeah, I'm kind of just getting

new stuff added over time right What what possessed

you to essentially brand your Puggles with butt

tags. It seemed the thing to do because other

doll makers do it. I also had this crazy dream

which involved Antique Roadshow and I won't get

into detail on that. You can talk about it if

you want to, it's up to you. No, now it sounds

stupid. I found a nice tag maker on Etsy that

whose prints it writes on the fabric and prints

really good quality and went out of their way

to do a lot of good stuff for me lately. I kind

of have to pimp them on. Can I pimp them? Oh

sure, you can pimp whoever you want, yeah. You

don't even know the name of the person. They're

called Green Beans and Strings. G -R -E -N -B

-E -A -N -N -S -T -R -I -N -G -S. Green Bean

and Strings on Etsy. And they went completely

out of the way lately to make sure I had the

tags for BotCon faster than I ever could have

expected. Just because I messed up and accidentally

got the last tags that say BotCon on them and

apparently I'm not legally allowed to do that.

So then I was freaking out and I told and I contacted

them and told them no I messed up I need tags

and time is of the essence and then they Responded

and they put priority shipping on it and I got

that those tags so fast So that's really good

customer service there and their tags are awesome.

And now I'm done camping this tag maker on Etsy

So green beans and strings Yes You'll have to

send me the link on Twitter and I'll put it in

the post. The next auction on eBay that she did

was for the Rainmakers. Acid Storm, quote -unquote

Sunstorm, and I actually changed his name to

Snowstorm because I think it's cooler, but Air

Warrior. Acid Storm, these were three Cybertronian

jets that were in one of the G1 episodes. outside

of acid storm the other two never really had

a name my brain lied to me and told me the air

warrior was one of the rainmakers yeah these

ones i have yet to do a youtube video for and

i mess up a lot if people haven't noticed well

as much as i love acid storm his face is um essentially

drooping off of his his mouth is essentially

drooping off of his face What? That's okay. Yeah,

his mouth, remember? Yeah, it came out a little

bit sideways, that one. Sometimes that happens.

Sometimes Puggles will just kind of like smirk

in the wrong directions. Embroidery, the way

I do embroidery isn't like perfect science because

I don't have an embroidery machine, so I'm doing

it all by hand. Right. Yeah, these are the only

three out of, because for those of you who have

listened to one of these Puggle former Christmas

episodes before, I've said that, was it 2000?

2010 I think yeah 2010 2009 somewhere around

there is when I first Talked to you and got Rodimus

and whatever else But it's been a number of years

and over the over these years I've I think at

this point my Puggle former and Puggle army in

general is up to I think 45 I would have to do

the math on that again, but I think it's it's

it's almost close to 50 in about four years These

are the only three so far Because I haven't been

able to get get to them to do a video review

because i've been traveling and um... you know

dealing with other stuff these are the only three

that still have their ribbons on them because

usually that's the first thing i do is open them

up i take the ribbons off and i've saved all

of them from all the ones i have i just put them

in a little a little jar that i have but these

are the rainmakers all still have their ribbons

and tags on them but no these uh... I've ever

explained where the name tag thing came from.

Okay. Like the original Puggles, like before

I even made Puggle Formers all had little name

tags because it seemed like the thing to do at

the time. Then it just kind of carried over to

the Puggle Formers because I figured why the

hell not. Because at first I was just making

Puggle Formers on request and still not even

doing them that many of them. It was every so

often. But now I do them all the times. Now they

just still keep having name tags because... It's

just a leftover remnant from the old Puggles.

Right. Well, and plus, you know, it gives them

a uniqueness. I mean, sure, you know, you do

an amazing job, you know, with taking pictures

and, you know, using the titles and, you know,

naming the stuff for your DeviantArt to show

off your art, to show off that you've made a

new Puggle or a new Puggle former. But I think

having the tags and having, you know, having

that and, you know, only doing 10 every other

month. So those 10 people have, whatever they

choose, they have a character that they either

love or that they want in Puggleform and it has

something to go along with it. And pretty much

all of the time, I think the only time that I

did not get a Puggleformer that had a matching

ribbon to him was with my Galvatron slash Megatron

crossover and Guzzletron because he had a blue

ribbon. But every time you've pretty much taken,

you've found ribbon to match the color of whatever

Puglet is. Like I'm looking at Ass and Storm

now and he's got a green and kind of silverish

ribbon, but it essentially ties into his color

scheme overall because the majority of it is

green. I think that just adds something unique

to them and it's very interesting. I find it

very interesting on how you get some of these

tags made because I've seen tags made out of

Autobot symbols, Decepticon symbols, toy packaging.

I try to make things a little bit special, like

making the envelopes to mail them into. It's

like getting a present in the mail. box this

made sense at the time when i started all this

yeah well it still makes sense and and and you're

right it is it is like getting a present in the

mailbox and no you don't mess up in your sewing

misadventures knock that off um going back to

blaster a bit because the one thing i didn't

talk about him with was this is the first time

i've ever where did eject go what the hell Here

is This is the first time I've ever had hatchlings

from you because blaster kit blaster and his

cassettes what was one of the eBay auctions and

That any any hatchling you've ever done Just

goes to show you how talented you are to get

as much detail I mean hatchlings are what half

the size well a quarter of the size of a regular

size Okay, I mean these things are essentially

if you took Digimon and Combined it with Pokemon

and the the non -evolved form of a Digimon in

a you know in a pokeball this is essentially

what a hatchling is and I know their eggs. No,

but I'm saying the size of of the hatchling is

kind of like a a Starter kit for a Digimon, is

what I'm saying. So they go for, you know, they

start out as one form and then they evolve into

something else, is what I'm kind of getting at

here. But, um... They're babies. I think you

actually need bigger eggs, because I had a hard

time getting some of them out of the eggs. I

tried to put them into basic, like, little Easter

eggs, which was also technically a leftover remnant

from the old puff bubbles. Because I made their

little about sheets before the puff... before

the puggle formers. And I made them egg -laying

mammals because the term puggle is actually the

term for a baby platypus, which is baby platypus

and baby kidneys, which are egg -laying mammals.

So I just kind of went with that. So I shoved

the babies inside the little egg and it just

carried over into the puggle formers because

I figured, why the hell not? no it's very cool

and again it's something unique and different

and something very very awesome so we've got

eject rewind ram horn and steel jaw with with

blasters cassettes here and each of them is very

very cool I find it funny that I often I think

I actually have a picture of this. I might have

to put it in the post. I think when I first got

Blaster and his little cassette buddies for the

Puggle versions, I think when I first got him,

I essentially took Rewind and put him on Sound

Blaster's head, and he's like, hi, Dad, because

they essentially look very similar to each other

with the faceplates, and even though Rewinds

is white and not gray. And then you got steel

jaw who is the lion who his his side things came

out very well I thought his the side embroidery

on him see I can I can use the terms But no he

came out really really well and again the detail

I Just I just don't know how you got fangs that

small on steel jaw. That's awesome The last one

something you're you you didn't really like after

you finished him, but I love I love ram horn

He doesn't look like ram horn at all. He does

He does look like ram horn He's he's very very

awesome But yeah, those are the Puggles that

I got this year You have huge plans for next

year because you are going to BotCon 2013 in

San Diego from June 27th to the 30th. Yes Any

thoughts and ideas on Are you just gonna are

you gonna do the same thing last year is what

you did this year? I'm pretty much going to do

the same thing I'm going to try and make a few

more puzzles than I did last year, but okay.

I hope I will make at least 100 the same amounts

as last year. I'm not sure how many more plus

that number I'm going to make because I'm an

idiot and decided to take a Overseas trip for

two weeks in the middle of April. Um So that

will bite into some time the mystery grab bag

hatchling eggs were not as popular as the original

public forms But I still sold out of them. So

I'll be doing that again Okay, actually after

I sold out a couple people were coming back to

the table asked me if I had more I have no idea

what hatchling ended up where because people

just took the egg and didn't open them in front

of me And I forgot what I put in what egg so,

okay Like two people open in front of me later

I found someone got the only Sunstorm in the

entire baby Sunstorm in the entire lot ended

up making an adventure blog with them Oh, you'll

have to link me to that. I don't think I saw

that one They recorded a little song by Sunstorm

and everything and then they later even posted

another post when they bought a one of the normal

purple off my shop okay yeah you'll you'll have

to link me to the hasling sunstorm because i

don't think i ever saw that things like that

will just happen yep just surprise me yeah i

don't think i'm going i'm going to be nearly

as popular as last year because i don't think

pete is going to go out of his way to like make

me awesome like he did the last time i can't

expect that i'm not going to get my hopes up

Yeah, but I mean it's reasonably possible, but

if I keep my expectations low then everything

else seems much more awesome Being realistic

as well. So it's like I won't be disappointed

if I'm not Treated like like I'm super awesome

or anything. Um, but yeah, I'll be doing the

the mystery grab bag egg hatchlings. What do

we have at least? I'm going to try to make a

little special display out of cardboard or something,

but no promises there Because I'm not sure what

to make or how I'm going to transport it from

New York to California. Yeah. Well, do you still

have last year's banner, the crayon banner? Yes,

but I'm going to make a new banner because we're

going to get a couple of people that are kind

of famous in the Transformers industry have kind

of offered to draw on it. Hey, that's cool. Including

mr. Mr. Bill Forster has agreed to uh Awesome.

He was actually very excited about it. He's like

I want to practice my Puggles now That's very

cool Derek Wyatt shows up he'll probably draw

on it too, but I'm not gonna like promise for

him Right, right. I Say the word like every other

sentence. Um So we're gonna have a new puzzle

drawing a puzzle banner I'm gonna get as many

people as possible to draw on it Just complete

strangers even, it's okay. Very cool, very cool.

I think it would be really interesting if you

made for the BotCon Puggles if you went ahead

and did maybe Well, you've done Fort Max before.

Michael Wilson has that one. My buddy Michael

Wilson has Fort Max. But if you did something

along the lines of G1 Fort Max and Scorponok

or Trypticon and Metroplex or, you know, something,

you know, to add it. Because I remember this

year's stuff and there's a lot of cool, cool

Puggles there. But there are so many other characters

that I don't think you even tackled yet in Puggle

form or form. I'm going to try and do more. Familiar

characters like I've done last year because every

time I try to take out a new project It takes

twice as long because I have to make all the

pattern parts and everything Right everyone just

sees a ball of fluff, but every single pattern

every single vent every single Forehead crest

every single Every single piece has its own yeah,

I have this giant very disorganized pattern envelope

where I've had to begun marking what piece is

for what now, because that will just lose things

in there, or sometimes it'll be faster just to

make a new pattern piece instead of digging in

there for what I made before. That's so funny.

Yeah, every faceplate, every chevron, every door

wing, there's like five different door wings

for Seekers alone, wing patterns for Seekers.

Because the TFA ones are different from the G1

ones and sometimes they want something that's

more movie based and at the G. Yeah So for the

BotCon ones I try to keep it familiar But with

a lot of the more than VTI characters now that

are becoming popular that I really want to make

I mean I tried to make folk from for commission

that kind of almost kind of soil worked almost

Yeah I might try to tackle Tailgate again. The

one that I made for last year really sucked,

but a little girl bought it anyway. Yeah, I mean,

you know, that's, you know... They're all great.

I mean, all the hard work you put into it is,

you know, it's very well loved even though it

may not, you know, I mean, it's like... I think

with you, you've gotten to the point where...

in general, you have those people like me who

will continue to come back, you know, a loyal

customer or a steady customer. And then you've

got some people on the commissions that may have

never gotten one before. There's new people that

have gotten a lot of spot. And then I think with

you going to BotCon, it essentially spreads the

word about you and your craft. So, you know,

people won't ever forget that. How many other

plush makers were there last year to it BotCon?

There was at least one other that had Something

that kind of looked like a Puggle knockoff, but

they were only taking like requests for them

to pre -order them and they weren't quite as

good I don't even know who they are. So we'll

see who shows up this year Yeah, and we'll see

what my competition is Yes Speaking of the the

Sunstorm Linking and stuff the the the comic

or the or the the the the photos you were talking

about I also remember wasn't it the Star Horse

that did a whole Mirage comic thing Star Horse

has a few Puggles of her own and she takes photo

comics of toys as it is and every so often Puggles

will just show up and it always makes me happy

She did this whole thing about she did a whole

miniseries involving Puggles and Mirage Yeah,

that was awesome. I got rid through that. That

was so awesome. Very cool. Very cool. Made me

so happy. I like Star Horse. She's very nice.

I can't pronounce words today. Star Horse? What

am I saying? I'm sorry Star Horse. Don't hurt

me. Yeah, that's very very awesome. So there

you go everybody. We hope everyone has a Merry

Christmas and a Happy New Year and Happy Holidays

in general. I might, I'm not really officially

announcing this because I don't know, I have

to juggle finances and everything else, but I

might actually be going to my first BotCon in

2013. Might. I have sort of a plan, so that'll

be awesome to meet up with Callie and meet up

with a bunch of the other Transformers friends

that I've made over the last three or four years.

But yeah, that's been the Puggleformer 2012 Christmas

episode. Toycast will be finishing, hopefully

in the early months of 2013, with episode 99

and episode 100. After episode 100, we will still

do the Puggleformer episodes, whether it's Christmas,

whether it's Summer of Puggles, or whatever.

We will still be doing those, but after episode

100, Toycast will essentially be done. I feel

special! You are special. I'm a special snowflake.

You're a special what? I'm a special snowflake.

Oh, snowflake. That's not what I thought you

said. Okay, so - I don't want to know what you

thought I said. So with that, I have been DFJU

and Mike with - I'm Callie! Hi! Bye! The Puggle

Lady. Yes. All right, we will catch you next

time