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.

[dogmeatsausage]

Hi Shea

Can't wait to see your sculptures!

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!

[Sanjeev]

toybot studios said:

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?

Wild! Shows that this stuff CAN be done in large-scale. I'm gonna try to give Mannetron a call later today to see what info I dig up. Even if nothing pans out from these inquiries, it's always cool to see what tools are out there...

[Shea Brittain]

Thanks Butch. I had a lot of fun digging through your website. I really like your style. Thanks for the encouragement. :)

Butch Adams said:

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.

[Cody]

Hey All,

I do custom shift knobs, monsters art toys and junk like that. My day job I color pictures for a coropration. If you want to classify it you can call it graphic design. At nights and on the weekends (when the kids are busy or asleep) I run a vintage letterpress and print my own linocuts, stationary, business cards and other junk on the thickest most delicious paper you have ever seen.

I also sculpt my own line of hot rod shift knobs. I just finished pulling a roto cast of my first art toy too. I call him FACEPLANT. He has 10 points of articulation. That was a challenge and gave me some things to fix once I molded and cast everything in resin. I uploaded some pics of him just a minute ago. Picked up an airbrush for the first time to lay some paint on him.

If you like my stuff and have questions feel free to ask. I don't keep "trade secrets" so I will gladly share sources for product and my work processes.

Love the forum. Just started thumbing through images. Great stuff!

cody

[Dead Presidents]

Welcome to the club! A lot going on around here. Resin shift knobs and Letterpress printing, Now that's a combo of skill sets!

Cody said:

Hey All,

I do custom shift knobs, monsters art toys and junk like that. My day job I color pictures for a coropration. If you want to classify it you can call it graphic design. At nights and on the weekends (when the kids are busy or asleep) I run a vintage letterpress and print my own linocuts, stationary, business cards and other junk on the thickest most delicious paper you have ever seen.

I also sculpt my own line of hot rod shift knobs. I just finished pulling a roto cast of my first art toy too. I call him FACEPLANT. He has 10 points of articulation. That was a challenge and gave me some things to fix once I molded and cast everything in resin. I uploaded some pics of him just a minute ago. Picked up an airbrush for the first time to lay some paint on him.

If you like my stuff and have questions feel free to ask. I don't keep "trade secrets" so I will gladly share sources for product and my work processes.

Love the forum. Just started thumbing through images. Great stuff!

cody

[Jess Rollar]

Nice to see this thread!

I'm Jess, living in Mesa, Az. I've loved toys my whole life and got into collecting vinyl and plastic back in high school (over 10 years ago). I just recently dipped into toy making and sculpting. I am molding and casting my first two sculpts in a week or so, very excited! I've been intimidatd by sculpting for years and just took a plunge, now I love it! I also recent became a huge lover of kaiju and falling more in love with them daily. A little about me, I'm a Radiohead junkie who makes plush toys for a living and gets inspired by street art. :)

[Dead Presidents]

Welcome Jess! Glad you found us. I'm looking forward to seeing your sculpts come to life with MK! Feel free to show off your plush works too.

Jess Rollar said:

Nice to see this thread!

I'm Jess, living in Mesa, Az. I've loved toys my whole life and got into collecting vinyl and plastic back in high school (over 10 years ago). I just recently dipped into toy making and sculpting. I am molding and casting my first two sculpts in a week or so, very excited! I've been intimidatd by sculpting for years and just took a plunge, now I love it! I also recent became a huge lover of kaiju and falling more in love with them daily. A little about me, I'm a Radiohead junkie who makes plush toys for a living and gets inspired by street art. :)

[Boby Hon]

I believe I'm late for an introduction lol.  I'm just a typical New Yorker who happens to enjoy model building, electronics tinkering, and basically anything I can put together and build.  Still discovering new things to paint and new paints to paint with, while stuck in college. :( Been modelling for about 4 years and only started painting less than 2 years ago.  Not sure what else to say but hi. :) Hope I get inspired to try sculpting something one day.

[Dead Presidents]

Stuck in College :) Glad to know a bit about you.

Boby Hon said:

I believe I'm late for an introduction lol.  I'm just a typical New Yorker who happens to enjoy model building, electronics tinkering, and basically anything I can put together and build.  Still discovering new things to paint and new paints to paint with, while stuck in college. :( Been modelling for about 4 years and only started painting less than 2 years ago.  Not sure what else to say but hi. :) Hope I get inspired to try sculpting something one day.

[AtomicBlythe]

Hi!

My name is Daphne, AKA AtomicBlythe AKA ATOMiCPLASTiC

I've loved toys since kid-hood. Think I love them even more now, I know I appreciate them more.

I'm just delving into the designer toy scene (other than dolls - BJDs and Blythe etc.), I've been lurking and stalking these toys from afar for several years now. Decided to jump in over my head now, once I realized making my own toys is doable. I've sculpted things for years...weird, cute things.

Have a penchant for anything retro, 50s especially 60s and 70s.

I make miniatures and dollhouses and like to sew and paint and sculpt blah blah... :)

Live in Indiana and am bored out of my skull here in cow and corn country.

Anyway...Hi, glad ta' meetcha.

[Shea Brittain]

Hi Daphne,

I look forward to seeing your creations. :)

Sounds awesome.

[Dead Presidents]

Really glad to have you here Daphne! Look forward to seeing your works.