GeekSummit's CUSTOM NECA ROBOCOP w/ SPRING LOADED HOLSTER

Chapter 1: The Paint

I have been keeping an eye out for the long awaited Spring Holster Robocop. I pre-ordered on online super cheap but then I ran into a couple SUPER CHEAP at a local shop. I wish they had done this the first time. Also since the last round of Robocop figures that nose issue has been fixed. It was an odd piece to leave hanging.

The holster mechanism on this guyis impressive. The inside is not showy but the closure on these things is amazing. Every line disappears when the leg is deactivated. It's pretty impressive. That being said, this feature and the fixed nose is what we wanted and its what we got. Definitely a nice score.

Anyway, the reason I'm posting this figure is because I have taken the awesome figure that NECA gave us and pushed it up a notch. With all the new detail we got on Battle Damaged Robocop you figure we'd get a little something new with this figure as far as appearance. I really wanted to bring up the detail of this already awesome sculpt.

It was a really simple process. I took a 1/2" flat brush and black acrylic and liberally painted it onto every surface. Then I'd take a paper towel and wipe the surface build-up off while leaving detail "Deposits" on the underside of the more indented contours. I repeated the process over every side of every limb and here we are. The Robocop we deserve.

GeekSummit | Superman Movie Masters Video Tutorials

Here we go guys, this is a 6 part series plus intro on the making of the GeekSummit Movie Masters Superman figure. I do plan on posting the "PullThrough" cape demo as well in this post.

You can watch them directly from my channel HERE 

Or click the headings below for each individual step.

The Intro: 
The unknown History of the GeekSummit Movie Masters Superman figure.

Little is known about the Secret Origins of the GeekSummit Superman Movie Masters. And for good reason… nobody's ever asked.

Part 1: 

Parts Selection and Figure Prep

Part 2: 

Tools Tips & Tricks

Part 3: 

Assembled Body • Casting versus Direct Parts

Part 4: 

Two Heads ARE Better Than one… and Cheaper!!!

Part 5:  

Body Makeover

Part 6: 

Paints, Paints and 'Mo Paints

Part 7: 

Final Presentation

For another simple Recipe Check out 

DIY Superman Movie Masters

DIY Christopher Reeve Superman Movie Masters Custom Action Figure Recipe

What's going on everybody!! I've done several Christopher Reeve Movie Masters over the years but I thought I'd pass on this nifty simple recipe along with a point for point paint scheme.

Let's get started!!!

You'll need:

• 1 Slim bodied WWE Elite figure (Rowdy Roddy Piper used here )
• 1 Dc Direct New Krypton Superman Head (Reeve Likeness)
• Aves Apoxie Sculpt or suitable subsitute air dry polymer clay
• A Dremel (For general smoothing and establishing your cape plaement)
• Acrylic paints: White | Black | Bright Blue | Bright Red | Bright Yellow
• Hobby Vinyl (for Superman emblem on chest)

Lets take a look at our unpainted model to see what we've done here:

• Head is actually a custom casting. The New Krypton head had a more breezy look to it and it didnt really fit with the Reeve films hairdo.

• Emblem is a custom cut vinyl from a sign shop I used to work at BUT you can achieve this same result from using an exacto and sharpie finepoint marker with hobby vinyl (for gas powered RC Cars)

• The belt has been sculpted on the mid torso section above the briefs. That elongates the lower torso.

The lower legs have actually been dremelled down to thin out the calves and then sculpted over with Aves Apoxie Sculpt. I took a plastic spru and dremmeled a hole in the backs of the legs to keep the swivel joint in place so there's no break in the shin.

 On to the Paints

Yellow

I work from light to dark out of practicality for this 

character. I start with my yellow to get the entire emblem (or just the insets as pictured) and the exposed sections of belt. It will take a few layers to get it at full saturation depending on what color primer you use. I've always used gray... could probably stand to use white really.

 

Red

Then move on the the reds. I use a mix of 90% red and 10%  Yellow. That takes your already bright red just a hare over into a hot red (deep deep orange). I go over the emblem a few tmes with a fine point brush and trunks and boots.

This is also a good time to put the whites in the eyes before you move on to your flesh tone.

Flesh Tone

On to the flesh tones. I create my flesh tone from red/yellow/white. Its a cheap way to get your own tone and you can always mix up and down to nail an existing tone as well.















Blue

Now its onto the major coverage... All that blue...
I use a mix of cobalt blue and white. It lets me control the brightness of that Reeve/Donner blue. I find it works nicely to go ahead and knock that hair out with blue as well. It gives it a natural shine there where some black may thin out. It makes for nice highlights.









Black

Don't forget your eyes. I actually take a dental pick and press into the sockets where I want my pupils. I press enough to make a pinhole in the eye. Then you can take that same pick with a dot of blue and drop your perfectly round irises in place. With the indention in the eye  you wont even have to dot the pupils, they create their own light/shadow. You CAN however take that same pick/fine pointed tool and dip it in white and give the eyes that tiny sparkle that REALLY bumps the scale believability WAY UP...







The Cape... Oh boy the Cape...

I don't have much faith in glues or tapes when it comes to attaching fabric to plastic much less with a layer of paint in between. So I came up with the "PullThrough" cape setup.
These are inserted into the body and tied off in the back

You'll need:
• Pack of ornament hooks (longer the better)
• Scotch Double Stick Tape (1/4" - 1/2")
• Cut fabric 6" x 6" 
• Dental pick (fine pointed tool)
• Dremel (to make tie off points in the back)
• Needle Nose Pliers 
• Hot Glue Gun 

 

 I take my square tailored for the scale of figure I'm using and roll the outside edges in just a little (about the width of a square of scotch double sided tape) and place the tape there in the topmost corner. Fold into position and press to establish the adhesive. This creates a reinforcement for the ornament hooks to pull the cape into the body. *Without the tape the wire will rip right through the fabric.

Then I take that same trusty dental pick and poke a hole into the center of both squares of tape with the fabric attached. this is where you will insert your ornament hooks to start to gather up the fabric to pull through. 

Simply make a candy cane shape of each hook and loop them through the holes you've poked through the fabric and tape.

Twist the wire until it can be twisted no more(it helps to use the needle nose pliers for that). 

Insert both ends into the two holes in the front of the figure and push them through the exit point in the back.  Make sure the cape is clear of the head before you pull the fabric comlpetely through. Twist them together in the back with the pliers and cut off the excess wire that is NOT attached to the cape. 

Once your cape has been pulled through and it looks good form the front... You Have Done IT!!!

Fill the exit cavity with hot glue and Voila!!! you are done. You can at this time press the cape into the hot glue to hold it in place OR leave it free to blow around either way once your to this point, it looks F'ing Aweome...

So there it is!! 

Thanks for looking!!!   

Be Sure and Check out my Deluxe Christopher Reeve Tutorials

Watch them Here!!

Vintage Kenner 12" Stormtrooper Restoration

So I picked up a Vintage 12" Stormtrooper on ebay this week. It was Buy It Now $15 total,  I had to bite.

Of course it was in the standard condition of massive yellowing but also had that brown joint action going on as well. I figured it would make a nice restoration piece. At $15 invested I figured this could be a nice no loss venture. There was no major damage to the figure itself so that would make for an awesome base. It just happened to be that ugly mucussy range of funky white. The hands are ball-jointed rubber so I just popped them out and set them to the side. Those will be an easy sharpie touch-up. I removed the screws and laid everything out on a custom rigged frame to suspend all the parts for painting.

Being the stormtrooper is a black and white figure, it was going to make for a pretty simple project. I just disassembled the figure to its simplest parts and sprayed with a Satin Finish Rustoleum white. While I had it disassembled I went ahead and took the screws along with my dremel and brought those back to life as well and knocked off all the attic/residue rust. They are now gleaming.

And... Faboom!! Bright white and re-assembled. I used photo references from the same auction photos to bring all the details back to their original  states. The one liberty I did take was in the breathing vent up top. Instead of painting each individual grate I went ahead and just filled it in. Other than that all the original details were honored. Now I have a very nice shelf piece I've always wanted to own but could never afford. Thank you ebay!!!

BLADE RUNNER 3.75" FIGURES FROM HASBRO?

No...

Just another custom hoax from that damn GeekSummit.

Blade Runner 3.75" Rick Deckard!!!

Rick here is made from an Indiana Jones figure given a long coat a la Ultimate Soldier 1:18 German Officer which blends with the stock leather color very nicely. The shirt itself is hand detailed with fine point sharpie. Hair also given the same treatment.

Vintage Style Packaging: powered by Google & Adobe

I wanted to do a Vintage Star Wars Style packaging BUT you can honor that style only so much without actually making it a star wars package. Sure he's Han Solo... Sure he's Indiana Jones... Sure its a Sci-Fi movie.... Sure it's ok, but DON'T make it a Star Wars package. The placement of the bubble is really only weight distribution but the corner contour (what would have been a full frame on a Star Wars card) allowed more space to really push the Blade Runner imagery. Space was limited indeed with the inclusion of the title and "Branding", but we had just enough space to drop Rick and his blaster in that iconic vintage packaging space. The top is a muted space of the Frank Lloyd Wright Cubes that fill Deckard's apartment. The back features an awesome illustration... I don't know who did it honestly but when I look at the back I almost see an NECA stlye of simplicity to it. A short bio fills the bottom I tried to sum up the movie in 2 paragraphs without totally copying the intro preface directly. I thought I did an Ok job.

The prints themselves art spray mounted onto a Comic Board. I make one side at full size and the second at 100% with a .25" bleed so that once trimmed it is a clean edge. The blister is a resealable blister for those collectors who like to open their toys and store them for display as well. I'd go into how I set that up but it would cheapen it to myself and I was pretty proud of how that came together.

That is all...

Man of Steel Toys: Commericals Spring a Leak!!!

Man of Steel

EXPLODERS

KA BLAMMO!!!....... squoosh…

Footage FreezeFrames:



Seen here are several Superman variants as well as Zod/Black Zero and Kryptonian Robot Army

Its a 3 Step Process, always 3 steps… 2 Steps always seems cheap

Superman Confronts Black Zero Ship

Detail Shots of Models

 Commercial Opens with a CGI Superman Flying towards the Screen


 _______________________________________

Superman

FLIGHTSPEEDERS

ZOOM!!!.... de'derp…

Footage Freeze Frames:

PACK IT                                         SMACK IT

MAKE SOME RACKET!!

Ships "Collect & Connect" to create one kidHUGE Triple Launcher!!!

 

Detail of Black Zero Ship/Launcher and Zero/Zod Projectile

Superman Projectile

____________________________________

Well, we're looking at mainly Kid friendly toys thus far BUT I'm sure more collector worthy items will be popping up shortly... (Boo NYCC) I really thought we'd see some great stuff flooding fan and collector sites this past weekend but instead we only got this seepage BUT... you know us weak hearted often trodden collectors and fanboys... we'll take it.

Likely these may not be the final commercials or even the final product names BUT they definitley look to be in the running to be the actual toys.

For an eyeful of TRUE fanboy Anticipatory Greatness 

 Click Here

NYCC 2012 Man of Steel Movie Masters: GeekSummit's WishList

Man of Steel figures be on the visible horizon @ NYCC 2012?

With NYCC 2012 approaching this weekend fingers are crossed that we will see the first shots of Man of Steel Movie Masters revealed this weekend... if not... there's always ToyFair in February?
Don't let us down, Mattel!!!

 

Packaging was developed under the influence of previous texture heavy designs used by Mattel in their earlier Movie Masters lines.  The physical package itself is built around a low material usage concept using a 9" x 10" double sided board print creating the entire package (plus plastic window and caps of course)

Figure is built on a WWE Elite Buck with Substituted standard articulation torso. All other elements are sculpted. Cape is Sculpted from the collar bone to the middle of the shoulder blades then continues as a fabric cape. It creates the illusion of total control of the fabric as it tucks in but then give the flexibility of fabric without the weigh and instability of heavy rubber/vinyl capes.

Of course there's always the chance that we'll have to wait a little longer for a movie that is looking to build its anticipation... So until then, here are some Product Concept Samples from Yours Truly.
*Henry Cavill artwork by Daniel Morpheus.

GeekSummit: Custom Michael Keaton Batman figure with Rooftop Diorama

Diorama Commission:
Dude... Build Me  Diorama!!!
a cautionary tale...

So a couple months ago I was commissioned by a guy in California to do a Michael Keaton Batman figure. He had come across my work through FigureRealm.com and was quickly quoting back to different entries throughout my collection of customs over time. I had done several Keaton Batman figures in the past but every time I did one they only got JUST a little better I was only doing one a year basically as opposed to my Christopher Reeve Superman figures that were seeing 5 attempts a year. I took him up on it since I did want to refine my process a bit and no better reason that to be working for someone else. He was taken by my V•III from last year and begged me and begged me to hand over the original but that wasn't possible. Of course once I got into the figure work and was shooting photos back to him as it was in progress he started adding things to what he wanted to see done. The new figure is featured in the background of my last entry Invasion of the Keaton Batmans .

After a minute he was attempting to buy anything he could see was in my home from photos. so I had to reign him in a little bit to keep us on track. Once the figure was completed he added that he had seen my GhostBusters Firehouse and OH boy did that take us back to the drawing board. At first it was a "I Trust Your Vision" situation, which at first sounds like a compliment but really... its a red flag and I'll be more careful in the future.

I flew into the diorama project pretty quickly turning around a pretty interesting piece but apparently it was too quick and too interesting. I figured it should be a gothic-esque type building with large angular forms and definitely a rooftop to stand on. So in keeping things simple I made my wall and columns and rooftop moulding. I sprayed the entire works with primer and then came back with an overspray of black to deepen the shadows.

 In trying to keep everything shippable within a large flat rate box I ran across a funny idea. The diorama itself though it had its detail looked a little plain and I started to think that maybe the guy doesn't have the space for something this big. Maybe like everyone else he's putting these on his Target bought standard issue bookshelves which don't exactly offer a grand display space... but their cheap. SO... I proceeded to chop the diorama in half.

Once I had halfed it I realized that now all these elements that were built onto this wall now were interchangable simply but turning and rearranging the halves. They offered more variety for display and in essence became TWO dioramas. A F'-ing Mazing!!!! They created some pretty interesting angles and I was definitely pleased with it.

Well... he hated it... or atleast it was not what he was expecting... I tried to explain that the gothic look was definitely inline with the Batman Movie aesthetic, but maybe that was too much of a reach?

So I started over but this time I set some ground rules and tried to build on specs instead of wingingin it as I had done before. This is how I started with the GhostBusters Firehouse out of necessity but this was more of a system of proofing to the "client" before any work was done. I drew up the planned diorama detailing size/scale and components. Once things were agreed on... (the easy part) it was back to work.  I started first with just building the walls which were two thicknesses of Stryrofoam detailed with brick texture and then rooftop ledges were added to give them JUST a little more space so set the figure on.

Things came together pretty quickly. The walls were easy to fabricate. I used a couple different thicknesses of styrofoam  to build the different levels of the diorama so it would have some forced depth plus give more functional space for figure display. I added the drain pipes to give the scale a little push and then built the billboard panel. The printed billboard actually slips into the frame so it could be replaced if for any reason we disagreed that THIS was exemplary of the Batman Movie theme. I had planned to use the images of the deceased models from the news flash in the movie but had no luck tracking down decent images. The joker made for a much easier image search so I went with his image to feature on the billboard.

At first I covered the entire piece in black paint and then painted on top of it. Unfortunately this styrofoam soaks up paint pretty quickly so I started back over with gray primer and then layed my brick colors in. That did MUCH better. here is the actual model next to the spec sheet for client review and final approval.

Once I had everything repainted I finished up with window panes and glass. The glass was made from figure packaging blisters and the panes were just hand cut 1/16" cardboard. I came back with a little black overspray to deepen the shadow areas and did a little drybrush with some silver spraypaint from a solo cup to give it just a little wear and tear. I reprinted the billboard with a spanking new black cartridge and WHAMMO!!! my mini masterpiece was complete!!!

I don't have any shots with the figure included as of yet but this is definitely a nice piece for any figure display shelf. All in all it was a nice project to undertake and it definitely got me working on a couple other things that should be ready for showing soon...

Stay Tuned for

GeekSummit's
DAILY PLANET MEGA DIORAMA!!!!!