Free your MOTUC figures

December 13, 2012 | Poe

An increasing number of male MOTUC figures are coming with armor that covers their entire chest, thereby limiting the armor movement to “weightlifter arms” practically sticking out horizontally due to the armor increasingly the amount of plastic beneath the armpits. Other figures have restrictive plastic tunics, skirts, or loincloths. Some have both (I’m looking at you, Dekker.) What’s an articulation lover to do?

Well, it all depends on how much you love articulation and whether you’re comfortable with taking a razor to your figures. If you are, however, then Poester Dayraven has passed along a few pointers for freeing up your MOTUC figures. He sliced up his Castle Grayskullman to give the figure a greater range of arm and leg movement. He doesn’t have any before pictures (though anyone with a CGM has that), but here are some “after” pics, and a description of what he did. (more…)

Poe Ghostal, the Minimate

April 18, 2011 | Poe

Waaaaaay back in early February I teased you with this photo, which then went long unexplained. Well, the time has come to reveal just what that was!

Meet Poe the Minimate!

Forged in the fires of Minimatefactory.com, this incredibly handsome action figure is the work of toysmith Luke Porter. Here’s what Luke had to say about the process of creating this masterpiece:

The figure was made with a standard Minimate base figure with decals for the face, chest, shins, and forearm bands. The staff is a combination of a Lego antenna and the Stargirl Minimate’s cosmic staff. The hat is from The Spirit Minimate with the hair removed and the brim widened using Fixit Sculpt. The shoulder piece was also sculpted using Fixit Sculpt, and the cape is modified from an existing cape using a big sharp hobby knife. Fixit Sculpt is my favorite sculpting clay – it is a two part epoxy that is very workable, and yet very strong. You get about an hour of working time with it, and 12 hours later is it hard enough to be sanded and painted. For paint I used Citadel paints because they have the best consistency and color mixing. I water down my paints with a little bit of water and use multiple coats in order to get a smoother surface that is free of brush strokes. After coating the figure with clear coat, I add the final details with an ultra fine sharpie permanent marker.

I have several tutorials on Minimate decal design, painting, and sculpting here at the Minimate Factory: http://minimatefactory.com/blog/?page_id=285

Thanks to Luke for this amazing custom! Be sure to visit Luke’s site for all your Minimate needs.

Custom MOTUC Eldor

December 30, 2009 | Poe

Probably my #1 most-desired obscure MOTU character I’d like to see in MOTUC is Eldor, the old wizard who served as He-Ro’s mentor. Like He-Ro, a prototype of the figure was made but never produced.

Due to his unusual design–the coat and the cowl–many fans, including me, have wondered how Mattel and the Horsemen could pull it off and still keep the new tooling to a minimum. However, thanks to customizer Hunter Knight, we now have an example. While there’s some extra sculpting on this figure I suspect might be too expensive for MOTUC–the boot jewels for sure, and perhaps the belt–and a MOTUC version would have a sculpted cowl instead of a cloth one, I think this shows a MOTUC Eldor is quite possible.

Keanu Reeves out-acted by 2″ block figure

August 12, 2009 | Poe

matrix01

Joe Acevedo’s CustomCon23 continues today. Yesterday I posted about MsBig’s Dollhouse figures. Today, along with Sillof’s awesome “realistic” interpretation of Marvel teams (today’s is the Outsiders, who I think are the Defenders but I’m not sure) and other neat customs, there’s this professional-looking Matrix Minimates line by Luke Porter of the Minimate Factory.

On a side note, who else had a some of those N2 Toys Matrix figures? Those actually weren’t half-bad for a young company; problem is, that turned out to be their high point. God, that was ten years ago–I feel old.