Meet your fellow monster

[Josh Barton]

This thread is to act like a virtual party where everyone can get to know everyone. Ascii drinks and 300 dpi cheese cubes are served in abundance. More fun than an AA meeting.

So who are you? What brought you to the hobby? What part of the hobby do you partake in? Fave toys? Etc. Leave the egg shells at the door. If this thread stays alive, it could be a nice way to learn something you didn't know and generally make new friends. Potential, kids. Potential. Since I don't see any hands I'll start.

My name is Josh and I live in Kentucky. Right this very second I am listening to Type O Negative. I like battling my dog, Wolf and eating Thai food. I want to be a Kamen Rider when I grow up.

I've been 'into' toys since I was a kid. I grew up on Transformers and Voltron. I had a Bumblebee cake on my 4th birthday. I have an intense love of robot toys. Growing up, I tried to get a hold of anything robot related. Seriously. The only TMNT fig I owned was Metalhead because he was a robot. I had Robotech underwear when I was real young and I didn't even see Robotech until I was in High School. When Transformers died I graduated to Power Rangers and then back to TF when Beast Wars began airing.

Two particular events brought me to the Japanese scene. Before I graduated HS, my mom came back from a flea market with a robot lion toy. I had no idea what it was at the time. I just knew it wasn't voltron. Later on I did research and discovered it was the lion from Daltanious. This little bit of digging opened up a whole world of Chogokin/ Godaikin. The second event came about because someone on a TF board posted a link to the (new at the time) GaoGaiGar figures. I immediately fell in love with the designs and again with the research, discovered the sweet sweet satisfaction that is Yuusha or the Brave Robot series.

If robot toys are my foundation in this hobby, then Godzilla is the first floor. Another big part of my childhood was the big G. One of my favourite movies growing up was Godzilla VS Megalon. In the late 90's I was introduced to Gamera: Guardian of the Universe. Gamera has been my fave kaiju ever since. I even have a big plushie of the guy.

I have since grown to love kaiju of all shapes and found a deep appreciation for the 'modern vinyl' scene and its sub-groups. Bottom line, I love toys. And this love is what drives me to make figures of my own. Well more like 'try', but we all start somewhere. I don't have a specific focus as I am too ADD to decide on what I want to do. I want to hit it all; robots, kaiju, yokai, super heroes, everything.

With all that said, I look forward to this community growing and making new friends. I think what Matt Walker has here is something special and it'd be foolish not to get involved.

[Shea Brittain]

Thanks Bryan! I'm following you back. I am so stoked to have found this forum. Such a great community to get involved with while I am trying to figure all of this stuff out.  :)

[Sanjeev]

Welcome, Shea! It sounds like from your interests and influences, you're in the right place.

 

To try to answer your questions, I think "cheap" low-run rotocasting doesn't really exist. I mean, the point of rotocasting is that it's a process optimized for mass production: that's why larger Chinese factories specialize in it. There are some folks in the US doing slush-cast vinyl (the Japanese style of low-run vinyl production) like Voracious Vinyl (ask Bob Conge here about it: that's how he did his Molezilla!).

 

There are some folks like Motorbot out there doing rotocast resin, which is definitely cool stuff...but that might be a little more specialized. Just straight up resin casting seems to be coming more and more popular these days because of the freedom (i.e., low start-up costs!) it offers so many artists.

 

Either way, I'd recommend posting what you're working on in places like this...from first concept drawings...through sculpting...all the way to finished cast parts. This place isn't about snobby hate-for-the-sake-of-hate...but it's not about blowing smoke up each other's asses either! There are a LOT of amazing talented and motivated people here *actually* making toys. So take advantage! Show your stuff and pick people's brains...the constructive criticism can be invaluable.

[Shea Brittain]

Thanks Sanjeev. I really appreciate the insight and I'm so glad to have a forum where I can ask questions without feeling like an idiot. So refreshing.

 

I plan to post my projects soon. I was able to find a rotocasting company in Michigan that does large pieces. I was thinking that the shipping and handling costs from China to Las Vegas would be huge if I was doing  36 inch X 27 inch X 17 inch figures. I haven't heard back from the rotocasting company yet, but I'll let everyone know what I find. May be a good resource if anyone wants to make something big.   :)

 

U.S. Rotocasters of large pieces:

http://mannetron.com/rotational_casting/index.htm

[toybot studios]

wow, 36" tall rotocast figures?  sounds big.  when Kozik did his 36" tall RxH Mutant Evils, he had them done in Fiberglass in the philippines.  they retailed at $600.  Your friend's sculp of the guy in hat and overcoat would look great that size...!   The guys at MISHKA just did a 24" tall "Bootleg" figure that is made of vinyl, but to keep from sagging, the vinyl is THICK. pretty cool though. 

 

good luck with your new business..!

[Shea Brittain]

Thanks toybot studios! I was curious about vinyl on a larger scale and possible sagging. I may end up doing it in another material or trying some sort of liquid-to-solid foam fill if the vinyl is too flimsy. There is just something so pleasant about vinyl. Smooth and easy to paint. I need whatever material I use to be light weight, because I want to hang the figures on walls. :)

That is interesting about Kozik. I was able to molest one of of the 4-foot Dunny's, which felt like fiberglass, but the only one I felt okay with tapping and investigating was one of the chalkboard Dunny's. The chalkboard paint made it kind of hard to tell.

And thanks for the luck, I need it. :)

 

toybot studios said:

wow, 36" tall rotocast figures?  sounds big.  when Kozik did his 36" tall RxH Mutant Evils, he had them done in Fiberglass in the philippines.  they retailed at $600.  Your friend's sculp of the guy in hat and overcoat would look great that size...!   The guys at MISHKA just did a 24" tall "Bootleg" figure that is made of vinyl, but to keep from sagging, the vinyl is THICK. pretty cool though. 

 

good luck with your new business..!

[Shane Haddy]

Vinyl is just PVC with softeners, so find a manufacturing company that knows its chemicals ;)

[Sanjeev]

I've got a couple MASSIVE vinyls (Slash's repro Popy Jumbosaurus and M1's giant T-28 come to mind) and both incorporate super-thick, sturdy vinyl. My house gets India-hot, baby! And these guys manage just fine. So it CAN be done.

 

Those guys in Michigan, however, could probably get something done even lighter. From what I gather (from folks like Motorbot), resins with different softeners and produce even lighter, stiffer castings than roto- or slush-cast vinyl.

 

Kirkland, did Mishka actually produce multiples of the 24" boot? Were they done in China like the standard sized one? I'd be interested to see how successful they were pulling that off (though I'm not about to click on that thread "over there"!).

[toybot studios]

Sanjeev....yes Greg produced multiples of the 24" boot in china.  It looks great.  thick and heavy. no chance of sagging.  sub $500 range retail I think. but they didn't make that many. a dozen maybe?

[Dead Presidents]

I'm Glad you found us over here too !

Shea Brittain said:

Thanks Bryan! I'm following you back. I am so stoked to have found this forum. Such a great community to get involved with while I am trying to figure all of this stuff out.  :)

[Dead Presidents]

Welcome Shea ! We are all here to help in any way possible ! Please keep us posted on the compatibility of MK with Mr Color. It's really cool hearing what MK is compatible with.

Shea Brittain said:

Hi! My name is Shea. I'm a 27 year old lady human and I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. As long as I can remember, I've painted and doodled. I love dark humor, fairy tales, graffiti, animation, ancient stuff, anime, manga, sculpture, architecture, classical arts, etc, and grew up in an area where Asian culture is very prominent. My art style is kind of a mishmash of all of those things. :)

Right now, I am trying to start my own little resin toy and 3D canvas business called FrankenFactory (check me out on Twitter: @FrankenFactory). I plan on using a combo of Monster Kolor and Mr Color on my stuff.  I can't wait to show you guys my first 3D canvas and get your input (Does anyone know of a company/person that does vinyl rotocasting of large pieces for a reasonable price and in small batches? Is that like asking for a Unicorn that poops cupcakes?). I decided to try and start this business because my life kind of imploded several months ago and I wanted to make a big change (which included moving to Las Vegas, NV). I'm still a little culture shocked and I really miss the moist ocean air and Seagulls.

My biggest influences for thinking about getting into sculpture and airbrushing are these fine older fellows (and the designer toy community):

-Sculptor and close friend: http://www.robbrowne.com/
-Really talented airbrush on canvas artist: http://www.bensco.com/holle/painting/default.htm

I'm so glad to meet you all!

[Butch Adams]

Welcome to the board. There is a lot of love and smart peeps here. I am going to start following you on the twitters and check out yer stuff. Hope everything works out and you see your dreams become reality.

[Shea Brittain]

Thanks! I saw a post in the Application Guide that suggested that it worked (Reply by D-LuX on April 11, 2010 at 1:24pm). I'll post my results. I'm still working on building my spray box at the moment. :)

Dead Presidents said:

Welcome Shea ! We are all here to help in any way possible ! Please keep us posted on the compatibility of MK with Mr Color. It's really cool hearing what MK is compatible with.

Shea Brittain said:

Hi! My name is Shea. I'm a 27 year old lady human and I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. As long as I can remember, I've painted and doodled. I love dark humor, fairy tales, graffiti, animation, ancient stuff, anime, manga, sculpture, architecture, classical arts, etc, and grew up in an area where Asian culture is very prominent. My art style is kind of a mishmash of all of those things. :)

Right now, I am trying to start my own little resin toy and 3D canvas business called FrankenFactory (check me out on Twitter: @FrankenFactory). I plan on using a combo of Monster Kolor and Mr Color on my stuff.  I can't wait to show you guys my first 3D canvas and get your input (Does anyone know of a company/person that does vinyl rotocasting of large pieces for a reasonable price and in small batches? Is that like asking for a Unicorn that poops cupcakes?). I decided to try and start this business because my life kind of imploded several months ago and I wanted to make a big change (which included moving to Las Vegas, NV). I'm still a little culture shocked and I really miss the moist ocean air and Seagulls.

My biggest influences for thinking about getting into sculpture and airbrushing are these fine older fellows (and the designer toy community):

-Sculptor and close friend: http://www.robbrowne.com/
-Really talented airbrush on canvas artist: http://www.bensco.com/holle/painting/default.htm

I'm so glad to meet you all!