Tomotalk with Brian: April 22, 2012 edition

Haven't done one of these in a while, so I figured it might be as good a time as any to write about some of the things going on here at Tomo HQ:

Galleries getting upgraded?

One of the things discussed recently was a possible change to our gallery style to make them easier to navigate. A few ideas have been thrown about, but I'm curious: what do you think of the way things are currently structured with our galleries, and what would you like to see perhaps change or perhaps stay the same if changes are made? I always like to hear from our readers, so if there's anything you'd like to see improved on this front, let us know.

On features and reviews:

With things getting a little quieter for the moment, we've had a bit more time to work on features, some of which have gone quiet for an extended period of time. We're hoping to kick start those again alongside of our regular news coverage. We have a handful of interviews also in the works, too, so I'm hoping we'll have those posted on the site pretty soon! Personally, there's a few other features I'll be working on over the next month and a half now that Dunny Series 20XX is done.

The one big negative of being busy is that, personally, I'm a bit behind on reviews. I know there's a few you guys have been looking forward to seeing, which I haven't been able to do. Sorry about that. However, I hope to have them done starting this weekend (starting with Luna, who just went live) and working into mid-May. Among those things will be our first reviews of ThreeA Toys figures, which I'm excited to be doing!

Pretty, shiny photos:

Speaking of features, what do you guys and gals think of more galleries featuring photoshoots? We used to have something called Through the Looking Glass which we primarily used for photoshoots involving figures already reviewed, but perhaps there's more room to use for that. At one point, I'd consider something involving Yotsuba or Danbo making travels with me and doing photoshoots around the places I visited, doing all kinds of fun things, but logistics issues ultimately proved too much (namely, the prospect of breaking and/or losing these figures in a far-off place). I know we also used to have What Toys Are Up To, which fell by the wayside because of ... well, being busy and such. If there's interest, maybe even that could re-appear, but I'll leave that one up to you guys to let me know if you want it back.

Sometimes news even takes a vacation ...

Just a reminder: Golden Week starts soon in Japan, specifically on Sunday, April 29 and running all the way to Saturday, May 5. That likely means the anime/PVC side of things will be awfully quiet that week, as most figure makers and online shops will have folks on vacation.

Game Nights, Part 2?

One of the things I'd like to do is to bring back Game Nights, if folks are interested. I originally at one point thought of even looking into hosting a Minecraft server if there was enough interest, but my guess was there wouldn't be enough to sustain it, plus it's another high-maintenance job on top of the ones I already have. All that being said, if you're interested in some Game Nights, let me know and we can start organizing stuff.

Questions? Suggestions?

If there's anything you had a question/comment/concern/suggestion/etc. about, please feel free to leave a comment and I'll try to reply in quick time. Or, at any time, you can always e-mail me at brian (at) tomopop (dot) com and I'll be happy to answer it the best that I can.