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.

Rubber Duckie at Bryce Canyon National Park

A few weeks ago we used the excuse of a half marathon to visit Bryce Canyon National Park. It's only about an hour's drive from our family's cabin in Southern Utah, but we haven't taken the time to go visit. I had been there myself when I was a pup, but my wife and kids hadn't ever been there. So we took a little look-see. Rubber Duckie hasn't ever been there either, so he came along for the ride.

At Bryce Canyon, as at the Grand Canyon and other Southwestern sites where you have a big dropoff, you always have people standing precariously on the edge of a thousands-foot cliff. In the case of Bryce Canyon, they mostly seemed to be European, in their California rental cars on their way around the "Grand Circle" of National Parks in Utah, Arizona, and Colorado. They seemed to be having fun, even at the 8000 foot elevation. Where's the biergarten when you need it?

From Left-to-Right: Carter, Rubber Duckie, and Miles. Rubber Duckie is in an enormous footprint which we were pretty sure was a Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti, my brother-in-law, whatever.

"Back up just a little bit more...little bit more..."

Blue skies, orange rocks, a yellow duck. It doesn't get much better.

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.