Skullman

My westcoast friend and fellow vinyl enthusiast Puppetbrain continues to gain streetcred as a top notch customizer with his latest triumph - 2nd runner up in the Balzac Skullman custom contest.

For those not in the know (and that would have included me until I did some research), Balzac is a popular Japanese horropunk band, similar to the American band The Misfits. Over the years, the band has developed a selection of band-themed toys and figures, one of which is the Skullman figure. Prototype figures were sent to participants in December '07, and the winning entries were annouced on February 14. Here's a shot of the prototype figure as well as Puppet's finished entry:






You can go here to see pictures of all of the entries, as well as read the awesome comments on Puppet's piece by the judges. As a customizer, you've got to love having the word "masterpiece" used in connection with your work.

ACE: Custom Mini Munnys

One of the biggest sellers at the booth was the new Mini Munny. A lot of people bought one just because they were cute, others because they wanted to try their hand at customizing one. The Con held a custom Munny contest, with several of the attending artists trying their hand at creating new works of art.

Derrick with Urban Medium customizing his Munny

Derrick's finished piece.

"Killer" by Ethan Van Sciver

Munny Mobile by Francesco Fracavalli

"Lobo" by Kevin Stokes

"Hero Bear" by Mike Kunkle

Don Cook's cousin customizing her Munny

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.