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...

Quick pics!

Took some nice photos this weekend and I thought I'd share them with you...

But first, I want to send a big shout-out to Nicole and Jim Shea of FOE store and art gallery in Northampton, MA. Friday night, they hosted an opening party for the "Summers Cauldron" art exhibit, featuring toys and artwork from Paul Kaiju, Rich Montanari Jr., Elegab, and Eric Talbot...and I was there to troll the inevitable parade of hipsters! Ha! For real though, I was urged to come through by my local vinyl cohorts...and I didn't really have any excuse *not* to go, seeing as how my girlfriend lives a block from the gallery. :P

Nah, it was really good to support Nicole and Jim. It was also great to meet some new heads who'd made the trip--chilling with Phil "hellopike" was an especially nice treat as I've always admired his Glyos-customizing work. Other east coast skullbrainers were there as well. For instance, meeting Rich "LASH" of Mutant Vinyl Hardcore (MVH) for the first time was cool since we'd only previously known each other online before...despite his being from Connecticut. Oh, and knocking heads with mecha-madman Todd Robertson is always a good thing!

Like I said, the local crew was there--atease, wingnut0, Prometheum5, David White of Mechazone, Jake of Pioneer Valley Roller Derby, and others I'm probably forgetting. Don't need no excuse to chill with those lads. But I think the big draw for me was meeting Paul Kaiju, finally, in the flesh. The man's been a member of our own ToyboxDX since 2002. Not too many folks know that! Well, the man's a scholar and a gentleman...and it was an honor to close down a local watering hole with him and Nicole and Jim Friday night.

Gallery openings, as you can imagine, just AREN'T my thing. But I was able to suck it up and ignore all the frothing about who was trying to score what exclusive. In fact, I ended up using my ironically great lottery pick (yes, there's a damn lottery to determine what order one can purchase exclusives in--otherwise, there'd be chaos) to throw down for the Mock Bat toy you see above. It's a vinyl kaiju toy Paul sculpted and had slush-cast in Japan using traditional methods. He hand-dyed the figure and added accent paint afterwards. I told him I didn't care about how R@R3ZORZ the toy was...but the fact that so much work--really, so much of himself--had gone into the toy, I was quite happy to buy it.

Anyway, I now REALLY wish I'd taken more pics at the show...but just google "Summers Cauldron FOE"--there should be plenty of coverage on the internets. You can see some of the art and toys here. And once again, big up to Nicole and Jim for putting on such a solid event!

...

Now for those quick pics I promised!

First up, the lighting was just crazy-good one morning so I decided to snap just a couple shots of the East Coast Chogokin Summit AshuraShine figures Alec cast specially for the gathering. There's hot pink, crystal clear(!), and a medium pink (not pictured) that's about halfway between traditional MUSCLE pink and the hot pink of the other figures for the event.

That clear is NO JOKE. I mean, Alec's casting is already flawless. And his plasticized rubber feels incredible. In my opinion, the clear just adds another level of professional quality to my man's work. Oh, and make no mistake about it: that hot pink will melt your eyeballs! ;)

Next, I just couldn't resist taking a couple Gin Gin shots in that same lighting:

So basically, it's like this: that body you see is the polished alumide print from Shapeways I've been talking about. Same with the head; however, it's starting to look like the final production heads will actually be straight-up printed in polished polyamide (along with the arms). And, yeah, those arms don't even match, but they're all I had laying around. Still...groovy pics!

And finally, the Spinshine prototype came in:

That thing *sucked* to photograph! All the details are microscopic...and the material (3D Systems high-res SLA) is translucent, so with light bouncing around inside, everything looks washed out.

Oh well...no big. It's already on its way to Alec's, so we should be getting test castings soon enough! ;)

Neglected child

That's what this blog feels like sometimes! I'll bring home a present or something to smooth things over...but *know* that junk ain't gonna work! Heh...oh well...

But enough about that! The East Coast Chogokin Summit was last Saturday, and as usual, it was glorious. I'm not going to dwell on it too much here, but if you get a chance, look it up on facebook (and soon on CollectionDX). There ought to be plenty of pics out there...along with some suitably embarrassing video of yours truly!

Suffice it to say that a great time was had by all. Every year, the number of attendees keeps on growing, and it's just exciting to watch this crazy thing evolve!

Anyway, let's get back to business. First, if anyone was interested in how last month's Lament Configuration turned out...well...the news ain't so good! See, the whole impetus to design the damn thing was that the hand-finished ones online cost $400 and up. Ouch! Well, even with 1.5mm walls, it's still $175 in polyamide from Shapeways! Guh. Yeah, not so fantastic. So I dunno...maybe I'll make a chisai keychain version or something. Who knows. At least the mechanism worked beautifully!

Gin Gin news? Well, things are accelerating in the right direction. I met with our intrepid paint master, Matt Walker, last week to go over some things. We're definitely on the right footing to get an actual working, properly-colored figure within a reasonable time frame.

I don't have any pics to show, but two major things need to be settled at this point. First, the production parts: I'm sending my local metal caster a new body made from polished alumide this week. Hopefully, this will be *it* for the body. The head is something I'm actually on the fence about. We can either continue to have it cast in pewter...or we can go with polished polyamide--the same stuff the arms will be done in. The latter would be more "authentic", because classic chogokin always had plastic heads...but the irony is that casting it in metal may actually be cheaper than 3D printing! We'll see. And finally, the aforementioned arms will be printed in polished polyamide coming from either Shapeways or i.materialise. It's a coin-toss right now because Shapeways' customer service is horrendous and their polyamide quality has been questionable as of late. On the other hand, i.m can only become remotely price-competitive IF you buy in bulk (~10-20 sets of arms per order). Again, we'll see...

And second point to settle is the paint itself. Some of the colors on the paint master were off. Blues were too light, greens were too dark. Y'know...that sort of thing. The biggest issue was actually the color mapping. I guess there was some miscommunication at some point, and the color map we were looking at was an older, more complex version. I had since redefined the map to 1) cut down on work for us, and 2) bring the toy more in-line with the clean, simplified look of Popy ST's. Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, we're going to iron out all these details while I tighten up the packaging details with my printer.

...

AshuraShine is still going strong. The end of the LRG preorder tunnel is in sight: once Alec and I get to the end of the list, I'm going to start advertising and selling on other sites.

Again, I don't have any pics to show yet, but I got some special figures from Alec to show off some fantastic colors! Among them are crystal clear and hot pink...and lemme tell ya: they're absolutely killer. I sold some of each at the Summit, but I've got a few left. I'll probably photograph them and post them for sale soon!

And now for this month's big news! My next MUSCLE design, Spinning Head Sunshine (SHS)! Now, this requires some 'splainin', so check this out. Above, you see good ol' MUSCLE #195, Sunshine (f) or "Spinning Top Sunshine". As y'all know, I've always loved Sunshine and all the weird shapes he could morph into. Well, the problem with this particular version of him is that, well...he can't exactly stand on his own.

In fact, he looks kinda like a doofus just sitting there on his ass. So the idea was to give him a bit of an upgrade! Peep this:

Yes--basically brick power armor for your #195! As you can tell, it's super-chunky...and I kinda dig that. What's cool in my opinion, though, is that it's actually no taller than your average MUSCLE. Anyway, these suits will obviously be cast in rubber by Alec. As such, the shoulders can flex apart as you stuff your Spinning Top Sunshine into the central cavity. The effect should be pretty killer!

But wait! There's more!

See, when I was talking to Alec about this design he brought up some important caveats. First of all, he'll be casting SHS in the same color and consistency across the board, right? Well, people's #195's may vary quite a bit. Remember--these toys are close to 30 years old! Some have been left out in the sun, some of them have been microwaved, some of them have been up kids' butts (yes, look twice at that lot of loose MUSCLEs you just scored offa eBay!). The colors--and sometimes, even shapes--may have changed with age. Or who knows: maybe it was a bad day at the factory and the color mix was off for that batch. Or maybe the figure was yanked from the mold before the PVC could set properly.

Either way, there's a chance your pink MUSCLE may not match Alec's pink SHS perfectly. And, hell--what about folks who don't even have a #195 but still want the suit??? So Alec's suggestion was actually to offer a replacement Spinning Top Sunshine! Thus, the birth of Spinshine:

SHS and Spinshine basically comprise "part 2" of my Sunshine trilogy, but honestly, I'm already getting a little sick of all these bricks! :P So with Spinshine, you can see that I decided to stretch my CAD muscles a little bit further than usual and come up with something more creative. Those familiar with Spinning Head Ashuraman--my source of inspiration with this toy--can immediately see the similarities. Spinshine's tri-face/symbol design is quite a bit more complex than AshuraShine. Check it out:

He's designed to fit SHS perfectly, and obviously, Alec will be able to match the colors precisely. AND we'll be able to pull off crazy colors/effects, instead of being stuck with folks' stock #195's. Like, can you imagine a crystal-clear SHS with a glow Spinshine in the center?? Dope.

As you may have noticed, Spinshine's head (heads?) is a bit bigger than the stock #195's head...but I think it fits in better with the combined Spinning Head Sunshine look:

These images will likely find their way to LRG soon, but let me know what y'all think! I can't wait to get feedback on this figure. As for taking orders, we're still a little ways off--the master prints from Shapeways (in 3D Systems' hi-res polymer) will probably arrive in a week or so...then off to Alec for molding and review by me. Stay tuned, of course, for more info! ;)