8.04.2013

My Friend the Micronaut

A little late with this, but just last week our friends Bryan "Microbry" Wilkinson and Bwana Spoons hosted a special Micro-themed custom show at the Grass Hut Art Market out in Portland, Oregon called My Friend the Micronaut.

The contributors to the show really sent in some incredible work, ranging from classic customs, paintings, drawings, plush and even completely home grown 3D printed ABS masterpieces.

As I thought about what to send during the past few months, I kept looking at the old Micronauts builds I had made over the years. In the end I decided to make some updated versions of a few classic Micronaut and Microman characters, using only clear Buildstation parts (minus a few clear Noboto chests) and zero paint. The idea was to concentrate on the pure build aspect, and whether or not I could push just the raw parts into something half interesting.

Clocking in as the biggest build is Mega Membros, an updated version of the last two Membros inspired builds I tried some years ago. I lost count of the amount of parts used to make this beast, but it was a lot! It's one heavy alien beefball.

I've loved the Acroyear designs for such a long time, that creating another homage set was probably my favorite part of this self imposed challenge. A new Commander and Soldier were the result of many hours tinkering with piles of parts. Their individual piece counts are not super high, and mostly utilize the accessory sets. It was a lot of fun working the Swing Joints into some older ideas.

To round out the assortment of Micro geeks, I tried to create a President Acroyear homage, pushing the spindly look of the old Microman toys and going for a kind of lanky vibe. This tall goon was designed to battle the last entry into this batch, something I thought long and hard about sending at all.

For the last 3 years I've been working steadily on a "human" head for the Glyan, with the idea being that it would allow for some new roads to be traveled as far as creative avenues go. This side project actually went into steel tooling three separate times, each result not quite hitting the target I've been aiming for. I've wanted to share these trials with you guys for years, but have never been too psyched about showing things that I felt were not on point. That being said, I could not miss the opportunity to send some of these production heads from the second trial run out to the show, as the original Micronauts/Microman were the primary inspiration for the original head sculpt I've been battling with over the past few years.

For the first time, some of these heads are out there. The pics above are of actual production heads, not resin. The right ear is a little sunken, the nose is tiny bit flat, and there is the slightest loss of detail on the mouth from the original, but in clear PVC it doesn't look too bad. Not great, but I wanted to show you what's been cooking with this mischievous little head after a number of years. Bry and Bwana's Micronaut custom show seemed like the perfect place to sneak the Micro Glyan out for a mission.

Sorry for another text tundra, but Micronauts apparently cause me to ramble even more than usual.

Special thanks to Bry and Bwana for putting on such a cool event, it was an honor to be part of it all.

Long live Microman!


21 comments:

  1. Dear God... please make this human head a reality!

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  2. I can't believe this happened an hour away from me and I had no idea. Damn it, I would've LOVED to see these :(

    Echoing everyone else, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, make the human head! It looks much cooler than I thought a human head on a Glyan body could've ever looked! It's awesome! Get on it! ;)

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  3. Wow, those builds are amazing! The President is imposing (and has a great use of the Glyan pelvis), the Commander and Soldier are perfect, and that Membros . . . no words, man. No words.

    As for the Glyan head, I'll be honest: part of what I love about Glyos is the openness in interpretation. Sometimes, sure, the Glyans are humans under those helmets, but others, not so much. Having a human head, then, just makes me hope that other heads, other possibilities for what's under the helmet, are on the horizon, too. After all, what's more fun than robots? Robots and aliens, of course!

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  4. Oh my god, you have got to make that head! I must have a Glyan Time Traveler! This all just keeps getting better and better.

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  5. WOW. I love seeing your interpretations of what seemed to really start all of this for you, Micronauts/Microman. I'm looking over these pictures more and more, and each time I do something else catches my eye that I didn't see before!

    I'll also kind of echo was R. Whitford said. I LOVE the human head. Like LOVE LOVE it and want to see it put into production yesterday! BUT, I'd also really like to see some other possibilities that might be hiding underneath the Glyan helmet, as that would still keep the universe open to interpretation and still keep some of the mystery.

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  6. That Mega Membros build is beyond epic, I love it. The human head is lso uber cool.

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  7. I went to Grass Hut on Saturday just to check these out. It was really cool to see Glyos (and not just these pieces) in my favorite gallery. I couldn't decide which of these to get (and I hope it's not too late) but I'm gonna have to go back and hopefully pick one up.

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  8. This head is so awesome!
    Please make it available in the (very) near future.
    I love Glyans and to give them actual faces opens up a whole new world of possibilities.

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  9. I honestly don't know what half of them are, but I do know they all look amazing.

    I think I might have to pick up a couple sets of swing joints some time in the future.

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  10. That head would look amazing on my shelf! Every time I check out this blog I am amazed by what I find, those builds are fantastic!

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  11. Crazy amazing. Those builds are supreme. I like the head as well. Smooshed ears and noses just shows he's been in some serious brawls.

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  12. He looks awesome Matt! Really loving his look. I know how important this guy is for you. He looks really sharp!

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  13. Please do us all a favor and make this human head available in mass quantities. Please.

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  14. MicroBry here--I can't thank Matt enough for all his amazing work! I am honored and floored that we could show these at our show.

    For folks here that are in the area that missed the opening, fret not! The show will remain on display at Grass Hut for the rest of the month. :D

    Also for those who can't make it out, we will have a web store up for many of the figures on display...keep watching the http://myfriendthemicro.tumblr.com page for many more updates and the store links. I'll be busy helping Bwana get these live, so I'll have more to say about the show as soon as the dust clears. :)

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  15. Agree with all others. It'd be great if you could move forward on the head. It's stellar.

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  16. Excellent builds all around, and those human heads are superb! I'd like to see those become a reality so my Olympia customs have some company!

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  17. Excellent builds all around, and those human heads are superb! I'd like to see those become a reality so my Olympia customs have some company!

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  18. your builds are always ridiculous and I wish I could recreate some of them... but even if I could get all the necessary parts, I'd need a full breakdown to do it...

    as for the head... only make it if you intend to give us a pure silver one (it isn't Microman without it)

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  19. Saw these in person last Saturday! So incredible, I would love to see the human head released.

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