Power Lords Are Here! Kinda.

http://www.sourcehorsemen.com/

So the power Lords are here, kind of. If you watch Cake Boss you will remember the episode we did earlier this season when Jim and Eric from Four horsemen design came by the bakery to order a cake to promote the  relaunch of the early 1980s toy line the Power Lords. Buddy's sister Mary and I took the case and we made a really cool volcano playset cake with bubbling edible lava! I was really excited about working on this one because I got to deliver the cake personally to the four horsemen's Toypocalypse Toy Show at Toy Tokyo in Manhattan. While I was there I got to meet the incomparable Wayne Barlowe, who was super cool and just a little out of his mind.

On to the figures themselves, the Horsemen are rolling out two variants of the Lord Power figure which were originally available at Powercon this week. Wayne's designs and Eric's sculpting mesh beautifully to make some really stunning looking figures. I'm a Huge fan of the color schemes of these two and I really dig the neat helmets that they are sporting. I'll definitely be grabbing a pair for my own collection, when they go on sale tomorrow.

Probably one of the most fun aspect of this new release is that the figures use the Glyos play system, which means that all of the parts are interchangeable with not only other figures from the Power Lords line, but are also interchangeable with the Glyos toy line from Onell design , as well as the 4H's Outer Space Men line, and the Weaponeers of Monkaa line from spy monkey creations.

If you're a fan of Cake Boss or science fiction or just neat little toy guys, I seriously recommend checking these out. There Will be more to comein the future. Maybe I'll review them when I get mine in the mail.

Until later, I'm out!

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?

Finishing some molds and Starting and Finishing another.

SO, here's what's up, humans.  I'm finally finishing the last of the molds for the Krustiez. Pouring up the second half of the mold for the arms, and making the mold for the mini monsters that I sculpted.  I'm thinking of incorporating them into the Krustiez line, since they kinda look like little larval Krustiez.  Either way, I think the little monsters are fun.  Here's what it looks like when I'm making the silicone molds for them, and some other random shots.