Did I say 'Next Week'?

Okay, a little later than I had originally planned. But, yo, things are moving really quick at the moment. It's kind of exciting! Before I get into the usual updates, I just want to mention that this is shaping up to be a big year for Brownnoize Productions. And this ain't the usual vaporware either! LOL

The collaborations on tap are gonna be off the hook. The in-house toys produced by yours truly are gonna be off the hook. Not much of a teaser trailer, I know, but I just wanted to express my gratitude to those cats who've stuck around and supported my diverse and weird efforts at making stuff people like over the past few years. You will be rewarded. But enough about that...let's get it poppin'.

I know a lot of folks are anxious to hear the latest about the "Throne of Chaos" Unicron stands, so we'll start with a quick update. The order with our fabricator was placed last week, so the first wave of stands should be touching down very soon! The support for these things has been pretty amazing...and I know the price is a bit steep for them, but once you have your Unicron sitting atop one of these stands, I think you'll agree it was well worth it! If you have any questions or are interested in ordering, please e-mail us at unicronstands at gmail dot com.

How about some Gin Gin news? Well, there isn't much I can show off at the moment, but I can say that everything at the moment is riding on finding a reliable sticker guy. We're looking far and wide for the right person, but I know it'll happen soon enough. Ha...y'all been waiting long enough, huh? :P Well, there's another closely-related update to go along with Gin Gin's progress: Monster Kolor now has a brick-n-mortar shop! Located in Middleboro, MA, Monster Kolor Studios will bring the funk...as well as serve as a US-based factory for a whole lot of dangerous projects planned for the future. Stay tuned...and in fact, swing by for a visit and see the mighty Dead Presidents in person and in action!

As for LRGs, there's not a ton to report at the moment. My part in my the latest collaboration is over and now the project has moved into the mold-making phase. Masters are being meticulously sanded, glossed, and generally babied as we speak! More to come...

Okay, now for the hottest news (in my opinion!). Diaclone Powered Suits...ACTIVATE!! First up, though, some background on my custom Diaclone driver. In the tradition of the M18x Lady Command Microman figures, I whipped up a female Diaclone driver!

I am Micro Woman. Hear me roar!!

Her design was originally inspired by Samus Aran of Metroid fame, but I had to ditch her iconic ponytail because it extended too far back in the Powered Suit cockpit. What's a gal to do, right? Instead, I opted for more of a 60's Mary Tyler Moore-esque "flip" haircut. Much easier on the headrest inside the suit...

Anyway, hair notwithstanding, this is all pretty awesome in theory. But as it turns out, the actual printed figure is so fine that most of her details get lost in the translucent plastic! Still, I'd love to see one of these figures painted up by someone with wargaming-miniature-painting skills. Time to make some calls...

And now, onto the suit, itself!

Please forgive the wobbly look of the upper arms--I didn't have any glue on hand to fix them into the shoulder pauldrons. But I gotta say, the suit's looking freshly dipped. The shoulder joints are straight *money*. The teeny magnets work perfectly. They can't support much weight, but they don't really have to. And because they're magnets, you know they'll never wear out like friction-based joints.

And as you can tell, the other nice upgrade over the original--the aligned viewport--is now just about perfect!

And finally, the shoulder mount for the weapon works pretty much without a hitch. I didn't take any pics, but the projectile just slides in and out...and fires perfectly from a stock type c weapon.

So I think I'm gonna do just one more run of all the parts just to be 100% sure of the fit and finish on everything. Once I'm completely satisfied with the design, I'll post it publicly with purchasing instructions (buy in kit form from Shapeways, then hit me up for the magnets). Hotter than sauce...

Unicron Stand Redux!

Guys, I'm putting together a bigger post with the usual progress pics (and tales of woe!) for next week, but I wanted to post some exciting and immediate news. Due to popular demand, I'm pleased to announce the Return of the Throne of Chaos! Yup, Brownnoize Productions' very first TF accessory is going to be available again for at least a limited time.

Need a refresher on this thing? Check out EmGo's killer youtube review:

Ever since BBTS sold out of these Unicron display stands, I've been getting a fairly steady stream of requests from folks for them. Of course, with a day job, my other toy design projects, a girlfriend...y'know--a life!...I simply lacked the resources to offer them anymore. So with a heavy heart, I had to turn away these fellow Chaos cultists! Well, I've been talking it over with my kingpin, Dave, and when we asked our acrylic fabricator if he'd be willing to go back to producing the small batches we were doing before, he said he was all in! WU-TANG!

So things are going to work pretty much the same as before. At first, just to feel things out, we're gonna do a preorder for the initial wave. All ordering and other correspondence will be going through Dave @ unicronstands at gmail.com, but as usual, feel free to hit me up with any questions using the **Contact Brownnoize** link to the right. Depending on how things go, we may offer them perpetually, but for now, we're just focused on hooking up the folks who've been anxious to get these things for ages.

That's pretty much all there is to it--just holla at Dave and he'll guide you through Paypal-ing the money, and once we have a critical mass of preorders, it's off to our fabricator! The response so far has been pretty wild...so THANKS, EVERYONE!!

Design evolution

That's the concept on my mind as of late--"design evolution". Why? Well, a couple of the projects I'm working on right now have mutated considerably over the last couple months. The realities of toy manufacturing can sure poop all over the ideal vacuum of CAD modeling. That's just the nature of the beast, I guess!

Actually, one decision that has been going through some evolution has been this whole facebook thing (see last month's post). I'm sure you're all riveted to hear if and when I'm finally gonna give in and join the Borg collective. Heh. Well, that little adventure might just be on hiatus...again. See, some of my buddies have been reporting to me that facebook groups (including the TBDX one) kinda suck. It appears that there's no real perpetuity. I guess there's a search function...and even though commenting on an old post will bump it back to the top of the list, no one really uses the group that way. The net result is a bunch of disjointed one- or two-post "conversations", where someone will post a picture of a toy, and a couple people will say "cool"...and that's it. Completely inane, and hardly the basis of a fandom or community.

Ugh.

Thanks, internet. But we'll see...

I'm probably going back to my original plan: join once Foe Gokin Gin Gin is actually done. And speaking of that project, not a ton to report. The recent blizzard New England was smacked with a couple weeks ago has driven a wedge into our recent progress...but things are slowly thawing and getting back on pace.

Anyway, speaking of TBDX and evolution, our very own Alen Yen of Incubot is bringing mo' funk with a fully-licensed Grendizer USB drive live on Kickstarter RIGHT NOW! Go there and pledge your support. The Godfather needs us.

Moving on to little rubber guys, things are going pretty well. And of course, as you've come to expect, I can't tell y'all a damn thing! :P I mentioned "good news" last month regarding a collaborative project I'm working on--well, it's still in development so I can't say much, but it's really becoming a little slice of awesome. In my opinion, it blows away the MUSCLEs I've designed thus far, and I'm hoping that by next month, I'll actually be able to share some of my excitement with you guys.

Now, before I break some of my cooler news of the month, I wanna send a mecha-sized shout out to Nicole and Jim Shea of FOE Gallery in Northampton, MA for hosting the "Rise of the Robots" art exhibition at the gallery last weekend. "Art openings" aren't my scene at all (I know--you're shocked! :P ), but I've gotten to know Nicole and Jim, and they're cool peoples. They're passionate and they're doing what they do for the right reasons. Gods bless 'em...'cause that's more that can be said for a lot of folks out there trying to hustle.

Anyway, with a title like that, the exhibition was all about toys and artwork based on ROBUTTS! The aforementioned blizzard delayed the opening eight days, but the turnout was impressive and I was even able to meet some very cool locals, including Transformers: Robots in Disguise cover artist, Casey Coller. Talented and humble.

Catching up with old buddies was also great, of course. I had a feeling he'd show up, but I wasn't sure...so it was nice to bump into Todd "Mecha Virus" Robertson. Solid dude. Just a couple train stops away, we always promise we'll hang out in town!

^^One of Todd's "Amonaito" resin figures painted in Monster Kolor

And, of course, our pal David White was there to dazzle us with his amazing left-handed artwork...and tell horrifyingly dirty jokes. Yeah. We get along great.

And, of course, can't forget our lil brother, Ben Mininberg. Ben really showed and proved at the show, and I'm proud of the lad. He was reppin' hardcore with his very own line of ridiculously well-painted 3D-printed power armor figures. Conceived, designed, and manufactured *from scratch* in his lab, these were the closest to actual toys in the whole show. Peep his blog to learn more about his process and see more pics. Oh, and I happened to snag one of his figures:

And before I forget, my girl snagged a killer piece of artwork (not sure what to call it 'cause it's not really a painting) from James Biggie. That name sound familiar to you? Well it ought to! Partnered with Frankie B. Washington, he makes up half the creative team behind Robot God Akamatsu. We first met them a couple years ago at the 2011 East Coast Chogokin Summit (damn, I miss my 'fro!).

Anyway, back to the artwork. She picked it out this particular piece...and I gotta say, I couldn't've made a better choice:

Okay, so I've given y'all updates on the current collaborations I'm working on, I mentioned Alen's Kickstarter, and I talked about last week's art opening at FOE. Now it's time to reveal that solo project I teased about at the end of last month's post! If your eyes are good--and you're well-versed in Transformers lore--you probably already know what's going down. I'm working on a reproduction (read: bootleg! har) of the Diaclone Powered Suit!

Diaclone was a hard scifi toy line by Takara in the early 80's that evolved from their Henshin Cyborg (yes, the descendants of GI Joe, by way of Japan's "Combat Joe") and Microman lines. No discussion of Japanese robot toys could ever hope to be complete without thorough consideration of these toys--they were marvelously detailed and never failed to spark youngsters' imaginations with their outrageous design aesthetic. I mean, forget how Transformers evolved from this toy line. Taken on their own, they're simply amazing from a design perspective.

^^Okay, but what *are* these things, exactly? Well, most folks aware of the Transformers' Diaclone roots, are familiar with Diaclone drivers, the ubiquitous 3cm-tall dudes who piloted and populated the bigger toys in the series. Some USers will remember the "Diakron" and "Kronoform" lines' wild scifi robots and ships with these driver figures. And of course the Diaclone Car Robots that were eventually brought to here--sans drivers--as the early G1 Transformers toys.

The "Powered Suit" was a sort of accessory to enhance these lil guys. A cheap Diaclone fix for kids. As the name implies, they were very small mecha that the driver figures could fit inside ([nerd]I shy away from calling them true "power armor" because the driver's limbs don't actually control the mecha's limbs via natural, analog movement...[/nerd]). They were available in three different sculpts and two colors; tiny, fragile, and intricate. And while they were dirt cheap when the first came out, they easily command in the neighborhood of $200 a pop these days. Yikes!

Anyway, fast-forward from the early 80's to several months ago. A conversation between me and my bacon-loving cohort, Mason. Why not CAD-up some of our own Powered Suits?? We'd seen online some amazing efforts at repro'ing these toys, but the projects seemed unfinished...and the products--if any--unavailable. Well, some recent experiments with stainless steel printing sparked the idea in my head: the silver body of the suits is unpainted diecast metal on the original toys, right? Then why not make the body of our toy printed steel, and the rest in 3D-printed plastics?

And the evolution just took off from there. My intention was never to make a *precise* replica of the original toy, but I wanted something that looked legit and performed well functionally. And that means that besides looking good, 1) a stock Diaclone driver had to be able to fit inside it, 2) a stock weapon and my repro weapon (including the projectiles) had to be fully-interchangeable and compatible with stock and repro suits, and 3) my suit had to be able to fit inside Big Powered (an even BIGGER robot that the suit fits inside...like a crazy matryoshka doll!). I think I've nailed the look of the Type C suit--the most common variant--and I'm proud to say that a driver figure (which are relatively easy to find) fits nice and snug inside. I haven't tried to fit the repro in a Big Powered yet, but I don't expect any difficulties.

But wait--there's more! Besides those basic requirements, I wanted to add some enhancements to the original design. See, as much as I dig the original toys, certain aspects always irked me. The biggest kick in the groin was the complete lack of shoulder articulation! That's got FAIL written all over it. The original toy's main body and the shoulders are just one big solid hunk of diecast metal. These guys are great at standing at attention...but pretty crummy at chop-socky. :/ Well, until *I* came along, that is! It didn't take me long to discover that 3D printed stainless steel is ferromagnetic...and you know what that means! Magnetic shoulders!

Next, more of an aesthetic gripe: even though there's a nice view port where the face is on the suit's main hatch, you can't actually see the driver's face through the damn opening! Here's an early prototype that didn't account for this...annoyance:

I've since been tweaking the inner dimensions of the suit to prop up our hapless driver a bit. Y'know...so he can actually see where he's going! :P

It's coming along nicely and my next prototype should have him propped up another half-millimeter or so.

And finally, I originally wanted to devise some way to mount the weapon on his arm so that he could be posed aiming it (putting those new fancy articulated shoulders to use!), but then I realized that the Type C weapon is just WAY too huge. Next best thing? A shoulder mount!

It's just a simple adapter that plugs into the normal hole on the back of the suit for the weapon. It can accommodate all three weapon types...and it doesn't look half-bad! ;)

Anyway, this particular project has been a wild ride. I know you've heard me say that before in regard to other toy designs--it seems to be a common utterance in this absurd hobby! But this "not-Diaclone Powered Suit" has presented me with a pretty unique challenge: getting multiple solids printed in different media to play nice. See, if this were all injection-molded ABS plastic, designing would be a snap because of ABS's dimensional stability. But because 3D printed materials have such wildly-varying properties, producing even a simple mechanism comprising parts of different materials can take dozens and dozens of iterations to nail the right dimensions in CAD or select the material with just the right balance of resolution and toughness. Very time-consuming...but hopefully worth it in the end!

I'm getting close to having the design tweaked to account for all the tolerances. Once it's complete, I'll just add it to my Shapeways store, announce it to the TF community, and await feedback. Good times ahead!

Big changes on tap for '13!

Sorry, folks: yet another wall of text for you guys since I can't seem to get my junk together enough to post more frequently! :P Well, let me start off with some pretty major house-keeping news: It looks like 2013 might just be the year I transition my blog from this site to...the dreaded, horrible FACEBOOK!!! Mwahahaahaha!!

If you know me at all, you know I've always been dead-set against MySpace, facebook, or any other crap like that. I've got plenty of friends as it is. Really, an overwhelming number, in fact. I can barely keep up with socializing in meatspace. Flip the script--I have MOAR than enough online diversions...between the several toy websites I frequent and contribute to, and the several e-mail accounts I maintain to manage my social and business endeavors, taking on yet another internet-based responsibility seems about as sensible as trying to nail jello to a tree.

And yet, here we are! Half my boys can't stand facebook...and I have to listen to them complain about it all the time. So I can't help imagining their disappointment to learn that the last pillar of resistance(!) in their community is buckling before the might of social media. Heh...but there's a reason for the treason: see, my bread-n-butter has always been ToyboxDX. Started by Alen Yen in the late 90's, it's where many of us toy-geeks got our start, y'knowmsayin? It's where we met, exchanged stories of how we got into this weird hobby, shared the joys of our toy-scores and the pains of our lost auctions...and ultimately built a little community around a shared passion.

Well, the traditional BBS is rapidly going the way of the dodo. The board doesn't get much traffic these days...and in fact, Alen has recently created a TBDX facebook group. And that joint is BUMPIN'! So...I guess if I wanna continue interacting with my people, I'ma have to suck it up and sell my soul to the devil! And I guess if I'm going down, this blog's going with it! :P I'm not trying to maintain multiple online presences, so if I can get my BBS fix and rock a blog--all via one "social media" website--well, I guess I can get behind that.

What's kinda funny to me about this potential transition is that this blog has been around since 2010, and it's original purpose was to herald the "Foe Gokin" Gin Gin figure--a goal we've yet to realize! Well, 2013 may see the end of this site...but I'm pleased to report that we may see Gin Gin first! Shockingly, all the issues I complained about in my last blog post (yes, over two months ago!) have pretty much been resolved. My partner-in-crime, Matt Walker, recently sent me some *actual* work-in-progress shots of him painting up a Gin Gin body in his lab:

Could this project be FINALLY coming together!? I just couldn't help but post these shots. I'm ready to drive down to wherever he's painting these things and...I dunno...stick one in my mouth? Well...I dunno what I'd do. I just know I'm excited, damn it!

The parts are being painted with genuine Monster Kolor brushable paints, and even though you can see the strokes, Matt assures me that once it dries and gets top-coated, it'll look nice and tight!

Matt's getting over the flu now, but work is going to start back up again soon. The stickers should be finalized shortly as well. Very cool! And, of course, I'm in charge of packaging and all that's good to go (finally).

***

Anyway, I wanna switch over to the keshigomu tip for a minute. Some good news and some bad news. The bad is that production of Spinning Head Sunshine has ceased indefinitely. The mold for the suit portion of the figure is extremely difficult to create...and it involves VERY careful cutting with a VERY sharp knife. And even though Alec, the wizard behind MUSCLEThings.com, managed to rock that first mold, the second mold attempt nearly cost him a finger. Yikes!

So those few folks out there lucky enough to score one from the first mold may end up having the only SHS figures ever! Crazy. Well, the nice thing is that this actually gives Alec the opportunity to focus on his own amazing creations. And who knows--we may go back and revisit this mold again in the future. Either way, y'all ain't heard the last from us! There will most definitely be more collabs between us in the future...

Oh, and that good keshi news I was referring to before? Well, this is mostly still under wraps, so I can't divulge too much at this time, but I've got yet another collaboration in the works right now to produce a toy that should *ROCK* fans of a particular 80's scifi property...both here in the US and in Japan! Much, much more to come...

***

And finally, I wanna post a little something about a special project I've been working on for the past couple months with my boys. It's not quite ready yet, so this is just another teaser...but perhaps a bit more appetizing than just typing it out, how about a picture???

Strictly for the Diaclone/Pre-TF fans!! ;) Been a minute since I showed them heads some love! Again, stay tuned for more...and thanks for the continuing support, folks!

Nothing serious

First snowfall of the season today in Waltham, MA...and thankfully no more gods damned political commercials to ruin my Celtics games! ;)

In celebration, I'm just gonna post a bunch of random stuff I've been messing around with lately. For the past month or two, things have been mostly quiet as far as toy production goes. It's not a bad thing: I've had more time to spend with my girl, my friends, and go on trips and see new things.

At the risk of starting off on a sour note, though, it's looking less and less likely that Foe Gokin Gin Gin is gonna come out before the end of the year. I know that it's been almost two years of developmental hell...but the delays seem to be piling up all of a sudden. The box printers--despite their promises--have failed to follow through. The latest body masters from Shapeways (for pewter casting) have had weird surface distortions. I can't quite seem to get the shield design "just right". And the god of paint, Dead Presidents, is too busy with other projects to come through these days... :/

Hate to sound pessimistic--especially after all this time sounding optimistic--but that's where we're at. But on the strength, I'ma still keep crashing the boards to get this project done. Failure is not an option.

But enough moping. I've got tons of mini-projects going on...and they're funner'n hell!

First, peep this madness... gold-plated stainless steel AshuraShine!!

This thing is straight up and down nuts! It's the same exact dimensions as the rubber ones MUSCLEThings is casting for everyone...only it's just a gold-finished stainless steel print from Shapeways (see my last blog post for some more info on the stainless steel printing process).

As you can see, the detail is a little muddied and weird. Like, the partition lines between the bricks are barely visible because of the lower print resolution...plus the highly visible print layers interfere in a really wild sorta way. But it's Sunshine, damnit. And he's GOLD...like he's supposed to be! When I was showing it to a coworker this morning, I dropped it...and the wang off his desk could be heard all around the office. Not a damn scratch on the figure, but it sure left a welt on his veneer! ;)

I'm not even sure what I'ma do with this thing. I kinda made it with that "because I can" mentality, y'knowmsayin? The figure costs a little over $80, so I might just offer it to the LRG folks to see if anyone would be interested. Could be cool, right? If anyone's actually interested, I'll probably tweak the model a bit to optimize the print (increase the depth/size of the brick partition lines, and enhance other details to prevent them from getting lost). We'll see how heads respond to it...

The next cool thing I've been playing with these days is brass from i.materialise. This is a little pricier of an option, but it's something that my young ward, Ben, from Prometheus Rising Studios put me on to a while back. It's actually kind of a fascinating process: these cats actually print your object in a sort of wax or wax-like substance (don't know anything about the specific print process/technology), then they actually use the age-old lost-wax casting process to make a pretty damn sharp brass piece from the print! Pretty slick, if you ask me.

And the results are killer. Click on that Prometheus link above for Ben's Bounce Tortoise power armor done up in brass. And here's some shots of a brass MUSCLE Gin Gin next to one done up in Shapeways' stainless steel:

I love what I'm seeing with this brass, yo. The details are almost as tight as they are with the stainless. And there's a tiny, tiny bit of geometric distortion with the brass. But at the end of the day, the surface finish utterly dominates the stainless prints.

Just looking at the shields above, you can sorta tell that the stainless is a little sharper. The fidelity of those details is just a bit nicer than on the brass casting.

And that ain't no sloppy posing: both Gin Gin figures are equidistant from the camera. The brass one IS, in fact, shorter by a small amount--I guess you lose a little bit of size with the lost-wax method. Will have to remember to factor that in...

But if you look SUPER close, you can kinda see that the silhouette of the back of Gin Gin's head is a little flatter on the brass piece than it is on the stainless one. The stainless head is perfect, but somehow, the brass casting got flattened out a bit. That's kinda what I meant by "geometric distortion". You can see the same type of thing here in a pic Ben took comparing his Bounce Tortoises. If your eyes are sharp, you can see that the top, flat surfaces of those vents above each shoulder are perfectly level on the polyamide and stainless steel prints. On the brass casting in the middle, however, those surfaces dip inwards just a little bit.

But remember: besides resolution and distortion, there's also surface finish to consider. Since my last blog post, I've been gushing about the surprisingly high resolution on those stainless steel prints. True indeed, I was and still am impressed given the tiny size of these figures. And in terms of distortion, there simply is none with stainless. I think the brass castings from i.materialise come in a close second in both of these categories. Even though they cost twice as much as stainless from Shapeways.

But that third category...oh damn. I think it's pretty safe to say that the surface finish on the brass piece kills it. I mean, as far as metal-printing options go today, brass is optimal. But what about that price?? This little brass MUSCLE Gin Gin cost me about $100. In my opinion, that's just too much for an end product. So here's my plan: do more minifigs...print them in brass...use the brass pieces as mold masters for local pewter casting. BLAO!

Oh yeah...production has already begun...

Oh, one more quick thing before we get off the MUSCLE Gin Gin tip. My CAD-cohort, Ben, also just copped himself an UP! Mini 3D printer. I've never been a huge fan of FDM machines in the past, but they've been getting a lot of positive press lately because their prices have always been lower than SLA or SLS...and now, they're finally starting to offer competitive resolution and smart break-away support material. Anyway, he tried his hand at printing a couple MUSCLE Gin Gins:

It's a good experience for him to learn about print orientation, how to partition models, etc...and once he's optimized these prints, he's gonna start painting them up just for the hell of it. It's always fun to see Ben's stuff evolve. Even if he can't figure out how to use a damn calendar... ;)

Anyway...what else is cooking? Oh--some folks may remember that I CAD-modeled a late version Popy GA-01 Mazinger Z. Well, along with offering a gold-plated stainless steel AshuraShine print, I decided to print up a MUSCLE-ized version of that GA-01 for the hell of it. A couple folks have expressed interest in getting one...so hit me up if you're looking. Unfortunately, they're about $50 a whack...and I'm guessing around $100 in brass from i.m. They're pretty tight though...

As for my MUSCLE collabs with MT, I promise to get on the ball this weekend! I'm back from vacation this week and my priority has been getting this blog out there...and doing laundry. Oh man. Anyway, check it: Spinning Head Sunshine sets ARE IN. Unfortunately, I've just been gone for so damn long, I only got around to ordering the header cards this week. They should be in soon, so I'll start taking official orders this weekend so that I'm ready to go when the cards arrive.

AshuraShine sales keep coming in from every angle. Alec hit me up with a bunch of those in his latest shipment as well. I'ma offer the traditional MUSCLE-pink ones to the tail-enders on the LRG list...then it's a free-for-all. Anyone who hits me up for one get a choice of whatever's in stock. Then I finally might be able to offer these things to folks on other damn boards! ;)

And last but not least, meet Lou:

I first saw him on the wall a couple weeks before I left for vacation...and I just sorta left him alone 'cause he was so big and cool-looking. Then, when I got back this weekend, there he was. Flossin'. Standing in his b-boy stance. So I had to take a pic. And name him Lou. Just 'cause.

Aiight, I'm out.

Spinning Head Sunshine cometh...

Happy autumn, everybody! My favorite season, and certainly the most picturesque in New England. Well, there's all types of good stuff going on, and the past month has been pretty busy. Quiet...but busy. So let's get to it.

First off, the big news is that test-shots for Spinning Head Sunshine (the armor) and Spinshine (the core/top) are in! And DAMN if Alec hasn't outdone himself yet again. So most of y'all have seen two sets of pictures so far, right? First were the original CAD drawings, then there were the 3D prints last time (of Spinshine, anyway). Now, we've got final rubber castings...and I gotta tell ya--it never ceases to amaze me how spot-on they are to the original CAD models. Check this out!

Alec is a master of his craft. It's simple as that. Look how dope these guys look! Well, first off, all three faces on Spinshine are super-crisp. Ashuraman would be proud.

And more importantly, Spinshine fits in the Spinning Head Sunshine (SHS) armor perfectly. Alec's rubber flexes nicely to accommodate the top, and the connection is nice and snug. I mean, that's not terribly impressive given that both toys were designed concurrently in CAD...but the big draw is obviously MUSCLE #195--also known as Sunshine F or "Spinning Top Sunshine"--being able to fit in the SHS armor.

Well, it works, damnit! It's not as seamless a fit as Spinshine, but that's because Sunshine F was sculpted by hand thirty years ago! Spinshine's geometrically perfect, with its precisely revolved geometry. When popped into the SHS armor, Sunshine F can feel a little awkward--it can vary from nice and snug to kinda loose and rattly just due to the inconsistent nature of the original sculpt. Still, it's not problematic because he's never in danger of being too fiddly...let alone falling out. The bottom line is that it works, and even if the seams are a bit more pronounced than on the Spinshine x SHS fit function, it still looks HOT!

And, oh, the colors! Alec sent me a couple translucent-opaque mash-ups...and they'll melt your eyeballs. I've noticed that neon pink or orange details get kinda washed out in my photos, and purples can look a lot more blue than they're supposed to, but hell if I know how to fix that in my camera settings! But whatever...you get the idea. The figures are fantastic in person.

And that translucent rubber is legit. Add a little back-lighting, and these things become epic!

So here's how it's gonna work: I'll be establishing a list on MUSCLEThings.com for those interested in purchasing. The MT list gets priority...so if you want yours sooner, head over, register if you haven't, and post in that thread. Once the MT list is done, I'll serve anyone on LRG who may not have replied on MT. I decided to go this route to drive some traffic Alec's way and to make sure the custom minifigure-casting community there gets love.

As for the price, just like AshuraShine, it's gonna be $20 for either figure (Spinshine or SHS). They're gonna be bagged and sold separately, and once someone's name comes up on the list, they're gonna have the option to buy up to one of each (though I may extend that to up to two SHS armor figures if mad heads want one for their existing Sunshine F...AND one to go with the brand-new Spinshine--we'll see).

But let's not get ahead of ourselves! Even if they're production quality, these are only test-shots. Hell, I haven't even gotten started on the header card! :P Soon, though...I hope you guys get a chance to see how neat these figures are in person!

And as for AshuraShine, production may have slowed down for the summer, but we're back on. In fact, I've got a big pile of multi-colored ones on my floor right now!

There are less than a dozen folks still patiently waiting for these guys on the LRG thread/list, so I'm going to offer them a chance to buy one of these AshuraShines of color, rather than waiting for the next round of traditional pink ones. I figure that's fair for making 'em wait so damn long.

...

Aiight, enough with the MUSCLE-hustle for now. Let's switch gears back to robutts for some quick Gin Gin updates.

First off, I need to get something off my chest. I unwrapped something that made my brain explode last night. Most of the fellas interested in 3D-modeling/printing over at TBDX have known that print shops like Shapeways have offered stainless steel printing for some time now. I guess the perception for a while has been...why bother? I mean, SLA processes offer FAR better resolution and general surface quality...and SLS offers light, durable plastics for more structural applications. Oh, and both SLA and SLS are *vastly* cheaper. Well, at this year's East Coast Chogokin Summit, I got a chance to see steel-printed minis from Roger Harkavy and from Ben of Prometheus Rising Studios. They were pretty damn neat, so I said "what the hell"...

Holy crap...on a crap cracker. Mind = Blown.

Baby Gin Gin...in all his 1-3/4" glory...rendered in indestructible stainless steel. I unwrapped this guy last night, and I simply haven't been able to put him down since. It's THAT awesome. Weighing in at 1.3 ounces, he's actually pretty damn hefty for his diminutiveness. And even if I squeeze (with just my fingers--no wrenches or other tools!) those tiny horns with all my might, I can't make 'em budge. Of course, I could see a shelf-dive potentially taking out a horn just given the weight of the figure and the momentum from a fall.

But just check out the finish. Pretty wild! The resolution is not nearly as bad as I thought it'd be--most of the surface features came out shockingly well. The issue, of course, is the finish. The layers are pretty clearly visible and there's that pitted texture. But I'll tell ya: the resolution of these photos tends to enhance the flaws. The figure is TINY...compared to the hugeness of these macro shots. In hand, this lil guy looks and feels great. The star emblems on the shields make me squeal like a little girl!

The figure stands super-firmly on the ground with no wobble whatsoever, but what was interesting to notice (see above) was that the bottom of his right foot is almost mirror-polished, while the left foot has the same pitted texture as the rest of the figure. I wonder if that's because the bronze was infused via the right foot (see Shapeways' page on stainless steel printing here...it's actually pretty neat), and thus needed to be machined clean after the process.

Anyway, I'm definitely printing more of these guys. Then again, at over $40 a whack...not TOO many more... ;)

And as for the Foe Gokin version of Gin Gin, we're making some good progress this week. I'm meeting up with paint-maestro, Matt Walker, to continue our paint color discussions. Also, I've officially fired the print shop who was handling the Foe Gokin slipcases. I'm praying to Aron Ra that the new shop I'm going with doesn't bend me over like the previous one...

Anyway, I've shown y'all the latest 3D print of the body, in polished alumide, but this is actually the first time anyone but Walker has seen the actual pewter casting from the print! All I can say is that it's tight. The geometry is much sharper than ever before because of alumide's ability to withstand high temperatures. Alumide's only weakness is the rough surface texture...but in the final castings, it turns out it's not too bad:

That Monster Kolor paint should have no trouble smoothing out those tiny surface pits. Also, if you notice above, we're trying something a bit different with the star marks on the shield. I think it looks a little better--more star-like?--and it shouldn't be tough to hand-paint.

That's it for this month, folks! Til next time...