LEGO Death Eaters

I like a fair fight. So when I ended up with Harry Potter, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Hagrid, and dozens of other Hogwarts heroes, I needed to bolster up the ranks of the Death Eaters to try and even the odds a little.

Here are the results.


Four random Death Eaters, flanking Voldemort (I know LEGO has released a few, but this custom was easy enough to make...)



Together with his psycho almost-girlfriend, Bellatrix LeStrange...played by my psycho almost-girlfriend, Helena Bonham-Carter

My custom-made Scabior minifigure, based on the most recent movie, alongside LEGO's official Fenrir Greyback minifig.

And my lovely two-toned Narcissa Malfoy, alongside Lucius Malfoy. Where's Draco when they need him? Let's say...Hogwarts.

The Death Eaters on the march. Mudbloods and Muggles, beware!

Toy Story LEGO: Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head

I love Toy Story. Since 1995, when Pixar first rocked my world, every Pixar movie has been a masterpiece--but the Toy Story family of characters is still the best of the best. Last year when LEGO started making Toy Story sets, I looked forward to completing that family, and they were off to a good start with Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie and Bullseye, Rex, Hamm, and even the Little Green Army Men and the Aliens from Pizza Planet were all made pretty quickly. They soon came home, and it was like Andy's Toy Box all over again.

The Official Toy Story LEGO Minifigures...

But there were a few of those family members missing. Mattel was able to fill in some of the gaps with their Toy Story Buddies line of action figures--close enough to the LEGO scale and style that Bo Peep and Slinky Dog fit right in, even though LEGO isn't making them as minifigures.

Bo Peep and Woody

Slinky Dog joins Rex and Hamm

The real heartbreaker was the lack of Potato Heads. I'm assuming Hasbro was asking for too much money, or that the legalese between Hasbro, LEGO, and Mattel was too complicated for a "minor" character, but that sarcastic tuber has been in all three of the Toy Story movies, and Mrs. Potato Head in the last two. They're a sweet and disturbing couple, and should be a part of the Toy Story LEGO lineup!

They weren't included in the LEGO sets, so I thought I'd try my luck with the Toy Story Buddies from Mattel--no dice. So then I shopped around on eBay for Potato Head keychains, figurines--anything that would fit in close enough to the LEGO minifigures to complete my little plastic family. The closest thing would have towered above Woody and Jessie, and after months of looking in vain, I was left to my own devices. Here are the results:

Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head are sculpted completely from Sculpey polymer clay, and are baked around a set of "stubby" LEGO minifigure legs. This lets them stand on LEGO baseplates with the other Toy Story characters; even though the rest of the potato-shaped figure isn't LEGO, I wanted part of them to fit in with the others.

The size was a tricky issue--the scale of the Toy Story LEGO minifigures is inconsistent, with the Army Men being the same size as Buzz Lightyear, and the the Aliens being just a shade shorter. Woody and Jessie scored with unique long arms and legs, and--it's a crap shoot. I wanted the Potato Heads to be shorter than Buzz Lightyear (a standard minifigure) and taller than the Aliens, who are their adopted "children." ...and it's not until you've sculpted a Potato Head yourself that you realize what a disturbing, disproportionate, and bizarre creature they really are. Those lips... *shudder*

My other problem was their arms--in the movies, as on the toys, they have spindly long arms with gigantic white hands. That wasn't going to work in either LEGO or Sculpey form, so I compromised and gave them big white hands that are on either side of their body-head-torso-potato. Weird.

Anyway. Once they were finished and painted and "home" with the other figures, I pretty much love them. I think they're some of my favorite custom work I've ever done--not necessarily the quality of the work, but the empty spot that they fill is one that needed to be filled. And now...they're home.

He-Man Fisher Price Little People

"I am Adam. Prince of Eternia and defender of the secrets of Castle Grayskull. This is Cringer, my fearless friend. Fabulous secret powers were revealed to me the day I held aloft my magic sword and said, 'BY THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL!'"

You've gotta love opening credits with plot exposition. He-Man, Gilligan's Island, The Brady Bunch, The Facts of Life...okay, maybe not that last one. In any case, I watched He-Man way more than I should have, especially considering I was in my upper elementary school grades when He-Man came out, and should have been past it. I used my younger brother as an excuse, but I was really the one who wanted to watch it. Swords, magic, fantasy, weird bird-people...it was sweet.

And then I decided to make some Fisher Price Little People out of them. These are very hit and miss.

He-Man, Man-at-Arms, and Teela

The Sorceress, Ram-Man, and Orko

Skeletor, Evil-Lyn, Mer-Man and Beast-Man

I've gotta say, Mer-Man might be one of my best likeness ever, and Beast-Man my worst. What's up with that guy? And who at Lou Scheimer Productions and/or Mattel gets royalties for hyphenated names? Because...wow.

Next up: LEGO something or another. Probably. Maybe socks.

Rubber Duckie in Denver

I was in Denver for the first time in almost ten years last summer, with a group of teachers. The workshop took us on a field trip, but most of the time was spent in downtown Denver itself. Rubber Duckie had a pretty good time.

Leadville--the Silver Dollar Saloon, where we had lunch. I think Molly Brown worked there or something. Yeah, let's say she worked there.
Also in Leadville--the Tabor Opera House. When they finally track me down, I'll be hiding in the prop room in the basement. Watch out for traps.

The weird clock tower on the 16th Street Mall. There's a cabaret that runs in the basement. We were a little too scared to check it out.

Larimer Street in Lodo--lots of nice old brick buildings and overpriced cafes. The bookstore around the corner is awesome, although there was a frightening man singing "Let's Get Physical" in the bathroom. I don't...think he was talking to me.

The old Tivoli Brewery, now the heart of the Auraria Campus. Nice campus--I just didn't want to be stuck in it all week.

Denver skyline--as a Salt Laker, I was a little jealous of their tall buildings. But as a Salt Laker, they should be a little jealous of our mountains. Booyah!

Buffalo Bill's grave on Lookout Mountain. Hey, at least I didn't climb the fence and put Rubber Duckie on the headstone!

The view of the prairie from Lookout Mountain.

Denver was a good time--I was just back there last week, and even with the cold and snow, it was still fun. Nice people, fun restaurants, great buildings.

Next up: Fisher Price Little People of a 1980s variety.

Rubber Duckie in Denver

Muppet Carrot

One of my all-time favorite episodes of The Muppet Show guest stars the late Gilda Radner. A hilarious comedienne who managed to fit in quite nicely with the chaos of the Muppets, she has a cutting wit that was way ahead of its time.

On The Muppet Show, she ends up singing alongside a seven foot tall talking carrot. Like this:

Quite the cliffhanger, no? You can see the entire thing on Season 3 of The Muppet Show. Or fish around on YouTube. Anyway. A few years back I was feeling the ambition of the young, and thought, "I want a seven foot tall talking carrot to be amongst my Muppets..." and set about making one.

Most of the customized toys I make are simply toys I buy at the store, then I chop pieces off of them, slightly modify them using Sculpey polymer clay, and then reassemble them, paint them, and introduce them to their new friends. Not unlike Sid, the mean neighbor kid from Toy Story, but with better intentions. Usually. I hope.

I'm not a sculptor--I'm a cartoonist. And I'm not really a cartoonist. I'm a doodler. So tackling something as complicated as a giant Muppet Carrot seemed like it would be difficult, but like I said above, I was young and ambitious and hadn't been beaten down by the world enough yet to know any better. So I set about making the Muppet Carrot.

For the Carrot to be oversized but still in a toyish scale, I decided it had to be just over a foot tall. That's waaay too much Sculpey to use to make a toy out of, and it's not like there are many plastic carrot toys that would have fit the bill. So I tried an experiment--getting a styrofoam cone from a craft store, carving it down a bit into a carrot shape, and then coating the carrot with Plaster of Paris. I hadn't ever used it before, but it seemed like it would work. Around the lower part of the carrot, I buildt a tuxedo with Sculpey. Brilliant? I thought so. Until, to cure the Sculpey, I put it in the oven at the usual 225 degrees:

As the Sculpey cured, it contracted a little bit at the same time the styrofoam was expanding. This caused all sorts of fractures inside the carrot, and I had to start all over again. I mean, even Kermit the Borg was shocked. So you know that's bad. Fozzie doesn't look that shaken by the events. He must know that a happy ending is around the corner.

I used the same strategy, but made the tuxedo a little thinner, and fixed a few things I didn't like about the sculpt anyway. I found some plastic fronds that seemed carroty enough for his greens, painted the heck out of him, and voila! Which is French for CARROT!

Yes, he's standing on my bathroom floor. Don't judge me.

His eyebrows and moustache were sculpted separately and then attached; it seemed a Muppety enough approach. His beady eyes are just push pins. In this picture you can see all of his open, styrofoam pores that I didn't seal over well enough with the Plaster of Paris. Curse you, digital cameras!

The Muppet Carrot being welcomed into the group by the gang. Including the Swedish Chef, who I'm sure has some unsavory (actually, they might be savory) plans for the poor fellow. Beaker's still in freak-out mode. But when isn't he?

Then backstage at the Muppet Theater, adding to the general mayhem. Not Electric Mayhem, although he hasn't ruled out a performance with Dr. Teeth and the band.

Next: Rubber Duckie back on the road!

A-Team Fisher Price Little People

I haven't seen the recent A-Team movie yet, and I might live the rest of my life without ever seeing it. For me, the A-Team was everything it should have been back in the 80s: action, adventure, a little bit of conspiracy, a cool van, and explosions.

Really, they could have called it the "B.A. Baracus and Murdock Team" and I still would have watched it. Mr. T was intense, awesome, and inspired one too many little boys to get unfortunate haircuts and wear gold chains, but I still loved him. More than him, I loved the one member of the A-Team I most aspired to be: the is-he-crazy-or-just-funny "Howling Mad" Murdock. Dwight Schulz was and is very entertaining, plus he got to fly the helicopters and planes and death machines that the team appropriated now and then. I didn't care much about prettyboy Face, although I did like it when a plan came together under Hannibal's leadership.

Anyway, in the interest of recreating my entire media childhood via Fisher Price Little People, here ya go:

Hannibal, B.A. Baracus, Murdock, and Face

Coming soon: more stuff. And junk.

LEGO Batman Villains

When LEGO announced that they were making Batman building sets a few years back, it was several of my geeky dreams coming true. But because enough is never enough, I realized that to complement the Bat-villains they were producing, I'd have to build some of my own. With mixed results. Now that the Bat-license seems to be on hold, we may have seen the last of the Batman LEGO sets (although the video game still seems to be selling strong), so these may be as close as I get to the real thing.

Clayface may be the grossest LEGO guy I've ever attempted...here's he's a LEGO construct with lots of Sculpey put on him, baked, and painted. Not my best effort...and yet that's kinda what Clayface looks like. Uh...clay.

Ra's Al Ghul and Talia...he's in need of a cape.

Firefly--a simple custom that turned out pretty sweet.

Mad Hatter. I think I went overboard on his hat.

Black Mask, Harley Quinn (made before the official minifig came out in the second wave of Batman sets), and Man-Bat. I really wish they had produced an official one of him. He's using a Werewolf head, which is biologically inaccurate, but it works well.

Mr. Zsasz, a Bat-villain who cuts himself with a new tally mark every time he kills someone. I at least had the decency to give him underwear...

The official Bat-Villains mixed in with my customs...a fairly frightening group. No wonder Arkham can't keep things under control.