I love the idea of portraits being painted of classic toys and action figures. Especially if the artist doing the portraits is the awesomely talented Bwana Spoons!
so i got an awesome commission to do my entire star wars figure collection and them some. I think about 120 portraits, most of which are pretty small, then the opus mcpopeus at the end with the whole pile in a pile together.
As seen above, Mr. Spoons has already tackled the classic Luke figure and Admiral Ackbar (yes, it could very well be a trap), as well as a Cloud Car Driver and Walrus Man.
To follow along with this project, be sure to check back here often, but you can also regularly check this folder from Bwana Spoons’s Flickr.
Or, check out his official home on the intertubes here.
This past weekend, Shinto Gangu, the home base shop of Japanese designer toy company, RealxHead, played host to an outrageous plethora of collaborations and mashups between RealxHead and another really cool Japanese company, SkullToys. The results are really impressive and, naturally, were only made in limited quantities available only to those in attendance. Therefore, you’ll have to be pretty lucky to get your hands on one of these guys outside of Japan. However, based upon the fact that the results of this collaboration were so cool, maybe we’ll actually see one of these figures mass produced. Who knows?
The Lake Monsters line of Midwest kaiju figures from Rotofugi has been the proverbial “Toast of the Town” since their Muscamoot started popping up around a year ago. Steve Seeley even went so far a calling the Booskamoot version of said figure “Toy of the Year” for 2009. Well, today marks the release of the newest installment in the Lake Monsters series, Dredge, designed by Brian Morris and sculpted by Chris Ryniak. This piece is 8 inches of pure evil (with a bit of vinyl mixed in there for durability)!
The first release of our newest figure, Dredge, is upon us! We’re calling this first release the Imperial Version after the pearl purple finish and because, after all, purple is the color of royalty. This release is black vinyl with silver and pearlescent purple sprays and silver eyes.
Dredge – Imperial Version will be released on Friday, February 26th. It will be available in-store at Rotofugi in Chicago beginning when we open at noon. Online sales at rotofugi.com will begin at 2pm the same day. The price for this release is $60.
If you can’t make it in to the store today, get your Dredge at 2 p.m. CST today here.
To see more from Brian Morris, check out his official site here.
This Saturday night at 7 p.m., at the Super 7 store in San Francisco, Arbito will be showing a whole new batch of psychedelic resin figures at the opening of his Far Out West show. I’ve always liked Arbito’s style, it’s a mix of super clean modern aesthetics with an overall psychedelic theme. Besides, who doesn’t love resinarttoys?
It’s awesome to be showing at Super 7 again, last time was a blast and I think this show will be even better!
My show, ‘Far Out West’ is dedicated to my favorite part of the world… the west coast and to all the crazies who live here.
Below is a preview pic of my exclusive set of Seekers just for Super 7. This special Seeker features psych-style airbrushed paint, imbedded S7 Logo, and glow-in-the-dark skull head… all bundled up in a clear body. All 9 inches for 125.
There will also be premium 1/1 seekers, a few Patty’s and Sammy’s, and maybe a few other surprises!
So swing by and have a beer, say hello. Hope to see you there!
For more on all things Super 7, go to their official site here.
For more from Arbito, check out his official site here.
Yesterday, at Toy Fair in New York, Mattel unveiled quite a bit of new MOTUC stuff. Some of it was insanely exciting, some of it was, frankly, cringe-worthy (and that’s saying a lot when you’re talking MOTU!). The reveal that impressed me the most was the new Whiplash figure that they showed, complete with alt 200x-accurate head. Additionally, Count Marzo will finally be getting his first action figure likeness, as well as a super cool new MOTUCShe-Ra with both 80’s toy accurate and cartoon accurate heads. It was also announced that Keldor will be a “bonus” quarterly figure that will essentially be an variant of Skeletor in much the same way that Battle Armor He-Man was a variant of He-Man. A really big suprise, however, was that there will be an official release of Gygor, the giant yellow ape figure that never made it off of the drawing board of the original line.
Additionally, this sweet rotocasted giant Tytus figure will see reloease this year as another bonus figure. The intertubes are abuzz with controversey over the fact that he’s not going to be quite as large as the vintage version of the figure. But, what can you do? All in all a pretty cool re-design. Also, at Tytus’s feet, you can see pieces from what will be a bonus “Weapons Pack” that will feature additional weapons and accessories for your figures in alternate colors.
And then there’s this thing. It was announced that one of the MOTUC exclusives for SDCC this year will be this tow pack, featuring Skeletor (with a missing tooth) and Mo-Larr, the Eternian Dentist. Whatever. I’m all for poking fun at MOTU, but I always felt that the Robot chicken Mo-Larr sketch was honestly pretty lame. Here it is, in case you’ve never seen it:
Also worth noting is that Mattel unveiled a second DCUC vs. MOTUC 2 pack that will feature Skeletor vs. Lex Luthor. The comic-style recolor of Skeletor is pretty cool, but in general, the whole thing is pretty “meh” for me. It will, however, get MOTUC on the shelves of Toys R Us. So, I suppose that’s cool.
All images stolen from the good people at ASM, check out all of their MOTUCToy Fair pics here.
And no I’m not talking about Scarface or Razor Ramon, I’m talking about Nemesis. With the success of the first auction to name the hero police officer (brought in almost 8 grand), Mark Millar is now auctioning off the rights to name the main character/villain of the upcoming Nemesis book. It would be cool to have your name in a comic, like previous MillarWorld forum members have done, but I think it would be even cooler to be the main character and villain. So if you got a few thousand dollars lying around and want your name to live on in comics, film, toys and video games; head over to eBay to bid on this auction right here.
How often have you looked at those amazing NECATMNT 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″ customTriceraton 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.
Mattel is launching MOTUC’s 2010 with Adora, the alter ego of She-Ra. This is an exciting release for many reasons. First of all, she represents the first MOTUC figure from the Princess of Power line and is identified as such by the additional icon on her packaging. Secondly, there has never been a figure for Adora, so this is a sign of Mattel’s willingness to further expand the roster of MOTUC characters beyond those that have already been released in other forms as action figures. Thirdly, and what interests me the most, is the fact that this design is heavily derived from Adora’s Filmation cartoon appearance. Even though this is the case, she looks like she will fit in well with the other MOTUC figures. So, although Mattel doesn’t officially have the rights to Filmation characters like Icer, Strongarm, and Fang Man quite yet, it shows great promise for their respective figures if they ever do. Adora is included in the 2010 subscription program.
It was a dark day indeed for King Randor™ and Queen Marlena when their precious newborn daughter was abducted by the evil Hordak™. Celebrate the return of the Princess of Power™ as she takes her rightful spot in your collection with the first-ever Princess Adora figure! Like all Masters of the Universe® figures, Princess Adora is fully-articulated and sculpted with amazing detail by the Four Horsemen. She comes complete with:
Removable holster
Horde Force Captain blaster
Sword of Protection
Princess Adora Bio
Real Name: Adora of the House of Randor (Leader in the Great Rebellion)
When Adora and her twin brother, Adam, were born, the Sorceress recognized they were the twins prophesized to wield the Power of Grayskull™. She magically cloned the Sword of He, enhancing it with the Stone of Protection so that each twin could have a key to unlock the Power. But Hordak™ also learned of the twins and arranged for his Eternian pupil, Skeletor®, to abduct the infants. Man-At-Arms® prevented Adam from being taken, but Adora was stolen away to the planet of Etheria, deep in the Dimension of Despondos. There, she was raised by Hordak™, until the day her brother returned, handing her the Sword of Protection, which she held aloft to become She-Ra™ — The Most Powerful Woman in the Universe!
Although Battle Armor He-Man is a very cool design, I was never that into the figure as a kid. Yet, I think this incarnation looks really cool. And, all accounts and reviews that I’ve read from people who have gotten their hands on him already have said that this is the nicest MOTUCHe-Man figure, yet. Plus, he’s going to look great on next month’s Battle Cat! Battle Armor He-Man is a bonus figure that is not a part of the 2010 subscription program.
If you were lucky enough to have one of the original He-Man® toys back in the ’80s, then you remember that cool spinning wheel in his chest that showed various states of damage. Our all-new Battle Armor® He-Man® pays homage to that beloved feature with three interchangeable armor plates, each with varying degrees of dents! Always ready for a good fight, he comes complete with his trademark battle axe.
To adapt to new enemies and situations, Adam has learned to tap further into the great power that his sword unlocks. The combined Power of the Universe and the Knowledge of the Elders is called upon by Adam and channeled through the Sword of He to create new forms of armor and weapons to combat evil. His Battle Armor® was created to protect He-Man® during his early battles with Skeletor® and his evil warriors. Using the Power of Grayskull™, He-Man® — The Most Powerful Man in the Universe™, is now shielded by his mighty Battle Armor®!
Super 7 is about to release a definitive book on the Neo-Kaiju scene, featuring all of its prominent brands and icons, with their new “Encyclopedia of Kaiju”. Produced in collaboration with Hyper Hobby of Japan, this awesome resource should be available through the Super 7 site any day now. This book is really a great opportunity to have images of all of these amazing toys in one place. And, since Super 7 s behind it, you know that the overall design of the book is going to to be top notch.
Once again, MadTinker76 has taken a character from the MOTU, erm, universe, and re-envisioned him in a new and amazing way. This interpretation maintains most of the original design elements of the character, in terms of color and shape, but really brings the idea of the flying hero into a decidedly steam punk realm. It’s a look that not only stands on its own as a great custom, but also oddly could have fit in with the aesthetic/feel of some of the early MOTU mini comics.
From MadTinker76:
This was one character I have been going back and forth on designs for awhile. Crisco and I talked about it more than a year ago.. I had started one and ended up scrapping it. Wanted something different, was really leaning towards a Prince Vultan/Hawkman design from the Flash Gordon comic so I gravitated to the DC Universe Hawkman.
The Head is a DC Direct Else Worlds Green Lantern.. He had those really cool goggles and that leather cap, perfect for what I wanted to do.
I tried to keep the original character’s color scheme but updating it with a metallic/ Silverhawk shine.
I used the straps and loin clothe from the 2002 Stratos figure. I inverted the colors on the loin clothe so that the feathers matched the wings.
Thought a bird-man needed some talons so, Raven Spawn donated those. The wings are from a Zoids figure I got many years ago and that had broken during one of my moves. I removed the wings from the HOM Wolverine’s flight pack and attached the folding wings from the Zoids toy.
The Wings do open and fold..When the Wings are spread the measure close to 12 inches wide from tip to tip. The main purpose of using the HOM flight pack was to use the spring loaded action feature so that the wings could tuck further behind him and then pop out.. well it worked for first dozen times and then the locking mechanism wouldn’t catch..So, I took it apart and fixed it, just to have it not catch after the next dozen times.. at that point I decided to make the wings/flight pack removable. The Wings/Flight Pack on the back are attached with a magnet and when worn, held in place by a piece that I took off of a Rocketeer bendy toys rocket pack..
I’ve always dug the House of Liu line of toys from Veggiesomething, but the newly unveiled Qing Soldier figure is by far my favorite! Revealed on the Crazylabel blog yesterday, this is the prototype of a figure that has been in the works since 1988. They hope to have the production figures available by this year’s Taipei Toy Fesitival.
Congrats on a freaking amazing design, James. Nerd City approves!
Do you like kaiju cyclops gorillas? I’ll bet you do. I’ve actually always dug this Cyclomagnon sculpt from RxH, but this white vinyl version with a black paint rub is by far my favorite. The yellow scarf is a sweet touch, too. You’ve got to love a giant cyclopian gorilla who knows how to accessorize!
I’ve stolen the images for this guy from our friends at Rotofugi, who have him for sale here.
OK, Max and Joey, I know that you want to eat these, but they’re not really actual candy. These latest resin pieces by Le Merde are made to look like those candytoys that you used to get when you were a kid. They sort of remind me of the sort of erasers that used to make you super cool just because you had them, as well. But I digress. Owning these will probably make you super cool as well (as long as you don’t eat them, Max and Joey- that will make you very uncool- in the hospital).
Use Priority Code WL192 When Ordering Tickets!
