One in a Crowd: Strange Kids Club

Remember the 80s? Retro-toy obsessives need crowdfunding help

Know your Madballs from your Micronauts? Your Teddy Ruxpin from your Rock Lords? Then you just passed the initiation test to join the Strange Kids Club, the Austin-based celebration of the time of Saturday morning cartoon trading cards, anthropomorphic action heroes, and scratch-and-sniff wonder.

Strange Kids Club is the creation of Rondal Scott, a celebration of the weird, wonderful and, yes, downright strange era of bizarre toylines, crazy hybrid monsters, and cheap plastic collectibles. It's a virtual treehouse of childhood memories and memorabilia, and the cornerstone is the quarterly magazine that he started in 2014.

Scott already has about 65% of issue 5 ready to go, with the main story, "Strange Kid Comes to Frogtown," heavily underway. That's why he is currently trying to raise $7,500 via Kickstarter. That will go towards paying the artists, publishing costs, plus a collector's jam-packed closet of rewards, from copies of the completed magazine to exclusive prints and even cuddly Staargoolian pillows

Feel like a teaser? Issue 4 is already online for free via Dropbox, featuring original retrotastic cartoons, plus features on toy lines that never got a revival (poor Battle Beasts), an interview with My Pet Monster creator James Groman, and a look back at the Eighties pop culture obsession with mad scientists.

For more about Strange Kids Club, visit www.strangekidsclub.com, or read our 2014 interview with Scott, "Strange Kids Doing Strange Things" (July 25, 2014). Now here's the man himself to offer you your SKC membership card:


One in a Crowd is a series intended to showcase Texas film and tech projects that are crowdfunding their way to a goal, be it distribution, a prototype, or production costs. If you have a project that we should know about, email us at [email protected].

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

Support the Chronicle  

READ MORE
More One in a Crowd
Help Kyle Henry Take <i>Time Passages</i> on the Road
Help Kyle Henry Take Time Passages on the Road
New documentary about aging needs help for 22-city tour

Richard Whittaker, Jan. 13, 2025

One in a Crowd: <i>The Madness of Chartrulean</i>
One in a Crowd: The Madness of Chartrulean
Local sci-fi fantasy podcast seeks second season crowdfunding

Maya Wright, Sept. 1, 2023

More crowdfunding
Burning Down <i>The Barn</i>
Burning Down The Barn
Director Justin Seaman on the joy of rubber and gore

Richard Whittaker, July 14, 2016

Opening the Book on Roller Derby
Opening the Book on Roller Derby
Local photographer Kickstarting history of Texas Rollergirls

Richard Whittaker, June 9, 2016

More by Richard Whittaker
TV Legend David E. Kelley to Receive ATX TV Festival's First Showrunner Award
TV Legend David E. Kelley to Receive ATX TV Festival's First Showrunner Award
Plus indie TV gets the spotlight at this year's fest

May 9, 2025

Lucy Dacus, a Gary Floyd Retrospective, an EXTC, and More Crucial Concerts
Lucy Dacus, a Gary Floyd Retrospective, an EXTC, and More Crucial Concerts
Sounds all over town and all over the musical spectrum

May 9, 2025

KEYWORDS FOR THIS POST

One in a Crowd, crowdfunding, Kickstart Your Weekend, Kickstarter, Strange Kids Club, Rondal Scott

MORE IN THE ARCHIVES
One click gets you all the newsletters listed below

Breaking news, arts coverage, and daily events

Keep up with happenings around town

Kevin Curtin's bimonthly cannabis musings

Austin's queerest news and events

Eric Goodman's Austin FC column, other soccer news

Information is power. Support the free press, so we can support Austin.   Support the Chronicle