To Go Global?

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.

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

Patrons and No Reply

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.

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

I Hate Technology!

Alright,

Welcome to this weeks –LATE- instalment of That Kitsch Itch, the blog from Kitsch Itch Toys; the UKs home for retro and vintage toys. Visit us at kitschitchtoys.webs.com check out my YouTube page at www.youtube .com/woolicane and follow me on twitter @woolicane. So that’s the shilling out the way now on to this week’s main topic.

I admit that this week’s title may be a little strong, I don’t actually hate technology, what I hate is technology when it’s not working, which is most of the time it seems. Phone’s that need charging twice a day, tablets that crash because they’re half full and computers that, well that just die. If you hadn’t guessed this is why this is late going up, I’ve had some major computer problems, problems that have led to me having to borrow a computer just to get this up at all. Something of an issue for someone running an internet business.

I blame iTunes, I’m probably being unfair, but I do. I downloaded it yesterday onto my computer and instantly things started going wrong. Subtle ways at first, my computer slowed down, iTunes store couldn’t connect to the internet. Annoying yes, but not life changing or even work threatening. Then came this morning, that’s when things changed. It was taking a lot longer to boot up, especially considering its one of these lightning quick solid state drives, and then it wouldn’t connect to the internet. Nothing I did helped it, I tried turning it off and on again, nothing, I followed a load of instructions found on the internet (which helped me get rid of some malware), still no internet. Finally I managed to make it to the set up screen and restored my settings. I really thought that was going to work. Now the computer won’t boot up at all. Oh and I’ve only had the dam thing since February.

What this means is I may be about to lose a load of photos that I was going to use for the site, a few videos that featured stock walkthroughs and who knows how much other work. Nothing on it that’s irreplaceable, just inconvenient to replace, especially with no computer to replace it on. It also means that I can’t edit down the photos I do still have to upload onto the site or the facebook page, which is even more annoying, I want to move along but the tech won’t let me. –Oh by the way check out Kitsch Itch Toys on facebook and drop us a like, it does us loads of good- So instead of spending the day reviewing my new Amazing Spider-Man figure I just got in (along with a few others for that series still boxed) and photographing and uploading more stock I spent the day failing to fix something that shouldn’t have gone wrong yet, and in the end handing it over to the IT department of my accountant, yes really.

This was not the blog I was intending to write today, I wanted to talk about films that got kid friendly toy lines that probably shouldn’t, you know the likes of Terminator 2 and Robocop, it’d be like the upcoming Deadpool movie getting its own line of Mashers. I also wanted to talk about the upcoming cons Kitsch Itch Toys will be at, I’ll save that for next week though where it gets enough space. The last thing I want to mention is Eon Quest it’s a kick starter that I’m supporting and it’s coming to an end, get in while you can, I want that graphic novel here at Kitsch Itch Toys. I think that’s enough of a rant for this week, pop in to kitschitchtoys.webs.com ,  facebook.com/kitschitchtoys or twitter.com/woolicane I need a good cheer up.

Sithee