The New Adventures of Valorus

The most important of my discoveries have been suggested to me by my failures.

- Humphry Davy

The process behind the creation of each figure in the Legends of Futuria line has been one of experimentation. Sometimes an idea can be realized exactly in the way imagined, other times a fortuitous blunder can in fact create something even more special than envisaged.

And sometimes, no matter the effort, an idea may simply not work.

Which is why, after weeks of sculpting, paint application, scratch-building and head-scratching, I've scrapped the original Valorus concept.

Creating a ''hero'' character is difficult. He needs to have enough universal appeal to make him interesting but not so many odd traits to make him too strange. Getting that balance is important, as otherwise your hero is either incredibly generic or just too damned weird to find a fanbase.

When you look at the ''lead heroes'' of various toy lines (and their animated counterparts) the ''hero'' characters are generally pretty bland. I don't know many people who would list Duke as their favorite GI Joe (yet there he is, front-and-center as their go-to guy) or even find He-Man that interesting (were it not for the fact that it's his name on the top of the Masters of the Universe logo). In these scenarios, it's the supporting characters that are often more popular with fans, simply because - as the sidekick or loyal friend - they can be a little more interesting, edgier, darker, more outlandish.

When designing Valorus I original envisaged him as a kind of futuristic barbarian, clad in a breastplate and loincloth, wielding a sword and shield. But no matter how many times I revised his look - through new accessories, different paint apps, even different names - the concept simply didn't work.

I've realized that my approach was all wrong. 

But fear not, as work has begun on an all-new Valorus. 

This new character, inspired by the phrase ''Space Knight,'' has a more high-tech look, a sleeker design and a generally more interesting kind of vibe to him. Think more Arcturus Rann than He-Man and you'll get a better understanding of where I'm going and what to expect.

Of course, he'll still have his glow-in-the-dark Lazer Sword (because that's awesome) but this new Valorus is much more the high-tech warrior than he is Future Barbarian and, when you see the new design, I'm sure you'll agree that this is the right way to go.

It's going to be a little while until I can reveal Valorus' new design but until then, if you have any queries or comments then you can ask away below...!