Inspired by the toy makers of the past and present, our goal is to create the
Greatest Action Figure Vehicle of Our Time!
CONCEPT & TEAM
With a desire to create the ultimate action figure vehicle, Ben Conway shared the idea with longtime friend Christopher McLeod, who connected the emerging team with former Palitoy Chief Engineer, Bob Brechin. Dave Proctor, an experienced toy maker and friend, agreed to take on the ambitious project. Ben quickly pulled colleague and friend Mark O'Byrne onto the team and Dave tapped Alex Wu to be a driving force as our concept artist.
With a core team established, many additional collaborators would later join the effort of launching the ROBOSKULL™ MKII and the SKELETRON™ brand.
DEVELOPMENT
The growing team spent two years developing what would become the ROBOSKULL™ MKII. Each facet of the toy was revisited and revised in an effort to achieve maximum play value and aesthetic awesomeness for the now patent-pending vehicle.
In need of a modern Roboskull pilot, SKELETRON™ partnered with respected action figure maker Marauder "Gun-Runners", which catapulted the project into a full action figure line. With a desire to appeal to a broad range of collectors in our community, Grindstone Toys also joined the team to develop a Retro O-ring figure.
This upcoming figure collection in combination with the vehicle's innovative, swappable seats, offers something special to retro 3.75", modern 4", and modern 6" action figure collectors!
KICKSTARTER LAUNCH
The ROBOSKULL™ MKII Kickstarter was launched on October 14, 2021. Partnering with a crew of additional talented collaborators, including legendary artists Ian Kennedy and Ken Kelly, the campaign reached its funding goal in only 95 minutes.
With massive support from the collector community, the campaign went on to rapidly fund all planned stretch goals. SKELETRON then created additional stretch goals to match funding that far exceeded all expectations. Ending with $609,878 pledged from 1,523 backers, it is one of the most successful toy Kickstarter campaigns ever.
Thanks to the support of the action figure community and the amazing talent of the project, we now have a full range of action figures and accessories underway!
MAKING THE TOYS
Since our Kickstarter and BackerKit crowdfund success, we've been hard at work designing, sculpting, tooling, and manufacturing this full new range of Red Shadows™ collector action figures, vehicles, and accessories!
Bob Brechin, with Alex Wu, Ben Conway, Christopher McLeod, Dave Proctor, Kate McLeod, Mark O'Byrne, MJ Sullivan, & Troy McKie.
Angelos Karderinis, Brandon Lacy, Brian Hickey, Brian Sauer, David Schneider, Ian Kennedy, John Kukovich, Justin Ross, Ken Kelly, Mark Seddon, Paddy Lennon, Scott Jennings, and so many more.
Bob Brechin, former Chief Designer at Palitoy, joined the SKELETRON development team very early in design process. Bob's insight and enthusiasm for the project helped guide the team to the final design of the ROBOSKULL™ MKII.
Bob previously worked on many popular toys lines at Palitoy in the UK from 1967 until 1984, including the iconic Star Wars and Action Force brands.
We are incredibly fortunate for the opportunity to continue to work with so many amazingly talented people.
Thank you Alex Horley, Cory Cantelupe, Cosmic Orphan, Douglas Hart, Eddie Merriken, Erik Mona, Fred Aczon, Fredrick Faith, Gary G, Gary "Goggles" Head, George Greenoe, Glenn P. Winkler, Guy Cassaday, Jason Sobol, Jf Lemay, Joel Ylvisaker, John Jett, Justin Bell, Kuen Siang Chua, Malley Design, Matthew LeCroy, Nick Vreeland, Paul Kirschstein, Riley Loew, Ryan Costello, Sean Glenn, Sean Harker, Shan Conway, Stacy E. Walker, Thomas O'Mahony, Tim Baron, Wordburglar, Zane Olson and more to come!
Of course, none of this would be possible without the awesome people within our toy collector community. Thank you to all of the Kickstarter backers and content creators for your overwhelming support!