🧭 January Dispatch: First Footprints, New Bearings

Holiday Matsuri marked a strong and memorable close to our 2025 expedition.

For the first time ever, we were positioned as the very first booth guests encountered as they crossed the threshold onto the show floor. It’s a vantage point we’d never held before, and one we were genuinely honored to be given. From the opening moments of the weekend, we were surrounded by familiar faces, new friends, and the shared excitement that comes from seeing the work discovered in person.

Holiday Matsuri has long been a final outfitting stop for the season, a place where last gifts are chosen with care. Knowing that so many of our pieces went on to become part of someone’s holiday exchange means more to us than we can properly put into words. To everyone who stopped, spoke with us, and carried a piece of our work onward, thank you.

With the calendar turned, the road ahead grows quieter for a time. There are no outward journeys scheduled until March, and that pause is deliberate. The expedition team now turns its attention inward, back to home base, where charts are being redrawn, tools sharpened, and the next phase of the journey quietly takes shape.
 

⚙️ Workshop Log: Repairs, Resupply, and the Long Climb

Back at home base, repairs are progressing on schedule.

Kara’s recovery continues steadily, with her cast scheduled to come off during the first week of January. It marks an important waypoint along a longer road of healing, one she’s been navigating with remarkable strength and determination. The team remains fully aligned around giving her the space and support needed to recover properly before returning to full strength.

As we chart the turn into 2026, we also want to address those still waiting on orders from late 2025. While not every piece made it out before the year’s end, those remaining orders are now at the front of the queue and will be completed within the coming week.

January is a rare window for recalibration. It allows us to close the final pages of last year’s ledger while also preparing supplies for the road ahead. With only a small number of outstanding orders remaining, our focus shifts toward building backstock and tightening our internal workflow so new requests can move through the system with greater speed and reliability.

Last year, our average processing time ranged between six and eight weeks. For 2026, the objective is clear: reduce that window to two to four weeks whenever possible, and in some cases, have work ready for immediate deployment. It’s a meaningful leap forward, made possible by the growth of our crew and the infrastructure now in place behind the scenes.

This is the quiet work, the planning, the stockpiling, the sharpening of tools, that rarely draws attention, but ultimately determines how far the expedition can travel.
 

🧭 Supply Routes: Where to Find the Work

With the holidays behind us, it’s a good moment to chart the various routes by which our work reaches the world.

Our core collection of layered wooden art pieces can always be found through our Etsy shop and our Shopify storefront. Both outposts carry the same catalog of wooden works, offering two paths to the same destination. Whether you prefer one platform over the other, the pieces themselves remain identical in craftsmanship, care, and detail.

Beyond wood and laser-cut layers, we also maintain a secondary shop under the name RetroRealms on Redbubble. This store exists to house designs that don’t quite translate into physical wooden pieces, but thrive in other forms, printed on shirts, bags, pillows, and similar gear. Every design in RetroRealms is still created by us, just adapted for lighter cargo and a more accessible price point. If you’re looking for something IONOX-made at a smaller scale, this is the route to take.

Finally, for those who enjoy the stories behind the spaces, our book The 3rd Unit remains available through our Etsy and Shopify shops, as well as on Amazon. The book chronicles our time working at Revenge of the Mummy at Universal Orlando, offering a firsthand look at theme park operations, backstage culture, and the people who keep the ride running. If theme park lore and behind-the-scenes history are your compass, this one’s for you.

Different routes. Same expedition.
 

🔭 Mission Log: Design & Development

We’re thrilled to announce that DINOSAUR / Countdown to Extinction is now live across our online shops. This piece captures the spirit of the ride both past and present, and we couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.

Behind the scenes, progress continues, though not without a few course corrections.

The Epic Universe map demanded more time and attention than anticipated. Between holiday fulfillment and Kara’s upcoming surgery, we weren’t able to bring it across the finish line this month. Work will continue at a slower pace until Kara has recovered enough to return fully to character art. As it stands, Epic Universe is now projected for late January or February.

Men in Black: Alien Attack has paused briefly but is still on track for completion by late January, and the same timeline applies to World of Warcraft’s Ironforge.
 

🌅 Forward Momentum: A Higher Horizon

2025 didn’t taper off quietly. It ended with momentum still in our sails.

As we step into 2026, our sights are set a little farther out than before. This marks the first year we’ve applied to San Diego Comic-Con International. While we may be waitlisted for now, the application itself represents a meaningful step forward, one that reflects how far the work has carried us and how much wider the horizon has become.

We’re aiming higher this year, not just in where the work travels, but in who it reaches. Each season brings new challenges, new ground to cover, and new opportunities to share what we create with a broader audience.

As always, we’re grateful to have our supporters along for the journey. The route ahead is ambitious, the charts are still being drawn, and the adventure continues.

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— Mike & Kara
IONOX Media: M & K Cartography