Just getting back (Monday) from a refreshing jaunt amongst the aforementioned places. Here’s a quick wrap up:

Sarasota, Florida- I lived there for almost 3 years when I was a kid. If you’re ever there visit the ringling museum. If you like the circus, miniatures, antiques, & works of art this is the place for you.

Old San Juan, Puerto Rico- I never relized what a melting pot this place was. From what I understand the original inhabitants were essentially Native American (or at least closely related). When the Europeans came they brought slaves of course, so the Spanish, English, French, Dutch & African cultures have all been mixed in. And, you can see it in what exists there now. From the faces on the streets to the food on you plate.

Misc. Carribean Islads- My wife I went on one of those Carnival cruises- bizar. A strange casino/hotel carts you around from one island to the next. You are litterally at a different port each morning. One thing I missed out on was local food. That’s one of the top things I look forward to on a trip.
On average, the boat left each port around 4pm. Because of the way the cruise is designed you don’t have a lot of time to explore. Every building emediately surrounding each port is filled with either jewelry stores or crappy westernized souvenir stores. Most of the time both. Not the best way to get to know another culture. I did however get to eat curry conch at one island. It was in a dilapidated 3rd world looking chinese take out spot, that specialized in fried chicken with a side of pasta. Which by the way was sold for about $2.50 (US dollars), & there was a huge pile of food for $2.50.
On a different Island I had an amazing vegatable wrap with a bottle of Ginnis Foreign Extra. Which I still can’t find in the states. The total cost was maybe $7 (US Dollars). On another side note I think the Ginnis Foreign Extra is exclusive to this part of the world.

This piece was ultimately based on the design of the Devil Dog from Osaka Popstars. Both my wife & I were invited to make a piece for a group show featuring customized Devil Dogs. The show was held at The Showroom located on the southwestern corner of 2nd Ave & 7th St, here in Manhattan.
I wanted to resculpt the figure in wool using this amazing technique, that my wife showed me. It’s called Dry Felting, & basically your sculpting, using wool fibers instead of a hard clay material.
Using a multi barbed needle, you push the needle into a balled up piece of wool and slowly begin yo shape it. It’s like pointalism in 3D.
It’s truely an amazing technique & my wife’s designs look so fantastic in this style. I thought this character too would look perfect in wool. Classy & antique…..

How can you go wrong with the classic ninja look….. in white? Then you slap a name like Storm Shadow on the packaging. It’s like instant franchise gold right there.
I’m not sure if Larry Hama came up with the names for the GI Joe series (I know he came up with stories for the original file cards), but whoever did must’ve had a knack for poetry.
With such a simple name like Storm Shadow, I imagine the shadow of a furious rolling cloud stalking the hill side. Covering every inch of the ground in its dark ominous blanket. Contorting, shifting, changing in movement & direction with the effortlessness of a summers breeze across your brow.
He’s coming for you and he won’t stop until his mission is complete & you won’t see him until that last second before he gets you. Silently, stealthly, a ghostly white blur…..

Mercanary, twisted underling….. Major?Something about this guy. What’s his deal? Is there a stump under that cybernetic casing?

I know one thing for certain: he’s Kind of scumbag with this incipid nasally Skeletor voice. Only his is accented with touch of Brit or Aussie.

I can’t help it I love his design. I was really proud with the way this guy came out. Alas the only original piece that I sculpted was the eye patch. And that broke so I’ve recently redone that.

To me he looks so damn close to the original 3 3/4 scale figure sans dogtags. I did not forget however, by the time this guy’s ready for the show he will be sporting the dogtags of fallen Joes…..

Work. Not the jobbie job but the work you do on you own. The work that matters. The work that you think about all day as the hours slowly drain away from you.

For over a year now I’ve been completely possessed by this gallery show that my wife and have been talking about. It all started with the Cobra Commander & Destro 12″ customs.

That began a tangent of ideas that lead to the “Excess of Evil” show. The title is a reference to the WWII Axis Powers of Germany/Italy/Japan. However, these are toys after, and “Axis of Evil” just doesn’t sound playful enough.

Originally, the plan was a gallery show featuring custom 12″ figures that are mash ups of ’80’s villains with a WWII Axis twist. The concept has grown to incorporate characters that have a Korean War & Vietnam Conflict era feel.

Here’s Major Bludd: his look is a tad more modern but still 80’s.

It’s been exactly a year since I wrote last. Is there a hungry audience still?…..

Hopefully. Well, this past year has been filled with activety. The main reason why I haven’t scribled anything down here is that last Febuary I began working as a sculptor at Jeff Koons Studio. As I write this I realize that legally I can’t go into any crazy detail about what I do there, so I’ll provide a link here: http://www.jeffkoons.com

Check out the “Popeye” gallery over to the right (toward the end in the long list of artist themes). That’s pretty much what I’m working on.

I know one thing I can say is that there’s a whole lot of sanding involed. All of those inflated balloon animals you see are infact made of aluminum. Great effort and long hours are spent creating wrinkles and smoothing out surfaces so that the metal looks like inflated vinyl. It really is quite an amazing feat.

Possibly one of the most interesting head sculpts I’ve come across is this one. I found it on ebay for like ten bucks, and at the time I had no idea that Sideshow Toys was going to make 12″ figures of Indiana Jones. Which is the only reason why I wanted it. I wanted a Henry Jones!

So, I made a mold of this head and what you see here is most likely the 3rd head out of the batch. I made about 5. This one I epoxy-ed onto a 21st Century Toys body. From there the grey suit, from Toy Presidents Albert Einstein figure, really establishes the Henry Jones facade. I made the Bow-tie from black ribbon.

The Hat is from a Mold I made of the green Hornets derby. The suit case hails from the Leiji Matsumoto Arms Collection, and a pair of WWII Dragon Spectacles really finishes the toy off nicely.

Destro was always more menacing and I took him way more seriously than the Commander. After all I once read that the Commander’s personality was a bit of Hitler mixed with Yosemite Sam. I am not joking.

The writers literally wrote Cobra Commander to be an evil dictator. As the series progressed they realized that the character just wasn’t working out with that personality in the given scenario’s.

Enter Destro, he was the stabilizing evil genius, ever since the beginning of the series. And I think now that we’re all a lot older we can see that so much better. Subconsciously, everyone seems to respect and relate to that character more. I remember the first GI Joe mini series (I think it’s the one with the Weather Dominator) Cobra captures Duke, and Cobra Commanders immediate thought is gladiatorial competition! Of course! After all isn’t that a normal first response to POW’s?

So, they throw Duke into a pit with a ten foot tall wrestler. Each gladiator is controlled by a device around their head (like Batman’s the Mad Hatter) as Cobra Commander and Destro manipulate them each with a Joystick control mechanism that is reminiscent of an atari controller. Ah, so eighties.

At one point Destro makes it a point to say, “Ok, we’ve had our fun, now let’s just kill him and move on to the next phase of our plan.” At that point Cobra Commander flips the hell out and is insistent on controlling Duke until there’s no fight left in him. I guess he just wants to break his spirits. Destro is actually animated to appear annoyed. Which is a phenomenal leap for an early 80’s cartoon.

Who is Destro in the pantheon of Cobra? The action figure says Cobra’s Arms Dealer. Even the theme song says something like: “… GI Joe against Cobra and Destro, fighting to save the day … GI Joe, A real american hero …” etc. Seemingly, Destro’s status has been established to be at least equal to that of Cobra Commander. After doesn’t he later get his own Iron Grenadiers.

So, despite his distinct red “Cobra-like” jacket collar, he’s his own man. Not quite a terrorist, just an arms dealer. Who lives in a castle in Scotland. I always thought he was a black dude, but no, he’s Scottish. Which reminds me, on a side note they should get Sean Connery to play Destro in the upcoming movie. That’d be like taking two icons and mashing them together into a new fantastic icon super-hybrid … hurray!

Maybe that’ll be my next Destro: a Sean Connery version.

Right off the bat, I wanted to make the classic leaders of the Cobra organization. I sculpted the Cobra Commander “sack face” and then later on I sculpted a smooth face shield for another version of the Commander. When it came to Destro, I was about to sculpt the head and then I realized “wow, there are some amazing bald headed figs out there.”

I figured I could alter a pre-existing bald headed 12″ figure. And guess what: I did.

I wanted Destro to Command respect as soon as you see him. Therefore I custom made him from a 13” Martian Manhunter, this version of Destro is intended to stir up memories of the animated adaptation of the character, while carrying all the details of a new and modern toy. I sculpted his neck “collar”and his trademark medallion was realized with the help of an expensive Swarovski Crystal. Really. The Gloves are from a 12″ Boba Fett. The Boots are made from the mold I made of the Cavalry Boots, which I used for The Supreme Chancellor edition of Cobra Commander. The clothes are made from a pattern that I designed (and they took about 3 days to get right, as I took them apart often to make adjustments to the bulky DC Direct 13″ body.

Though Destro is an inch taller, when paired together with the Commander they just feel right to me. The Commander is about 1/4 inch shorter than my other 12″ fig’s, so Destro appears to tower over them. But he looks in scale, and scale is very very important to me. Not to brag, but the more I sculpt and the more I custome I’ve discovered that I have an uncanny knack for scale. I think it’s something I developed in school.

I studied comics and with comics you draw them about twice as big. When printed, they’re scale down to the general size that we’re all familiar with. I think from seeing this art every day for a long time (and in it’s varying scales) I’m able to judge with amazing accuracy. I only say “amazing” because sometimes I even surprise my self. I’m no robot but my guesses about scale are 99% accurate. Apologies for any arogance.

But the point is, I always felt like Destro was just bigger, like his very presence commands a silent respect. Subconsciencely this is achieved through height. Cobra Commander acts like yosemite Sam because he’s a little short, destro says little and commands a great legion because he’s tall like a Titan.

Ever step back, look at your toy collection and think, hhhhhhmmmmmm I need a rad Arms Dealer for my other 12″ action fig’s. But, where do I find such a fig?

Look no further! Destro has arrived!

SO, the big custom figs for us and our gaggle of friends would have to be that trinity of world domination that has plagued all of our collections. The “Axis Powers?” you must be thinking. But, no … I’m talking about Cobra Commander, Destro, and the Baroness.

After Supreme Chancellor Cobra Commander, and Face-shield Cobra Commander the next no-brainer character would be Destro. With the Baroness being in my future cross-hairs.

In the meantime, let’s soak up some Destro.