8.31.2013

Energized

Mordireus Mode activated!

These two pics were taken under different natural lighting, with one shot in the sun and one shot in the shade.

The crazy clear neon pink continues to be one of the strangest plastics I've ever seen.

More pics and a new release list coming soon. We are on track for September 8th!

8.30.2013

BCC I

 
A triple team of talent have worked their magic on a very special release over at Banimon.com!

From the Banimon blog:

Tonight, Friday August 30th at 9.30pm EST, the Banimon Custom Corps One will be going on sale at our store. Figures will be $30 each, however we will have a small batch of deluxe beefed up figures for $40 (those have roughly double the parts, and also ship with a collectable poster of the new map of Planet Banimon. The quantities are limited, and we are asking that folks keep their orders to no more then two regular CC figures and one deluxe figure per customer so that everyone can get a chance to snag one. After the first 24 hours we will lift the limits on whatever is left. More details to come this afternoon, and hope to see you all tonight!!

Marking a milestone for the series, the first ever Banimon Custom Corps is the result of Banimon's creator, Boris Savic, combining creative forces with Pj Bartlett (Spaced Out Design) and Seth Longmire (Orbitdyne) to bring into existence a wild new array of mercenaries and madmen.

With Boris in charge of the story and artwork, Seth tackling the sculpting of some brand new parts and Pj handling all the casting, building, painting and photography (shown above) of the entire lineup, you know that something incredibly unique was destined to come together.

Congratulations to all three artists for completing this fantastic project. Larger custom runs are always a blend of pleasure and pain for many reasons, and when everything finally comes together it's truly an occasion to celebrate.

Enjoy tonight's release and we hope to see more from this trio in the near future!


8.29.2013

8.28.2013

Crossworlds Part 2

Another example of the Four Horsemen's new Power Lords figures combined with some of our parts.

It's been fun trying to simulate the base dimensions of the original Power Lords limbs on these cybernetic builds.

Also, the Ggripptoggs are pretty big bruisers, standing just a smidge taller that a Syclodoc!


8.24.2013

Crossworlds

As the fine tuning of the new "Glybrid" joint system has progressed, some pretty neat Power Lords test shots have shown up to tinker with. These test shots are crucial in solving any riddles that the various plastics may present.

The test shot shown above of the Four Horsemen's Elite Power Soldier has extremely solid joints and a super satisfying feel in hand. All the parts hold together, even under intense play and repeated movement. These figures can truly survive the pocket.

My favorite aspects of the new Power Lords are being able to still build and modify the core figures, even though they don't show any really obvious signs (outside of the back hole) of using our interface. The primary engineering goal of this endeavor was to not compromise the traditional "action figure" look of the characters, yet retain the interchangeability we've used for years. We wanted to create another option that could be applied to new projects across the boards, when the abstract approach might not be the right fit.

The Four Horsemen have some excellent things in store with the Power Lords that I think you guys will really love. Soon you'll be able to put together teams of Power Soldiers, to battle or befriend anything living on your shelves or hiding in your storage bins.

Also, that Ivorinium DSG up there is from our next release, which will be in early September. More details and pics coming this week!


8.23.2013

Blacklander

A dark shadow is set to fall across the 481 Universe site tonight, as Ni prepares to release an all black Outlander over in his store at 9PM EST.

Perfect for building and customizing with, this particular black PVC has a really nice saturation to it.


8.22.2013

Monoclone

Out of all the Noboto variations that I've been playing with around here, this solid yellow version has probably seen the most action.

Maybe it's the buttered popcorn look?


8.14.2013

Little Critters

This pistachio pipsqueak has been sneaking into random outgoing packages since our July release.

A small batch of these Lymerran Crayboth may appear in the store at some point this week, for those who might want to assemble a tiny crew of them.

EDIT: They have now invaded the store...


8.13.2013

Sand Trap

Cady and CC wanted to dig a tunnel through the sand at the beach, so of course the event turned into a photo shoot.

I'm still trying to the get the sand out of my fingernails!


8.12.2013

Walks on the Beach

Another quick trip to Old Orchard Beach in Maine, another sandy shot of some toys!

Having this duo finally teamed up together and actually going on some adventures has been a lot of fun.

I nearly took another picture of these goons, buried neck deep in a mountain of French Fries.


8.09.2013

Monsters VS Robots

The ever impressive Ralph Niese works his magic once again!

Michelle, Marc and I have been staring at this piece pretty much nonstop since first laying eyes on it.

Thanks a million Ralph! Now we just have to make a movie to match your poster!

8.08.2013

Hidden Histories

Noboto's connection to Pheyden and the rest of the Travelers is a strange one, with heavy ties to our original Rechlen and Aves stories and characters.

A particular group from those old scribblings, called the Lost Sincroid Army, actually set in motion the creation of the first Pheyden, and Noboto played a major role in that event.


8.06.2013

Neo Phase Hunter

A little tweak to the Neo Acroyear build from the other day. This design was also intended to double as a new type of Phase Hunter.


8.05.2013

New Outlander Release!

Ni is set to release a brand new Outlander assortment in his store tonight, August 5th, at 9 PM EST.

The crazy clear neon pink shown in the pics above matches the Sarvos we ran back in December 2012 from the Council of Travelers release. It truly is one of the strangest hues of colored PVC I've ever seen. The surface seems to change its look depending on the light source you view it under. These pics were taken as the sun was getting low, which created a neat effect as Outlander Theta soaked up some solar energy!

Make sure you check out Ni and his partner Cpresti's new Astrolog as well, to see exactly what is going on between the characters shown above.

Congratulations on production round number 2 for the Outlander, Ni!


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!