As Seen on TV!

I've mentioned Dragon Leatherworks here many a time. I'm honored to call Dennis "friend". I've got three of his holsters - two Talons and a Fugly - which do not see nearly enough use because they are gorgeous holsters and NY hates pretty things. Especially when those pretty things contain guns.

I got this email from him last night:

The lovely and talented Mrs. Dragon put her Executive Assistant skills to use for me about 12 weeks ago, trying to contact prop masters at various TV studios, and some actors/actresses directly. She got through to the prop master for NCIS, and about three weeks ago I sent them a FlatJack for a female actress who was complaining that all the holsters made the butt of the gun stick out or dig into her ribs.
Long story short, the FlatJack was a hit, the actress could wear a blazer-type jacket and not print...all was right with the world.

That by itself is making a big stride. Having a product appear - even for a few seconds - on primetime TV is a pretty good way to generate sales. Out of however many people watch NCIS, a bunch of them are going to be gun people, and some of them are going to say, "Self, that's a pretty slick holster. I wonder where it came from?" (To wit: Galco's "Miami Classic" shoulder rig, as featured on Miami Vice.)

That by itself is big news... but then it gets better:

I got a call from the prop master on Thursday with a special order request. It was built Sunday and shipped Monday morning. If any of you know the show, there is a goth girl character on it (Abby Sciuto, played by Pauly Perrette)...and this is called for in the script for said character....a goth-themed lunchbox. :-)

Mrs. Dragon didn't go looking for this one. They called Dennis.

He included a shot of the lunchbox in question. Gorgeous, no? I'm not sure how he knocked that out in one day, unless he has a connection to Rumplestiltskin. Or it could be that he just dove right in and hammered it out, was productive and a capitalist 1%er. ;-)

He didn't include details, but the red stingray fleur-de-lis insert grabs me right off. A few pyramid studs and crosses for that goth/emo look, the little touch of the spikes on the bottom so it won't roll away... I dig it. I mean this as a compliment: It would fit right in at Hot Topic.

I don't think I'd carry *my* lunch in it, but I'm betting if you needed a bespoke lunchbox that was a bit more ... er ... masculine ... he might be able to wrangle something together. Or, you know, a nice holster.

Congratulations, Dennis - that's top-notch and fantastic news. In Weerd-speak: finest kind, man. Finest kind.


Edit with an update from the Dragon himself (emphasis mine):

Some details: started working on it at 0900 Sunday, took the pictures 0100 Monday. 16 hours of straight work, lots of coffee, and eating meals in the shop while working. 

To be fair, I spent Saturday doing the math, sketching the product, figuring the sizes of the panels, etc.

Had to mold the panels out of Kydex first, then cover/laminate them with the leathers. (There's no way I could have a leather box this large hold this shape without a support structure. Along with surviving the rigors of beng on set and abused by gaffers...needed to have it structurally sound).

Each jig/mold for the kydex had to be built also, before trying to mold the parts.

Got that? 16 hours of construction plus whatever hours were spent in planning and design. (If Dennis's projects are anything like mine, there's nearly as much time spent in design as in construction.) This sure sounds like an American Dream coming true to me.