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Hi Everyone!
I just wanted to share that we will be adding scale and life-size dorsal fins to our catalog very soon.... WOW! These are too cool. As cool as you can picture it I can tell you for sure that they are even COOLER! Have an awesome day! Mike SCO
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It just never gets old for me. Every time I open up one of these production molds out comes another perfect shark casting. And boy, do I mean perfect. Seams that can practically be rubbed off with your finger nail kind of perfect! These are not those crappy one-copy plaster molds that you see from how-to videos or the product of some fevered rush given some poor pressured contestant on a reality show. These are premium production molds. Everything about them crafted to last hundreds of copies.
Spared no expense, as the saying goes. And the care doesn’t end with the molds but extends into each casting. Multiple layers of varied premium resins and materials. Sort of like a dollar bill with varied materials used together to make the shark last the tests of shipping and ravages of time. I honestly don’t know how many sharks we shipped last year, but we only had one shipping damage. One out of many hundreds. But from every shark and every unexpected result such as that one shipping damage we learn. Now our sharks ship with even another layer of material embedded in them to make them stronger than ever before. Stronger than any foreign-made polystone knick-knack, and stronger than most fiberglass taxidermies! But the reason for this article is that we still receive great satisfaction from what we do. From cracking a mold open and seeing yet another perfect casting, to that overjoyed customer writing us and posting photos of them and their new prize of their shark collections. Just never gets old. We have quite a bit in store for the shark lover this year. A few hopeful movie deals being discussed, some long overdue sequel sharks to release and maybe a surprise along the way... you never know around here. We hope that this family and especially this fun fan community never gets old for you either. Be safe out there everyone, and try to live this week like it’s truly something special.. Mike Hi Everyone!
It is definitely a busy time of year for all, and we want to stop and take a moment to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! We hope that you all will have a happy and healthy 2014! Exciting things are coming folks! More movies ... more new releases ... continuing collection sets .... and much, much more! We also want to say a big "Thank You!" to all of you that have sent cards and email greetings to us. We will answer each one as soon as possible. They have been so uplifting and such a blessing to every one of us here! It sure has been a great year full of really fun times and making all kinds of new friends. These are certainly trying times for our country and for many struggling to survive, but it has really helped us to see so many good people pulling together and encouraging each other. I have seen a lot of friends on Facebook finding themselves in difficult situations also being encouraged and helped by others all year. It does my heart good to see people caring for each other like this. It helps offset all the bad news that "The News" can only report. Just to find the good, you really have to be looking for it. I guess what I am saying is that I just hope that each of you is able to focus also on the daily good things. The media's job seems restricted to keeping people stressed out and apparently some politicians seem to live for this also, but you either decide to let them devour you or you decide to smell the roses along the way. I vote for you all to sniff more roses in 2014. And maybe, just maybe if we are all really-very lucky then maybe things will smell more like roses next year than what they smelled like much of this year.... The Schultz family wishes you all a very Merry Christmas and a SAFE New Year celebration. See you all in a year! All our best to you and yours! The Schultz Family Mike, Cathy, Stef, Jake, Samuel, Rachael ... and our furry kids Trippy, Jackie, and Tater Well our all new 3-foot long "The Shark" has been a smashing success! We are so proud of this shark. We are very proud of all of them. What a cool family business! But that’s not the whole point of the update. I have several points to make with this one, so here’s the first point:
Point one, the new 3-foot Bruce Sharks are flying out the door. Our production rate has never been better. And our all new "Build a Shark" pages are a smashing hit. Just like we dreamed about and hoped for. We always wanted such a thing for ourselves but nobody ever did it. So we did. What fun! Build your own shark, you decide the additions and customizations. Such a no-brainer I don’t know why we didn’t do this back in 2008? The second part of point one is that we have also improved many other facets of the shark business as well. While we still could not find a better pure resin to update with we have made upgrades to much of our shop space and equipment in order to make the sharks even better. The most major improvement so far has been to speed up the production process. That and we now have even improved how we double box and ship each shark. The key to this has been to study how big business does things and adapt these tricks to our needs. So not only are these newest sharks our greatest works yet, they are also higher quality than before and ship to you safer. A lot of goals have been met and exceeded this year here. It is a pure joy to see things work out so very well. Now onto the next points. What about new sharks? What about completing the 1/25 scale Ultimate Bruce Shark Collector’s set by releasing the Bruce 3D and the Revenge Bruce; when, Mike, when? Good question. That depends on the entertainment industry bouncing back from the obamacare crisis. Currently most entertainment projects are up in the air and many investors are just playing the waiting game. So in turn, many like this family that earn a living providing material to these projects must wait and see as well. That’s simply the reality of the State of the Nation’s economy today. Wait and see, play it by ear, hope for the best, wonder what is next... But it was like this last year, and the year before too and still we were able to work 3 separate film projects providing FX. So it can be done. It can still be done... Now where this is good news for collectors is this; should our first contracted project be pushed later into 2014 than Q1 then we’ll simply switch gears and go back into releasing the rest of the Ultimate Collector sharks. That simple. Because only then will we have the time to keep up with all the added orders. But should America suddenly find some stable financial legs for the first time in 5 years and the producer call us into pre-production on time or early, then we may be looking at releasing both the Bruce 3D and the Revenge sharks simultaneously near end of Q1 to Q2 2014. This is as far as we can forecast things ourselves based on all that we know and can see. Plus, we have other things to release as well. Some sharks and some not sharks. Oh yes, there are so many things, so many...... But for now we are focused on getting these new 3-foot sharks out to their new homes. We are only one wave of shipments away from being one final run from being caught up to all paid in full orders just in time for the holidays! Now, how’s that for upgraded service, we’ve slashed our wait times by over half! Must run, more to say but no time today. Everyone, have a Happy Thanksgiving and please be safe out there. And please pray for our great nation. Mike & Cathy Schultz SCO 11-21-2013 Hi All!
We just posted a teaser trailer on SCO's Home page for a sneak peek at our latest movie on the SyFy Channel! This beast was a challenge, but we thrive on a good challenge around here! We are not sure how much of our Beast will end up on the cutting room floor but it was an incredible experience all the way through! For this blog update I thought it would be fun to post some forgotten photos that I just found on my cell phone photo archive. * First we have a "selfi" of me in my shop working on the Ghost Shark Hero Animatronic that we built and operated for Active Entertainment’s film "Ghost Shark" for the SyFy channel. Being located in Missouri is no hindrance for providing FX for Hollywood in today’s high-tech world. For all these films that we work on everyone is kept in the loop electronically as if their offices were just down the hall from our workshops. Via Smartphone, Skype, Facetime etc. directors, producers, investors and other contracted FX artists have current and instant access to us. This makes the constant changes always being made possible.  * The Eyes of Ghost Shark. Yes, they rolled back white. One was removable for the arrow wound and the socket modeled for such and blood tubing piped in. Most of the gore for the shark himself never made it into the final cut or was printed so transparent that it was invisible. Kind of frustrating. Now I know how actors must feel to have their work cut or out of frame etc... sigh.  * Another thing having to do with an eye, or lack thereof. Ben Gardner’s Head. This was one of Greg Nicotero’s contributions to Jawsfest 2012. One of several life-sized displays that he provided out of his own pocket just because he is such a fun Jaws fan himself - and a great guy to boot! He made this event truly memorable for all of us. There should be an award for someone like him that goes out of his way for fans like he does. It is one of many things that makes him so beloved in many a fan community.  * The Chest Burster sculpt for SyFy’s upcoming Bering Sea Beast film. We were contracted to make several small chest-bursters and one 9-foot long adult Sea Beast. Timing was horrid on this feature. We were contacted to build these beasts 11 days before shooting started with no design settled on. We spent 3 of those days, night and day, submitting creature designs to some very busy execs for approval to build. This process is best summed up and most politely described as trying to balance wet noodles vertically on end while juggling a Thesaurus's while tap dancing and smiling as if you are not out of breath or patience at all, because it is all so fun and so exciting to be a part of.  After 42 sketches one of our very first designs from 3 days earlier was finally approved and we spent the remaining 8 days, once again night and day, sculpting-molding-casting-articulating-painting and finishing the adult and baby beasts. We are still unsure at this point how much of the Beasts will remain our work and how much will be supplanted with CGI. Viva-La` Practical FX!
How’s this for a fun little blog update? Mike & Cathy SCO We finally have several variations photographed to assist your shark purchase. Feel free to surf our All New Build-a-Shark page here to see photos of these New Shark Customization Options:
* Light Gore * Heavy Gore * Eye Looking Forward Slightly * Clean & New, almost No Gore Of course we can still simply match your favorite screen-grab or behind the scenes photo emailed to us or work with you for variations of any of these options. Please feel free to contact us to see if we can accommodate you if you have other customization ideas beyond these. There are many things that we have done already including much more heavily gored displays. As we have time we will try to photo other variations and integrate them into our Build-a-Shark page to make communicating exactly what you want a much easier process. We have already shipped many new sharks and will be shipping this next wave and beginning the following wave of Paid in Full Sharks before Halloween. We will be lowering our wait times from Paid in Full status to shipping down from 90 maximum to 2 to 4 weeks maximum. This of course up until we begin pre-production on our next film. We thank you all for your orders and encouragements. This is really getting fun! Mike, Cathy, Stef, Jake, Samuel & Rachael Schultz SURPRISE!
We are putting the finishing touches on the very first wave of Paid in Full All New 3-Foot Sharks! If you have paid in full on your customized Shark, stand & accessories of choice on our All New 'Build a Shark' page then keep an eye on your email for your Shipping notice. As advertised you only pay actual shipping and not a more costly flat rate. Another way we like to save you money. Cathy is working on your individual shipping & handling quotes now as I work on finishing these sharks for you. The goal is to get you your shark almost immediately as you pay in full. Wave #1 starts shipping next week! Wave #2 enters production Saturday-ish. We are currently in negotiations for another film project and wish to get as many as these off to their new owners as soon as possible. If it is a priority for you to have it before December then we will make it our priority as well. If you are not needing yours that quickly then please do not feel pressured in any way. Have a Great & Awesome Day my friends! Mike SCO Just a little update.
We have reinvested into much needed shop equipment upgrades. We are currently filling all Paid in Full orders on everything except for the newest 3 foot sharks. That's right, if you are paid in full on any previous sharks then please check your emails for shipping & handling letters from Cathy. The reasons for this are many, but basically put the molds & related equipment for the all New 3 foot Sharks take up about the space of a car to handle.... They are a separate run process. It's why we can provide these amazing services. We're set up for it. At this time we are re-evaluating our build times from placement of order by a customer to shipping said order once paid in full. Our old wait times ranged from 30 days to 90 days. Far too long, but then again we were creating the FX monsters for 3 SyFy original films and moving to our new location during all this. We are currently putting ourselves to the test to see how much time we can shave off of filling orders. My personal goal is to get it down from 90 days max to only 21 days maximum. In fact, I want to see if it is possible to advertise same week shipping for those that pay in full including shipping. Now that is what I want to see!! Anyway, chins up friends, be encouraged in these abnormally harsh and oppressive times. Stand strong! - Mike |
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