Custom figures and dioramas

[beaker]

Your work is absolutely jaw dropping. Just had to go back and check out stuff I missed that you posted. Loved Emily Bear's house and that complete Muppet Show playset is innnsane! I think you'd dig the new Diamond line, the scale fits in with smaller playsets that could be customizable.

Two questions:
have you considered Jim Henson Hour or newer characters like Big Mean Carl?
Also who are the darker hued chickens? I vaguely remember Palisades had a mail away for a club package that came with assorted brown and grey Camilas(or is it Bernice? Also I forget, what frogs did Palisades release? Also nice use of Disney Star Wars Bean!

 

[Blue Frackle]

I really hope Ken Lily saw this! This thread is truly incredible.

No disrespect to Palisades because they obviously had to deal with size limitations, but Ludo, you could do a better backstage than Palisades. It would be cool if you did a bit of construction work on it to make it bigger, adding a third doors on the top.

Your Sesame Street stuff is ace too! How did you sculpt Ernie's face? I always looked at my Lew Zealand figure and thought he would be ideal for an Ernie custom.

 

[The Count]

@beaker.
Palisades released a signature Kermit The Frog (S1), Tux Kermit exclusive, Koozebane/Reporter Kermit exclusive with assorted aliens, Captain Abraham Smollet (S7), Frog Scout Robin (S7), Frog Scout Leader Kermit (S10) that included a green or blue Frog Scout buddy (you'd have to check at Muppet Wiki regarding the various frogs which fits the figures best, we kind of thought them to be either Gawain from The Frog Prince and/or Norman from the Debbie Harrie TMS Season 5 episode), and Rainbow Connection Kermit + signature Robin (S10).

As for the chickens, the brown and gray ones from the club kits were repaints of both Camilla and Bernice. For some reason I think Bernice is the one that has a slightly taller neck.
Hope this helps.

 

[muppetperson]

Hardest part of this custom was finding a school bus that would work with the Palisades figures scale. After many months of searching Ebay I found a Bratz dolls school bus. I needed to sand a few details off such as the large molded and sticker image of a Bratz girl on the side of the bus, I also needed to cut a window out so you could see Dr Teeth driving the bus. I did this all with my Dremel tools cutting and sanding attachments, (that tool is so handy for making all sorts of customs). I then spray painted a base coat of white and then a dark red and painted all the other details by hand, dry brushing some areas with blues and white to get a spray type effect. I also dry brushed some of the buses edges with black paint to give it a more aged effect. For the white lines and outlines I found a white paint ball point pen which makes it much easier to paint on thin white lines. I used pictures of the Electric mayhem bus from the Muppet Movie. I still need to paint the other side of the bus with the keyboard designs and other bits.

I am off to look for this bus! Thanks.

 

[Ludobear]

Thanks for the mad props G. For Ernie I used the green Jacket scooter for pretty much all of him. I used the Scooter head and sanded down parts to give it a closer Ernie shape, and then built up the rest with sculpy. I kept most of Scooters mouth sculpt, just warmed up the plastic and changed shape a bit, and again sanded. Really hard to get his mouth smiley and in hindsight I would probably sculpt his head fully rather than the subtraction/addition approach I took. Where possible I always like to build on existing Palisades sculpts as I feel they end up looking more authentic to an actual Palisades figure. Would love to build up my Muppet stage, but I fear I may have to build up my actual house first to accommodate

 

[Ludobear]

Cheers Beakster. I think most of your questions have been well answered, but as to the Carl question, yes and yes again. Big Mean Carl is one of my favs and he has been in my scetch pad with many different designs. I really want to have him so his mouth is articulated and I can pop in smaller characters. I have looked at many, many existing toys to find something that I could build upon to give his mouth the desired action feature to chomp Muppets. Any ideas on how to solve a problem like Carl would be appreciated. He is one of my great white whales. Thanks for bringing it up

 

[LamangoNumber2]

Good luck with the Carl stuff!

 

[LamangoNumber2]

Cheers Beakster. I think most of your questions have been well answered, but as to the Carl question, yes and yes again. Big Mean Carl is one of my favs and he has been in my scetch pad with many different designs. I really want to have him so his mouth is articulated and I can pop in smaller characters. I have looked at many, many existing toys to find something that I could build upon to give his mouth the desired action feature to chomp Muppets. Any ideas on how to solve a problem like Carl would be appreciated. He is one of my great white whales. Thanks for bringing it up

The new Imaginex Terror Toad figure?

It's coming out soon, and you could totally modify it to be in scale with the other muppets. And look. It even has the good ol googly eyes as Carl.

 

[Dearth]

Hi guys, just wandered in here for the first time in a while. Applause for Ludobear's customs and playsets!

~D

 

[The Count]

Hi Dearth, I stumble into this thread when there's a new post. Anything new you've been working on?