How to Set Up A Twitter Account and Tweet Effectively for Your Small Business

Twitter Bird illustration by Bigshot Toyworks

HOW TO TWEET

I’ve noticed more than a few fellow artists and entrepreneurs struggling lately with their social media accounts… so I decided to write a few posts to help guide you through the basics.

DISCLAIMER: I am not presenting myself as an expert, so all ideas presented here are simply my opinion, my viewpoint on the social media organism. You may experience success by following other guidelines, or none at all. 

GENERAL SETUP, ACCOUNT PLANNING & HANDLE CHOICES

This may not seem important to you as you begin tweeting, but it will be very important down the line as your business grows. Most people start out tweeting to a group of friends/family, maybe in the dozens or a couple hundred close contacts. At this point, you are really just tweeting for yourself, kind of like a post on your personal Facebook page.

If you run a business selling things, or you have a brand of some sort that you are launching, I highly recommend that you give your brand its own official Twitter account. This brand account should have its own logical handle: @tenacioustoys is my brand’s Twitter handle because the brand name is Tenacious Toys. Make it SUPER simple so anyone could simply guess what your brand’s handle would be. If you can’t grab that exact handle, grab one that makes sense logically. If you are an illogical artist, ask the 3 most logical people you know to recommend a handle for your business.

For your own personal account, your handle can be something random if you like, doesn’t matter. Here’s why: You will keep your opinions to your personal account. Politics, religion, gun rights, abortion, and negative feelings are the types of things that should NEVER be tweeted out on your business page. (OK, one caveat: if your brand is based on social awareness of some sort, you can post incendiary supporting opinions. Just get ready for backlash. Sometimes backlash is good as it builds awareness, but if you do something politically neutral like I do - selling toys - you need to avoid incendiary posts.)

NEVER POST general opinions on your business twitter account. JUST post about your products and the surrounding community. If you sell baby clothes, you can focus on the clothing, cute pics of babies, mommy bloggers, etc. If you produce creepy resin monsters, maybe you post about those figures, related resin figures and horror movies. If you sell super cute toys, you post about those toys, anything kawaii, and Hayao Miyazaki. What I’m getting at is that you need to focus your brand message down to only what is relevant to your brand. Again, if your brand or product is politically or socially motivated, sharing an opinion to support that is fine. Baby clothes, for example, are neutral.

Pet Peeve: When I’m following an artist to see their work, and half the tweets I see from them are what they are eating, their last visit with their mom, and the new Jordans they just bought. Totally not relevant to the art they make. I skip over these tweets and get a bit annoyed. I have unfollowed many artists for this very reason.

Exception: There’s no one correct way to do this, so I just want to mention that I have actually read that your customers DO want to understand more about you personally in order to feel more comfortable giving their money to you. That would mean injecting some kind of personality into your business tweets. I totally get this idea- I’d rather buy from a friend than a stranger. That article was  the whole reason why I dove into social media when it first started getting popular. However, it’s a double-edged sword. You do run the risk of losing followers and customers if you are tweeting ideas that might not be universally accepted. Inject personality and opinions into business tweets at your own risk.

Emo: It’s pretty well understood that depressing, sad posts are turnoffs. No one wants to hear about negatives. Social media is an escape from the aggravations of real life. When people are on Twitter, they want to be cheered up, they want a smile or a laugh. Give it to them. No one likes a Debbie Downer account, so keep your complaining and kvetching to your personal twitter account and make sure your business account is all “Tra-la-la EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!”

SET UP YOUR TWITTER PROFILE

I can’t even tell you how many Twitter profiles are set up incorrectly or incompletely. This is a HUGE mistake that can be fixed in 5 minutes, and it will have a major impact on your follows. People take a look at your account profile and decide within 3 seconds whether they will follow you. Here’s what to deal with, from the top down:

Okay, open up your Twitter profile and look at it. 

COVER PHOTO

The large top photo that goes all the way across is called the cover photo - do you have one uploaded? You should. Not having a photo there makes you look like you’re not serious about your business. The size of this image is 1500 pixels wide x 500 tall @ 72dpi. If that means nothing to you, ask a digital artist that you know to compose an image (a .jpg) to those specs and send it to you to upload. It should have your brand name, or your brand message, or images of your products. Or some combination of those. 

One account that has great relevant info in their cover photo is Emerald City CC: https://twitter.com/emeraldcitycon

Don’t forget the lower left side is partially covered by your profile photo. 

Which brings me to:

PROFILE PHOTO

This is a smaller, square image that appears on your profile and also next to every tweet you make. In many cases if your audience is looking at twitter from their mobile phones, your profile image will be quite small. Make sure that this image is VERY simple and clear. a simplified version of your logo is best. 

One artist that does this well is KaNO : https://twitter.com/kaNO

One company that also does this well is MPH: https://twitter.com/_myplasticheart

If you have a brand, you should ALWAYS have a great simplified version of your logo that would work well on a 1-color printed t-shirt or a business card. The same simple 1-color logo can be used as your Twitter profile pic. Consistency is key to brand building. Spend some time developing this simple logo for yourself and use it everywhere.

PROFILE NAME

I’m not sure what this is officially called, but it’s the words you can type in and change at any time that show above your Twitter handle. Your handle is the thing that has the @ sign in front of it. You can’t change the handle whenever you want. You can change the descriptive name/words preceding it at any time. 

One artist that does this frequently is Riff Raff aka Jody Highroller: https://twitter.com/jodyhighroller

(At the time I wrote this, unfortunately, he has his profile name as Jody Highroller, which is unusual. He changes it daily or weekly to something weird, like NEON PANTHER. When you read this post, it may be different.) Riff Raff’s buddy @andymilonakis changes up his Twitter name up frequently as well.

For myself, I find that changeability quite useful. For instance, during New York Comic Con, I change the profile name for my @tenacioustoys account to indicate my booth number. Relevant info that I want people to be able to see immediately, without even visiting my profile. When I tweet during NYCC, my tweets start out reading like this: “NYCC Booth 208 @tenacioustoys - Jason @freeny signing in our booth in 30 minutes!” I don’t even have to write the booth # in the tweet because it’s already there in my profile name.

Most of the time I just leave it as Tenacious Toys, so that people are reaffirmed that it is in fact my account they are looking at. I change it during events.

PROFILE DESCRIPTION

This is the place where you can type the most. USE EVERY DAMN CHARACTER they give you! Don’t short change yourself, this is VERY valuable keyword real estate. Fill it out. Write very very specifically about who you are and what you do. 

You can even type website links in here - I recommend setting up a short link for your site or shop or gallery so that you can share the link and it takes up as few characters as possible. For instance, I bought tenacious.toys to help shorten my domain by 3 characters. My main website is tenacioustoys.com and it has always been there at that domain. However, when .toys came out I was afforded the opportunity to shorten that domain. There are TONS of new extensions available like that, go to GoDaddy and search them. The shorter your chortling is, the better. You keep your regular website at the longer domain and simply set up a redirect that sends visitors to your short link domain immediately to your main domain. It’s pretty cheap and very easy to set up.

If you have a few different links, type one in the description and the other place down below where Twitter officially asks for your website. 

Make sure you type relevant keywords in your profile description: your actual name, what type of business you run, what you sell. Check my @tenacioustoys profile - I want you to see both the usage of 2 different links, as well as the keywords I worked in.

One of the brands we carry is called “coarse toys” - I want my Twitter profile to come up in searches for that brand. 

Go to Twitter, click the Home button. Then do a search (magnifying glass) for coarse toys. See @tenacioustoys pop up under “Top Tweets.” My account also pops up under “art toys” “tokidoki” “kidrobot” etc etc all because I typed those words into my Twitter profile description. Those results are listed at the TOP as the first search result under Top Tweets. Even before the actual tweets. Sweet placement.

Bottom line for description: know what keywords and phrases are the most important for your business and write them in the description. SPELLING IS IMPORTANT because you need to match what you type to what other people normally type in their searches! Punctuation is not important, in this case, except to make the copy easier to read.

You can insert emojis here, but be conservative. Just enough to catch people’s eye as they skim.

LOCATION & WEBSITE LINK

If you have a shop or gallery or business with a specific location that you want people to come to, enter it here. I think you can only be as specific as city, state or country, but not sure. If you have a web business and sell globally, forget that. Instead, use the location field as another text field that references your website link. Writing “Buy prints here” or “Visit our website” are good lead-ins which reference the link, which immediately follows this section. The website link section in twitter is really useful so make sure you fill out both Location and Website fields in your Twitter profile.

OK, that pretty much wraps up the basics of your Twitter account setup, so let’s move on to an overview of what you should actually be doing on Twitter:

HOW TO TWEET

CONTENT

OK so you have a limited number of characters to work with. You really need to make them count. Words in your tweets should be short and to the point. If you are inserting elements like links or images into the tweet, those take up some space so you have even fewer characters you can type. If you have space left over, and you’re tweeting about something really special and sharable, you can end with “Pls RT!” or “Pls comment” or something that encourages audience interactions. 

IMAGES

If you sell things like art or consumer products, you should attach a nice clean image to as many tweets as possible. Most of them. People ALWAYS click on tweets with images more frequently than those without. Regretfully, if you have your IG account set up to automatically feed your IG posts to your Twitter, when the post reaches twitter, the images won’t appear! So annoying! I used to do the auto-tweet thing on my IG posts, but then it just because silly to me to have Tweets without images. So I post to IG and Twitter separately when the post is really important - because I want my Twitter followers to SEE the image appear in their feed on Twitter. And this only happens when you compose a new tweet in Twitter and upload a photo. 

You might be able to get the IG images to post up in Twitter if you use a 3rd party social media delivery system like dlvr.it or IFTTT. You’ll have to experiment with those to see if you can get the Tweets to look right.

HASHTAGS

Use them! Use a few relevant hashtags in each post: 1 to 3 of them. Any more and it looks stupid. Hashtags allow people who are NOT following you to see your posts. This happens when they search twitter for that hashtag. Yes, there are multiple ways to search Twitter, so familiarize yourself with the ways that people couple possibly use Twitter, and figure out how to harness those actions. When you make up a complex hashtag, it’s useless. #bennylovesarttoys is not useful because no one ever types that as a search. People will search the hashtag #art or #toys a lot more, so use simple, broad appeal words like that. 

There also a concept known as “joining the conversation” which you can use to gain followers. When people are talking about something a lot on twitter, and using certain hashtags frequently, you can join in their conversations by also using the same hashtag. New, and most importantly, relevant Twitter users will be able to see your posts and will learn about you.

A great example of this is the recent launch of the FCTRY (@fctry) Kickstarter for a Bernie Sanders action figure. FCTRY launched this campaign at JUST the right time when a huge number of people were hashtagging #feelthebern and #berniesanders on Twitter. They incorporated those hashtags into their tweets about the product and enjoyed a very strong launch to their Kickstarter campaign. They joined a conversation that was already happening. Don’t force this; your post has to be relevant to the hashtag or else this whole idea just won’t work.

TIMING

I’m terrible at this as I’m too impulsive, but there are good times to tweet, and bad times. The thing is, we all follow a ton of accounts so really people need to be tweeting when we are looking at Twitter or else we won’t see the tweets. So, figure out when your customers are looking at their phones (9-5 usually works on weekdays in your time zone) and tweet during those hours. Artists: many of you stay up really late, getting creative at 3AM. Your customers typically have regular type jobs, so they are asleep when you are creating. Do NOT tweet at 3AM, it’s pointless. Tweet when your customers are awake.

SCHEDULING SERVICES

Hootsuite is one of many companies that offers you the chance to create tweets and schedule them to go out in the future. They also allow you to schedule other social media posts in this way. If you find yourself up all night frequently, try to use a scheduler so that your posts go live at a useful time of day.

I’ve used Hootsuite in the past for a client that runs a walking tour company. We liked to share historical facts via Twitter, and those facts were tied to dates (“on this day in 1886….”). We developed a whole year’s worth of cool facts and I used Hootsuite to set up each post to go out on the proper date and time. A few hours of work and we had a whole year’s worth of Tweets scheduled. 

(Pro tip: If you blog frequently, your blog posts can be turned automatically into Tweets using dlvr.it or IFTTT or any number of other services like that. Blog posts can also be scheduled, so you can get your tweets to deliver at the proper time simply by using the scheduler in your blogging platform. This is in lieu of using a service like Hootsuite)

IMAGES

I covered this above, but just for reference: Images you upload to Twitter should be in the landscape configuration as opposed to portrait. Horizontal (wide) images work better than vertical (tall) images. Twitter will cut the bottom and top off of a vertical image when you are scrolling through the feed. You’d have to click on a tweet containing vertical image in order to reveal the full image. With horizontal images, you can see the full image without clicking. Much better.

FOLLOWS, FOLLOWERS, AUTO DMs

OK so Twitter is a public platform which means data from Twitter is readily available to anyone. SO, unless you are a subversive artist like David Choe, it’s best not to follow porn accounts or hate accounts on Twitter as who you follow is info that’s immediately available to anyone. Be warned.

You can’t control who follows you, except to block annoying followers. Other than that, anyone can follow you. Usually that’s a good thing as more followers is better.

I have read many times that you should follow back as a courtesy. When someone new follows you, you’d follow them as well.

I don’t agree with that at all. When I am followed by a new person, I click on them to see what types of Tweets they post. If their tweets are not relevant to my industry, I do not follow. I can’t be effective on Twitter by following all of my followers. My followers trust me to deliver relevant info to them, and in order to do that I have to be able to quickly view important and relevant toy industry tweets so I can retweet or comment. I cannot do that efficiently if I am viewing tens of thousands of baby pics and meal pics. 

My typical follower is a potential customer and that means they are normal people who tweet a variety of personal things. Unless I know then personally, I don’t follow. If my new follower is an artist or works in the toy industry, I will follow as that could be a glimpse into some insider info that I otherwise might not get. Basically my recommendation is that you follow selectively, or else you risk having a non-useful and non-relevant Twitter feed.

Another concept I’ve heard about and experienced, but never used, is the auto DM. Some accounts that sell stuff will auto-follow you when you follow them, and then send you an automatic DM thanking you for following. Usually they share a link to their website in the auto DM. I’m simply mentioning this as an option that you can set up; I haven’t decided yet whether or not I find that useful or irritating.

There, now you have no excuses not to have a complete Twitter presence. Take 10 minutes and set up your Twitter account completely, and take an extra minute every time you compose a tweet, and you'll see positive results.

- Benny Kline

Please comment below and share this post too! Especially share on Twitter!

NYCC 2015 Wrap Up

photo by Matt Siegelbaum / Strongtreeimages.com

Well, another successful New York Comic Con is in the books!

This was a HUGE show and a huge booth for us and it would not have been possible without all the help we received. There’s no fucking way one person could run a 600-square-foot NYCC booth without a LOOOOOT of help. I have a lot of people to thank:

First off, thank you to our boothmates / collective members for bringing the FIRE and making Booth 208 the most vibrant, varied and unique booth in The Block. We probably have more going on in our booth every year than any other booth in the block, just in terms of volume and variety of unique items, and the number of artists presenting their work. Tenacious Toys alone had about 30 exclusive items. The entire booth together had maybe 100+ exclusives, depending on what you call an exclusive.

Our collective this year included us (Tenacious Toys), Furry Feline Creatives, Hungryghost, Cash/Alex/Arsenal of Artists, ManlyArt was there in spirit but due to a personal situation, he backed out and was replaced by ArqSpin, Ian Ziobrowski (Nugglife), Suburban Vinyl, Bigshot Toyworks and Jon Schnepp/Holly Payne. Original art, custom toys, resin figures, production vinyl toys, prototypes, a couple celebrities and even a custom Tequila show. All in the same booth.

Our AWESOME booth staff included: Jackie Candelier, Michele Kerzner, Joseph Rios, Danny Wilkes and Kris Dulfer all took turns watching over the booth and the register, and Tavvon Reynolds and Joshua (Pickman’s Vinyls) both showed up and sat behind the table for solid hours and/or days without me asking them to, which was incredibly helpful.

Aki Solomos and his brother stayed late after wrapping up the Furry Feline space and helped us pack up and load up, along with Jackie, Joshua, Joseph, Michele and Michele’s BF. I can’t tell you how helpful it is to have a large group of people who actually stick around as late as we need them to on Sunday night. Sunday is a HUGELY stressful day for me - after working an entire day of NYCC, we then pack up the entire booth in a matter of hours. This is a booth we spent 2 full days setting up, so all those hands and all that help is so very important to me. In the past, Kris and I have been FUCKED by people taking off early, and we are stuck unloading by ourselves at 1AM. Actually… in the past NEMO has stayed late to help and also in another year VISEone stayed with me till 1AM. But having 2 people pack an entire booth is not fun. Having 8 people is way better. We finished packing up before 8PM this year. WIN!

I’d like to thank all the artists who created beautiful artwork and custom and resin figures that made the Tenacious Booth shine:
- Abe Lincoln Jr
- Colin “Big C” Hoffman
- ETC Toys
- Forces of Dorkness
- Jacob JAMS
- Jon-Paul Kaiser
- KiD iNK iNDUSTRiES
- Matt Anderson & MaloApril
- Matt “Obscure” Perez
- Mike Die & Melodreama
- Enthusiasta Gallery
- Mr Munk
- Mike “NEMO” Mendez
- Patrick Wong
- RSIN
- Pickman’s Vinyls
- Playful Gorilla
- Rampage Toys & Skullheadbutt
- Renone Labs
- Sekure D
- Sucklord
- Taylored Curiosities
- Tru Slithers
- UME Toys
- Wuz One

I’d also like to thank the following companies for working with us: Carbonation Toys for sending over some Fizz Kids and prints, ArqSpin for lending the ENTIRE booth their turntables for display of toys, which are so tight and awesome that I am going to bring some to DCon with Bigshot, and MightyJaxx for supplying us with Jason Freeny products for our signing.

I want to give a special thank-you to Alex Cohen of ReedPOP who made sure our operation was running smoothly, stopping by several times to chat and see if he could be of assistance.

Shout outs to Pickman’s Vinyls and my neighbor Megan for both bringing me Grande Starbucks with soy and no sugar, as i desperately needed caffeine infusion.

Super thanks again to Jackie who took time off of her REAL FUCKING JOB where she runs shit, to hang out with us freaks and weirdos, watch over our register, help customers, and she even brought me a sammich from Lenny’s every day so I didn’t faint at 12:30pm, which I tend to do if I don’t have a sammich. Honestly Jackie I could not have done it without you, esp with Steph out of town.

More super thanks to Leslie who took care of Tiny the Wonder Pitbull during NYCC so she wouldn’t have to hold her water for 16 hours. Another person without which I could not have actually run the NYCC booth.

Thank you to my childhood friend Emily, the closest thing to a sister that I have, for sending over one of the NY Times reporters to film me talking about cosplay at NYCC and get me up on the New York Times site with “Tenacious Toys” and my name written out on-screen. Also thanks to Sci-Fi Ninja Theater, Cotton Candy Machine, Big Kev's Geek Stuff, and The Ultimate Toy Collector for interviewing me! On that note, big thanks to GO Figure News and the now-award-winning Toy Chronicle for partnering with me on delivering my exclusive content to their readers. Hope we got them a little taste of the NYCC experience.

Congrats to my buddy, booth mate and employer Klim of Bigshot Toyworks for WINNING a DTA award for Best DIY for All City Style! A 10-year overnight success story! And also for helping develop/produce Jermaine Rogers’ Choices, which ALSO won a DTA award.

And on that note, big ups to Miranda, Josh, Nick and all the other people who both ran the huge Clutter booth with, quite frankly, some of the best NYCC exclusives, and THEN went and ran the Designer Toy Awards on Saturday night. Not to mention, putting out the biggest and best issue of Clutter I’ve ever seen, FREE to attendees. Running shit like bosses.

Oh, and huge congrats to Ian Ziobrowski, another booth mate and another DTA award winner. Basically, our booth DESTROYED it at NYCC, and we did it with smiles and only a few near-fistfights!

Finally, the BIGGEST thank you of all: thank you to all of you, for attending NYCC, stopping by the booth, purchasing products, and giving us tons of smiles, high fives and positivity. I am allergic to negativity in this scene, I refuse to deal with it. So thank you for all the positivity, as that is what I am trying to cultivate amongst the East Coast crew that surrounds us.

It was a stellar show. I have yet to take a real break, still doing accounting, sending payments, sending boxes out to various people and companies, and trying to wrap shit up in general. This blog post is part of that wrap-up process.

We have a ONE WEEK ordering window set up for our leftover exclusives and we’ve sold a bunch already so get your orders in this week please.

We will ship next week and then Steph and I are going to DisneyWorld. Literally, we are taking our first vacation in 10 years together to Disney in late October/early Nov so Tenacious Toys will be inactive during that time. Shipping resumes early November and then I am preparing for a big showing at DCon, working in the Bigshot Toyworks booth! Launching something new there so pay attention. Somewhere in that time, also, the Four Horsies of the ‘Pocalypse figures will arrive and I will be shipping those out to backers alongside Kris Dulfer, so the next 8 weeks are highly regimented and planned, with spotty communication.

See you at DCon, or online, or at NYCC next year! I am already planning NYCC 2016 so get ready for another level up between now and then.


Much love from NYC.



- Benny Kline

BIC Plastics Debuts the TwoBit Art Toy by David Flores

Hit us up at tenacioustoys@gmail.com to preorder!

Are You Ready for the My Little Pony Movie?

Hasbro is partnering with Lionsgate to bring its My Little Pony franchise to the big screen.

The news comes just a month after the partners also announced plans for a live-action film based on Hasbro's Monopoly board game.

Meghan McCarthy, writer and producer for the "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" animated series will pen the screenplay, which will be produced by Hasbro’s Allspark Pictures.

The film, which will be Hasbro’s first animated feature, will be distributed and marketed globally (except in China) by Lionsgate, and Tony and Emmy award-winning actress Kristin Chenoweth has already been tapped to voice one of the characters.

“We are thrilled to expand the My Little Pony story to the big screen, and take these beloved characters on a new and unexpected journey that will delight fans of all ages,” says Stephen Davis, chief content officer, Hasbro. “It’s an honor to add Kristin Chenoweth to the cast as the voice of an all new, never-before-seen My Little Pony character in the film. Her incredible Broadway and silver screen performances in 'Wicked, 'Glee' and many more make her the perfect fit for this animated, musical adventure.”

In the movie, a new dark force threatens Ponyville, and the Mane 6 must embark on a journey beyond Equestria to save their home.

“We are pleased to partner with Hasbro to bring their brands to audiences in new and exciting ways,” says Erik Feig, co-president, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group. “Meghan McCarthy and the My Little Pony cast are a very talented and cohesive team whom we’re happy to be working with, and we’re excited about the addition of the very talented Kristin Chenoweth, as we explore new aspects of these characters and new story opportunities for the franchise.”
 from: Hasbro Plans My Little Pony Movie | License! Global

Super7 x Funko Shogun Boba Fett

Funko & Super7 just announced this SWEET Shogun-style Boba Fett. Price will be around $200. Hit me up if you want one, I'll give you free Fedex shipping if you live in the continental US. Email tenacioustoys@gmail.com as I am getting ready to place our order.

EDIT: We've now closed our preorder window and placed our final order. Big thanks to all who preordered!

Shogun Boba Fett

Our latest Super Shogun is a must-have for any serious Star Wars collector!

Empire Boba Fett is the bounty hunter’s signature colorway from the original trilogy!

Standing at 24” tall, this figure fires missiles from its gauntlet and jetpack, and stands on leg rollers!
No batteries required!

Boba Fett has movable arms, head, and rangefinder for different action poses!

Add Boba Fett to your collection today!

PROTIP: Email Solicitations - A Guide to Effective Wholesale Via Email

I have to blog about this, I can't let it slide anymore.

Dear manufacturers:

I love getting your emails with new products being offered to me wholesale for my shop! It's great. I want to be on every manufacturer's email list.

When you send those emails, they need to have certain pieces of info in them in order for a shop owner like myself to make a purchasing decision.
I'm not going to drop $1000 or more if I have no idea what you're selling.

I can let these things slide when indy toy producers start selling wholesale for the first time. New and emerging artists have never done this type of solicitation before, so it's understandable if they miss some of this info.

HOWEVER, I would expect that a company with multiple product lines in shops, and a steady manufacturing process with several releases per year, and quantities in the thousands, would have this process down already. No excuse if you're a "real" manufacturer and you fail at the most important part of your sales process.

Things I must see in your email:

#1: Attach several good, clean JPG images of your product. Full product image, item in packaging, and some alternative side and back views. That's maybe 4 JPGs. Attach them to the email. Don't use a file sharing service, I'm not going to download a plugin just to view your product pics. If you do not want to attach JPGs to your emails, just provide me with a link to a page on your website which displays all of the images of the product(s).

#2: Minimum order quantity. 1 piece? 1 carton? Essential info.

#3: Wholesale price per piece/carton

#4: Tell me where the items ship from. US? Overseas? If it's overseas, how much is shipping to my location? Estimate shipping to East coast and West coast of USA per carton and friggin tell me in the email so we don't have to have the same stupid email conversation every time I get solicited.

#5: TEXT product description. Something I can copy and paste. STAAAAHP typing product descriptions/ backstories in Photoshop onto your product flyers and flattening them. I CANNOT USE TEXT THAT IS INSIDE AN IMAGE. I have to retype to whole fucking thing when I start hyping your product online. You're wasting my time, I'm not your secretary. In short, images should have ONLY products and logos in them. All info about the product should be IN TEXT in the body of the email. Don't attach a Word doc, that's just dumb. Everything you can stick in a Word doc can be typed in an email.

#6: When will the item ARRIVE if I order now? I don't care when you release, when you debut or when you start selling direct to your customers. The only date that matters to a retailer is the date the product arrives at their door.

Thanks. This has been a ProTip from Benny Kline.

I want to hate on Funko but I can't... Funko POP Movies: Monty Python figures

 Everything in me wants to hate on Funko- paint quality is only mediocre. They're everywhere (oversaturated) and I can't make a buck on them, they are literally not worth the space I'd have to devote to them in my warehouse. I fart in their general direction.

But holy shit they keep coming up with some winners! Here they've licensed Monty Mython and the Holy Grail, one of my favorite movies of all time. I just.... can't.... not love them. ARGH!

They'll hit retail shops soon. Not mine, but you'll find them everywhere else.

Pop! Movies: Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Our Monty Python and the Holy Grail Pop! set is just in time for the film’s 40th anniversary!

Relive classic moments with Arthur, King of the Britons, the pre-flesh wound  Black Knight, the highly quotable French Taunter, and Sir Bedevere, who was the genius behind the wooden rabbit plan.

Beware! Tim the Enchanter includes the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog! Proceed only if you possess the Holy Hand Grenade!

Surprisingly, we've posted quite a bit about Funko POPs. Check out our other posts here.

INTRODUCING: Heartless Head Hunting Yeti by theotherguy

Introducing Trevor Gusikowsi aka theotherguy! Pictured above is a custom 6" Dude by Dudebox: this is a 6 inch Dudebox that he painted/sculpted/carved in his Head Hunting Yeti series.

You can grab this piece and several others in theotherguy shop here and make sure to follow @theotherguy on IG.

Back Shawn Smith's Recycled Mini Resketch Books on Kickstarter

I LOVE my Resketch recycled/reclaimed paper sketchbook that I got from the last Kickstarter. Now Shawn "Shawnimals" Smith has a new Kickstarter running now for a mini version - I just placed my pledge for a 3-pack. Only $12! Super cheap. I love my original Resketch so much that I put it on the homepage of my personal website here. Definitely recommended, and at that price, you can't go wrong.

Resketch books are spiral-bound collections of assorted reclaimed/recycled/reused papers. Every page is different which is pretty exciting for me, sort of gets my brain working in a different way every time I flip a page to draw or take notes.

- Benny Kline

Hip Hop Trooper #100/100 figure auction to benefit Breast Cancer Research Foundation

http://www.ebay.com/itm/111635038499 - Auction ends tomorrow (Tuesday)! Get your bids in now. 100% of the money taken in by this ebay auction will be donated directly to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. PLEASE bid, post and SHARE on FB and Twitter!

Rampage Toys announces new UGLY CLUB membership enrollment

Rampage Toys just announced open enrollment for their new Ugly Club, which gets members sweet exclusive merchandise!

There are two levels of membership:

• Level 1: Basic "Ugly Club" Membership.  $60 (plus shipping).
• Level 2: Premier "Ugly Club" Subscription Membership. $250 (plus initial shipping cost).

 For details on what you get when you're a member, click through to their blog post here:

RAMPAGE TOYS and ART: NEW STUFFS!

Celebrating ZEROFUCKSFRIDAY with your Zero Fucks Hero: the FUnicorn by Bigshot Toyworks

Come celebrate #ZeroFucksFriday with Bigshot Toyworks and the #FUnicorn!

Bigshot is releasing animated clips of the #FUnicorn out into the world to be used in your own creative video clips about giving #ZeroFucks!

Can't buy a pizza? ZERO FUCKS

The man is keeping you down? ZERO FUCKS

The work week has sucked? #ZEROFUCKSFRIDAY it's fuck this shit o'clock!





Download the above clip by going here and clicking on the Download button. All parties are free to use the FUnicorn clips in their own videos for non-commercial applications, as long as the final product is hashtagged #zerofucks and #funicorn - expect to see many different iterations of our favorite Zero Fucks Hero, the FUnicorn, gracing the internets, dropping-kicking douchebags in the face with rainbows!

Till then, you can preorder the Taste the Rainbow Edition (above), the Gold Medal Edition and the Bad to the Bone Edition (below) in the Bigshot Toyshop here. FUnicorns are in production right now and will be arriving in the US in a couple months.

Sign up for the FUnicorn email list for all the updates, or follow FUnicorn on Twitter and Facebook.

The Toy Chronicle | Milky Bot Beaver Industries By ThreeA - Crystal Jade Vaughan

repost from:
The Toy Chronicle | Milky Bot Beaver Industries By ThreeA - Crystal Jade Vaughan

MILKY BOT!

Beaver Industries is a futuristic Lumberjack World. Perching on the gritty unflinching shoulders of our heroine Sawyer, as she introduces us to her WORK colleagues, grueling tasks, and daily routine in a brand new UNIVERSE laden with corrupt CORPORATE bastards, pissed-off-underpaid Lumberfolk, and the darn strange...!

Our first release is MILKY BOT, friend of Sawyer, our main bio-cell aka the lead character!
MILKY BOT is an old industrial Dairy Bot! (The robots are fueled on Milk)

It's unknown where the milk has been obtained...but Milky and Sawyer know!

One Sixth Scale Collectible Figure designed by Crystal-Jade Vaughan

-          Deluxe robot collectible

-          Approximately 13.5inches (34.29cm) tall

-          Features over 30 points of articulation including articulated fingers

-          Accessories include: Mi-K Gun, Calcium chemistry jars, Milk Tank

-          Collector display stand

- SRP = $340

Hit us up if you want a Milky Bot!

Hip Hop Trooper #100/100 action figure up for auction on eBay with 100% donated to cancer charity

BID NOW: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hip-Hop-Trooper-100-100-Action-figure-100-DONATED-TO-CANCER-CHARITY-/111635038499?

I now have the LAST Hip Hop Trooper action figure (#100/100) up for auction on eBay. Kris Dulfer Adam Pratt Jason Chalker and Sidekick Labs all lent their expertise in executing this hand-made series of 100 action figures for our NYCC booth. Now, as planned, I am auctioning one of the last ones on eBay and donating 100% of the proceeds to a charity that benefits breast cancer research. Please consider bidding or at least share this link around on your own feed so we can drive the bids up!

THE ‘LITTLE GREEN MEN’ SHOW FROM SUBURBAN VINYL x LEECIFER

May 16, 2015 at the Suburban Vinyl shop in Waldwick, NJ - custom show using Leecifer's Pickle Baby figure as a platform. Word is Lee is going to show up and hang out! Killer lineup. Be there. 4 Frederick St, Waldwick, NJ 07463

THE ‘LITTLE GREEN MEN’ SHOW FROM SUBURBAN VINYL

The Loyal Subjects to be distributed by Bluefin Distribution

I realize that this post may be outside the scope of what you are used to reading on the Tenacious Blog, but I am committed to creating the most full-spectrum reading experience for you with the greatest variety of art toy industry info. And what you usually see gracing this blog are the final products on the market, created either by indy artists or produced in factories by larger companies. What you might not think about as you see those images is the back end process behind getting those items to market. It's a long, complex process that isn't often talked about with the consumer.

That's exactly why I'm posting this "industry" info - to expand your knowledge of what goes into the release of a new toy.

I've been watching and cheering from the sidelines as Jonathan Cathey and his team have taken The Loyal Subjects brand from limited release art collectibles through the murky and convoluted waters of licensing. Murky and convoluted to me.... but apparently, JC has a knack for such navigation.

We've been stocking the TLS art toys for several years, but lately JC has signed big deals and gotten his licensed products into MAJOR retail outlets, a natural evolution for the TLS brand. Some might argue against licensed toys in general, but you have to admit, even some of your non-toy-nerd friends still own a TLS Ninja Turtle or FunkoPOP Big Bang Theory figure. These items have mass appeal, and thus do well in big-box stores. And I am arguing that this expansion is GOOD for our community, as it certainly sheds a light on the art toy concept in general, and that has a trickle-down effect for the super indy, super limited, super artsy art toys.

The occasional Target toy buyer eventually becomes the next person to commission a $800 OOAK figure from an indy artist. That's good for all of us: shops, consumers and artists.

So any move that enables The Loyal Subjects to streamline their operations and focus on producing more great collectibles is a good move in my book. Hence, my republishing of their most recent newsletter blast:

- Benny Kline

We, at The Loyal Subjects are pleased to announce - The Loyal Subjects have entered a Distribution deal with Bluefin Distribution

Bluefin Distribution; most well known for their Japanese Partners and Imports from celebrated Brands like Bandai's Tamashii Nations, Square Enix and Capcom have partnered with The Loyal Subjects to Distribute ALL TLS offerings.  What does this mean?  Simple - You, our most valuable component and lifelong members of the TLS family will get a great full service experience. 

Bluefin has great Customer Center, Great Service and will deliver your orders on time.  Meanwhile, TLS will continue to build our Brand Statement, Narrative and the wonderful, exciting and fun products that you all have come to love from The Loyal Subjects.  Items incorporating some of the greatest Brands and Licenses that we all love! 

In a nutshell, our time at TLS is now freed up to make sure we keep the imagineerium running at full speed; including more releases, more licenses, better experience at the store level, bigger store footprints and more shelves so more customers can find our products in their cities!  The ACTION VINYLS Program is building fast.  More releases, more Exclusives, better quality, better experiences and more features!  We are also incorporating more apparel components, more accessories and more diverse product offerings so we can accent your lifestyle and be a bigger and better experience at Retail. 

The Bluefin Distribution partnership will allow us to keep the fires stoked and more importantly, YOU STOKED!  It's all bout you, each and everyone of you and that is our biggest priority when approaching our product. 

Design, Vision, Fun, Excitement, Cool, Interactive, Playable - All fundamental components to our ethos.  It's time to build TLS 3.0 under the same enthusiasm that Willy Wonka built his factory.  We're shooting for the same results, but don't expect us to build a laser/ray that can de-molecularize any carbon form and transmit it to your family's TV set!  Because we can't do that yet.  Yeah, I know, we all have our limitations.

Let's keep making great ideas happen!

Jonathan Cathey
CEO
The Loyal Subjects, LLC

Clutter Magazine Issue 24 is available now

Clutter Magazine Issue #24 is out now... and it's FREE online!

The March 2015 issue features cover art and an interview with Luke Chueh!

Also included in the pages of this issue are the following:

• Grimsheep interview
• Grizlli Atom interview
• Joe Scarano interview
• Mab Graves interview
• Mutant Vinyl Hardcore's Mutantology spotlight
• One:12 Collective's Judge Dredd spotlight & interview

NEW Vinyl Toys by Cacooca - Panda Classic and Hippo Panda

We are very excited for these super cute new vinyl toys by Cacooca - Hippo Panda (above) comes in 2 colorways, red or grey, and stands a whopping 10 inches tall! Panda Classic (below) is about 7.5 inches tall. Both feature Cacooca's really interesting sketchy-style paint deco. I dig it.

CLICK HERE TO PREORDER PANDA CLASSIC AND HIPPO PANDA.

These items are scheduled to ship to us soon, so we project a ship date of early April.

SNEAK PEEK: PRODUCTION OF A NEW SET OF TOYS - Four Horsies of the Pocalypse tooling masters

Now that we've wrapped up the Kickstarter to fund Bigshot Toyworks' Four Horsies of the 'Pocalypse line of collectible art toys, the real fun begins! Here you see a couple of images from the factory in the very first stages of production. These are called "tooling masters" and they help the factory properly engineer the figures for production. After this stage is complete, the molds are created. Mold creation will be complete in approximately 45 days.

More more images of the Four Horsies tooling masters, check the Four Horsies blog or FB page.

We will post up more images from the factory as they become available. This is so cool to me... after selling items like this for a decade with no knowledge of how they are made, I finally get the inside peek into the exact processes that go into the creation of a new art toy. I'm excited about it, so I'm sharing with you!

If you missed out on grabbing a 6-inch Maddie (from the first Kickstarter we managed), you can grab one now at the Bigshot Toyshop. We had a good quantity left.... till we sold about 150 to 200 more through the most recent Kickstarter. So the numbers are getting low... Little Maddie is a 6" figure selling at $55.

New Guardians of the Galaxy Dorbz by Vinyl Sugar and Funko

 OK so I sort of missed this development at Toy Fair because I wasn't walking the show floor, but I think Funko has either developed a new line called Vinyl Sugar... or they are exclusively distributing this line. Anyway, Vinyl Sugar now has a series called Dorbz (short for "adorable" I'd imagine) and the first license is Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. These are 3" tall figures which look they must retail for $10 each, based on the wholesale prices they were giving to us. How these will stack up against Funko's absurdly popular POP! line of figures remains to be seen... find these at your favorite toy retailer. Not my shop, because price point is too low. But I'm sure your local Funko hookup will have these in stock soon.