So where was I the last couple weeks? Why, getting head spins from paint and glue fumes of course!
Some of you may know I also moonlight under the Saru Venom/James Saru monikers for my creative projects, in this case it was for the Laced Munny customising competition held in conjunction annually with the Kidrobot Dunny release. With top notch entries in previous years I really had my work cut out for me, not to mention one of the biggest hurdles of just getting it started (unlike previous years!). So I decided to go all out and create the Diodon Battle Droid based loosely on Robotech Mech Warriors and incorporating some freshly learned painting techniques thanks to a resurging love for model kit building. Also threw some LED’s at it for good measure 😉
The competition itself had really taken off this year with 39 entries from some talented artists but the hard work paid off as I took home 1st place in the competition! 😀
Special thanks to Laced and their sponsors for hosting another great event, now how to follow it up next year??
Check the spec sheet for build information and the detailed photos below.
Forget if you think you can dance, these guys and girls KNOW they can dance and they go head to head to earn The Remix title!
The Remix at Brisbane Riverstage photos here
Toys toys toys!
With the call of Xmas and all the consumerism, especially of the moulded plastic kind, that it has to offer, we thought we’d give tribute to the little things that some how make us smile no matter what (:
Here are some of ours Gallery here
… then you get the rest of the family!
Kidrobot has a reunion for Munny with a family they never knew they had! Now under the aptly titled Munny world, Munny gets 4 new buddies Trikky, Rooz, Buband Raffy in the DIY range. All figures sit around the 4″ mark in size, are only available in white and retail for the same $9.95US as the Munnys. The possibilities are endless!
We’ll definitely be grabbing a couple soon enough 😀 If you can’t wait for them to hit the Aussie shelves and are willing to foot the postage costs, you can grab them from the site here
Get customising!
Nuked Nooks
A few months ago we stumbled across what can only be described as blatant ripoffs of Kidrobot Munnys. They’re called Nooks. The basic body mould and arms are pretty close (except they’re made from a cheap soft pvc blend. The arms are even softer along the lines of a dog’s chew toy, but more on that later) to that of the Munnys while the heads are an oblong sphere skewed towards the front. The main difference lies in the different styles of characters. Each one is a different “thing”, ranging from standard animals: mouse, cow, kangaroo to mythical creatures like a dragon or a Cyclops guy with a bolt through its head or people like nurses and kings. So each character has a different add on to the basic mould be it wings, tails, horns or ears along with a terrible attempt at personalising with a name, favourite game, “friend” and a rego number to take to the seizure inducing Teletubby designed website. What it is for, I can’t tell you, but as soon as I get a hold of a 5yo, I’ll let you know.
Despising aside, I thought, these could actually come in handy. Instead of spending $20-30AU to purchase a 4″ DIY Munny locally that I could potentially ruin, I can pay half that and practice on the cheapy instead. So in doing that I’ve created a little how to for those wanting to get their art on and letting a bit of creativity run wild.
The first thing I tried was a simple coat of paint to get rid of the ugly faces and colours. As mentioned theyre made from a soft pvc type plastic which causes some problems with adhesion and drying. If you apply very light coats (I used a cheap enamel spray paint) allowing drying time between each coat, the body and head seems to dry ok, however if you get it even slightly thicker in places, it will have a tacky texture. As for the arms, forget about it. They stay just as wet as the day you sprayed them. So you will need a pvc specific type paint (I’m still trying to track down the best type for the job) for it to dry and adhere properly. Not having this handy at the time I instead decoupaged it in plain paper and then repainted it.
The other option of course is decoupage from the start, basically covering the whole thing in small bits of paper with glue, paper Mache style, and this is what we’ve done. I will detail the process I used in a future post.
Till then, a sneak peak of one I whipped up. In tribute to the Kid Robot knock offs I’m aptly naming them Kid Burners (:
