That Kitsch Itch: August 2015

Monday, 24 August 2015

Hungover and Hard Up

Alright,

Welcome back to That Kitsch Itch the official blog for www.kitschitchtoys.webs.com the UK’s home for retro and vintage toys. Check us out on Facebook ( www.facebook.com/kitschitchtoys) or on YouTube (www.youtube.com/woolicane), plenty of different things to look at, get involved in, buy and so much more still to come.

Okay this is going up very late I know, and I guess you might have worked out my excuse from the title of this blog. Yeah, I may have had a little too much to drink last night, but it shouldn’t be an excuse really. It was a friend of mine’s last night running a pub I go to, drinks went down to a pound a pint, yeah, that’s a good reason to drink something that’s usually £3.50, so that’s my excuse for now.

What I really want to do right now though is give a little bit of a preview, as Kitsch Itch Toys will be in York this Sunday for the York Comic Con. I must admit I’m looking forward to it, especially if I get my hands on the shelves I’m supposed to have by now, but that’s a rant for another time. Either way, I’m going to be a lot more organised then I have been at any of these events before, there are meant to be over a thousand people there, so I’m thinking a bit more organisation is in order. This does mean a lot of stuff needs to be showcased. It’s going to feature play sets including Cat’s Lair, the Tower of Omens, the as yet not talked about Bat Cave from Batman Forever, I really need to record my review of that before we get to the Comic Con, I really want to talk about it before it gets sold. We’ll be showcasing a load of boxed toys mixing Marvel Legends, Disney Winkeez, Power Rangers, Thundercats and Doctor Who. Thinking about it, that’s more boxed stuff then I was expecting to have in stock at this point. There will also be some bargain priced mini figures and blind bags for the more price conscious customers, along with the cheap loose figures that aren’t as collectable as others. I’m not going to focus too much on the action vehicles this time, there will be some, such as the Shell Raiser van from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but they take up so much room both on the table and in the car that they won’t be the main focus. We will bring plenty of the loose figures, letting people stock up on those missing from their collection or nostalgic favourites they don’t have from Masters of the Universe, Ghostbusters, X-Men, and all those other properties listed above. I might even bring out the MASK toys.

So that all seems exciting to me. Maybe I’ll give a review on here about what happened, if it’s a good event expect me to be praising it, if it’s a disaster I might not mention it at all. Other than that I’d like to mention my Top 10 series which continues this Friday as we begin to countdown to the return of Doctor Who next month with my top 10 Doctor/Companion pairings, crossing all versions of Doctor Who. Which pretty much leads us to the end of this week’s slightly overhung and late addition of this blog, next week should be a bit more cohesive. Until then…

Sithee

Monday, 17 August 2015

Traffic & Travel

Alright,

Sorry this is going up slightly later than I planned, events have kind of got in the way this week. Especially the traffic this lunch time. I had to journey out when I normally write this and by the Gods was the traffic bad. It was what should have been a ten to twenty minute journey, a quick trip out, dropping my niece off, no big deal. An hour and a quarter later I’m at last pulling up at home, still with my lunch to cook and a load of videos I needed to record. Still I got the videos done, so they should be up over the forth coming Wednesday’s, which is something at least. I’m going to try not to rant too much here, all I’m going to say is bleedin’ roadworks, and move on.

On to more pleasant things, like Collectorabillia in Leeds next month, which has just launched a brand new advert with Kitsch Itch Toys featured across it. I’m hoping I can include it on here so I can show it off a bit, it’ll certainly be going up on www.kitschitchtoy.webs.com so go and check it out there too. It’s shaping up to be an awesome event, as is Ultracon over at Magna near Sheffield, been chatting to the team running that and everything looks amazing for that event. I can hardly wait for these two things to happen. Keep your eyes on the Kitsch Itch site for more on them.

Now I know that last week I said I’d be trumpeting my Patreon campaign here today, unfortunately that hasn’t developed yet, the video I was hoping to record to promote it hasn’t been finished yet, and I really don’t want to start it without that. It should be this week, depending on events that are beyond my control getting in the way like they did last week. At least the camera on my phone should mean the video is a much higher quality. More on this next week no doubt.

Just a quick note as well about some new items that are just arriving in stock. I’ve got the chance to bring in some Kree-O Cityville Invasion blind bags, they are awesome things and I hope to have a load to sell at the upcoming cons with any over spill to wind up on our website or the ebay page. These minifigures are also part of this week’s Wednesday video, the Blind Bags Summer Special. I’m calling it that mostly because it’s filmed in the garden. It should be lots of fun there’s Marvel and Thomas the Tank Engine involved too. Not only that though, but there is also a few, possibly more than a few, Doctor Who 3 and ¾ figures landing in the store this week. Certainly there is one with the 12^th Doctor in his caretaker outfit. Not one of my favourite episodes and not my favourite figure scale, but still they should be awesome. Expect a review of that arriving at some point too.

Other than that I think it’s time to call it a day on this meandering edition of the blog. Hopefully next week will be a bit more focused. There will be a big update coming on Flay’s First Adventure and what might be coming up after that as well. It is looking exciting. Also we’ve got a controversial episode of Fanon still to come this week, all about Thundercats. Keep your eyes out for it and until next week…

Sithee

Monday, 10 August 2015

To Go Global?

Alright,

Two things I want to discuss this week, one is good, one not so much. Let’s start with the good stuff first. Kitsch Itch Toys is going global. Now this was always the intention for the site, to slowly grow and begin selling in Europe then the rest of the world. Circumstances have changed however, as they usually do, and those plans are accelerating. Presently the pricing for shipping to mainland Europe is being researched to work out just the right prices to charge, then it’ll be onward to the USA. By the end of September we expect every item in the store to be shippable right round the world. I’m also looking into finding trading partners in both the USA and in Japan, helping the flow of items both ways. If anyone out there reading this is interested in becoming a trading partner of Kitsch Itch Toys we would love to hear from you. Hopefully we can work something out. We’re an approachable bunch and we do love to foster a sense of cooperation.

Well that’s the good news, now here comes this week’s rant. I am slightly disappointed that every week I seem to have to have a little moan about something, but here we go. This company has been set up using the UK’s New Enterprise Allowance. A great service which lends money to help set up a business and then gives a small weekly payment to help get you on your feet. Sounds great right, and in many ways it is. I couldn’t have set this up without their help. Still, they make you jump through hoops to get it. I don’t mind that too much, it’s what I’d expect. The trouble comes when they make it impossible to make it through the hoops like they have done me this time. I love the royal mail, but I know full well that I can’t rely on it to have something delivered the next day, not even first class. So when I get a letter late on a Friday afternoon asking to mail evidence of business to another town by Tuesday I’m in trouble. By the time things are gathered on the Saturday I’ve missed the last collection, so it won’t be picked up until Monday, it then needs to be sorted and shipped out to the right town, it may arrive at the town by Tuesday, but no chance of it getting to the office then. So they’ve made sure my payments are stopped, or at least suspended. I’m going in to talk to my local office about it today, hopefully that will sort things out but that doesn’t change the fact that they made this an impossible task to complete. It’s like they don’t want people to succeed. Okay rant over, I just needed to get that off my chest.

Hopefully next week I’ll be able to trumpet my patreons, I’m planning to record videos for that this week to explain and entertain my way into getting to some people to donate. I’m also hoping to have an update about Flay’s First Adventure next week so yeah, things should be positive again then. That’s going to do it for this week though, keep watching the usual channels for some interesting new things coming up, including this week’s top ten video on Friday over at www.youtube.com/woolicane I’ll be talking about Superhero movies I’d love to see, but probably won’t it should be a lot of fun. Check out last week’s episode of Fanon while you’re there, it features me talking about one of my favourite topics, Doctor Who, Ace to be more specific. Until next time…

Sithee

Monday, 3 August 2015

Patrons and No Reply

Alright,

It’s a slow summer, I’ll be perfectly honest, I was hoping things could be moving a bit faster, but still we are going places, things are getting better, and I’m pretty content at the minute, I just need more cash to roll in. Which has led to me looking at two major things, the first is getting booked into more cons and toy/collectors fairs, which when you don’t want to travel too far can be a major issue. Especially when one of the key people I keep trying to contact to get into a whole load more of the cons just doesn’t seem to like to respond, at least not for me, I’ve tweeted, facebooked, I’m at the point where I’m ready to try semaphore. I want to be involved with more cons, that’s why I’m getting in touch, I think I can make money with you and that you can make money from me. It’s a win/win situation, just get back in touch, it’s not hard. I don’t mind being told you’re full and that we can maybe work together in the future, I’m happy enough to wait for that, I’ll be polite and courteous. I’ve been a freelance writer and performer for a number of years, I can take being told no. Better to hear that then nothing at all. *Takes a deep breath and calms* Okay that’s my, I’m not sure to call it a rant or a plea, either way that’s it over, for now at least. Hopefully have an update on this next week.

My other major new income source I’m looking at right now is Patreon, two patreons actually, one for my YouTube shows and the other for my photomanips. I’ll mostly talk about my YouTube one here as that ties back into Kitsch Itch Toys, if you want to know more about my manip work leave a message here, if there’s enough interest I’ll talk about it. For those of you who don’t know Patreon is a site where you can donate to your favourite content creators to help pay their bills, and you get rewards out of it. Just a couple of quid a month can make all the difference if you can spare it, I know some can make a living from YouTube ad revenue, I can’t and setting something like this up may help me make that little bit more to help the shows keep coming, they take a lot of time and effort and though I do enjoy it, I need to show the accountant that they really do help. I know I shouldn’t be working for the good of the accountant, that’s not where art lies, but still, sometimes it comes down to doing what you have to do in these situations.

Just a couple of other quick updates, first is a general performing one, looking to record a show reel for my voices, been chatting with a VO artist this week and he’s promised to pass my tape along so I might be able to get a bit more voice work. Then there’s Flay’s First Adventure, my proof of concept RPG, it’s going really well, got the first half of the game more or less done, and the second half shouldn’t actually take all that much. Then on to the Alpha testing. So that’s all very exciting to me.

That’s going to cover it this week I think, no major announcements, just the usual, check YouTube Wednesday for a new toy review, Friday for the second episode of Fanon (A Doctor Who focused one this time) check Kitsch Itch Toys through the week, you never know what will be going up there and see you back here in seven for another blog. Until then….

Sithee