Holy Plastic Prototypes, Batman!

Well, I've finally got some pieces of plastic pulled from the molds and fully assembled. I've got minis and Krustiez. I'm generally pleased with how they've come out, but I will be switching over to a different material. The plastic I'm using right now looks great, but the fingers have a tendency to snap off.

The whole idea behind these monsters is that they represent the size that the Krustiez would be if they were "real." That is to say, they are "actual size." They don't have any accessories, because they use whatever they find around your house to mess up your stuff. Lighters, glue, forks, etc. The sculpts for the arms feature big, open hands, so they can grab these human-sized items. If the plastic is too rigid and brittle to allow them to grab people stuff without their fingers snapping off, then I need to use a different material.

I've found something that I think I like, and I'll know in a week or so if it works out. The next protos I get poured up will be made from a hard urethane rubber. It will be of a hardness comparable to, like, a shopping cart wheel or a rubber shoe heel. Somewhere between those, anyway. It takes the same amount of time to cure as the urethane plastic I'm using now, but it is slightly less expensive, and more flexible. Rock and Roll!

This whole process has taken much longer than i originally anticipated. I'm used to breezing through projects, but this one has been problem after problem. The molds for the arms came out pretty nicely, though.

So, anyway, there are a bunch of pictures up of the first plastic tests of Pus and Vin, as well as the unnamed min-monsters. These pictures are straight from the molds, so there's still some extra plastic sticking out of the bottoms of the figures, and mold flashing on the fingers. The plastic on the bottom comes from the opening in the mold where the liquid plastic is poured in. This will get filed off with an electric sander, to give them nice, flat feet and bottoms to stand or sit on. There are also a few shots of the arm molds, with newly poured plastic arms inside, waiting to be pulled and cleaned up.

I really want to thank all of my friends and family for their support on this project. Especially Polish, Brandon, Speezi, Tiffany, My sister and her friends, my Dad and Mom, and my boss, Buddy. You guys believing in me and my plastic crap really helped me to keep on going, through all the snags. There's still a lot of work to do. And the guys at the October Toys forum. And Matt Doughty. Oh, and the gang at 9th and Coles Tavern, for the times when I needed to get away from all of the many problems this project has hit. And for the friendly ear. And for the beer. Always the beer.

What do you think, sirs?