New Custom Corps this Friday!

Keep an eye on Planet Banimon:

http://banimon.com/2016/02/02/new-banimon-drop-this-friday/

Boris and I collaborated on a small run of custom figures to inaugurate the new clear Banimen, which will also be available.

The clear Banimon figures look especially neat, as their build are a bit different than the rest of the Glyos world.

A Little Hedorah

My creative output has fallen off a cliff.   I've been painting some Y-MSF micro-Hedorah to try and jumpstart things.  

The 3D printer has been awesome, but I haven't produced anything I want to show off just yet.  Thanks for reading. More soon.

Groots on Sale!

I'll be putting my three custom Groots up for sale in the Shop, this coming Friday at 12:00PM Pacific time.  Each one will include the original box, tag, and card.  Shipping is free in the US, $20 international.

Groovy Groot will be $200, due to the amount of paint, and the re-sculpted mouth.  Swamp Gas Groot and Jungle Groot will be $100 each.  Each is one of a kind, and pretty nifty.

Painting Journal: Swamp Gas Groot

I gushed all over the Funko Hikari Groot toy in my last post.  Sufficed to say, after one, I was jazzed to paint more.

I was reserved with the metallics on Jungle Groot, this time, I cut loose!  Again inspired by Kenner's Swamp thing toys, I wanted a heavy contrast between colors and surfaces.  Monster Kolor blues and magenta came through again, pricinding a glowing, otherworldly look.

Copper eyes, pink pearl, and high-gloss clear-coat complete the piece, and there's some cool chiaroscuro effects depending on your viewing angle.

Painting Journal: Hikari Jungle Groot

I really like Funko's Hikari Groot toy.  It's big and hefty, nearly 12" tall, has good proportions, and very nice detail work throughout.  If you've considered getting a Funko Hikari figure, this is a great place to start.  It's not "proper" Japanese Sofubi, despite what the box may say, but the quality is top notch.

I had to paint it, and went all getting three of the standard figure (which, again, looks really nice).  I wanted something more colorful.  Inspiration comes from Kenner's wild 1980's Swamp Thing toys.  While I never had any as a kid (too scary!) they fascinated me then, and their bizzaro schemes are still a great place to start.

Using Monster Kolor, I sprayed both solid colors and metallics at different angles to highlight the details.  Unusually for me, I skipped the pearl effects and high-gloss clearcoat.  That leaves the constrast between the satiny solid greens and teals, and the glossy metallic red and green highlights.  His eyes stand out with metallic yellow.

I had a great time getting into all the little details of the figure, and I hope you all enjoy it too!

Groovy Groot!

Been having a ton of fun painting Funko's Hikari Groot.  Groovy Groot here made it to Funko's social media feeds, and went nuts.  Tie-dye influence obvious, I resculpted the mouth a little to give him a grin. Usual monster kolor paints, and some Jack Kirby style bubbles in his eyes!  More soon.

  

Thank you!

Huge thanks to those that bought kitties from the Nyagira show!  I hope all are happy with their new little monster cats (=^･ｪ･^=)
There are still a few pieces left, and a little time to get them!
http://www.maxtoyco.com/shop_cat.php?cat=7

Nyagira Walks Among Us!

The Max Toy Co Nyagira show is live!  Over a dozen artists put their spin on Mark Nagata and Makino-San's new creation!  I called in help from my Mom Laura, to make my pieces really unique, and she was more than happy to contribute her expert sewing and jewelry skills!

Chestnut on the right has sold already, but Jade still needs a home!  You can find him, and all the other lovely pieces at the Max Toy co Store:

http://www.maxtoyco.com/shop_item.php?id=990

Huge thanks to Mark and Makino-san for letting us play with their toys!!!

Painting Journal: Fun with Funko Hikari

I bought a couple of the cheaper Funko Hikari figures to paint.  They're not bad in and of themselves! At the $20ish I paid for Glitter Optimus and Silver Glitter Batman they're decent, medium-sized Chinese vinyl with joints at the head and arms.  I specifically bought two that didn't seem to be sought after, and that I wouldn't feel bad stripping and painting.  I'm not really fond of clear vinyl with glitter.  I think it looks chintzy, but that's just me (Of course the really packed lame' vinyls are another story!)

The paint did not want to come off these two, which says good things for their durability.  The shiny blue on Batman was clear paint over silver, which I was kinda surprised to see, it's the same thing I do, and takes time (but looks shinier), than just doing metallic paint.  Cool beans!

  

I did Optimus in an 'energon' purple and gold scheme.  Honestly surprised Funko didn't do a purple Optimus already, seems like it would be a perfect color in clear vinyl.

Batman I was going to do in a candy-stripe scheme, but it looked to busy, so I settled with "Rescue Batman" here.  I'm happy with both overall, though Batman's off-center symbol is going to bother me forever.

Painted with Monster Kolor , of course!  Lots of C-Thru and pearls on these two.

Pulsar Delpheyden

This guy has been in the works for a while.  The Delpheyden design head premiered four years ago as a big collaboration. Designed by Glyos' Matt Doughty, Plastic Geek, and cast by Marty Hanson.  This example is in swirls of opaque and translucent blues, and is an incredible display of Mr. Hanson's mastery of all things resin.

Four years later, I finally did a body and paintjob that get close to doing it justice.  Painted (as always), with Monster Kolor metallics, pearl, and gloss coat.  I didn't intend for him to look like a bomb-pop, but I'll roll with it, hope you all like it.

He's still a little hydrocephalic, I had trouble building a body big enough to support that noggin.  Mostly black parts for the base, his pulse-arms glow in the dark.

Thank you!

Huge thanks to everyone who purchased a Tencan!  Enjoy the shiny (and not so shiny), little garbage mans!

Rustbuckts are now sold out, but there five JewleTone remaining, which you can purchase right here:

After the ebay listing ends, the remaining Tencans will be gone forever!  Well, by GONE FOREVER, I mean I will probably send them to Nik for his enjoyment.

Thanks again to all, and to Nik for making this collaboration happen!

OMFG: Rust Bucket TenCan

Grab your own Rust Bucket Tencan right here:

http://orbitdyne.blogspot.com/p/shop.html

I talked Nikolos Sardos into letting me paint some of his new creation, Tencan!  The adorable little mutant trashpile is part of Outlandish Mini Figure Guys Series 3.  If you're new to them, do check them out.  A whole line of community-created plastic figures, in the spirit of MUSCLEs and Monster in My Pocket.

Tencan was the collective effort of Nik (design), Richard Brown (concept), and Bryan Fulk (sculpt).

I wanted to do something special for this figure, and what would be better than rusty cans?  Nothing!  To get the effect I wanted, I headed for the Monster Kolor.  But instead of a usual start-to-end airbrush job, I did something I haven't done in years: Drybrushing!

First, a nice multi-colored basecoat of metallic and flat oranges and reds:

Then to the brushing!  I added several layers of metallic silvers, going from dark to light with a big paintbrush:

THe silver drybrushing only hit the high spots, leaving nice rusty details in all the concave areas, and really brining out the charm of the sculpt.  I topped them off with a tiny bit of iridescent blue, and they're good to go!

I did a run of five, each one slightly different.  Signed and numbered, with a matching card.

They will go up for sale here, Saturday at 1:00 Pacific.  Limit one each, $12 shipped.  Oogle more pictures after the break:

Banimon Custom Corps One Arrives!

It's almost time!  From the Banimon blog:

Tonight, Friday August 30th at 9.30pm EST, the Banimon Custom Corps One will be going on sale at our store. Figures will be $30 each, however we will have a small batch of deluxe beefed up figures for $40 (those have roughly double the parts, and also ship with a collectable poster of the new map of Planet Banimon.

Boris and PJ have done an incredible job with these.

Be sure to check out the special Custom Corps page for a look at some of the incredible figures on offer:

http://banimon.com/cc1/

Some of my favorites are above, they'll probably go fast, so get you're clicking-fingers ready to buy!

Banimon Custom Corps One: Outtakes 1

Now! It can be told!  It's my pleasure to reveal my involvement in the Banimon Custom Corps.  This is the Secret Project I've been mentioning for months.  I pitched the idea to Boris Savic when I saw first saw the Banimen.  The oversized heads are prefect canvases.  The two above were my first shots.  Being the incredibly smart person that I am, I sent them to the wrong address.  At least that gave me the opportunity to make better versions.  Stay tuned for more!

Painting Journal: Max Toy Monster Boogie Poodra

Poodra is one of five new micro kaiju figures Mark Nagata launched last year, under the new Monster Boogie banner.  Large for micros they're around 3" tall.  Poodra is a hefty little chunk of vinyl.

I took me a long time to warm to the sculpt.  Just something about it wasn't clicking.  It took me a couple test schemes before I settled on 'Happy Fun' Poodra here.  My paintjob still lacked personality until I started on the pupils in his eyes.  That finally sold the crazy mutant puppy for me.

Unusual too is that I avoided metallic and special effects paints.  He's just covered in bright, bold monster color, and given a basic satin acrylic varnish.

The scheme is based on vague recollections of McDonald-Land commercials, and other 70's vestiges that slouched into my childhood, and seared themselves on my brain.

Take Poodra home, won't you? Thank you!

How can you resist a face like this?*

*(Stray cat hairs, and weird artifacting on his left eye, not included)

Update: SOLD!

Dealing with Failure

Orbit Zenith Man flopped.  Will I finally learn that presentation is everything on the internet?  That packaging is important?  That when I say I'm doing an Uzay Blue Stars homage, it should look like Uzay Blue Stars? Maybe!

The OZM exit the store, their return TBD.

In the meantime, there are many irons in the fire at Orbit HQ!  Several commissions are in various stages of completion, I've got a whole pile of sofubi I want to paint, some huge Glyos customs on the workbench, and the Secret Project moves on to phase 2!  Hopefully you will be hearing more about that one very soon now.

Stay tuned for more transmissions from out broken satellite.

Ode to Uzay

Orbit Zenith Man is an homage to one of the most sought-after Star Wars toy bootlegs of all time, the infamous Turkish Uzay Blue Stars.

Why Hasbro hasn't done their own homage, I don't know.  Why Hasbro hasn't simply churned out oddly-colored Clones and Stormtroopers, I don't know either.  I'd buy tons!  But, they did the DIY crowd a huge favor by releasing 12" limited articulation clone troopers.  A neat, durable toy for kids, and a fun plaything for painters!

Of course I intended the first run of Orbit Zenith Men to be solid blue, with a white weapon, but being the amazing planner that I am, I ran out solid blue.  Hence, Edition One is all metallic colors, since I have plenty of those.  I'll do a more traditional solid scheme next if these sell through.

The metallic looks incredible though, I can't help but gawk at them on my shelf.

Everything is still on track for release tomorrow!

Friday March 22: Orbit Zenith Man - Edition One

Get ready for the first Orbitdyne Deluxe Drop!  Orbit Zenith Man - Edition One will go on sale Friday March 22nd at 6:00 Pacific Time!  Three pieces, lovingly covered in dazzling metallic blue Monsterkolor.

Each piece will be $65, shipping included to the US ($75 International). This will be a complete, packaged release, with custom boxes and everything!

Stay tuned for more pictures, and details on the figures themselves.