May 1st, 2010
This month’s entry comes with a soundtrack. Hit the play button below if you’re up for a little music.
What a great time for fans of plastic figure models. Five years ago, it seemed the “big guys” had declared our hobby dead and not worth resuscitating. Polar Lights was at the end of a spectacular run of kits, including a few wonderful originals and many “repops” of classic Aurora monsters and heroes. But Playing Mantis, PL’s owner, was purchased by a larger company that was much more interested in Johnny Lightning cars than model kits.
The message that seemed to come down to figure-kit hobbyists was, “You’re not worth our time anymore.”
Fortunately, a few “little guys” decided not to accept that the hobby was dead and took steps. Moebius emerged and started producing terrific figure kits. Monarch’s Nosferatu was a hit.
Wasn’t long before figure kits started appearing from other companies that had the molds handy. Revell has put a handful of Aurora classics on hobby store shelves for the umpteenth time. Polar Lights is back in the game.
Still there’s plenty of material to mine. Hobbyists throw out wish-list material at every opportunity, hoping for revivals of kits they knew and loved as…
Read the rest Filed under Historial, Producers, Styrene plastic, Swashbucklers and buccaneers | Tags: Atlantis, Aurora, Blackbeard | 5 Comments » |
April 1st, 2010
Look at the faces on some of these characters. Demon of the Harvest. Crookneck. Jack the Ripper. Even little Alice, concealing silverware as she awaits Humpty Dumpty’s fall. The characters look so
happy, and they’re all obviously so
nasty.
Welcome to the worlds of Robert Blair, a sculptor who knows our childhood fantasies are only a breath away from our childhood nightmares.
A craftsman shapes wood into a boy, and that creation magically comes to life. Would this child be the sweet but musically mischievous rascal Walt Disney envisioned, or would he be Robert Blair’s creaky, splintery, grasping monster? I liked the cartoon version when I was younger, but now I get a bigger kick out of the chiller Robert calls Gepetto’s Nightmare.
Robert’s work is so familiar, yet so different. His Garden Gnome has the beard, tall hat and outfit you expect, but this little guy is dangerous. His Nosferatu shares the bald pate, long nails and robe of all Max Schrek figures, but it creaks with extra age, malice, and long, weird arms. You
wish his Cheshire Cat would turn invisible so you wouldn’t have to look at that nasty, wrinkled thing.
Robert Blair, 53, lives in Aylmer, Quebec, a small town just outside Ottawa. He worked as a hairstylist for 32 years, but retired from that. In addition to sculpting, he molds and casts, and produces his works, available to fans through his website,
blairsculpture.ca. He has also painted most of his own pieces.
To…
Read the rest Filed under Comics, Historial, Monsters, Resin, Sculptors | Tags: blair, crookneck, jack the ripper, through the looking glass | 1 Comment » |
July 11th, 2009
Originally published July 5, 2006, at GJSentinel.com.
“EDGAR ALLEN POE”
Sculpted by John Dennett.
Produced by Moohead Models, Mooheadmodels@aol.com.
Designed to be the same size as the classic 1/8 scale Aurora monster kits.
Made of resin, 13 parts. (Parts breakdown: Chair legs, 4; chair with Poe, 1; Poe legs, 1; Poe’s hands, 2; base, 1; cat, 1; book stack, 1; inkwell, 1; post with raven, 1.)
$90 plus shipping.
Edgar Allen Poe wielded the pen behind some of literature’s creepiest moments. Here’s one most readers will recognize:
Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore.
“Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” I said, “art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore-
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!”
Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”
- “The Raven,” 1845
Or how about this:
With a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room. He shrieked once – once only. In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him. I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done. But, for many minutes, the heart beat on with a muffled sound. This, however, did not vex me; it would not be heard through the wall. At length it ceased. The old man was dead. I removed the bed…
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Filed under 2006 archive, Historial, Producers, Resin | Tags: Moohead Models | Comments Off |
