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.
Click here for an update about the DVD specifics.
In 1966, two people took major steps toward living their dreams. One was James Bama, a New York City commercial illustrator, about 40 years old, whose portfolio included dozens of cover paintings for Doc Savage paperbacks and the box art for many of Aurora’s monster model kits. The other was Cortlandt Hull of Bristol, Conn., great-nephew of “Werewolf of London” star Henry Hull, a 13-year-old lover of classic horror movies and builder of Aurora models.
Looking over my notes for this month’s “Resin the Barbarian” interview, recognizing the time frame of the turning points in these two men’s lives, I was fascinated to realize that Mr. Bama began to move away from the genre work that has remained popular about the same time Cortlandt embraced a life ever influenced by monsters. Cortlandt’s decision was made in part because he — like millions of others — so loved Mr. Bama’s box art. Decades later, Mr. Bama was impressed with the work Cortlandt and director Dennis Vincent did profiling artist Basil Gogos on “The Witch’s Dungeon: 40 Years of Chills”, so he invited them to visit his home in Wapiti, Wyo., for a rare interview that will be featured in the documentary “Legends of Film & Fantasy”, to be available on DVD in early 2010.
Wapiti is where Mr. Bama finally settled a few years after he and his wife, Lynne, departed Manhattan, according to the introduction to the book “The Western Art of James Bama”. They’d visited a friend in Wyoming in 1966 and began to realize how different their lives could be. After return visits in 1967, the Bamas settled in Wyoming for good in 1968. Bama continued doing commercial work for a few years to make ends meet, but his focus quickly turned to his own works. His realist approach to Western people and places has gained Mr. Bama widespread respect as a fine artist.
Around the time Mr. and Mrs. Bama were discovering Wyoming, Cortlandt was working with his father, Robert, to turn a Swiss chalet-style building into the Witch’s Dungeon, a place to house the life-sized monsters the boy had started fabricating when he decided the Aurora models just weren’t big enough. The Dungeon, open every year around Halloween, continued to grow over the years, as did Cortlandt’s artistic abilities. In October 2009, Zenobia the Gypsy Witch (Cortlandt’s original creation) welcomes visitors to a visit with many of Cortlandt’s monsters, including the Phantom of the Opera, Frankenstein’s Monster, Count Dracula, the Creature from the Black Lagoon and, of course, the Werewolf of London.
Cortlandt and Dennis… Read the rest
Horizon Original’s Michael Keaton Batman from “Batman Returns” may be my favorite superhero kit. Sculpted by Steve Wang, it is a wonderfully dynamic portrayal of the Dark Knight produced by a great company. Plus, it’s vinyl, and despite my “Resin” blog name, vinyl is generally my preferred medium for garage kits.
This kit was made available twice, first in a nice large box, plenty of room for the kit, with some neat images from the movie (and by the way, despite my fondness for the costume, I didn’t think much of “Batman Returns”). The second issue was in a much smaller box and the parts are stuffed in.
I heard some time back that the second issue of the kit had a somewhat better likeness of Keaton, possibly because someone, somewhere, decided to soften some of Mr. Wang’s detail before releasing the kit first time around. I glanced at them to see if I could figure out what was different, but never really examined them until today.
Here’s my conclusion: It’s true, the second version of the kit does look better. It’s hard to tell because the first one is cast in a creamy vinyl that makes it difficult to see some of the detail, while the second is in a nice primer-colored gray. But the first one does look a little softer. There’s more of a sneer to the second one, possibly because the lips are a bit more full. Some details to the jowls are more defined as well.
The curve to the bat-ears, by the way, is not a difference between the two versions. It just reflects how much the second kit was stuffed into its box. I’ll have to heat those and straighten them up when I finally get around to building the kit.
Both versions are terrific, but the second looks a little better. Given the change in parts breakdown, though, I think it will also be harder to build.
It has been my privilege to write a handful of articles for Amazing Figure Modeler, although my last two were published more than a year ago. I’m going to scan all the pages of my work and post it here, although not large enough that you can actually read it. Back issues are still available through the AFM website.
First up, the Shiflett Brothers from issue 42. I confess that I cheated here, because I swiped the scan from the Shifletts’ site.
Only fair to start this off with a disclosure: I sell these kits. I bought a case of each, kept a couple for myself, and now need half a dozen or so someones to buy the rest from me so I can make money for more kits. It’d be great if some of the people who read this bought the kit from me, but if not from me, then get them somewhere else.
Because they’re terrific figures. Really, possibly the best comic model kits ever made in styrene. They have all the terrific energy of the old Toy Biz Marvel Comics kits, but without the intimidation of poor-fitting parts. Plus, the Moebius kits are bigger. I spent a little while this evening poking through the boxes, test-assembling some parts, and was pleased.
These latest releases from Moebius Models, hot on the heels of the Universal Studios Karloff Mummy figure, help establish the company as one of the top producers of fantasy figure kits ever. Amazing. Thanks in large part to Moebius, hobbyists have available to them a steady flow of new kits of this kind, whereas only a few years ago it seemed that plastic fantasy figure kits were a thing of the past.
For the most part, I’m going to let my admittedly substandard photography do the talking here, because I think these kits speak for themselves. Without further ado:
The Green Goblin is available from Resin the Barbarian for $23.50 plus shipping. The case of Spider-Man kits was slightly mistreated; the kits should be fine but the boxes are bent up a bit. That one sells for $22 plus shipping. If you’re interested in either or both, please e-mail todd.powell@resinbarbarian.com. Make sure to include your shipping address.
One big advantage of my family’s move to the Colorado Springs area is that we’re close to Compleat Games and Hobbies. It’s a fantastic hobby store, filled from floor to ceiling with neat stuff. Not as many garage kits as it used to have, but lots of great plastic kits.
The impression I get is that Fritz Frising, “The Headless Hearseman”, could happily start his day watching his 4-year-old son, Andi, put Band-Aids on his monster models’ ouchies, move on to a comfortable tea-time chat with a WWII veteran’s 88-year-old widow, then finish up late discussing deathrock icons in the heart of a group most men in their early 40s would go out of their way to avoid.
A blend of past and present, courtesy and peril, elegance and roughness, plus a healthy dose of talent, that’s how Fritz strikes me … much like Monstrology Models, which Fritz has resurrected.
Monstrology originally rose in the 1990s under founder Jon Wang. “I was a huge horror movie fan and Aurora monster model builder since I was a little kid,” Jon said in an e-mail interview. “At the Fangoria and Chiller shows of the late ’80s and early ’90s I saw incredible sculptures by guys like John Dennett, Thomas Kuntz, Yagher and Bowen and of course the Billiken stuff — and was inspired to start sculpting.
“I hadn’t really planned on starting a company, but things just spiraled and eventually Monstrology was born — the idea being the ‘study’ of these horror characters through sculpture.”
The company produced more than its share of early garage-kit classics, particularly a handful of figures sculpted by William Paquet, “who did what I consider to be some of his best work for Monstrology,” Fritz said via e-mail.
Those figures include a John Barrymore Mr. Hyde, based on the 1920 movie “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”; Vincent Price as Nicholas Medina in 1961’s “The Pit and the Pendulum”; and Charles Ogle as the Monster from Edison Studios’s 1910 production of “Frankenstein”. Jon also sculpted his share of great figures, including the ape man from a lost 1927 film called “The Wizard” and Glenn Strange as Petro from 1942’s “The Mad Monster”.
“It was satisfying to bring a project from something in one’s imagination to something 3D and all that went along with that as far as marketing and advertising — box art, instructions, etc.,” Jon said. “And it was fun to work with all the people involved in creating those projects — people like mold maker MP Stehlik, of course master sculptor William Paquet and graphic artist Rich Hilliard — who were most involved at least early on. Of course Fritz as well, who was initially a great supporter of Monstrology and then by way of our friendship and similar artistic visions became a collaborator — he’s also a huge Lugosi fan and that’s a passion we both share.”
Many of the characters were monsters — rough, slouching beasts of demented or evil intent — yet they were so artistically created… Read the rest
