Dearth/Alex's Customs and Dioramas v2

[Muppetaz]

I'll keep an eye out, but why not also try to make a doc hopper?

 

[Dearth]

Snake just seems like such a broad character, almost a living cartoon or a human Muppet himself. With Doc Hopper, I'd be worried about finding a good likeness of Charles Durning.

Another dream project of mine is a set of Manhattan Melodies customs. I just found this image in Jim Henson: The Works... has anybody got a larger, crisper version of this pic?


Alex

 

[Dearth]

I was on the phone with a friend earlier and described the Snake Walker costume to him, he suggested this figure from the Shadowrun line, although it's only about 5" tall.

This is the Street Deacon Vigilante.

And wouldn't you just know it... my buddy had one last week but just sold it on eBay!

Alex

 

[Muppetaz]

That ones perfect for Snake.

 

[Muppetaz]

Hey Dearth, I'm going to need more toy story figures. Can you make toy story customs?

 

[Muppetaz]

I'm going to be collecting the whole toy story cast in 6" scale for a big stop motion project, also because I'm a huge toy story fan. Dearth, could you make the following customs?

Robot 4 1/2"

Snake


Wheezy 3"

Mr. Mic 5 1/2"

Trokias 3" (bigest one, others
slightly smaller untill last one,
should open and fit inside each
other)

 

[Muppetaz]

Mr. Spell 5 1/2"


Rolly Polly Clown 4"


Mr. Potato Head 4"
(parts should be removeable
with two mouths, one open and
one closed to create the illusion of
talking)


Bo Peep 6"

RC 2" High 5" Long

Hockey Puck 3"

Could you make these?
How much would you charge per figure?
Thanks, Muppetaz

 

[Dearth]

Sorry, I've got no experience making Toy Story stuff, and frankly no inclination. See, I used to customize Star Wars figures, but I kept getting burned by Hasbro. I'd get this inspiration for a really obscure character, I'd buy the two or three donor figures who I needed for parts, spend hours cutting and glueing and sculpting and painting... and then walk into Wal-Mart a few months later, and there would be the same character, costing a fraction of what I'd put into mine.

That's one of the reasons I enjoy customizing Muppets... precisely because Palisades is so truly and irreversibly defunct! I can create art for myself simply to satisfy my soul, without any worry of being undercut by a corporation.

To me, customizing Toy Story would be about like customizing the little Mattel characters from Cars 2... my guy says sooner or later they're gonna get to them all. And when they do, they make them in several different scales all at once. Just keep searching, eventually you'll probably find them.

But if you really want customs of those characters, why not see if you can find someone who already does Toy Story customs?

I want to say I saw a custom Mr. Potato Head once... it wasn't the smaller size like you want, though. It was made using a regular MPH body, but the customizer had made separate eyes like in the movie. (A real MPH has the eyes as one joined piece, and they attach into one hole in the potato, not two.)

I may have seen it over at Rebelscum's forums, or possibly Micechat's? Look around, use Google, see if you can find someone who has already done some Toy Story customs, and that would be the best person to ask. For instance, look at the bottom of your last pic... who is "Emma in Candyland"? Where did she get that Hockey Puck figure? A little detective work there might yield you some good results.

Oh, and as for the nesting dolls... my first wife once bought a set of blank wooden 'troikas' and painted them as Star Wars characters. This was like in the early 90's, and that store doesn't exist anymore, but there's got to be somewhere to find the blank ones nowadays. I don't think they'd be as small as you want, and from what I recall, the paint eventually flaked off of them, sorry to say. But I bet if you found some blank ones, you could paint them yourself and be far more proud of the results than if you got someone else to do it anyway.

Also, feel free to use my e-mail address for any future off-topic (i.e. non-Muppets) questions. Ploovo241@aol.com

Getting back to the Muppets... I have a very large custom in the works that I hope to get to soon. It's not a canon Muppet character, but it is something that folks requested to see after they saw certain of my Muppet movie parody figures.

I've had the body ready to go for a while now, and I finally have the head. Anyone care to guess what it is? I'll give you a hint... the character is implied in a photo posted on the first page of this v2 thread, but not seen directly.

Alex

 

[Muppetaz]

my guess is either minster pig or the announcer.

also I saw this guy on Pixar Planet, (another fourm) make awesome toy story customs scaled to the large toy story guys, I'll try there.

 

[Dearth]

Ooh, two good guesses, but not the project I had in mind!

Notice the shadow in this pic?

Heh heh heh!

***

By the way, I should have uploaded this back in April, right after the play was over, but I finally got around to it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b7NXcIMIjs

Alex