Muppet LEGO: I like it--how do I vote for it?

Lately I've had a few questions from from people who have viewed the Muppet LEGO proposal, but aren't sure how to vote for it.  So here are some instructions on how to do it.  Hopefully this will help you out.  The first step of course is to go to the Muppet LEGO page of the LEGO CUUSOO website. Click on the big green Support button.  

Here you'll have a choice to make.  If you're already on either Facebook or Twitter (which you probably are) you can click on one of those.  You follow the same steps of "do you agree that LEGO CUUSOO can access your blah blah blah" that you do for any other thing you click on as a registration through Facebook or Twitter.  My experience with LEGO CUUSOO has been that they don't post anything on your wall, friends walls, etc; but some people don't like even the semblance of a big Danish toy company accessing their friends.  I get it.  

If you don't want to take the Facebook or Twitter route, follow the steps on the left that say "NEW to LEGO CUUSOO?" -- you need a user name, password and email.  I've been using CUUSOO for just over a year, and I can tell you I've never received any sort of spam or reminder or anything except the activation email.  If that's a concern for you, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.  

After entering your information and hitting "Sign Me Up!" It sends you an activation email.  

Go to your email and click on the link, it will bring you to the page below.  Click on the "Discover page" link.

There's a lot of awesome ideas on the Discover page, but you don't care about them right now, because you want to vote for the Muppets.  So in the Search Projects window, just search for "muppets."

Only one project comes up, and you should click on that one.

Click on "Support" again.  Don't worry, because you're logged in as a CUUSOO member now, it won't ask you to register all over again. 

It asks you for your country, your gender, and profession.  You don't need to click on the box at the bottom that collects data on the weirdos that vote for these things.  But you can if you want.

I know a lot of people get to this point and they aren't quite sure what to enter.  The site asks you three questions: How much would you pay, how many would you buy, and why are you supporting this?  For my proposal, I have Muppet sets at several different price points, from about $8 to $60.  If you think you'd buy say, a $20 set, just put that.  If you think you'd spend $5, put that.  $500?  Groovy.  I don't know if it matters.

When it asks how many you'd buy--if you'd "buy them all," put a high number, which in this case would be 10.  If you think you might buy one, because you have an irrational love of Kermit the Frog (who doesn't, really?) just put a 1.

The rationale--"why you like this project"--is all you.  Pour out your Muppet-loving soul.  You could also say something like "maybe if this reaches 10,000 votes, he'll shut up about this whole thing."  Acceptable.

Then click on "Support," and you're done.  You've done your part.  Then you need to find ten other people--friends, family members, pets (if they have an email address), ex-girlfriends, boyfriends and spouses, strangers in bars, children on playgroun--wait, I'm getting off track.  Share the idea with others.  If just one person believes in you, and all that.  

Now a sneak preview of what's coming next:

Because I can.  And we should.  And LEGO should.  They have a license with Disney for the Muppets, and with Star Wars--it's possible.  If you vote.  Go to http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/11050, vote for it, and share with others!

LEGO Batman: Enemies

With all of my obsessive compulsive problems with how LEGO isn't releasing every single character from across more than 75 years of DC Comics history, I've gotta say I have no complaints about how they've handled the villains of Gotham City. Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, Mr. Freeze, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, Bane, Killer Croc...all the A-Listers are covered.  

Then again, me being me...I wanted more. Batman has the best (or worst?) villains in comic books, and even beyond the A-Listers, I wanted more.  

Left to Right, Front to Back: Red Hood, Black Mask, Mr Zsasz; Firefly, Mad Hatter, Killer Moth; Hugo Strange, Hush.

LEGO Batman: Allies

Huntress, Batman, Robin (Damian Wayne) Nightwing, Batgirl, Commissioner Gordon

As a lifelong fan of Batman, and a nearly lifelong fan of LEGO, when LEGO announced a Batman line in 2007, I was immediately onboard.  LEGO did a great job with Batman for a few years, and then restarted the line last year, expanding it to include the rest of the DC Comics universe (Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman etc.).

But when you've known Batman as long as I have, you need something more.  So I've updated some of my Batman LEGO customs and added some new ones.

Batman, Red Robin, Huntress, Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, Commissioner Gordon

The Batman Family has changed and expanded over the years--the Robin I grew up with also grew up, so Dick Grayson, once the Boy Wonder, has become Nightwing. LEGO released him in one set about five years ago, and the only thing I changed about that minifigure was the hair.  The others are all new, including Tim Drake (the third Robin, now "Red Robin), Damian Wayne (the current Robin), and a personal favorite of mine, Barbara Gordon as Batgirl.  I updated my Huntress and Commissioner Gordon minifigures to give them the "light flesh" faces instead of yellow faces, since the LEGO  Super Heroes line uses more realistic skin tones than classic LEGO does.  LEGO has finally released a Commissioner Gordon this year, in a set based on The Dark Knight Rises...I'm thinking I'll keep my cartoon/comics based version around too.

Avengers Fisher Price Little People

So, like just about everybody else on the planet, I'm a little excited about the Avengers movie that's in theatres.  I've been watching Iron Man and Thor and Captain America with my boys leading up to the Big Movie, so I've had Marvel's superheroes on my mind.  Which is unusual for me, simply because I'm really more a DC Comics guy.  Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, those guys.  

Anyway, after being prompted by a friend's 5 year old son, I thought it was time to branch out and make some Avengers.

I don't show this part very often, but here are my sketches for the Avengers Fisher Price Little People.

Then the victims--the raw materials that will become the Avengers.

Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Nick Fury

Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, and Hulk.  

I decided to add the winged helmet to Thor and the little wings to Captain America's headgear.  I guess I like winged hats.  Go figure.  I think Iron Man and Captain America turned out best.  Hulk...needs some work.

All seven Avengers together.  Hope the movie doesn't suck.

G. I. Joe Fisher Price Little People

I never had any GI Joe action figure when I was a kid. I was very much a Star Wars kid, so my action figures were all Kenner, all the time. But I loved the GI Joe cartoon, up until about the time they brought in Sgt Slaughter and Serpentor and all those other characters. So really, probably only the first two seasons of the cartoon or something.

Still, GI Joe was fun. Stalwart heroes, ridiculous villains, and a nice moral at the end of each episode, so you could overlook all the guns-a-blazin' over the previous 24 minutes. This is one of those shows that, once I started making Fisher Price Little People versions, I wouldn't stop, so I decided to stick to three heroes and three villains:

Duke, Scarlett, Snake Eyes; Cobra Commander, Destro, Baroness

I like how they turned out, although Destro's collar isn't quite right; Scarlett does have a long ponytail not in view in that particular picture. Anyway. I made them. So now you know. And knowing is half the something-something.

Bear in the Big Blue House Fisher Price Little People

My very first customized Fisher Price Little People were based on Sesame Street characters. Shortly after that, I made some Muppet Show Little People, and eventually I got around to Fraggle Rock (not a series I grew up with, but fun all the same).

A production that I ended up really enjoying was Bear in the Big Blue House. Initially it ran from 1997-2007 on Playhouse Disney, and you can still find it on various channels and on DVD from time to time. Centered on a core family of characters, and developed by the Jim Henson Company, it has a lot of the same magic that Sesame Street and the Muppets in general have. By the time we had our own children, I loved Bear in the Big Blue House, and so of course I decided I had to make some Fisher Price Little People of the main characters.

More than some of the other properties that I made figures of, there are radically different body shapes and sizes, from Tutter--a small blue mouse, to Bear--an enormous full-body puppet along the lines of Big Bird, to Luna, a floating moon that sings a goodbye song with Bear every night. (Still one of my most favorite songs, and I included Luna in our Toy Room Mural.) So I had to depart from the usual Fisher Price Little People design more radically than usual, but tried to keep that same design sensibility in place. So here's the result:

(From left to right) Bear, Tutter, Treelo, Pip and Pop, Ojo, and Luna

Custom Action Figures of the 1990s...

Well, this is kind of embarrassing, but I'll share it anyway. Because I'm an over-sharer. While going through my files on my computer, I found these pictures from sometime in the late 1990s. There had been a line of action figures that included some members of the Justice League, b
ut not all. Total Justice gave us Batman, Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and then a few bizarrely random characters like Huntress, Black Lightning...and...I forget.

Because that wasn't enough, I decided to buy up some other ation figures and repaint them as I saw fit. Blame some of the amateurishness on the 1990s, some on my developing skills, and some on the pictures...which were taken on my parents' front porch. Wow.

The Teen Titans: Starfire, Arsenal, Troia, Flash, Nightwing, Tempest, and Changeling. Wow. That was one of my favorite superhero teams, and versions of it still are. Love the Titans.

Aztek and Metamorpho. It's best not to ask.

This one is more interesting to me than others, just because I don't remember making most of them. But hey kids, it was the 90's There was CRAZY stuff going on. So that was the Justice Society, and included... Hawkgirl, Hourman, Dr. Fate, Atom Smasher, Black Canary, Green Lantern (Alan Scott), Spectre, Flash (Jay Garrick) and Wildcat.

This is just an assortment of characters. No real rhyme or reason. The Wonder Twins, Captain Atom, Captain Marvel, Supergirl, Firestorm, and...the Ray? I don't remember that at all.

Some New Gods: Lightray, Orion, Big Barda and Mr. Miracle. I actually liked how they turned out, although you really can't tell how awesome they are from the photograph.

And then some ladies...too often overlooked. I mean come on. It's Wonder Woman. She deserves some credit. So in that picture we have Fire, Ice (a favorite team-up from the Justice League International comics) Wonder Woman (that tiara. ouch), Oracle (Barbara Gordon, former Batgirl, now computer genius in a wheelchair...with Agent Scully's head. Great.), and Tomorrow Woman. Who looks to be turning Japanese. I really think so.

Wow. Sorry about that blast from the past. I feel kinda dizzy now. I think we need more Fisher Price Little People to cleanse the palate.

Ahhh. Better.

"The Muppets" Fisher Price Little People

After seeing The Muppets twice last week, I realized that something was missing in my life. It was making my own Fisher Price Little People versions of some of the breakout characters. At some point, I had made Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, the Electric Mayhem, Rowlf, Scooter, and everyone else I felt was important; now with this new movie, I had to add three more characters: 80's Robot, Walter, and Uncle Deadly.

80's Robot, Walter, Uncle Deadly

80's Robot is one weird little dude, but he stole several scenes. I love his retro design, his dated offerings of Tab and New Coke, and his sweet sweet modem. It wasn't until looking more closely at his design on Muppet Wiki that I noticed some of his details, like a floppy disk drive in his torso. While perhaps not technically a Muppet, and more a remote control, since he's voiced by Muppet performer Matt Vogel, he's Muppety enough for me.

Walter is the character I was most worried about in this new movie--the biggest role in the movie, and a total newcomer. Watching him, I recognized myself over and over and over--an obsessed Muppet fan who wants to see them succeed, and is willing to do anything to make it happen. I decided to put him in his Kermit the Frog t-shirt; I would have included his Kermit watch too, but since Fisher Price Little People don't have any arms, that would have made for awkward placement.

Uncle Deadly, while not a new character, has been absent from the Muppet family for decades, and even when he was around, he was always lurking in the shadows. Another of Matt Vogel's new characters, he was a henchman to the villain in the movie, and has to decide if he's a Muppet or not. I've always loved his creepy look, and I think he turned out okay, given my elementary school sculpting skills.

If you haven't seen The Muppets yet, you really really should. It's funny, it's sweet, it's got some great new characters, and all the old ones that you've missed. It's good for your heart. Like oatmeal. But less messy. Usually.

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.

Thundercats Fisher Price Little People

Ah, the Thundercats. Technically, the Thundercats might have been some of my first homemade toys I ever made. I was old enough when Thundercats came on tv that I was past my prime in terms of getting my parents to buy toys for me, but I liked the characters and situations on the cartoon enough that I still wanted some way to play with some toys. Not having the internet or the idea to butcher Fisher Price Little People yet, I had some salt clay that I made into very rudimentary peg-like shapes that then I declared to be Lion-O, Panthro and the rest. I even made a clay Thundertank and Lair. Man. I was a mess.

That mess has continued on into the 21st Century, where the internet does exist (thank you!) and Fisher Price Little People are being butchered right and left. Soon, unmodified FPLP will be an endangered species. Keep them safe from me.

I only made characters from the first season of Thundercats--none of the ancillary characters who came along later, like "Nasty Alley Cat-O" or "Longhaired Persianina" or whatever their names were. Just the characters I knew, and I didn't make the mutant villains or those weird Ewok-Daggit-Robot-Koala things. Rober-berbles? I do have some standards. Not many.

Lion-O, Tygra, Panthro, and Cheetara

Of this set, Panthro was always my favorite character--maybe because he was the inventor, maybe because he got to drive the Thundertank, maybe because of the nunchuks. In any case, he was baaad. I tried some color shading on the toys that was moderately successful, trying to duplicate their look from the show...then again, can anyone really duplicate the beauty that is Cheetara? I don't think so. That mullety 80's hair doesn't grow itself, you know. So. Hott.

Wily-Kit, Wily-Kat, Snarf, and Mummra

Even as I was aging out of the target demographic, I didn't like Wily-Kit and Wily-Kat. I liked their gadgets--those hoverboards they had, and little smoke bombs and all--but their voices bugged the heck out of me. And I always liked decrepit nasty Mummra better than his amped-up MUMMRA THE EVERLASTING version. And then there's Snarf. A character I was born to love. I mean, it's Snarf! I have no idea what the hell he is--lizard? Gremlin? Pekingese? But his grating, cracking voice, his nannying of Lion-O, and his Smurfy Snarfing all bring me great joy. And my FPLP version of him rocks hard.

That's it. A whole Thundercats post without me making a "HOOOOO" joke.

LEGO Teen Titans

A Marv Wolfman/George Perez New Teen Titans comic book was the first one I read. It was one of those "very special" issues about how the New Teen Titans helped someone stay off of drugs or something like that. Not part of the regular run, but produced to give to kids in the early 1980s to help us stay off the crackpipe. And it worked for me. Of course, then the problem became that I was addicted to comic books, but that's evidently fine with DC Comics.

Maybe it's because of that early contact, or maybe because they're simply good characters, but that family of superhero characters is one of my favorites. I like them more than the X-Men, and often more than the Justice League. So when I was cranking out the superhero LEGO minifigs, I knew the Teen Titans wouldn't be far behind.

The characters I decided to make were a mix of my favorite versions of my favorite Teen Titans characters, so I don't know that this particular team in these particular costumes ever existed; but they do now. Started with the five sidekicks that were the core of the Teen Titans in the late 1960's, I also added in the four most important New Teen Titans, which became part of the team in the early 1980's.

Front Row: Aqualad, Flash, Nightwing, Wonder Girl, Speedy

Back Row: Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, Beast Boy

At some point, because I have obsessive compulsive tendencies, I'll probably make a more accurate Flash (Kid Flash) and a younger version of Dick Grayson as Robin instead of the older Nightwing. But for now, these are the Titans. These are the ones closest to my heart--when I think of the Teen Titans, these are the ones at the core.

And they're (usually) much better than the more recent version, these guys:

Miss Martian, Ravager, Wonder Girl, Robin, Superboy, Kid Devil

Muppet Batman: Catwoman and Penguin

After an extended break due to a camera issue, we're back in business. The business of silliness, which doesn't pay much, but that's okay. After visiting the heroes of Gotham City, with Batman, Robin, Commissioner Gordon and Alfred, it's time to start looking at the villains. The first two include the simplest custom toy and the most complex: Miss Piggy as Catwoman and a Muppet Penguin as The Penguin.

Miss Piggy as Catwoman

Turning Piggy into Catwoman wasn't much more than a repaint. I added a few details with Sculpey to her head and legs to give her more of a mask and boots, but most of the figure was just stripping away her softer plastic dress and painting over it with black paint. I did have to decide which Catwoman to go with, and now that I've done this version, I may go back and do a "Vintage" Catwoman, which would really just be putting a green cape on the Miss Piggy action figure, since she's already wearing a purple dress. A small mask...anyway.





I gave Piggy some non-Catwoman details that were still in keeping with Miss Piggy, like some silver gloves and a silver belt, and I think she got the whip from an actual Catwoman action figure. I'm sure the catfight over it was epic.

The Penguin. Waugh!

Much more difficult was the Muppet Penguin as The Penguin, because at the time I made these, Palisades Toys hadn't made any Muppet Penguins yet. So it was up to me to sculpt one from scratch, and work in the Penguiny details of Batman's enemy. I really like the result, and the details like the top hat, the umbrella, the monocle and the cigarette in holder (don't smoke, kids!) ended up better than I expected them to. Penguins were always all over the place on The Muppet Show, so I was excited to be able to bring one to "life" with this little guy.

Note the oversized beak, making it clear that this is The Penguin, and not just a penguin.

Ready to take on Batman!

Next up: Mr. Freeze, Two-Face, and Poison Ivy! Same Bat-blog, same Muppet Channel!

But not Muppet Chanel. That would smell funky.

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends Fisher Price Little People

At some point post-SuperFriends and pre-X-Men, there was Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. The Saturday morning cartoon series starred Spider-Man, Iceman and Firestar, all college students in New York City. I think somehow all three of them lived with Aunt May and "Miss Lion," a yappy little dog that Doctor Octopus should have crushed in the third episode.

I'm usually a DC Comics guy instead of Marvel Comics, but this was a fun cartoon that featured guest appearances from the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Hulk, and every other corner of the Marvel universe. If it were available on DVD, I'd buy it, watch the heck out of it, cringe at the shoddy animation, write reviews railing about how much it sucked, and return it disappointed to FYE for them to resell to the next nostalgic sucker.

Anyway. Here are some of the few Marvel Fisher Price Little People I've made. I'm surprised at how nicely Spider-Man came out. And Firestar's hair is awesome. Iceman...well, that was his design in the cartoon. He might need some work.

"Spider-friends, go for it!"

Yes, they said that.

LEGO Jawas

Everyone who isn't a droid loves the Jawas. The dirty little hooded scavengers on Tatooine, they cruise around the sand dunes looking for lost and broken down droids, which they chop shop and resell to suckers eking out a living as moisture farmers.

But since they're played by little people, and say things like "UTINNI!" and have glowy eyes, they're adorable. A-freaking-dorable. And kind of dirty. And they probably smell like feet. In any case, they're an essential part of the Star Wars universe, but the only LEGO set they came with is the Sandcrawler, which cost approximately eleventy-billion dollars. So I never ended up with one, but still wanted some Jawas.

Me being the freak I am, I decided to make my own. Found some hoods, some brown LEGO bits and pieces, some paint, and before you know it, I've got five Jawas utinniing the place down. Turns out "utinni" is a bad thing. Disgusting creatures.

Five guys named Jawa.

With some droids they're gonna sell. If you buy them, Stormtroopers will probably kill you. But your adopted nephew will end up moving on to greater things. Like near-incest.