ShoguNasty, and Day of the Slug

Flip, am I behind with the blog!

2014 has been great. I don't think many of my customers check this blog but if you are one, or even someone who "likes" my stuff on social media, thanks for letting me know my work's worth something to someone.

I've got two big projects happening in January. 

ShoguNasty! and "Day of the Slug".

 

SHOGUNASTY

This is going to be... VINYL!!!

Unbox industries asked myself, Zectron, Ironhauspro, and Tru:tek to come up with a kaiju-based minifigure for them to produce in affordable vinyl. This is basically as close as a designer toy company  has gotten to producing those fun Bandai sofubi that you can get of Ultraman and Godzilla, in terms of price. The colorways etc, are going to be experimental and insane!



I sculpted the original with apoxy, a little sculpey, and some real rocks for the castle's "teeth" to keep the sculpt organic and irregular. I personally love the idea that the little rocks I picked up from Brighton beach are going to be immortalised in vinyl for all eternity.



Unbox's experts in Hong Kong took a wax copy and made some minor changes to the sculpt for mold-ability etc.

Here's the backstory!

Hatano Hideharu, 1541 – June 25, 1579, was head of the Hatano clan, and successfully maintained independance against the impossible Might of Oda Nobunaga. For three years he and his clan hindered Nobunaga's march to Kyoto at Yagami Castle until he offered Nobunaga surrender, and was dishonorably executed.

His enraged spirit maintained itself in the stones of Yagami Castle, causing it to trmor, and deteriorate at a rapid speed. A thick, horrible electricity filled the halls of the castle, making it inhabitable. A proud caretaker remained for several decades alone, until the sound of breathing, living flesh in the walls became too terrible to take.

A year later, the castle was almost complete gone. Vanished. Old wives said they'd seen it slowly thundering through the forset, to the sea. No one believed them until now.

Hatano has returned.

Stone, flesh, muscle, monster, and cannons are destroying the best forces of the East Asian Experimental Mutagen Defence Force. Cannonballs rip through our cities and our best giantified martial artists are unable to offer any notable resistance.

What we can offer him to make him stop, we do not know. We must defeat him.

Japan besseches you, DIE! SHOGUNASTY!!!

DAY OF THE SLUG!

 

DROPPING JAN 5TH 2015! (store link at top!)

For the first time in so long with this one, I just had so much pure fun making these, I was almost loathe to do any "pimping", lest I stop enjoying it so much. But the way I'm releasing them is important I think, so here it is!

I want to make a minifigure that even though I'm making it by hand, I can sell at a price that makes it collectable enough to be a line, and with enough of a basic general concept that I can make infinite variants.
Day of the Slug will have 16 different sculpts coming out in year one - GUARANTEED! Unless I lose a hand or go to jail or something, I'll be releasing a set of 4 new figures every three months. If I get 1 person buying them or 100, whoever buys set one can be certain that 3 more sets are coming out in 2015. If it goes ok, I'll do the same every year thereafter! :)

I will make random batches of each sculpt in one-off and experimental colorways, these if you like, will be the "rare" figures. I will not be casting to order. If you see a weirdo in my store that hasn't been released in a standard run, you got a rare variant, at the cost of a normal.

The standard colors will be neon pink, yellow, black, clear yellow, green, white, blue, red, and purple. These are the colors you can order anytime in a value 4-pack. If I can find a reliable flesh pigment someday, that'll be an option too!

What's more, There's gonna be professionally produced glossy trading cards as an option with each figure! I want this to be as satisfying a collecting experience as I can pull off. Sculpting's part of it, casting's another, but making that moment someone opens the box genuinely exciting is what it's all about!

Intelligent slugs are not new to Earth. They're just small enough for us to not know about them. From the telekinetic deep sea nudibranch elders, to the hard-mantled terrestrial gastropod mollusc, their secrets are finally revealed - forcing them out into the open to live alongside, or battle mankind!!

Moribund. Time for the real Evil resin figures to get down.

Moribund.

DROPPING MIDNIGHT LONDON TIME, SAT OCTOBER 19TH.

Inspired heavily by the artwork and general aesthetic of album covers by The Misfits, Samhain, and Danzig, as well as the creepy sci-fi villains in the early Microman line, Moribund stands at nearly 7", is fully posable, and comes in options of creepy clear green of painted bone white, with a removable PVC cape.
The Moribund itself is in this incarnation, a demon that makes itself present when a person is close to death. He flies silently in skies too dark to see and becomes visible in the pagan fires of Samhain rituals.

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BATTLE... GAZE... BACK FOR GOOD. SUNDAY!!

It's back. For good!
 
WHEN?!

They'll be available Sunday, right here: http://goodlegtoys.storenvy.com/

WHAT?!

These are articulated 5.5 action figures with accessories (yet to be revealed), with an astute focus on cocks/dicks. The universe and backstory is well established, and supporting artwork and literature will all be revealed over the coming weeks. 

Last month, I took all I had left of the original BattleGaze figures to Berlin, so I could spend a few days with Goodleg Toys.  We re-vamped the ideas, sculpts, and made molds with all new tooling and finishing to produce the figures that I didn't have the knowhow/time to, 3 years ago.

Even though I came up with the backstory and did the original sculpts, the look and quality of the figures is all thanks to the eye and knowhow of Goodleg Toys.

 WHY?!  WHY?!  WHY?!

There are lots of reasons Goodleg Toys and I wanted to do this. The main one being that the toys actually make us laugh out loud upon seeing them. The accessories and gimmicks that will be revealed on release simply flip on the fun-switch in my brain. It's a full commitment to the stupid ideas you have as a kid that make you laugh. Like the dirty cartoons that gave us poops and bogeys (British for "boogers) - the joke isn't funny until you make it real. And this is as real as it gets!

My favorite movie is Flesh Gordon II. I like intelligent humor, and it takes a lot of intelligence to do stupid humor right.

To summarise for our art-toy friends:
 It's a fucking big dick on a really well made action figure that looks kind of like He-man! Or if you prefer, it's a commentary on a fucking big dick on a really well made action figure that looks kind of like He-man!

GILIUS and CHICKEN LEG in store NOW! Golden Axe action figures in tha' houuuussseee!

Sorry to anyone who checks this blog first. Really my Instagram feed at the top is the most up-to-date thing.

 After a  day of casting/whatever, my brain is poopied and I tend to forget little things like announcing drops etc. Anyway, you can now pick up my 5.5" Gilius dwarf, Chicken-Leg and the thief minifigure, all separately at www.bigmantoys.bigcartel.com. You haven't missed out. Still got just under half the quota of the original colorway Chicken Legs left, and most of the Gilius' (Guiliusses? Giliii?). I've only limited the colorways based on how long the mold is likely to last. I want to do at least 10 in experimental colorways/custom casts. Just depends how many shots I've got in the molds!

Barely advertised so still got some stuff left. I can't wait for people to get them. Really proud of what I've produced here! Seriously can't stop playing with these months after making the steed.

Man, Blogspot's being a doofus today. I don't know HTML and don't feel I should have to learn it to get my pics to go where I drag 'em.

Golden Axe action figures!! I still can't get over it! I'd take them to work if they weren't so big and conspicuous.

Right, got a little bit of finishing to do and tomorrow I start shipping out.

Thanks to everyone that's bought one so far! Exceeded expectations, especially on the Chicken Legs side. Now to get on with the 4th issue of Mystical Warriors of the ring!




Been a weird old couple of months. So busy it's hard to keep track of what's going on. Then some mornings on less busy days, I walk into my resin room and realise I've made a shelf full of dwarves and beasts that I'm about to ship out to collectors around the world. Pretty nice!

Gilius from Golden Axe? Oh yeah, I made him.

If you're kind enough to read my blog, sorry I don't give as much time to it these days. I suppose it's gotten to that point where I'm doing bigger stuff and so the time it takes to get that satisfaction you first get when you pop a mold open and feel a desperate need to share what you made with the world gets longer and longer. Not that I'm complaining. The tricks I've been shown over the past couple of years mean that there really are very few limits to what I can produce now except for time.

My obsession with Golden Axe (and I am no hipster on this - Ive played scrolling beat 'em ups non stop since 1987!!) is kind of taking over. Getting MAME running on my phone with a clip-on joypad has really got me looking forward to long journeys.

As soon as BAttlebeak (Chicken Leg) was done, I had people asking about doing Gilius (the dwarf!) and I had this image of a very D+D style 5.5 dwarf with joints that allow it to sit atop a mount. Now the problem with resin, especially most of the stuff we get here in the UK, is that it's prone to wearing easily. 
 I don't use anything toxic. So that rules out a few products but I've found something that never wears. It's weird to work with. Tough to cut neatly and weird to sand but for the nice basic torso shape, works pretty good.
The limbs are ball-jointed and I made them using a weird trick I thought up and can't believe works.

I'm really happy with the sculpt. It's exactly how I wanted it to come out. I did most of it in castilene and I'm totally sold on it as the best material for detail. I might never go back to putty given how durable and easy to use this stuff is.

I'm probably going to drop this in about a week. If it looks like people are digging the project, I'll probably start working on Death Adder or something.

Axe of Gold - Golden Axe Inspired project... and loads of 5.5s!

I sat down with a Dreamcast homebrew Golden Axe game and remembered just how cool mounts are. It just adds a completely new element to things. Especially toys. A mount + a figure in the toyshop as a kid was the most deluxe format you could get for me. Throw in other stuff like minifigures and weapons and that was a happy x-mas for me.

So I just sat down and sculpted something inspired by Chicken Leg (golden Cockatrice) from Golden Axe. Took a lot of time and casting was scary (the mold is about 8lbs! If it hadn't worked, I would have flipped!!) but look at it!

The other figures are just to show size and comparability.  MOTU, Remco, ROTU, and collectors of resin counterparts such as COTU etc, will be able to mount their figs on these beauties.

 Also made a new Titan for the Strong Combatants/Gotterdammerung range.
Skarghossa!

Standing at about 12", this is one of the priestesses that birthed Skargh before he escaped to roam the worlds of the Viking gods. Her alignment? Not evil per se, but does need to eat the eyes of men to compensate for her constant loss of precious fluids through her gaping acidic tits.

TREEGARR.
He's coming back SOON! There are already casts being prepared by SUPERIOR artists Duboseart! That's right - that resin maestro has taken on production of the Treevil one. Get excited!

Street Trash (Inspired Minifigures)

Heyooooooo!

Thanks for reading this blog. For those of us in the toymaker community sat uncomfortably between KidRobot rip-offs and politically ironic 3.75s it's often an incestuous, nerdy, lonesome and under-exposed world where the wrong things go right and the right things go wrong.

Anyway, have you seen Street Trash? Yeah?! Then this will make perfect sense.

A few years ago, when VHS became cheap thanks to DVD, my housemate and I built a good collection of cult horror VHS such as Street Trash, Braindead, and Savage Streets. Weird how rare Troma VHS always seemed to be here in the UK.

Anyway, Street Trash naturally appealed to everything I like. Really witty, well made, good characters, and utterly disgusting. So I've made this rubber MIMP inspired mini as tribute. Available right here: http://bigmantoys.bigcartel.com/product/street-trash-inspired-toilet-guy

Most of them are neon colored rubber but I've found time to do a handful of handpainted. Really pleased with these little turds. Based off the cover to the VHS copy I have.

If you're into minifigs and you haven't seen the film, I'd encourage you to see it. There's a lot of the DNA that inspires this vague 80s horror gore revival thing that seems to be happening (and I'm happy to see).

ALSO! I'm dropping a handful of neon rubber Treegarr Saplings. Limited to 5, one time only, and FREE subject to conditions, as of tomorrow night.




















Additionally, I'm working my knackers off on the quiet with an onslaught of 5.5 projects that i've got reason to be excited about. I love making my minis and I personally thought Burning Chop is the toy the world needed, but there's something so satisfying about making a figure then being able to pose it next to a MOTU and have it look in place.

Eating the steak and leaving the fat + MORE BURNING CHOP FIGURES + GLYOS ANIMAL HEADS.

 Half of the alpha wave of Burning Chop are still in store @ http://bigmantoys.bigcartel.com/product/burning-chop-alpha-wave Also been working on some Glyos animal heads (available individually) for fellow Battle Beast dorks.

I was reading an article the other day about weight training, saying that 80% of our results come from 20% of our effort. I imagine that rule loosely applies to most things in life. You just never know what will be THE thing that gets you to where you want to be. You can crank yourself to the edge with effort in something, then some fluke side-project you half started can catch on like wildfire and take you further than all your hard work ever could have.

The reason I'm writing about this on a toy-maker's blog is it's a principle that been present in everything I've tried in life. I won't lie, a lot of things I've been involved in, I've had the unfair advantage of being able to make people laugh which instantly makes them treat you favorably. I never planned this or put effort into it, but it has undoubtedly helped a lot.

I went along to Toycon UK again this year but didn't take any toys. My goal was to talk to my friends, look at some toys and have fun. I walked away with a couple of new contacts in the toy industry and some vague talk of vinyl production somewhere if I do the right sculpt. I won't strain myself trying to make these things happen - I'm just going to keep on enjoying what I do, sleeping at least 7 hours a night (most nights), and working only on the ideas my heart is invested in. I've even started working on my own gym in my bigger shed to make sure I don't lose my weight training progress to toy work. There's no need to let that happen.

Toycon was a ton of fun without business to worry about. Getting to see TruTek is always cool as we have so much to catch up on every time we see each other, as well as Dan and Ian from Unbox, Luke and Rob from Triclops, Chris from TheTarantulas, and Rich from Umetoys. I wasn't talking shop for the most part, and as a result, I left with more motivation to make toys than ever. I got to meet Jon Rampage and had the pleasure of realising our mutual expectation of the other guy being a dick was the opposite of the truth. I could have lived that day 3 days in a row and still been filling my inspiration glass by the end.

On the toy side, expect 5.5s by the bucket this year.

Fröstkronna!! The 2nd 5.5 collab from Galaxxor+ Bigmantoys!

I'll be upping some snaps of the forthcoming alpha release of Burning Chop this weekend, but first it's time to reveal BMT and Galaxxor's Frostokronna. Check out Galaxxor's blog for the details here: http://galaxxor.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/frostkronna-cyborg-space-barbarian-c2e2.html

I always enjoy working with Ben. He's one of those people that simply likes to help and has a very non-cynical fun-driven approach to making toys and helping others do the same. I'm really blown away with how he once again took something where it was tough to see another dimension to it, and dramatically re-invent it once again. The choice of colorway for this femme space-barbarian is of course a homage to Frostkron based on my Wo-man buck, with Ben's Space barbarian helmet, casted of course by TheGodBeast. The reds and yellows jumping off the beautifully glossed and glittered bod, and the super sci-fi colored axe are really cool.

バーニング チョップ！こい！

Burning Chop!! バーニングチョップ！

I've added a feed from my Instagram account at the top there to keep up to date on here via my new phone. I'm not the type to pay out so I really had to wait for a phone that can handle Instagram on my contract. I love it! :)

最近からやっとインスタグラッムできる形態を貰って適当に玩具を作りながら写真をアップできる！楽しいよ！上にＩＧへのリンックが乗せてる。

While I was casting the Bull Monsters, I started playing with Glyos fit-function joints by sculpting on top of joint hubs with Milliput. I was playing a lot of Fire Pro Wrestling on my phone at the time and remembered how awesome the quirky scale of the wrestlers was, and how cool it was to be able to customise them however you want.

ブルモンスターを作りながら適当にグリオスの上にプロレスぽい体を粘土にかかって「ファイヤープロレスのちょっと形が変キャラクターがいいね。好きに誰でも戦士を好きに作ってゲームで使えて楽しかったな」と思った。やっぱり、玩具にしないといけない！

I mailed Matt at Onell design and like the awesome little-guy-supporting legend he is, he gave me his blessing to go ahead with this. I'm totally thrilled at how well it's working out!

グリオスをデザインしたＭＡＴＴ ＤＯＵＧＨＴＹと言うインディフィギャーの神様に「僕もグリオスと使えるフィギャーを作らせて」と聞いてＯＫ！と言われた。ナイスガイだよ、彼！

What good is making plastic toys if you can't make exactly what you want?!

今にかけて超楽しいし、まだ女、デブ、色んなボディタイプを作ってるけどもう買いたい人が多いので今月に小さいリリースはしたね。何百も作る気がある！

So yeah, I've been going crazy having fun with this. Like Wo-man, it's something I did totally based on my own taste, not worrying too much if it sells, but I'm really pleased to find out a lot of people like and 'get' it. The interchangability with Glyos brings all my toy worlds together, giving the potential for weird alien/sci-fi wrestling characters. There's going to be hundreds!

I'm working on a female buck, a fatter body, and different boot typed at the moment. Hopefully should have something to offer by the end of the month!