I was gonna ask where Pix was, but he may be too young to remember these.

These are Popples. They were like bears but with pockets on their backs and big pom pom like tails. You could fold their back pocket under and over them to make them into a ball with the head sticking out.
 

and a wuzzle. These were animals that were actually created from two different animals. My fav on this one was Rhinokey who was half Rhino and half Monkey. Basically looked like a monkey but with a Rhino's horn. Disney debuted both the Wuzzles and the Gummie Bears on the same day on different tv stations. Wuzzles only lasted for 13 episodes while the Gummies lasted through 64 episodes. I watched both of these religiously as a kid though.

Both of theWuzzles and Popples were kids shows in North America in the 80s.

I watched the cartoons. My sister had a plush popple though. Me, I had action figures. That's right. A-c-t-i-o-n Figures. Not dolls.  

pixmaker:

i do not play with dolls like Adam. 

Looking good!

Unfortunately I have to wait approx a month to hold this issue in my hands

koshime:

hmm. more manga chick than mech *grin*

Ah, the manga chick is controlling the mech...  which is on the back cover

Wow you managed to tape a real Mech to the mag

'treacle' Here's me thinking it was something sweet you put in pudding. DoH!

koshime:

I reckon being able to fufill the chick and mech as a 50:50 compromise is probably a good thing. So thumbs up for that!

Yeah - t'was the best solution. As much as you guys would like to see an alternative to the 'cover chick'... man, IFX looks odd without a female figure on it. And the main problem with this cover was getting a mech and a human together, the obvious issues of scale come into play.

 

I had one idea (off the back of Saejin's initial thumbnails) of having her in a close up profile, then in the background having a highly reflective building - giving us a view of the mech. But once you get the other cover furniture/hits in place it would've gotten too fussy for a newsstand cover.

 

For all you Graphic Design trainspotters out there (I include myself in that, natch), check out her suit when you get the cover in your hands. I used a Spot channel to under-pin her costume with the bright (Pantone) Orange that adorns the hits. It's not soopa soopa bright, but it helps bond the 'image' and 'design'.

I'm proud of this cover. I've become a big fan of Saejin's work - I think his rendering style takes his work beyond 'just Manga'... and he's a 'nice bloke' to work with too.

pt