Here’s what the Dedham Pond Phantom of the Opera replacement head looks like next to the Polar Lights kit’s head (same scale) and an Aurora repop Phantom. The replacement head sells for $20 counting postage in the United States, or $15 plus postage to other countries. Please e-mail todd.powell@resinbarbarian.com if you’re interested.
Here’s a project I’ve wanted to do for a long time: A James Bama-style Phantom replacement head for the Polar Lights model kit. Basically, what we end up with is the Aurora Phantom at a different moment in his tale, shortly after being unmasked.
Sculpted by Chris Wooten. Now available from Dedham Pond Designs. The replacement head sells for $20 counting postage in the United States, or $15 plus postage to other countries. Please e-mail todd.powell@resinbarbarian.com if you’re interested.
Got this today from Cortlandt Hull:
DVDs will start mailing out at the end of June. Look for ordering information at www.preservehollywood.org.
This month’s entry comes with a soundtrack. Hit the play button below if you’re up for a little music.
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| Donovan – Atlantis |
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 kids, and for stuff they’ve never owned but always been interested in.
Enter Atlantis Model Co., another small producer ready to make some of those dreams come true. The company has already released three UFO models. It plans to follow up soon with reissues of Aurora’s American Buffalo and Black Bear kits.
A bevy of Aurora figure kit releases are in the works for 2011, including Blackbeard and Captain Kidd, Gladiators and more.
The “little guys” behind Atlantis Peter Vetri, 39, and Rick Delfavero, 45, of East Northport, N.Y. They’re the owners of Megahobby.com Inc. and founded Atlantis in April 2009. They’re getting help from hobby expert Andy Yanchus, who serves as a consultant.
The company is named after Donovan’s classic folk-pop song.
Megahobby is about to celebrate its 10th year in business. Peter says he and Rick have “built many models over our lifetimes and continue to do so.”
My introduction to Atlantis Models came courtesy of Scott McKillop of Monarch. “If they can do faithful repops of the aurora kits, I will be a big fan, he wrote in an e-mail. “Looks like a great company.”
Resin… Read the rest
Monarch’s ad for the upcoming Sinbad kit. Says Scott McKillop of Monarch: “I was hoping to achieve the DC comics look that the Aurora ads had back in the Silver age.”
Disclosure: I sell this kit and need money, so the opinions expressed herein may be tainted. Please take that into account.
My case of Moebius Frankenstein’s Monster kits arrived today. I was pleased to note that, despite a hole in the side of the shipping box, my kits are in good shape, as opposed to the beating UPS gave my case of Spider-Man kits. There was a little bit of a muddy spot on the shrink wrap of one kit, so that’s the one I kept for myself and opened up this afternoon.
Let’s not bury the lead. Plenty of people have objected to the look of this monster and I agree that it’s not the out-of-the-ballpark home run of the Mummy. This kit looks less like Karloff and is overall a bit stiff, even for the Monster. However, I still like it, and I was pleased to see how detailed the kit’s facial features are.
At first, I thought it might help to use some Aves to lengthen the face a bit. Now that I see the kit in person, though, I might instead suggest chopping a couple of millimeters off the neck to give the creature a somewhat tougher, more bull-necked look. Of course, Karloff himself was thin, but the costume’s padding hid that. I wanted to show how this new Moebius Monster looks next to the Aurora classic. Unfortunately, the only version of that kit I have handy is a Luminators with that wild translucent orange plastic, but I did the best I could.
Here’s one where I turned the Luminators Frankie black and white to try to better highlight the facial features.
A look at the profiles. I love the classic creature as much as anybody, but the new one definitely has a sharper, more realistic look.
The kit’s head went together nicely and the seam line isn’t intimidating. If the rest of it is as easy to assemble, it won’t take long to get it ready to paint.
I really appreciate how Moebius pays attention to some details I don’t even consider.
For example, on the Spider-Man kit, the seam line on the head follows the web pattern on the character’s costume. On the new Frankie’s base, there are a couple of delicate connection pins that are nicely protected by a clear plastic shield.
Frankie’s box is nice. It’s about the same height as a classic Aurora long box, but substantially wider and deeper. It also has a little more heft than the Moebius Spider-Man and Green Goblin boxes.
Overall, I’m pleased with this latest Moebius Universal Studios Monster and look forward to seeing the recently announced Lugosi Dracula.
Scott McKillop of Monarch Models shared this with me. It’s the official high-resolution photo of Sinbad, built and painted by Randy Eveleigh. Click it to see the whole image. I think Monarch still hopes to have this out before year’s end, but don’t quote me on that.
