Videos are back! But not yet.

Some of you may remember the old Rum Powered Reviews (RPR) videos. DioWarriors had videos associated with RPR, either under an RPR title or stand alone. Typically the videos would start off structured and have four to five people. Google Hangouts was the easiest medium to host the live stream. Then the videos would be placed into YouTube for anyone to watch. It was fun back in those days as everyone present would go around talking and showing what new toy haul they found since the last video. We would cover topics as figure stands, display cases, 3D printing, and (of course) a toy review. Then slowly the videos would eventually break down into talking about anything, jokes, and a lot of laughing. Like I said, good times. ​But these days videos and live streaming are becoming a thing. Microphones and cameras are much better now than what we used back then, and there's Open Source software now that makes live streaming -- live broadcasting -- so much easier and much more professional looking.

So we're going to bring live streaming back to DioWarriors. We never wanted it to go away, it just did. So we're going to go slow at first to kind of get accustomed with the software and the procedure, and somewhat get our bearings. There are some good toy reviewers out there on YouTube already. What we don't want to do is be another toy review channel. As with everything about DioWarriors, we look at our toy collections through the focus of the diorama -- how action figures mesh with props, vehicles, sets, etc. Since a lot of the diorama process is kitbashing, expect to see info about painting and building, and not just about DioWarriors props, but everything we can get our hands on.

This is going to be a fun ride and we hope everyone will join us. Keep checking this site and the DioWarriors Store on Facebook for a schedule of up-coming streams. Until then, please spread the word!

it's been in the back of my mind for a number of years to one day make my own Tri-Dimensional Star Trek style Chess set. I've always wanted to make my own set and I'm also a big Star Trek fan, so with both 3D Printers and laser cutters available, I decided that now is the time to actually do it.

The first step was to do research. Firstly into the Star Trek style tri-dimensional Chess and then to real world Chess. There are standards for the game, for both tournament purposes and normal consumer. The tournament sizes are larger -- larger squares and pieces -- so for this project I went with the slightly smaller consumer size. The Chess board itself will be much larger than a traditional Chess board. Don't want to make something too big or I really won't have the space to display it.

The battle plan will be to 3D print the Chess pieces and laser cut the boards. The pieces themselves will be designed to hold a magnet to keep them secured to the board. The pieces will also be hollow to reduce the amount of plastic and also reduce the time to print.

Pawn:
​Being the smallest piece, the pawn is a good test model. I think I'll go with this look for the rest of the pieces. When my family lived in Singapore, my father bought a Chess set and I always liked the way the pawns looked. So my pawns are inspired from that set.

Concerning the color, the Chess pieces might remain the traditional black/white, but I am unsure at the moment if they will be painted some other color. In various Star Trek series the Chess pieces are either silver/gold, or black/white. So what I think I'll do is print a few pawns and paint them with different colors. I'll include progress pictures in the upcoming blogs.

Introducing Cyber-Lab, a cyberpunk themed series for the ultra-high tech look.

As with every convention we go to, we wanted to demo what DioWarriors is capable of. This year's JoeFest we teamed up with the folks of the Venomous Sea Serpent to share and combine our two tables -- one showing the VSS aircraft carrier and the other showing DioWarriors. Leading up to the convention all production was focused on the VSS console sets. But we also wanted to show other ideas and concepts. One of these other concepts was a last minute --  one week before -- idea of a cyberpunk apartment. Simply arrange some future looking furniture, computers, and place random equipment and some human necessities (rice cooker, microwave, mini-fridge) and other loose stuff for a lived-in look and the diorama would be the image of the stereotypical cyberpunk apartment. But other than the computers, none of the items existed. Every day, from midnight to 2AM we spent the week before the convention designing the cyberpunk items.

It is clear that most of the DioWarriors style is Sci-Fi. A cyberpunk diorama posed a challenge in the sense that even though cyberpunk is also Sci-Fi, the items would have to look well for both an ultra-clean setting (as a well funded corporate office or laboratory would be) or look well as a run-down, under-funded, non-corporate or personal apartment setting. In other words, with cyberpunk you get either clean, Ghost In The Shell good equipment or dirty, grimmy, Blade Runner looking stuff.

Cyber-Lab offers another choice for the diorama enthusiast. It's a laboratory or apartment or both. The props include things like a coffee table, small chairs, and modern art highlights -- the human side of things. There's also desks and workstations, and techno walls. Combine these with classic DioWarriors props for a full environment. Cyber-Lab works well for various figure lines. For example, in the Marvel or GI Joe universe, an independent laboratory doing advanced biomedical or Artificial Intelligence research. For Marauders or Acid Rain World, an abandoned research facility. The upcoming Planet Green Valley also proposes new ideas for a diorama -- a dormitory or apartment setting for the PGV girls. 

We would love to see what you do with the Cyber-Lab props.

Years ago Hasbro introduced Packrats to GI Joe as a battlefield drone. There were three, each with a different type of weapon -- missiles, flamethrower, machine guns -- and they were supposed to be either autonomous or remote controlled. Brilliant bit of battlefield futurism for a toy line.

Gear:
The DioWarriors battlefield bots follow the same idea as the original Packrats -- small autonomous, or remote controlled, robots designed to patrol and deny an enemy access to an area -- however, the DioWarriors battlefield bots also server other roles. These bots can carry equipment and gear. So each of the bots have the means to load up on cargo.

Themes - Of Earth and Beyond:
The sci-fi style of the DW battlefield bots are currently focused on an Earth based setting, using GI Joe or Marauder Gun Runner figures. But the bots can easily be used for an apocalyptic setting like with Acid Rain World. Still, even Star Wars figures could make use of these bots. And still yet to come the DioWarriors action figure line would extend the bots into off-Earth settings. We already have designs in the works for this.

So, try your creative hand at incorporating MTF, ARW, SW, or even GI Joe with the DioWarriors battlefield bots. Post pics!