Hey there, everyone. I haven't posted since May, but a lot happened in that time, and I've not been making much of anything because of it. I'm not going to go into many details on why this past summer was perhaps the worst summer I've ever had, but suffice to say it was enough to make anyone not feel creative and I'm just now starting to feel motivated to set foot in the shop again.
So, what's been going on?
Props
As I said, I haven't focused much on building stuff for myself over the past few months. All the work I've been doing has been for the online shop, which I'll go into a bit farther down the post. This was up until about a week and a half ago, when I decided to do something simple, that wouldn't require much finishing work. So, I printed out the "Dustbuster" phaser by UnimatrixRed on Printables, and I printed it in color. So there were bits in grey, silver, white, clear red... you know what I mean. It went together nicely, and since I had the chrome silver in the printer already, I went ahead and also printed the Klingon "D'k tahg" Knife, which even had moving blades. This one took a bit more work and made me realize I needed more strong clamps, but it was another piece I completed.
As I was starting to write this post on Monday, I also received something exciting in the mail. Back in April, before the shit hit the fan, I ordered a Tru-Spec tan flight suit from GBFans, which was supposed to ship in August. Well, Tru-Spec took their time getting them restocked, so AJ was finally able to get the suit in stock and shipped this past week. I have made sure the suit fits, it's getting washed, and then I'm adding the patches and hose port to it in the next few days. With this, I'll be able to just throw on my black Doc Martens along with my HasLab pack and I'm, for all intents and purposes, a Ghostbuster cosplayer. Of course, this is me, so I'm not happy with that. Currently, the printer is working on the "belt gizmo" that I can add to my belt along with my key fobs. I've got the files printed to make a replica Motorola radio and the goggles, and I can build a whole pack out of 3D-printed parts I have in the workshop. Sometime soon, I'm going to do a specific write-up on this project, so you know what's going on, but this is my "motivation" right now, something I can focus on.
However, this isn't the only thing I'm focused on...
Troxell's Trading Post
I don't think I mentioned it much before going on the unintended hiatus, but I'm in the process of moving the trading post from Square to Etsy. I'm just annoyed at the lack of options on Square, and while I've got some more coming out in fees and all that jazz over on Etsy, I've sold more over there over the past three months than I sold through the Square site over the past year. So, if you want to take a look, you can find the shop over at Troxell's Trading Post on Etsy. Right now, it's TTRPG items from Fate's End, and an ever-growing collection of earrings, because those have been selling fairly well! Feel free to check it out, because that money is covering costs for Troxell's Trading Post and Troxell's Build, as well as starting to pay down a metric ton of debt!
As I keep making stuff for Etsy, I am also keeping the rest of the year in mind...
Upcoming Appearances
Troxell's Trading Post will be vending at two shows this fall. First, we'll be returning to VoltCon in Indianapolis, Indiana the weekend of October 26th and 27th. I'll be clearing out a lot of my MatMire Makes articulated critters, as well as having a good amount of keychains, magnets, earrings, dice towers, and dice vaults. Troxell Builds will also be presenting an encore of the "Props for Cosplay" talk that was given at the beginning of May at the Anderson Public Library.
Speaking of the Anderson Public Library, they are having an Artisans and Author's Fair on November 16th, and Troxell's Trading Post will be vending there, as well. Since this isn't a convention, I'm going to have more "general" prints, including trying my hand at some holiday ornaments, along with maybe some snow globes and nightlights. I'm hoping that between these two shows, and my Etsy sales, I might actually have sold enough to worry about putting it on my taxes in 2025!
Yeah, I know my goals are weird.
Twitch
Finally, the last thing I've started back up on is my stream, Talking and Tea with Tired Tony on Twitch. I've been streaming on Monday and Wednesday mornings, starting around 9 AM Eastern and streaming until I go to work around 10 AM. I've been talking about what I've been working on, and just shooting the bull with friends in the chat, as I clean my way through PowerWash Simulator. So far, I've wrapped up a Gnome Fountain, and this past Wednesday I started a miniature golf course. You can find that stream over at the Tony Troxell Twitch channel.
I've also been active on my day job's Twitch channel, which we use to promote our new tabletop role-playing game campaign management tool, Lore Link. On the Lore Link Twitch channel, Mark shows you how to use Lore Link to plan and organize your gaming session. He'll also use Lore Link to run games for co-workers, whom I've dubbed the "Lore Link Players." Finally, Mark will also stream video games that are connected in some way to role-playing and tabletop games, and one he's streamed with me is PowerWash Simulator's "Warhammer 40K" add-on. If you would like to check any of these out, give Lore Link a follow on Twitch. Even if I'm not on the stream, I'm moderating the chat. Streams are normally on Tuesdays from 5 until 6:30 PM Eastern, and this Friday the Lore Link Players will be running through a Fallout Role-Playing Game adventure starting at 1 PM Eastern.
And with that, I feel like I've given a decent enough update on what's going on. I'm hoping to get back to writing at least one blog post a week, but we shall see. Also, as always, don't forget to check out the Google Photos album of items I talked about in this post.
In the meantime, please remember to take good care of yourselves and each other. The world kinda sucks out there, make sure you're not making it suck even more. In fact, if you can, try to make it suck just a little less.
Don't let the bastards grind you down,
Tony
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