AmosToys.jp

First Vortigern's Machine. Now the Amos website. You ain't anybody until you've been translated into Japanese. The Japanese Amos website is now on-line.



It is almost identical to the English version but with the addition of a functioning on-line store that ships product from Japan. There are one or two scarce products in their store too. So if you are Japanese, or you have a friend in Japan, or you think you can work out how to navigate the store, then you have the opportunity to buy a Troll, or a pink King Ken, or even some Young Ruffians.

http://www.amostoys.jp

Good luck with that!!!

Another T-shirt taster...

Here's another design from the mini Amos tee collection, soon to be available in Japan and, in very limited quantity, through our own on-line store. We've had a few delays getting the store up and functioning (no thanks to the banks) but we are now aiming to be live and selling for the end of July.

Anyway, the inspiration for this particular tee comes from VM. Perhaps a little muted compared to the last two designs, but definitely very tasteful!



More designs soon...

Britney style freak out... or annual Summer Solstice pagan ritual..?

Orobouros

10 on my turntable...

In case anyone might be interested....

Burial - Burial LP (atmospheric, moody UK dubstep).
Ride for Revenge - King of Snakes LP (messed up, slowed down BM dark rituals from Finland.)
Various - 13 (spaced out remix 12" from their 2006 LP, reminiscent of a Portishead style).
Stielas Storhett - Vandrer... (obscure lo fi wintery landscape BM with great melodies... yes melodies!)
Selda - Selda 1st LP (1976 Turkish spaced out protest psyche-rock. I kid you not!)
Trans Am - Sex Change (amazing latest LP from the metal and synth plastic glamour boys with a math rock fetish.)
The Books - Lost and Safe (uplifting electronic geek folk, served best with their live video slide show)
Residual Echoes - California (most recent LP from these LA freeform psyche freaks. Out There... in a good way)
Inferi - Shores of Sorrow (cold and depressing trance out Finnish BM)
Bruce Langhorne - The Hired Hand (beautiful slide guitar soundtrack to Peter Fonda's 1971 western).

Amos Toys

I just submitted the technical drawings for the final Amos toy scheduled for this year. We will have two new artefacts coming out towards the end of the year, as well as the forthcoming mighty Yod. We'll release more information when we deem it appropriate.

Cloaks

Evening cloak or manteau.

Build your Theatre of Dreams!

Due to the difficulty in tracking down the Yodzine, we have been asked to forward the necessary images needed to build Yod's Micro Theatre of Dreams. So, as if by magic, hit the link below and ye shall have access to the tools to make genuine folk art.

http://www.amostoys.com/downloads/theatre_of_dreams.pdf

Print out the page. Follow the instructions and build the Theatre. Cut out the characters. Use the image below for basic guidance (excuse me for posting it twice on this blog!)




Add any props or embellishments you like. Then make a play and film it (we don't care how badly). Email us your work (make sure it is under 10mb) preferably as a .mov or mpeg. Or upload it on Youtube and send us the link.

Emails and links to yod@amostoys.com.

As we promised, we will post the ones we like on the Yod myspace page.

http://www.myspace.com/greatyod.

And we will bestow great gifts upon the author of our favourite play. Go do this my friends, we want to see your Outsider Art.

More Tees Vicar...

Here's another sneak preview of one of the other designs from the Japanese produced Amos tee collection. These are just samples and not the finished article. The actual tees will be branded on the neck labels and come with pretty little Amos sticker swing tags.

This is the mighty King Ken. A legend in soft vinyl and soon to be a fashion icon. There are 4 other designs in this mini collection and all will be available, in limited quantity, through our on-line store when launched in a few weeks. Hope you like. More later...

The Micro Theatre of Dreams presents...

In my post for May 21st, I mentioned Yod's Micro Theatre of Dreams. This is a cut and play paper theatre with paper characters, included in the Yodzine. We asked readers to build the theatre, then write, perform, film and upload their own Yod mini play to Youtube. And we have offered a small prize for our favourite.

The first entry has already been sent to us directly. And it's a low-fi classic. Terrible production, awful filming, appalling sound, but great use of characters, superb voices and pyrotechnics and a genuine rudeboy! We found it so compelling that we have uploaded it onto the Yod myspace site. And we will continue to upload the videos we like, so keep them coming.

Take a look at the first video in the Films section, using the link below.

http://myspace.com/greatyod

More Platform International Animation Festival tings.

Just posted news of JJs visit to Portland for the Platform International Animation Festival, on the Amos website. Apparently he will be discussing something in public! Maybe he will discuss the process of creating the character for the trophy (The God of Animation), a sketch of which appears on the t-shirt below. These tees were produced by Cartoon Network and PAIF as an inhouse promotion. We managed to get a few in payment for services rendered. Right rare these!

The smallest handfull will go on sale through the upcoming Amos on-line store.

Some more zine news

Don't want to get boring and repeat myself so I will just say that we posted a little more (not much) information on the Yodzine and it's availability on the news page of the Amos website. Just click on the web address above right.

More soon.

zine masterpiece is complete...

Finally! The Yodzine is complete. We have been working on this folly for quite a few weeks now. I guess most people who pick it up will flick through it and cast it aside in seconds. But it has been a real labour of love and we think it is great. Hope some others out there will agree. It's taken a good part of the last two days compiling the damn things. A lot of printing, collating, stapling, sticking things on covers and numbering. All by hand. And for some reason the process has murdered my back. I hurt! A REAL labour of love. But, overall, really quite satisfying.

We will drop a handful of copies round at the Playlounge store in London, sometime next week. Most of the 300 print run will be sold through the new Amos on-line store, due for launch near the end of June. There will be more information on the zine contents and the Amos store sometime soon.

Now I need to go stretch my back...

VM in Japan

Our friends at One Gram in Japan have also been working on a Japanese translation of Vortigern's Machine and the Great Sage of Wisdom.



It feels good to see it produced in another language.



I know the Japanese will do a great production job for this publication. I'm really looking forward to seeing a finished edition. I think it maybe a hardback, with an obi strip and a sticker sheet. Happy joy joy!