It was the Made in America that first attracted the two designers who were part of the 2014 class of First Batch, a Cincinnati-based manufacturing accelerator. Mathis described their beginning approach:
“Originally, we hoped to produce our mascots in the U.S.A. We priced a facility in New York, but found the cost to be prohibitive. It was First Batch that connected our company with manufacturers who worked with us until we discovered how to make our figures entirely in the Cincinnati area. It’s great for local business.”
While these two may be new on the business scene, they bring a lot of solid experience to the design and creation of these types of products. Robinson has worked for over a decade creating and sculpting for the toy industry. He turned that eye to their first mascot portrait: the University of Kentucky Wildcat.
This doesn’t mean that this creation sprung to life over night. Mathis and Robinson calculated that it took approximately 120 hours to reach the final version of their mascot and a further 80 hours to grow the mold blocks in their 3D printer. Finally, they had to work for several months in order to secure the necessary legal releases from UK in order to be an officially licensed product. Now, they are turning to Kickstarter to help them get their business, Monster Mascots, up and running.
Let us know what you think about this local approach to creation over in the Monster Mascots Made Locally forum thread at 3DPB.com.