Got Ringo? Why Yes, Yes I Do

I got my Ringo figure from Wheaty Wheat Studios today. Pretty sweet. With a run of only 600, I'm hoping this might be the first piece I flip on e-Bay. The figure came with a t-shirt and some sticker too.

UPDATE: Orange Ringos are selling on e-Bay for $300 - twice what I paid for it.

Happy Anniversary Mystic Vinyl

It's the one year anniversary of the Mystic Vinyl blog. Time flies when you're having fun. We've had a ball with all of the customizing, scoring and trading we did during the past year. Here's hoping 2008's even better!

Discovering Mimobots

I was at Urban Outfitters today during my lunch hour picking up a DIY Munny for a new custom project when I came across some Vimobots. Mimobot, a company that makes designer USB drives, has released a DIY series called Vimobot. Vimo's are the same basic shape as the designer drives, but come unfinished in plain white vinyl. I thought they mught be interesting to customize, so I picked up a couple. I'd love to get my hands on some of the Mimobot drives, too.

Tara McPherson's Bubble Yucky

I picked up the new Bubble Yucky 8" by Tara McPherson today. I met Tara at this year's ACE convention and was fortunate enough to pick up some of her comic artwork.

I'll admit the piece isn't exactly my style, but I am developing an appreciation for Tara's work, and I'm trying to get into the habit of picking up new releases when they come out.

Jack Skellington Custom

I just got some pics of my friend Puppetbrain's latest custom - an awesome Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Definitely a true up and coming artist. Enjoy!

Custom Munny Mobile Project

Just in time for Halloween, I've completed my Munny Mobile custom - Devil in Demon Car.

Interesting back story. When I first started working on this custom, I was going to make a pimped out car with a little Munny pimp. Large brimmed hat, top coat, platform shoes - the works. As I was sculpting the pieces I needed, I began to realize that the Pimp theme would take a lot more time and effort than I thought I had to give. It was then that I realized the Munny's little platform shoes looked just like hooves. From there, the devil came easily.

The car was a little trickier. I wanted to do something different with it, but I didn't want to get too crazy and mess the car up. In the end, I went with a simple red paint job and sculpted the arms and tail for the car's "demon drive".

I really love the way the devil turned out, even if I'm a little "eh" on the car. As I suspected, I loved working with the 4" figure. All in all, I think this is my best effort so far.

Dunny Series 4

The new Dunny series came out. I scored a few pieces at the Toy Store; I think they only ordered 1 case, so once again, no complete set for me.


All in all, pretty cool. I like the Dupac figure the best, followed by the Kozik Clockwork Orange figure. And how much do I wish I had scored the Pearl variant figure instead.

Custom Munny Project: Linez

Here's my latest custom, an 8" Munny I've named Linez.

I started out by painting the figure gold, after which I laid down some pinstriping tape to get the line design. Once the tape was down, I painted the whole piece again, this time black. Once that coat was dry, I carefully removed the tape and voila! Linez. I finished the piece with some iridescent clear coat, which really gives it a cool shine in the light. I wasn't entirely thrilled with the way the lines turned out in some spots, but it was still a worthy attempt at a new technique.

Custom Munny "Wave"

Here's my latest custom project, a little something I call "Wave".


To start, I painted the figure black, and then used tape to create the wave designs on the bottom and face. After painting the waves and letting them dry, I used some more of my iridescent sealant to finish the piece.


This piece is a clear example of what I tend to end up with when I go into a project without a clear design in my head. This thing just pretty much came about on its own.

Some New Acquisitions

Dragon-Con has come and gone. This year's con was great as always; I spent a ton of money, stayed out late, and generally had a ball.


A day before the Con, we hit up The Toy Store, where I made a few purchases:





The 8" Mist figure






A couple of Joe Ledbetter's Finders Keepers figures





Ferine, from the Life inVentsville series

Dragon-Con Disappointment

It looks like we won't be having a table at this year's Dragon-Con. Long story short, a number of factors needed to come together in order for the project to move forward...and they didn't. I'm disappointed, but what can you do. Hopefully, we'll be able to put something together for next year's ACE.

Custom Munny Mobile Pics

A friend of mine in San Francisco, the up and coming customizer Puppetbrain, did upa custom Munny Mobile for Kidrobot's custom contest. He didn't win, but his piece was pretty cool:

Munny Mobile Project

Kidrobot released their new Munny Mobile DIY figures this month. What I like about this piece is the 4" Munny figure. It will be interesting to work at that scale. I'm looking forward to customizing one of these as soon as I get a chance to hit one of my local retailers and pick one up.

Warrior Munny Project

My latest custom project is my Warrior Munny. This is the first 8" munny I've customized, so it was interesting working in this scale. In addition, instead of using a painted basecoat, I actually took a hint from the Kidrobot forums and dyed the vinyl. I'm not sure I like the dyed effect as well as a good painted base, but I liked the opportunity to try a new technique.



For the eyes and mouth, I used some metal forming mesh sandwiched between super sculpey. This gave a little depth to eyes and mouth, as well as contributing to the "mechanical" feel. I added some random scorch marks to simulate battle damage.



I kept the rear simple, except for the wingpack. I wanted something on the back of the figure to suggest flight capability, and came up with the winged jetpack you see here. I'm not as happy with it as I hought I would be, mainly because by this time I was losing steam on the project and just wanted to get it finished. That's why I skipped adding a lot of detail to the wings to make it look more metallic and less like a pair of silver painted cardboard wings the likes of which I used to play with as a kid.

Oh well.

A Blue Monday is Coming

Some friends and I are taking another small step towards developing an urban vinyl presence in Atlanta. We're forming an online company called Blue Monday, through which we hope to build enough of a presence in the industry (as well as raise enough capital) that we can eventually open a brick and mortar location here in Atlanta.

We're planning to man a booth at this year's Dragon-Con over Labor Day weekend. Between now and then, we'll be developing a website as well as establishing accounts with major wholesalers.

I'll post more updates as they become available.

The Vader Project

Starting today and going through Memorial Day, Star Wars Celebration IV is a huge fan show being held in Los Angeles. One of the highlights of the show is The Vader Project, an art exhibit featuring 70 1:1 replicas of Darth Vader's helmet, customized by some of today's hottest artists. There's a good write-up of the exhibit here at Vinyl Pulse, complete with pictures:

One of the artists participating in the exhibit is Atlanta's own Derick from Urban Medium:

I had occasion to meet Derick and check out his studio last year. He was a nice guy, obviously very talented.

Atlanta Comics Expo

There was a small comics book convention in town this past weekend. Atlanta Comics Expo is being billed as a sister convention to Dragon-Con, the huge con held in town every Labor Day weekend.

It was a pretty good time. Rosario Dawson was there promoting her new comic book. So was John Wesley Shipp, from the old Flash t.v. series. Tara McPherson was also there, promoting her new figure. A couple of friends of mine from out west had a booth and were selling vinyl figures, apparel and books. The booth did a fair amount of business, which was good, as we were hoping to create a presence for urban vinyl at these cons. Until this year, there hasn't been any presence whatsoever. Hopefully, these initial efforts will grow into something larger.

Qee Project

I finished the two Cat Qees I ordered for the Furkids art auction. The first is the official one, designed to celebrate Furkids' 5th Anniversary:

The second one was what I call a throwaway; I didn't have a clear idea for what I wanted to do, so I just...did something. Behold the Robo Kitty.

Online Ordering

I just ordered two Cat Qee figures for a customizing project I just picked up. A local cat shelter here in town is having a fundraising auction, and I'm doing a commemorative custom for the shelter's five year anniversary.

I ordered from My Plastic Heart. I poked around online for a while, and MPH seemed to be the best put-together site I could find. They carry everything, and there's a lot of content on the site. Depending on how this order goes, I may start ordering from them from now own.

ATTENTION Atlanta Retailers: Until someone in this burg get's their act together, I guess all of my money will be going out of town.

My First Customs

Here are some pics of the very first customs I ever made. I took some of my duplicate Dunny series 3 figures and just saw what I could come up with:







The Hangman (you can't see it, but there'a a tiny noose around his neck)





The Houngan and Voodoo

Eh, I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out, for a first try.

Local Vinyl Retailers in Atlanta

As I've mentioned before, we have three retailers in Atlanta that carry limited selections of vinyl product. Those retailers are:

Criminal Records - a local alternative records store in Atlanta's hip Little Five Points district. They usually carry an assortment of blind box items, but between the traffic and the lousy parking, I only go to Criminal Records as an aboslute last resort.

The Toy Store - Specializing in educational toys, The Toy Store generally carries a couple of 8" Dunnies, and a case of the one or two of the latest Kidrobot blind box releases. It's a neat little store, and the sales people are always ready to chat about the figures. It's too bad that their selection is so limited.

Urban Outfitters - UO will generally carry a few blind box series as well as the blank munnies. This is here I'll go to get my DIY materials. Drawbacks here include the fact that it's in a major shopping mall, which means it's impossible to just run in, get what you want, and run out.

So that's it. If you can't find what you're looking for in one of these three stores, then you're not going to find it in Atlanta. As for in-store events, launch parties, artist appearances, none of that ever goes on around here. Since a lot of limited edition and highly collectible items tend to get distributed at these, it secondary market hell for guys like us.

Dunny Azteca Series

The Dunny Azteca series has come out. I was able to score a few boxes at Criminal Records, one of about three retailers in town that carry selected vinyl items.


That's one of the things that sucks about being a vinyl collector in Atlanta. Because the stores that do carry vinyl aren't dedicated retailers. they only order a small quantity of any one item. When it's something as hot as a new Dunny series, the chances of me being able to get a complete set are pretty limited.


Here are some shots of the ones I did get: