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    Wacky Toons: A brand 20 years in the making

    Wacky Toons: A brand 20 years in the making

    I can't believe it's been more than 20 years since the Wacky Toons concept was first created. Back in 2000, the idea was to launch a greeting cards line featuring my cartoon characters. I teamed up with my childhood friend Alberto San Vicente and my neighbor in Guadalajara Ignacio Ruiz. Alberto was in charge of the digital process for each design and Nacho, the business side of things including distribution. Our original character roster included the friendly alien Goko, the magnetic monster Iosh and my alter ego George X as an action sports junkie. The results were amazing! We came up with a whole collection of high-quality designs with funny messages. We printed hundreds of samples which got great reviews. We even made some promising sales, however we had no idea how competitive the greeting cards industry was and how the market was controlled by a few large international brands.

    Wacky Toons' Goko Greeting card (2000))

    We soon realized the project was going to demand way more time than we originally expected. Alberto was swamped with his advertising design agency, Nacho was busy with his trading consulting company and I had a rising television career, so we decided to call it off. It was a painful decision but we all had priorities at the time. Nevertheless I never stopped believing in the project. 

    Fast-forward 20 years later, while I'm still lucky to have a broadcasting career, the television industry is dramatically changing and the future seems a bit uncertain reason why I wanted to start my own company. After a conversation with my friend in LA Ricardo Ramirez, who happens to be the owner of several successful apparel brands, he encouraged me to start my own. It made total sense. Combining my ability to create cartoon characters with the incredible e-commerce platforms available today, awesome graphic design programs and social networks, it was a no brainer. The whole idea got me fired up! So, I decided to give Wacky Toons another shot! 

    But it was not easy. As you can imagine, it took me several months creating the project, but we'll get into that in a future blog! 

    For now, thanks for reading and enjoy Wacky Toons! 

    Iceland, the inspiration behind "Skol Warriors"

    Iceland, the inspiration behind "Skol Warriors"

    Hey guys,

    As you can see, Wacky Toons has several collections featuring different kinds of characters. I'd like to share with you how I came up with the concept for the Skol Warriors collection. 

    In Scandinavian countries Skol or Skal means cheers or "to your health". But it also means bowl. Vikings used to celebrate victories by drinking wine or ale out of a bowl or skull. Vikings is truly a fascinating culture with an obscure and violent history. No wonder why it has become so popular in recent times. TV Shows live Vikings and movies with norsemen superheroes like Thor have definitely catapulted Viking popularity to new heights. 

    Our Skol Warriors collection features crazy viking characters celebrating and cheering victories while cracking witty phrases. I created this line of cartoons not only because I'm obviously a huge fan of the vikings, but also 2 years ago I had the chance to visit Iceland and felt transported to that time and place. Seeing replicas of viking ships, drinking local viking beer and witnessing Iceland's majestic natural sites and towns really inspired me to create a collection devoted to that culture.

    For the Wacky Toons launch, I decided to include two Skol Warriors. One red armored viking and one with a hammer (Not Thor). The red viking has an awesome horned helmet and an iron mug. It has a viking decorated background and says "This Beard needs a beer." I think we all agree on that! 

    The second one has a short ill-tempered viking holding a big hammer as his weapon of choice. It says "It's Hammer Time." Not sure if it's a threat or a line from a famous 90's hip hop song, the point is he's about to smash somebody. The character has a stylized version of rune patterns. 

    Iceland is a mind-blowing place. It's like a trip back in time. The island has volcanic rock everywhere, huge glaciers, hot springs, hundreds of waterfalls, sheep on every hill, and prehistoric geysers!  I went with a group of friends and spent 10 days driving all over the island. You should definitely include it in your bucket list. You never know, it might even inspire you to create wacky cartoons!

    Please check out the products available in the "Skol Warriors" collection!

    Thanks for reading. 

    New Gaston Reyno signature T-shirt

    New Gaston Reyno signature T-shirt

    Wacky Toons is proud to present Gaston Reyno's signature T-shirt as part of our Fighter series collection. Gaston a.k.a 'Tonga' is Uruguays biggest MMA star. He has fought for top international organizations including Bellator and Combate Americas. 

    The design features Gaston's signature smile and his beloved national colors. Gaston's T-shirt is available in black, white and true royal as well as white and blue raglan.