Monkey Business.

A quick one. These monkeys were deemed too scary for a child's cake, and had to be replaced with cuter monkeys. I think they are plenty cute, but what do I know?

Another Finished Prototype!

Say "Hello" to Pus, the newest Krustiez prototype! I just finished sculpting him up and am posting the finished photos now, as you can see.







I've hit kind of a snag in production, as I'm currently awaiting delivery of a pressure pot so I can make better castings of these guys, and deliver the nicest looking finished product. Until that arrives, all I can do is sculpt and work on fixing up the blog and putting together a website (not a lot, right?). In the meantime, let me know what you think, and be sure to follow us here at Mr. Ralph's Monster Gallery, post links on your facebook or whatever, and tell all your friends. I am shameless, I know.

Real Quick.

Process. Tell you more later.

Inspirado!

I thought I'd talk about inspiration for a moment.  I remember a lot of toys in my youth being geared toward grossing kids out.  Or, more often than not, giving kids the illusion that, by playing with certain toys they would be given the intoxicating power to gross out their friends, families, teachers, and girls!  I was totally conned by this, back in the day, and looking back, I'm not sure why. In any case, I have fond memories of toys like "Fearsome Flush" (a possessed toilet from the Ghostbusters action figure line) and some of the Aaahh, Real Monsters, figures.  The gross exaggeration of features and warping of anatomy of certain toys has always stuck with me. I'm really excited to try my hand at making the kind of toys I used to love.

Here are a few examples of the kind of thing that kick-started

Germs!
http://www.dorkdimension.com/2006/08/toy-tribute-germs-by-worlds-of-wonder.html

Madballs
http://www.madballs.com/home.action

http://www.collectorsquest.com/collectible/7321/scarfer

http://www.figurerealm.com/actionfigure.php?FID=7310&figure=fearsomeflush

and maybe most importantly, Boglins. I always wanted one of these as a kid, but never had one.

http://www.x-entertainment.com/messages/449.html

Some more 2-D.

Here's a little bit of ink n' gouache, since I was unable to share my action figure progress today. I am really glad I started getting my brush back in the inkwell again. Check it out! Any thoughts?

Next Batter!

So, I was hit by some car troubles today and was therefore unable to get to la Casa de los Padrinos, where a lot of my mold-making stuff still lives. This means I'll have to wait until tomorrow before I can cast Vin. Instead, here's a peek at who's up next.



This one's name is Purswillion Schweinebaron Von Dusseldorf (or something like that), or "Pus" for short. He's the wildly self-destructive type, and Vin's best friend He's always up for whatever, but rarely has ideas of his own. At least, not good ones. He has a thing for eating toothbrushes, and will drink anything you hand him.

Any thoughts?

The genesis of Vin

Here's the first sketch of Vin, based on an older doodle in my current sketchbook.

Process Shots.

Here are some minty fresh shots from the day's work. If I may share some wisdom always do the thing the right way like you're supposed to or you'll have to do it twice, dummy. If I had just obeyed that rule.... regardless, it's done now. See what it took to get this did!







The beast himself is made of super sculpey, aluminum foil, aluminum wire, floral wire, and a couple of joints scavenged off another toy. I love that he's basically just a big mouth, because I have a lot of fun sculpting mouths. I like to make a handful of super sculpey teeth, bake them, and then when they are hard I set them into the as yet unbaked gums, and then cure the whole thing in the oven. then i add the lips, and the rest of the face, and build and bake as I go. The legs were made separately over wire, and then added to the bulk of the body with more super sculpey. They are not articulated, as the shape of the character wouldn't allow for very much hip movement, anyway. the arms were constructed from plumbers epoxy, aluminum wire, and floral wire, and then covered in super sculpey. They were then baked hard, and the whole thing was assembled carefully for the photograph, and taken apart again even more carefully.

Next step is the molds!

Vin, Fully Assembled.

So, here's Vin all assembled and with all of his component parts. I'll upload some images of the work in progress, too, so you can see what goes into a mess like this. Check it out!

Action Figure Prototype Sculpted!

So, after much wasting time, I have put together my first articulated action figure! Feature a whopping two points of articulation, I give you Vin, the first of a line of small monster action figures I am tentatively calling "Krustiez." These are inspired by the kind of gross-out toys I remember being fairly popular in the late eighties, early nineties.

The Krustiez are a bunch of tiny, nugget-bodied monsters that live in your basements and garbage, and take on some of the characteristics of whatever they encounter most often. Due to his prolonged exposure to rats as a youth, Vinegar Chesterfield Heatherington or "Vin," took on decidedly rodent-like traits. Like all of his kin, Vin suffers from delusions of regal breeding and nobility, as well as a decided lack of cognitive capability. That is to say, he's dumb as a post. And not a smart post. He still sees himself as the "idea man" of his clan of trash-dwellers, even though his plan to get all of the humans' food by gluing popsicle sticks to snails was, as could be guessed, not entirely successful. Never daunted, Vin and his best friend Pus are always on the lookout for new mischiefs and scams.

This was about a nine hour sculpt, and I'm mostly pleased with it. I'm hoping to get it cast this week so I can start pouring up the final resin pieces, which will be available for purchase as soon as I can figure out how to make an online store or something. You want one?

Vin is about three inches tall, and hopefully the first of several Krustiez which will be available. Up next is Pus, whom I shall show you a bit of later on this week.

What do you think, sirs?

Get ready!

Sorry I've been MIA for so long.  The Holidays were really busy and shooting for season five of Cake Boss just started, but I've got an update coming later tonight that will rock your socks. Potentially rock them right off, if you're easily impressed, and wear loose socks. Try to contain, until then.