We all wondered who would do it.. and well. I was right, with Mattel's DC Universe crumbling into the plastic ocean NECA has down scaled their DC License to bring their awesome sculpts to a 7" collectible figure line. For those who own the 18" version of this figure, there is very little I can tel you that do don't already love. This can only mean a true color variant down the road... and oh my god...a Joker? Count on it!!!
This Nintendo version of the caped crusader comes in a purple and blue paint scheme as the Nintendo figures have come classically to reflect their retro console counterparts. No doubt Batman wil come with all the same tricks that the 18" version saw, minus the faux leather cape. He also includes grappel gun and batarang.
Dark Knight... Batman '66... Green Lantern... Man of Steel... GHOSTBUSTERS!!!
But what about the Reeve movies?...
What if???...
Diddly Doo! Diddly Doo! Diddly Doo!
An
entire progressing line covering all 4 yes all 4 Christopher Reeve
Superman Movies could be slated for release in the mix of the Man of
Steel Mania taking hold this summer. 6" Movie Masters
"Classics" would be designed for ALL headliner characters including:
• Marlon Brando as JorEl in black AND a white variant both with various crystal accessories.
• Lex Luthor with Kryptonite chain and a cigar (no word on removable wig status)
• Clark Kent with removable glasses and hat with overcoat over arm accessory.
• Superman authentic designed costume with newspaper dispenser.
What, no Lois?
• There
seems to be a teaser in the bottom left corner of an emerging 3-pack of
the of the Kalamity from Krypton; Zod, Ursa, & Non.
Could
more second tier characters be on the horizon? I would certainly think
so being the first 2 movies use all the same characters… Hooray!!! a
Two-Fer!!!
Diddly Doo! Diddly Doo! Diddly Doo!
With
high hopes for an awesome Superman Legacy line from Mattel ala Batman
Legacy (not bad) I could only hope with the most sincere delusion that
this has crossed the minds of Mattel if not for the 75th anniversary of
the man himself then the 35th anniversary of the first movie... Well, I
can't make it happen myself but I can throw this blood in the water and
hope someone wants this as bad as I do…
Shots released a couple months ago showed us our first glimpse of the NECA
quarter scale Man of Steel Superman figure coming this summer. While I
AM excited to see this coming over the horizon I am also hoping that
this is the beginning of a major MAJOR partnership between DC and NECA.
Their sculpting is second to none. Their attention to detail and really
just their responsiveness to what fans want to see is uncanny. While
this first shot does leave us witness to the prototype process as far as
likeness and color the facial likeness sees more detail in the
unpainted versions seen above & below.
The
properties that they find license with are awesome (Predator/Alien/Terminator/RoboCop)... NECA is who I'd
like to give all my money as a Mid-High end collectible company. Mattel
has been at it for years with their DC license slowly ascending to
giving us awesome movie property toys but NECA was already at the top of
that mountain years ago. This unpainted version definitely gives me
confidence that NECA has got this figured out.
I
can only hope that we will see NECA use this as their foot in the door
to do 6-7" DC figures, or at the least be sought out by DC Collectibles
to do their figure sculpting. I love Tim Brukner's work but up until lately for all he
and other AWESOME sculptors have done, DCC really shits the bed on articulation.
Well, its summertime, things to do and places to see. I've been wanting to thin out my DC Universe collection for a while and this week I'm doing it!!! Up to 150 figures are on sale now running through June 3, 2013. Click the image below to go to the listings page!!!
Most figures start @ $12.99 with C&C figures starting at $29.99. Get in early and bid high!!!
And don't forget to peruse the flat rate grab bags!!! If it fits... it Splits!!!
Mattel has released the first image of the Beware the Batman figure from Dc Comics Unlimited Wave3.
While I find the figure itself to be a pretty accurate depiction of the character's appearance thus far I do hate to see more and more figures losing their ab crunch articulation. Hopefully the scale/proportions of this figure in particular make it a solid choice and not a new trend to seep into all of the titles we can look forward to in the future.
I have been asked several times over the years to provide a tutorial on how I do my "Pull Through" fabric capes for DCU and Dark Knight figures… I don't think the description of the process has ever really made it absolutely clear so I think this in depth visual guide should do nicely. I may be blowing my cover a little bit in doing this but last night I sat down to make one and I had my phone handy so I figured "What the hell... Let's do this."
For an added feature with a wired fabric cape, click the video above!!
Fabric:
First I start with prepping my fabric. You can use about any kind of fabric to do these but I find the thinner weightier polyesters work best. The thicker the fabric the more likely it will have a bulky appearance. This is a nice stretchy material and when handled with care it can look quite nice.
For symmetry I take the selected cloth and fold it in half for sizing and cutting.
For dramatic presence I make the cape 1.5 body lengths wide and just over an inch taller than the figure. It will draw up a little after final placement so you'll want that extra length. I use a Fiskars rotary cutter to make swooping circular cuts for the scallops then I terminate the top in an arch just so there are no straight lines. within 30 seconds you have your cape produced.
Figure Prep: To make way for the fabric cape to attach I take a dremmel with the small threaded cylinder to grind out my entry points into the points where the original cape ends. Right there at the clavicle/collar bone. I aim my bit at the center of the shoulder blades right in the mid back. This dodges any articulation points on the inside. You can broaden this hole in the back for more working space if you like. Once you've completed this step you should be able to see clean through from the collar bone to the back.
I also notch out the back of the neck for better posability of the head
(i.e. Batpod Posing/Gliding/General Action Posing) This time I also did
the front of the neck after I had taken these pictures. this is done
using the same dremmel bit.
Cape Prep:
You will be pulling a lot of fabric through some tiny holes so it is important to reinforce the fabric with some sort of "gasket" if you will to prevent the fabric from ripping. I use a hi bond double sided tape. You could probably find something like it at a fabric store as a hemming tape. You don't need much as you see which is nice.
I make 2 squares and place them symmetrically at a width of the shoulders. That gives you slack to go around the neck (removing the head really makes this easier). I fold the fabric over onto the tape and voila!! your cape has every hem it will ever need. This is a reinforcement as you will use a thin wire to guide the fabric
into the body. I use a dental pick to punch a hole through the fabric
and tape and loop my wire through the tiny hole.
I take 2 lengths of wire (one for each entry point) and needle it through the hole and then bend it perfectly in half. I then twist the wire as tightly as possible to make for a clean feed through the hole.Once both wires have been fed through I then twist THOSE together making ONE braid of wires.
I then clip the collected wires and take my needle nose pliers and begin to crimp them into as small a bunch as possible. Being careful not to push any fabric back through the figure's front I bundle the wore and fabric into the exit point in the back. I use a hot glue gun to finalize the bundle by filling only the exposed area with hot glue. this will keep everything in place.
You do have the option in this step to use the still hot glue to
"pin" the cape to the figure's back. This can help keep the cape from
lurching up on the figure and looking weightless. It can also help you define the direction and tightness of the cape over the shoulders. A little Matte Finish in a can and this Dark Knight is a lot less conspicuous and a lot more awesome!!! (Matte Finish used in Picture #1)
So there we have it. A nice FULL low profile cape for our Movie Masters Dark Knight Batman. This trick can be used on any character needing a replacement for those awkward vinyl capes. I think it adds a lot of posability and balance to these figures that just deserve SO much better when it comes to their presentation. Be sure and check back in the future as I plan to take these capes a few steps further in the future... I'm thinking "Memory Cloth"...
Well, things have moved on a little quicker since my last work with this figure. I have moved to a process that lets me create the head and neck as one piece instead of sculpting it and smoothing it over and over again. This has always been the part of the process that scares me away from the figure altogether. I created the first figure by sculpting the cowl base as always. Here you can see our original model in progress with gauntlets and shinguards sculpted in already as well. The belt will be left to a similar process as the head/neck. Once I got things going I really got on a roll and decided this would be a good point to attack this figure with a multi-path approach. This resulted in creating 3 Keaton figures at once with more in the works waiting to be created.
A mold was made of Figure 1 down to the mid chest. that creates a lock so that the next identical figure can be placed in the mold with resin to recreate the head and neck in perfect placement on the body. The ideal of this process is to create a separate piece that can basically pin the cape in through the neck as opposed to using my customary "pull through" style cape. These 2 (Figure 1 & Figure 2) variations will use the classic pull through cape.
The same process is repeated but this time with a layer of saran wrap between the figure and resin. This doesn't interfere with the surface placement but it does allow me to work with the head and neck separately and place the cape between it and the body once assembled. Here I have the next 3 heads for figures VII, VIII, and IX.
The belt is cast from Figure 1 from a placement mold as we did with the head and neck. Figure 1 was assembled, a mold was built around the midsection and then we moved on to casting a replica belt onto Figure 2. Once the gauntlets and shin guards are sculpted on we move on to the midsection. We do actually lose some articulation in this figure. The Ab-Crunch joint is sculpted over. I place a dab of hot glue in the back of the figure locking the posture in place and let it cool. this keeps the figure from bending on me while I sculpt these abs into place. Next step is to cut a cape that will bring it all together before we go in for final painting. Below is unassembled FigureV painted uniform Semi-Flat Black.
Figure IV fully assembled with Pull Through Cape and detailed eyes.
Figure V fully assembled with Pull Through Cape and Detailed eyes.
Figure VI fully assembled with New Process Neck and Cape.
This time i decided to add the glider cape feature to the figure. As you can tell from the above photo, the wires don't show while standing, but when you go into full on glider mode...
Voila!!!
CRASHHHHH!!!
Its a pretty basic method of adding the two tubes to the cape. Its another thing to get him to hold them correctly. Luckily I buy a lot of clearance TechDeck bike stuff and I think I'll jimmy some handle bars in there to tighten the grip and keep it streamlined looking.
Figures VII VIII & IX should be Pretty F'n Awesome...
Its been a year since I posted photos of Version II of Michael Keaton Batman. Really the recipe has not changed much but I just improved on a couple applications. For starters the cowl base has a more accurate shape to it and really makes for a nice attachment point for the cape. The head and belt buckle comes from a batman returns bubble gum dispenser… I plan on making quite a few improvements on this model since… dman I bought a case of those bastards on ebay and the gum's got a 50/50 chance of tasting like crap anyway… it is 20 years old.
