Chapter 52: Crystal Popping Balls

Meng Lang decided to leave Ishinomori alone for the time being.

He couldn’t tell whether this “mutated life form” was an idea or not yet, so he decided to wait patiently before he saw the final result.

What if it turned out to be popular?

Even if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t be too big a deal. Ishinomori had shown his talent in making feature shows, so even if “Mutated Girls” ended up becoming a failure, Meng Lang still wouldn’t give up on him.

He could try to show the man some tricks, and maybe he would be able to create Kamen Rider one day.

But not now. Director Meng was busy.

He still had so many things to do himself.

In order to have the show broadcast during the summer vacation, Explosive Boys had been on a tight schedule. The heavy workload had been tormenting both the actors and the director.

There was simply too much work to do!

To determine the design of Gallon Flaming Dragon, he had held several meetings with Thunderbird Studio already.

Just because it was called “dragon” didn’t mean that it had to look like one.

The image of Gallon Flaming Dragon had nothing to do with dragons. That was Meng Lang’s idea, as well as the general case with the naming of popping balls

It was only named that to sound nice.

Meanwhile, he had been trying to find a suitable voice actor for Smilda.

Explosive Boys used original production sounds for all characters except for Smilda, the special creature. Because it didn’t have a physical body, a voice actor would need to provide the voice for it in post production.

Smilda was the “anti-core” of the Titan Galaxy, and the most evil villain of the show. It had tried to steal the energy core of the earth.

Although it was the ultimate villain, it was also a very special villain.

Because it didn’t have a physical form.

Unlike a virtual character like Xue Feifei, Smilda had been hiding itself in Dr. Nan’s computer. Even in the last battle, it only fought the others by taking control of Ragon the Ice Dragon…

One had to admit that it was a rather lazy setting.

If Smilda fought by possessing Ragon the Ice Dragon, would that mean that there wouldn’t be a popping ball known as Smilda?

That wouldn’t do!

Either because they had followed the script blindly or tried to save on budget, no popping balls appeared with Smilda, the ultimate villain, in the original version!

What was that? Smilda was the core of the universe?

So what? Why couldn’t there be a popping ball called the “Core of the Universe”?

If Meng Lang really wanted to, he could make the core of the earth into a popping ball, too!

The villain-themed toys could sell equally well!

Just look at Optimus Prime and Megatron!

If Michael Bay had made Megatron into a bodiless entity that had to fight in Starscream’s form, Hasbro would burst into tears.

How much sales revenue would they lose if Megatron had been like that?!

It was essential that Smilda had a popping ball of its own!

A virtual image would cost the company some more money on the special effects, but they could easily cover that extra cost by selling Smilda’s popping ball.

Meng Lang had made more than those changes to Explosive Boys. The original version had six elements: wind, fire, water, earth, thunder, and sound, but he had added two more elements, namely, darkness and light.

Smilda’s popping ball had the darkness element!

As for a popping ball with the light element… He decided that he would come up with a special popping ball of the “Core of the Earth”, which would be released through goody bags. They would announce the chance of obtaining one. Kids who bought the goody bags would have a chance to find the popping ball in them

Popping balls with the darkness or light elements had outstanding basic attributes, which would be so much more powerful than regular popping balls such as Gallon Flaming Dragon or Anyu the Sound Dragon.

“Smilda and the Core of the Earth are so powerful!

“Goody bags?

“Of course I have to buy it!”

That would be the way the kids were going to react!

Meng Lang’s Explosive Boys was already a lot different from the original version.

The story was pretty much the same as the original version, but Meng Lang had made some subtle changes to please the younger audience.

In the original version, apart from the basic thumb-sized popping balls, there was also another type of “extra large” popping ball, which was the size of a baby’s fist.

That gave Meng Lang an idea.

Small and big popping balls?

How about a crystal popping ball?

And he could always throw in a medium-sized one.

Once Meng Lang had Pengda Toy Factory make a sample crystal popping ball, he realized in surprise that Tao Mi, who had been uninterested in the popping balls, was immediately attracted.

Well!

That looked promising!

Tao Mi’s reaction proved that crystal popping balls appealed to girls. Hence, Meng Lang edited the script that very same night, changing Long Lingyin’s popping ball “Anyu the Sound Dragon” from a regular one to a crystal one.

Ruan Weishui’s Ragon the Ice Dragon was changed into a crystal one as well.

Hello, lovely girls!

How would you like a crystal popping ball?

It comes in small, medium, large, crystal, and deluxe crystal…

As a director, Meng Lang knew that changes in such details wouldn’t affect the final quality of the show, but it could create unexpected outcomes.

Apart from the change in the popping balls, Meng Lang made changes to some of the characters as well.

For instance, Professor Long, who was Long Lingyin’s grandfather and a professor in popping balls, was a kind old man in the original version. However, his orthodox image made him a poor candidate for stuffed toys.

Hence, in Meng Lang’s version, Professor Long became a weird old man with messy hair, thick glasses, and a white lab coat.

Professor Nan was Professor Long’s student and an important supporting role in the original version, and the actor playing him was a handsome middle-aged man.

What good would it do?

Meng Lang gave “Professor Nan” a makeover. In order to fit this evil character better, he chose an actress with an androgynous beauty to play the male character.

Professor Nan was still handsome, but in an eerie way, which made him more like a villain.

“Teehee…”

Seeing their director giggling to himself, the young actors and actresses shuddered, having an ominous feeling…

Since Director Meng seemed to be in a great mood—at least he didn’t tell anyone off today—Li Yu made a request on everyone’s behalf.

“Director Meng, this crystal popping ball is so pretty. After the filming is over, do you think we can…”

“What are you trying to say?” asked Meng Lang.

Rubbing his hands, Li Yu said shyly, “The props would be useless after the filming is over, right? Can we have them?”

Have them?

In your dreams!

Although, that’s not a bad idea…

Meng Lang grinned. “Do you want them?”

Tao Mi, Wang Bin, and Li Yu nodded repeatedly.

“I see! After we’re done here, I’ll give each of you a crystal popping ball, but under one condition…”

It was a rather straightforward condition.

He would let the factory make some large crystal popping balls, and Tao Mi and the others would sign them. He would then give these crystal popping balls a different packaging, and pair them with sighed photos of an actor or actress. That way, he would be able to sell them at an even higher price as “autographed limited edition crystal popping balls”.

Meng Lang decided that if they could sign the popping balls, he would give them a roomful of those toys if they asked!