Archive for the ‘Toy Customs’ Category
Max Toy Co unveiled its new line of mini vinyl sculpts a few months back, and the first release was of unpainted pink vinyl. Each of the Max Toy Co characters was sculpted in around 3″ scale by different Japanese artists that Mark has worked with, lending each figure a unique flare and style, while still forming a cohesive and really cool line.
I painted this Drazoran to match (sort of) my pet in World of Warcraft, because I named my Devilsaur pet ‘Drazoran’, and I am a dork. Sharp-eyed observers will notice the colors are similar to my Blobpus painting contest blob… these colors are a favorite of mine, and will likely be popping up more often 😉 I made sure to use the bright pink vinyl in crevices and joint areas to represent softer flexible flesh in between the thick hide, like a real reptile (or dinosaur!) The figure was painted using Monster Kolor, and because it’s a mini, I got to really work on my tight airbrushing skills using only the Super Fine tip I have. I may end up having to grab some more minis to paint, because they are a great size to paint in an afternoon and try new things on, and are pretty easy to find.
Kaiju Big Battel is an awesome idea. Dudes dress up in kaiju costumes of their own design and duke it out live on stage. A few of the more popular creatures have been made into figures, courtesy of Marmit. The Big Battel figures have the ‘fun’ factor turned up to 11, and are really creative designs that make pretty sweet figures. Vegetius here is a giant turtle, but not the coolest figure. His giant pointy head and little stubby arms make him silly looking, but not as much fun as an actual toy. The design is still really interesting, and proved really fun to paint. If you’re looking for a Vegetius, look no further than CollectionDX! Josh Bernard’s killer Nor’easter colorway is still available in limited quantities, and features squishy blue vinyl with glitter embedded in it, and a great cold-themed paint job.
This ‘Real-type’ Vegetius is my vision of what the big, pointy turtle would look like if it were actually emerging from the ocean! Painted completely with Monster Kolor, it features the gloss coat for a ‘wet’ look, and different pearl effects on different areas to complete the wet effect. I worked in some fades, as well as some finer details and free-hand work to get more practice, and am really happy with how it turned out!
Painted a second figure with Monster Kolor now, and I’m still trying to decide how I feel about it. I had a rough idea for how I wanted to do this figure, and the main focus was the flaming eye. I got a little carried away picking out little details with different colors, and I think the head came out a bit too busy, diminishing the contrast of the flaming eye.
Also tried out taking photos in the sun today, instead of fighting with indoor fluorescent lighting, so there’s a couple extra shots of the Jet Jaguar, and the three shiniest figures I own. The red one is a Dead Presidents painted RxH Adult Fly Guy from a show a few months back. I have one more DP figure, but he was tucked away on the shelf, and I’ve got another one coming! I love the unique way Dead Presidents works so many colors and loose sprays into his figures. I like to focus on painting all the elements of the sculpt, but DP just works on a whole different level to lay down his colors, and it mystifies me while looking real good.
New shelves! The Real X Head has all been rearranged again to show off all the Chaoses, and I got some more ro-butts back into the mix. No real room for Iron Man tho… also redid the Neo Eyezons and Glyos stuff, but that’s still in progress. I’m still not happy with the top shelf either. It’s mostly spillover right now from re-doing the standard-sized vinyl shelf. I un-segregated the Max Toy Co stuff, and put all the heroes in the center, surrounded by my favorite of the standard kaiju. The 3A stuff is all destined to be re-arranged as well, as 3A shipping-magedon should be starting soon, and lasting most of the summer from what I understand. Hence no shots of the 1/6 stuff either.
Been home from school for a little bit now, and just finally this week got to unpack my modeling stuff. In the mean-time, a great package arrived, and had me itching to get to work: Monster Kolor! I got a 1oz. Starter Set, and was immediately impressed. I had been reading some recent comics, and was inspired by some glowing energy on characters that inspired me to try some serious fades and glowing effects with the new paint, and they performed well beyond my expectations. I started with the red-yellow hot-looking fade, and then blocked in all of the ‘armor’ looking bits in black, to make it look like Jet Jaguar was red-hot with energy, sealed inside a containment suit. I highlighted the black with a little blue, and picked out some parts in bright silver, since I wanted to try every paint in the set. I then worked on the green, first just a glowing effect from the hands and eyes. From there I tried out the Purple Pearl paint I got, which shows up the most on the darker areas. I was expecting it to tint the bright silver purple, but this was a learning experience.
The green contrasted, but wasn’t doing enough for me, so I was trying to decide how to finish the figure. When I was spraying the Monster Kolor, I realized just how thin and fine it sprayed compared to the much thicker acrylics. I was finally able to use my Super-Fine tip and needle, and added in all of the cackling energy lightening effect… JJ is souped up and ready for battle, oozing raw energy and looking for a monster to vent on!
You’ll notice a couple weird spots in the gloss coat, which I think are from dust settling on it. I think I need to get some kind of cover for the figures while they dry, since the special MK Gloss Clear takes 24 hours to fully cure.
I painted a new Gigantor-colored Bigaro for a friend, and had extra paints left over. I tried some new tricks to get a really shiny metallic candy-coat, including throwing on nice thick coats of Future and immediately hitting the figure with a hairdryer to really cure the Future in place as shiny and smooth as possible. It came out really great on the Bigaro, so I decided to use the rest of the paint on a flesh blank M1GO mini U-tom I had lying around. I’m really pleased with how both of them came out, and think Dan from CollectionDX will be thrilled with the Bigaro!
Finished the Desert Armodoc today! He’s been on the trail of a traveler for what seems like eons, both of them trapped on a world of endless desert. The Armodoc’s been blasted by winds and scorched by suns, and caked with dust. I left the eyes, gun tip, and top head ‘vents’ GID vinyl to add a little interest, and the color of the glow vinyl fits right in with the desert faded colors. The weathering is a combination of oil washes, filters, acrylic chipping, airbrushed paint fading, and dry pigments, all done in layers to give him some history and depth.
When I was at Matt Doughty’s house a few weeks ago, he would not let me leave until I took an Armodoc with me with the instructions to go nuts on it. These pics represent about half-way through the process. I am going for a heavily weathered desert-themed figure, I started off spraying the entire figure dark brown, and then worked up the colors, leaving some of the darker colors in the lower areas and crevices, providing a shading that does now show up in the pics right now because the whole figure is gloss-coated for the oil work. Next up are the markings, and then on to chipping, some oil filters, and then some serious dust!
When I met with Matt Doughty of Onell Designs a few weeks ago, he presented me with a small gift. Matt had for me an extra Mutant Chaos head and probe arm from the making of the recent Glyos System Chaos Custom Corps wave. These parts had air bubbles and imperfections and were not fit for proper release under Matt’s stringent quality control guidelines, but Matt knew that I could clean them up and would put them to good use. I got to assemble a body for the parts from The Junkpile, and then sat down to plan a paint scheme. I knew I wanted to use the colors of a Mutant Chaos release, and I ended on the Frankenruge tribute scheme, one of my favorite figures, which I used for my Chaos Family review on CollectionDX:
http://www.collectiondx.com/review/designer_toy/chaos_family
I had the wonderful privilege of getting to see the place where Matt Doughty works his magic at his house, Glyos HQ. He had plenty of cool thing to show me, and wouldn’t let me leave without a few cool things for upcoming projects (and a hint of things to come). Front and center was my getting to see the entire box full of the first Onell release of the Pheyaos Man, and getting to pick mine up early. I know people have been just going mad waiting for this release after seeing the sculpt used in a few Japanese releases so far, and I can say with complete certainty that it is worth the wait. The only disappointed people are going to be the ones who cannot grab one, but I have been assured that more are forthcoming and Matt is going to do everything he can to make people happy. The Pheyaos head sculpt perfectly blends RxH’s Mutant Chaos with Glyos’s Pheyden, as Chaos absorbs some of Pheyden’s power and essence. Anyone who’s seen my previous posts will know that I love the Adult Chaos body, and with the amazing paint work by Goto-san, the whole figure comes together under the head sculpt beyond all expectations. I’ll be reviewing the Pheyaos vinyls, and plan on having the Pheyaos Man review up on the night of the release.
There’s also a pair of teasers here for upcoming customs. One is a Mutant Evil custom I am almost done with, just need to finish some small details. The other is a custom Chaos Glyos figure I got to assemble at Glyos HQ, with resin Chaos arm and head that were flawed and unusable from the recent Custom Corps. I am planning on painting this guy similar to the Pheyaos Man with some fading between a Chaos figure of mine (not sure which yet) and a recognizable Glyos figure scheme.
I also recently published a review of the 3A Toys WWRP Bramble over on CollectionDX:
http://www.collectiondx.com/review/designer_toy/3a_wwrp_bramble_medic
UPDATE: I just published my Pheyaos Man review for CDX:
http://www.collectiondx.com/review/character_toy/pheyaos_man
If you’re into Glyos, don’t sleep on this release.
I am going to be covering all of the 3A Toys I receive for CollectionDX as I get them, next up will be the Portable Berties, hopefully going up before they are all sold out from retailers, so people can actually read a review when looking at buying them.
Prometheus Rising Studios 