It’s always interesting to see people go back and reimagine the vintage MOTU figures from a more modern perspective.  What GAR has done in the case of this vintage Snout Spout custom is to not only rethink the character, but he has also stayed true to the aesthetic of the original series from the 80’s.  You really don’t see people appropriate the body from the Extendar figure in customs that often, but in this case, it’s a perfect fit.  Nice use of that Optimus Prime axe from the new Animated figures, too!

From GAR Custom:

I’ve been working on it for a long time and I never was satisfied with the colors I gave him (metallic, bronze, gold, black etc). Tried every combination, until it sunk in that the orange/red/blue from the original actually suit him best.

The idea behind this custom was that I’ve always felt that Snout Spout was too skinny. For an elephant his body was laughable and I’ve always imagined what he would be like if he was more bulky. When I found a head- and handless Extendar at a flea market, I figured I’d put the two together. That was definitely more like it.

More pics/links after the jump! (more…)

Valve has announced today that they will officially be bringing their very popular service, Steam, to the Mac platform next month. For those not familiar Steam is the one stop place for all new, and some old, PC games. Steam allows a direct download of games directly to a customers account allowing them to load the games up on any PC that has steam installed. Steam also will constantly keep the software up to date and over all is just an easier way to get and play your computer games. Pricing of games vary from publisher to publisher and there is no offiical date on when this will go out live in April. But the good news is that if anyone owns a Mac and has been wanting a fast easy way to play Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress, Half-Life or many other games, you will now be able to starting next month. Full Press release after the jump.

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This amazing custom was done in response to the desire by many fans for a Superman in the Superman Vs. He-Man 2 pack that would match the size of the Masters of the Universe Classics figures.

you can see more at His DeviantArt page/

In what will hopefully be the first of a regular series of blog entries in which I highlight some of my personal favorite pieces from my collection, I have chosen to look at one of the coolest, my vintage-style MOTU anthropomorphic Panthor figure from the guys at COTU. This particular piece was primarily done by Galaxy Warrior from said collective and is fully flocked and maintains all of the articulation of a vintage MOTU figure. He also came with an additional baby Panthor cub, which is very cool. Due to very unfortunate circumstances, COTU no longer works together as an artistic collective.  They have, however, left us with an incredible body of work (like this figure!) to remember them by.

As I said before, this one-off custom is one of my personal favorite pieces in my collection. He really looks like what this figure would have looked like had Mattel made one back in the 80’s. The paint and flock apps are impeccably clean, and he’s surprisingly sturdy for a custom of this level of complexity.  All in all, it’s an amazing piece from concept to execution.

Although it’s obviously been quiet for quite some time, the COTU blog is a great resource for much of the body of their work.  Check it out here.

Thanks to a report from Kotaku, it seems that Tecmo will be bringing an updated version of Tecmo Super Bowl to the PSN and Xbox Live networks this spring (sorry Wii owners). Tecmo released a new football game for the DS a few years back and it played just like the original and Tecmo seems to be on pace to keep the classic game play with this new release. Now the biggest change, outside of not having any real NFL teams or players, is that the game will have a 3D look to it but still similar 2D style gameplay (of course that is me going off of the screen shot), but Tecmo also says you will be able to play with the classic 2D style throughout the whole game. I can’t wait to play this now, as I still feel that Tecmo Bowl (NES), Super Tecmo Bowl (NES) and Tecmo Super Bowl (SNES) are the best football games out on the market and Madden doesn’t even compare. Where else will you see Bo Jackson run 200 yards on one play to score a touchdown and I don’t know of any other place where J.J. Birden can put up 300 yards receiving while QB Chiefs puts up 500 passing yards. So I will leave you with some classic SNES and NES gameplay to wet your appetites for this upcoming release.

I’m sure that I’ve probably written about this before, but for many of us who collected Masters of the Universe as kids, some of our most fondly remembered figures were not officially made by Mattel, but were rather from one of the many knockoff lines of the day. I can still clearly recall the being a kid and seeing the shelves of K-Mart being lined with those odd looking Warrior Beasts and Galaxy Warriors whose packaging boasted “Compatible with all 5 1/2″ action figures!”.  Interestingly enough, many of these seemingly ghetto knockoffs were actually just as well made as Mattel’s figures and are now just as highly if not even more sought after!

Many of the members of the He-Man.org customizing community have taken it upon themselves to bring many of those great characters from those knockoff lines to the 21st Century by creating MOTUC versions of them.  He-Mike is one such member, and he has recently posted these images of Tiger-Man, originally from the Galaxy Warriors line, to the message boards.  I love the way that, much like the Four Horsemen are doing with the MOTUC figures, he has taken the classic figure and given him an update, but kept most of the charm of the classic figure.  This even includes that slightly oversized head!

From He-Mike:

In the totally coincidental spirit of the Chinese New Year, I present:
Tiger-Man: Galaxy Warrior

At first I didn’t have any arm or leg stripes like the original figure, but after a while he looked too much like Beastman. The head is just a bit big for the hairy buck, but that’s fine with me the tiger as head on the original figure was also a bit big. I like to keep a bit of the wonkyness that made those figures so neat.

Recipe:
Head: Stan Winston Sabyr, MOTUC Beastman, Apoxie Sculpt
Body: MOTUC Beastman
Wrists: Vintage Galaxy Warrior
Boots: DCSH Doomsday, Apoxie Sculpt
Armor: Vintage Galaxy Warrior, 200x He-Man
Shield: Vintage Galaxy Warrior
Sword: NECA Grizzlor

More pics after the jump! (more…)

Sometimes, re-imagining an 80’s figure in a way that is completely over the top and comedically pop art actually brings you much closer to something you would have seen on the shelves back in those days than a straight forward custom.  Such is the case with Saturday-Man, by the insanely talented Bruno Orbit.  This figure is from a line that Bruno Orbit calls “MOFU Classics” (nice!).  I feel like this has a really Grass Hut art sort of vibe to it in terms of color and design, but, at the same time looks very much like some crazy toy that could have actually existed years ago.

From Bruno Orbit:

Recent custom. Out of a capsule from a capsule toy, bootleg turtle legs, casted He-Man heads from a tiny He-Man bootleg & a good load of Apoxie Sculpt.

For more of Bruno Orbit’s work, check out his Flickr here and his deviantART here.

Attention New Mexico Nerds! Our friends @ Oh Baby So Tasty, are hosting Cool Kids Never Die, an art/ plush/custom toy show, this Saturday, February 20th @ Studio Broadway in Albuquerque.

Featuring an assortment of awesome pieces, it’s really cool to see this kind of thing going down Southwest style. So if you live in the Albuquerque, N.M. area, or even if you don’t, this is a show to definitely check out.

Get all the info on Oh Baby So Tasty and Cool Kids Never Die here.

Continuing what is becoming an unintentionally arachnid-centric week of MOTU customs at Nerd City is this sweet Black Widower MOTUC custom by Masterenglish.  It’s cool to see such a simple, yet effective repaint done by someone who has mad sculpting/ customizing skills.  The moral of the story?  Sometimes a well executed repaint color scheme can be every bit as impressive as complexly resculpted custom figure.  Also, stuff like this should show Mattel that there is still great potential for more original characters that are repaints of existing figures (much like Stinkor and Moss Man back in the 80’s).

And, his eyes freaking glow in the dark!

What? What?

More pics/links after the jump! (more…)

I don’t understand the German language.  Like, at all.  I do, however, like to occasionally frequent the custom figure section on the great German MOTU fan site, PlanetEternia.de.  One of the customizers who always seems to have cool stuff posted goes by the name “Brachy”.  This particular creation of his, “Brachypelma” (maybe the name would make more sense if I knew German?) was so cool that I just had to share it here.

The base of the figure is clearly the Leech Mini Statue from NECA along with some bits from either a NECA or MOTUC Webstor.  The remainder, however, was all hand sculpted in Fimo. And, if Babelfish has served me correctly, there is nearly 50 hours of work that has been put into the sculpting/painting of this guy.

More pics after the jump. (more…)

Glass Hat is the new show opening at the always awesome Gallery 1988 Los Angeles that will feature artists from the “Grass Hut” collective. It opened last night, but will run until Feb. 26th. It will feature artwork and customs from Grass Hut artists like Nerd City favorite Le Merde, Bwana Spoons, Martin Ontiveros, Apak, Justin “Scrappers” Morrison and Arbito, and also feature friends of Grass Hut Shanggs, Shawn Wolfe, Gargamel, David Horvath, Kiyoshi Nakazawa and John Black.

Sorry that I totally missed giving the “heads up” on last night’s opening.  But I really think this one is going to be worth checking out.

For more info, go to the official G1988 site here.

For more info on all things Grass Hut, check out their official blog here.

So, yes, this is a very cool looking custom MOTUC figure by He-Mike of the He-Man.org forums.  The level of qulality and attention to detail in He-Mike’s work never ceases to amaze me, and this figure is no exception. But, do you know where it’s from?

During the height of the original Masters of the Universe line, the Monogram model company made these snap together model kits based on popular vehicles from the line that were aimed at a slightly older demographic.  I never had any of these.  I do however, clearly remember standing in the toy isle and trying to figure out a. why there were new versions of some of these vehicles and b. who the heck was that guy on the box who was driving the Roton?

Obviously, like a lot of MOTU stuff from those days, the identity of the guy in the box art was never dealt with.  These days, most people just see him as a cool character design that would have made a great figure.  That’s where He-Mike and his version of this guy for the MOTUC line comes in.

His recipe for the custom was:

Head: MOTUC Faker, DCSH Azreal, Apoxie Sculpt
Cape: Modified DCSH Steel
Body: MOTUC Triklops
Boots: MOTUC Zodak, MOTUC Stratos
Staff: MOTUC Zodak

More pics after the jump. (more…)

Below is the new international trailer for Mark Millar and John Romita Jrs Kick Ass. Kick Ass will be released in US theatres on April 16th and the trade paper back along with hard cover are set for a March release at your local comic shop.

In time for Chinese New Years, artist/designer AW177 will be offering, thought his webstore, this amazing one-off “Year of the Tiger” custom Mad*L figure.This piece will also come with a framed 4″x6″ matching photo print.

From AW177:

Ok I have finally revealed the full pics of my latest custom Mad*L up on my Flickr at AW177 Flickr and will be up for sale at my Big Cartel store AW177 Store on Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 11am EST! Price will probably be $250, as this one was a bit complicated to do and took some time and a lot of effort on my part to make it as perfect as I can! Hope you all like it and thank you in advance to the person who hopefully will buy it!

“Year of the Tiger” represents determination, aggressiveness, drive and craving for success!

More pics/links after the jump. (more…)

How often have you looked at those amazing NECA TMNT figures and thought to yourself, “Man, if I only had a Triceraton figure to go along with these guys!”? Probably, like, every day, right? Well, so did the customizer known as Pock63 over at Figure Realm, who made this massive 10″ custom Triceraton warrior figure.

Maybe some day, after NECA gets around to releasing those Foot Soldier and Shredder figures that they showed us 2 years ago, we’ll finally see a Mirage-style highly-articulated Triceraton.  Until then, however, it’s up to resourceful customizers like Pock63 to give it their best.

From Pock63:

Body: Meistro Hulk with schulpted armor
Arms: Meistro hulk with schulpted gloves and tooth picks fore the spikes on his left arm.
Legs: Grey hulk legs with schulpt added to exstend the pants leg I also added schulpt to make the skin match meistro hulks skin
Head: Schulpt
Tail: Mcfarline toys figure
Belt: Batman pouches, LCBH Ripclaw belt, unknown grenade, gun in holster sawed off the lege of mcfarline toys figure.

I spent a lot of time schulpting the armor and head on this guy. I changed the design of the chest armor a bit but appart from that I stuck pretty close to the design of the old figure. The head was a pain to schulpt but I think it turned out pretty well.

More pics/links after the jump. (more…)