REVEREND SPOOKY

As 2015 draws to a close, I wanted to thank everyone who has come to the site and checked out my work.  It's been a blast, and I have a ton more in store for 2016.  I wanted to end the year with something fun, so check out the House of Seasons 2015 Christmas Slumber Party photoshoot, with a little preview of some figures from the upcoming year. Kick back, pour yourself a glass of something good, and have a wonderful holiday season.  

I wanted to get some quick pics up of the Original Effect Sunny & Rocketer, before they got parted out for custom figures.  My boy Chris did an awesome video review over at The Straight Poop where he digs into to the articulation, and gets super detailed about about features an accessories. His reviews are always well worth a watch, and are just the right combination of crassly funny and thoroughly informative.  But I figured I'd throw up a few of my own thoughts.

I did a photo review of Sophia when I got her back in Aprii, and I covered a lot of the general details about the Original Effect figures.  Both Sunny & the Rocketer use the same Teenie bodies, and recycle the same sword and pistol.  but I figured I'd mention a few details about the new releases.

My complaints:
-Everyone will eventually get tired of hearing me say it, but I really wish all figures would come with bare feet, and boots would accommodate them instead of the boots that peg into the ankle.  I know it's cheaper to do.  But as a customizer, it just opens up a lot more options, and makes my life easier.  Doesn't everyone just want to make my life easier?
 -Sunny's Gasmask came with a small thin wire to attach it, instead of any type of strap.  This is the weirdest way I've ever seen to attach an accessory.  I don't know if this was laziness, or if there is some advantage I just don't see.  But I plan to add a strap to mine when I actually end up using it.
-The Rocketer came packaged with a thick plastic loosely wrapped around the head, but Sunny did not.  I think from scraping on the inside of the box, this led to Sunny missing a little bit of paint from the tip of her nose.  Not the worst damage, but I am a little disappointed.

Mixed feelings:
-Both the Sunny & the Rocketer use OE's new 2.0 bodies.  Whether these will ever get released loose, I'd love to know.  They released images back in July, but since they haven't updated any news or social media in months, I'm worried we may never see these.  The bodies have some airbrushed detail, generally highlighting muscle tone.  It's not the best I've seen, but it's really not bad either, and does help bring out definition, especially in the abs.  The coloring has a little bit of an orange tone that seems a bit off to me, but again, it's not bad.  
-Damn Original Effects, set your dyes.  Something about the blue you use bleeds and stains like crazy.  It's really cool that they addressed this by packing these figures nude, which I think is brilliant, with all clothes and accessories packed in little boxes to the side.  But I know you can set these dyes so they don't stain.  We have the means, I know we do. 

The good:
-Despite a few gripes, I do just really love these figures.  I think Original Effect has a cool niche with the stylized face sculpts and willowy proportions, and movable eyes.  It's like some of the best features of 1/6 scale figures and ball-joint dolls combined.  The tailoring on all the clothes is top notch, and nothing ever feels cheap.  The Rocketer's coat especially is just top quality and extremely detailed.  And besides the weirdness with the gasmask wire, they don's seem to cut any corners.  No molded pouches, and all pockets are functional.  The Rocketer's backpack especially is just a really cool design of pockets upon pouches with straps for the rockets.  

I really hope this isn't the last we see or Original Effect.  Because I'm ready to grab up just about anything else they put out.

For my birthday this year, my good friend over at Toymungus Customs hooked me up with this AMAZING mini Predator figure.  Being honest, I've really wanted one since he started making them, and was about ready to ask him to name his price.  

I've been playing around with making a 7" predator figure with this color scheme, and am hoping to attack doing a 1/6 scale one next year, so imagine how blown away I was when he made me this one in my colors!  Seriously, I just keep smiling every time I see it.  The removable mask is so awesome, and I love how angry he looks!

I can never say enough how much I really love his work.  Go check it out here.

As much of a Marvel comic fan as I've always been, I've never been big on the costume thing.  In some cases, it makes sense.  Iron Man is the suit. Captain America is an icon. And Thor, I'm pretty sure wears what amounts to pretty regular clothes in Asgard, so that doesn't really count.  But some of my favorite comics were that run in the 90's, when the X-Men weren't really bothering with costumes, and were just trying to survive.  

I've been wanting a Wolverine figure for as long as I've been into 1/6 scale. Recently, I've been thinking about my ideal Marvel comics team.  Like, If I were doing a marvel series, who would I want to work with.  But if I did it, it would definitely not be about people in costumes.  So a street clothes Wolverine seemed a good place to start.  

More of a easy kitbash than any really intense custom work, I cobbled him together with what I thought would be an ideal Wolverine figure, done how I would design him.  So my recipe was:

-Hugh Jackman Wolverine head & hands off Ebay (best looking ones I've seen, in my opinion)
-ZC Toys body
-MC Toys tank top
-Wild Toys Jacket & Jeans (from separate sets)
-ACI belt (which pretty much disintigrated the 1st time I put it through the belt loops.  I kept the buckle and made a new belt out of real leather)
-Newline cowboy boots (which I darkened with a leather antiquing medium)
-Dogtags were loose from some seller or ebay store. I've had them for a while.  Drilled out the holes on them a bit, and moved them from a string to a ball-chain.

I'm really happy with the results.  Like i said, not a ton of work went into the figure, but I thought he'd be fun to share.  And he's a great start to a whole set of Marvel figures I'd like to do.  

A few work in progress pics from my first background.  I wanted to make a sort of industrial space I could see using for a few different scenes.  The floor is a piece of bead board, roughly sanded and stained, to get a really weathered, uneven color.  The wall is made of insulation foam.  I thought it would be a quick project, but it took me almost a full day to carve out all the bricks and by the end, my hand ached just from holding the knife.  I painted it using a really watered down black to get into all the crevices, then a watery gray to get the mortar effect.  Finally, I finished it with a sponge and 2 different reds.  

​Eventually, I want to add more details, like a tall window, but this will do for now.  I figured these pics would be a fun teaser.  You'll get a much better look in some upcoming photo shoots I have planned.

Another step closer on Violet Rose.  I swapped out the flat plastic eyes that came with the head for some fancier ball joint doll eyes, added her lip ring, and painted on her make up with some matte clear-coat and black weathering powder.  The powder gave it a nice diffused smokey look that I'm really happy with.  Honestly, I think it was a little better before I put the new eyes in, and I'm afraid roughly handling the face while I situated the eyes (which are really tough to move around in these heads) might have smudged it a bit.  But I'm still really happy with the final result.