Adventures in Lightboxes!

Lots of people have great pictures. I'm not one of them. From standing toys on top of my dirty fridge, to just snapping pics of them on my dirty computer desk, I really just don't take good pictures. The issue is that I love photography, I just never looked into it. Today, I decided to build a lightbox.

I spent $300 on white foam boards, $200 on high quality lamps, and another $50 on supplies to construct it.

Actually, I just taped white typing paper inside of a flat rate box and called it squaresies. No money spent!

Here are my first little attempts at 'photography of the future!'

First up is my beloved Pyramid Head sculpt/custom. He has apparently killed Jack Bauer and stolen his background. Good.








Next up are some assorted Mattel Batman villains...











And this is Hey-There Catty. He's my mascot. He has a bowtie and likes corn.

Pyramid Head! my custom pride and joy

I made this sucker because I'm such a huge fan of Silent Hill. I wish Double Helix were. The body was sculpted over a frame built from thin figure parts. The only original parts still visible are the boots, which come from a Terminator toy. The knife and helmet were sculpted over pieces of styrene, which were cut and glued together. He's my best work to date, I think. The internet needs a fog machine.

The Spirit! Customs round 6

I made The Spirit. So did Frank Miller. What does that make us? Married? I'd divorce him and take half his money, but The Spirit tanked at the box office. Enjoy mine.

It's a DCSH Clark Kent with a DCD Aquaman head and a sculpted hat and tie.







After Miller's movie bombed, you think Eisner would roll over in his grave. He probably already did that when they gave Gerard Way an "Eisner Award" for Umbrella Academy.

Finish my JLA! John Stewart and Red Tornado! Customs round 5

I love Dc Direct. Let me tell you why I hate Dc Direct. THEY NEVER FUCKING FINISH A TOYLINE. If you buy any DCD line, count on getting about 1/3 of the team and having to patchwork other toys from other lines in to complete it. I instead chose to take parts from toys that were sculpted by the same artist(Ray Vilafone) and create John Stewart and Red Tornado to finish my modern Justice League of America set. They turned out pretty cool...Until DCD solicited an identical John Stewart like a week later.

John is made from a JLA series 3 Hal Jordan with a JLA boxed set John Stewart head, modified heavily. Reddy is a JLA series 1 Superman with a head and cape from Mattel's DCUC Red Tornado. Enjoy.







John and his 'white friend'




John and his 'mechanical-american' friend

Stargirl! Custom Figures round 3

Here is Courtney. She's adorable...so adorable that no one seems to want to produce an action figure of her. I made her from parts of a DCSH Supergirl and legs from this old Kabuki toy. The head is obviously Buffy. I spent some hard hours getting the paint as smooth as possible and I should have been doing something else with my time!

Modern Hawkman! Custom figures, round 2

AAAAnnnddddddd here's Hawkman.

There are so many Hawkman toys, but only one was based on his modern Geoff Johns style costume. It was the Ed McGuiness figure from the Public Enemies line. While I enjoyed that story and Ed's art, the toy was a little ridiculous looking. I cooked up this guy using the Showcase Hawkman from DC Direct with a ton of add-ons. The wings are from a Spawn figure. Head and Mask are from an older Dc Direct Hawkman. painting the eyes on the mask required a pact with satan. The kneepads are my fav part as I found them by accident while digging through a box of old wrestler toys. I believe they belonged to some Sting action figure from WCW. Here comes Carter..or Katar...or whoever he is today:

Metamorpho! Custom figures, round 1

Custom figures. Why do we love them? Here's my first batch to hit the blog:

Justice(Alex Ross) Metamorpho
The entire toy is a Dc Direct Martian manhunter, having been cut down and resculpted. I enjoyed the Alex Ross toys, but they canned the Justice line before everyone was made. I whipped this guy up in about a day's time. He sucked to make.