LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Toonstar, a Web3 animation studio, today announced its adult animation series, The gimmicks, will launch a second season powered by the Avalanche blockchain. The new season premieres Thursday, October 27 at Avalanche Creates, a Bay Area event hosted by Ava Labs, a software company that supports the Avalanche ecosystem. Mark Consuelos (Riverdale) wants to join The gimmicks team as executive producer and voice talent.
Veteran Hollywood writers “The Daves,” Dave Ihlenfeld and David Wright (Family Guy, Star Trek: Lower Decks), will continue as executive producers. The new season, “House of Chico,” follows breakout star Rocky Romero (aka Chico el Luchador) back to his Lucha origins in Mexico. And true to Toonstar’s commitment to bringing diverse voices to animation, new voices Mike Tenango will join the writing team and Alberto Portillo will join as a producer. The new season will also feature top Latino influencers and talent, including:
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Jairo Orozco + Bryan Rojo (Mexican Boys)
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Eric Ochoa (Supereeego)
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Jesus Sepulveda (HBO Comedy Special, “Mr. Tough Life”)
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Laura DiLorenzo (Netflix, Selena: The Series)
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Fabian Alomar (FX, Mayans MC)
“There is a well-documented lack of diverse voices, particularly Latino, in Hollywood,” said Rocky Romero. “I’m thrilled to be a part of this team, showcasing new Latino talent and embracing new technology that will enable even more voices to be heard.”
The gimmicks embraced Web3 early, giving NFT holders the ability to influence storylines and character arcs. The model proved incredibly successful with audience engagement and retention levels remaining high throughout the season, bucking the industry trend. Toonstar’s proprietary technologies enabled NFT holders to interact on-chain, logging more than 70 thousand recurring weekly on-chain actions and more than 1 million DIC punches (voting and messaging) in just three months. In the new season, Toonstar will expand the opportunities for The Gimmicks community to interact on-chain with Upvoting, a Reddit-like forum; and “Hot or Not,” a Rotten Tomatoes-like rating board.
Launched in September 2020, Avalanche ushered in a new era of blockchains with near-instant final transactions. Today, Avalanche supports 500+ dApps and secures billions of dollars in value while having minimal climate impact. Avalanche’s proven speed, reliability and environmental friendliness are a natural fit as The gimmicks adds even more NFTs and interactive features. These capabilities allow Avalanche to provide the seamless Web3 support required to balance creative storytelling with engaging community participation, which is key to the success of Web3 in Hollywood (Hollywood 3.0).
“Audience engagement and retention is suffering across all platforms with traditional Hollywood content, but our model is bucking the trend,” said John Attanasio, CEO and co-founder of Toonstar. “As soon as we started talking to the team at Avalanche, we knew they really understood Hollywood 3.0 and could offer the best technology and support to help us lead the market.”
“Toonstar is transforming entertainment and deploying Web3 elements in ways that are central to both the story and the fan experience,” said John Nahas, VP of Business Development at Ava Labs. “They’re blurring old lines in creative new ways and paving the way for Hollywood to enter Web3. We’re excited for Avalanche to power their journey.”
Avalanche will host the Season 2 premiere event at their Ciel Creatives Studios, followed by a Q&A with Toonstar and Avalanche executives. Toonstar will be releasing more NFTs available to fans throughout the season that will continue to push the boundaries of participatory storytelling and community benefit.
For more on Toonstar, visit
For more on Avalanche, visit
