In Late 2008 I started working on my own toy which is an angry undead monkey named King Link. I have never worked on prototyping a toy before so I began on concepts and went through many many different ideas before choosing. In just a few months I had a 6 inch prototype formed from a silicone mold and urethane plastic. The little guy has a back story to him which goes a little something like this:

“Far from the furthest reaches of civilization, untouched by the corruption of man, in the deepest sweltering jungle to ever cover the earth, sits King Link on his throne made of brimstone. With a virtual army of half-man, half-ape toiling just below the earth’s surface, King Link has been waiting patiently to emerge from the subterranean jungle thickets to the surface.. His mission is quite simple; to take back the world that was once his by any means necessary.”

Character design and toy prototyping by themselves have a very different process than most of the work I do. It was odd at first but I believe in learning as you and diving into the unknown, which is all a part of the fun of design. King Link is currently in the process of getting another remodel so check back at my blog or flickr for updates.