MONSTERS vs MADNESS

a Benefit Auction for Planned Parenthood

PART II

Let the PANIC begin! What the HELL am I gonna do with this Phantom figure?! It's always exciting to be asked to contribute to an event like this, with such an incredible group of talented people, but it's also a little unnerving. You don't want to be THAT guy that stands out for creating a piece of shit or worse...no one bids on your masterpiece. 

THAT's a royal kick in the nuts and does wonders for your precious, fragile artistic ego. So, I'll probably spend a week or two mulling over a dozen or so options and then at the last possible moment, choose an idea and blast through it, second guessing myself the entire time... redoing & fixing it along the way. Nothing but good times ahead folks!

There is nothing more reassuring than the look of panic in an Artist's eyes as he begins his next masterpiece...fuck me.

Well, while I mull over the countless ways to screw up this project, I may as well start with the boring shit...the PREP WORK. This little plastic wonder needs to be scrubbed clean of any and all grease/oils that may be on him from the manufacturing process down in Mexico. So into a tub of warm and soapy water he goes for his bath!

I give him a quick scrub with an old toothbrush and rinse him off.

If you look close you can see a dirty film in the water...you need to get that crap off, so your paint will adhere to the figure without any issues. Rinse with clean water and let dry... I usually let it air dry. Once fully dry, it's time to primer..yay.

I like to use TAMIYA Grey Surface Primer for this sort of project. It sticks to plastic really well, and goes on thin and dries quickly. You don't get a thick heavy coat (which obliterates fine details) or pronounced drips-which can be a bitch to deal with.

So, I give this guy 2 light coats of primer, and it accentuates all the little defects and flashing that needs to be taken care of before I start painting.

I may fill in these injection holes.

Overall, he's not too bad. I just need to clean up the parting line and remove some minor flashing etc. Nothing an X-acto or sandpaper can't fix... then I can start painting. If I ever decide what the hell I'm going to do.

 

MONSTERS vs MADNESS

a Benefit Auction for Planned Parenthood

PART I

I thought I'd write about something a little different today. My dear friend Anthony Taylor, contacted me a few weeks ago and asked if I'd be interested in being a part of a MONSTER Benefit auction for Planned Parenthood. He had me at MONSTER. I've known Anthony for at least 30 years now (OMG!) when we became acquainted during the early days of Sideshow when we were creating Bernie Wrightson model kits. So needless to say,  he knew what buttons to push to get my interest. Anything Classic Monsters related and I was 'in', so to speak, it didn't matter what it was. 

When I found out is was going to be a silent auction that would benefit Planned Parenthood- A charity auction of hand-painted vintage movie monster figurines to benefit Planned Parenthood, in response to the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.... I jumped at the chance to be a part of it! Here's an incomplete list of some of the extremely talented folks taking part, I hope I don't embarrass myself:

Tim Bradstreet - Illustrator

David J. Skal - Author

Alex Laurant - Film Designer, Art Director

Ken Morgan - Illustrator/Toy Designer

Kerry Gammill - Illustrator

Greg Nicotero - KNB FX - The Walking Dead, Creepshow

Howard Berger - KNB FX

Chris Walas - Academy Award™ Winner - The Fly

Robert R. McCammon - NY Times Best Selling Author

Mitch O'Connell - Illustrator

Jeff Burr - Director

Steve Parke - Master Figure Painter, Prince Album Cover Artist

Randall William Cook - Animator, Visual Effects Artist

Stephen Blickenstaff - Illustrator

Rob Burman - Makeup Effects Artist

James Bickert - Director

Brian Heiler - Author, Publisher

Nancy Collins - Author

Craig Hamilton - Illustrator

Steve Niles - Writer

Christopher Shy - Illustrator

Mike Ensley - Horror Host

Dan Brereton - Illustrator, Author

Steve Wang - Creature Effects

Joseph Michael Linsner - Illustrator, Author

Andrea Subissati - Rue Morgue Editor

Robert Meyer Burnett - Filmmaker

Tom Taggart - Sculptor, Illustrator

Ed Repka - Illustrator

Sir Richard Taylor - Weta Workshop, Academy Award™ Winner

Kirk Thatcher - Director, Henson Org. Puppet Master 

Glenn Campbell - Visual Effects Supervisor

Larry Young - Author, Publisher

Richard Christian Matheson - Writer, Producer

Jeff Carlson - Illustrator

Steve Riojas - Master Figure Painter

Bob Eggleton - Hugo Award™ Winning Illustrator

Darryl Mayesky - Screem Publisher

David Fisher - Master Figure Painter, AFM Publisher

Jordu Schell - Sculptor, Makeup Effects

Don Maitz - Illustrator

Timothy Martin Earls - Set Designer, Concept Artist

Tom Devlin - Creature & Makeup Effects

Javiar Grillo-Marxuach - Writer, Producer

Brian Stelfreeze - Illustrator

Terry Beatty - Illustrator, Cartoonist, Writer

Ron Miller -Hugo Award™ winning Illustrator

Candy Weil - Illustrator

Ken Steacy - Illustrator

Larry Blamire - Writer, Actor, Director, Illustrator

Pete Von Sholly - Illustrator

Neil D. Vokes - Illustrator

Richard J. Schellbach - Columnist, TV Writer, Author

and more to come

So, a few weeks ago I received my figure in the mail. I was asked to give my 2 top choices, The Creature from the Black Lagoon (which I'm sure a lot of people picked) and The Phantom of the Opera. So when my box arrived I was really hoping I got a Creature...

I got the Phantom...Goddamn it!!!

Oh well, I have a crazy idea for this one-so hopefully someone likes it enough to actually bid on it...or that will be embarrassing.

For those of you who aren't familiar with these figures, I'll give you a little background about them.

Louis Marx and Company was an American toy manufacturer in business from 1919 to 1980. They made many types of toys including Tin Toys, Toy Soldiers, Toy Guns, Action Figures, Dolls,Toy Cars and Model Trains. A few of their most notable toys are: Rock'em Sock'em Robots, Big Wheel Tricycle, Disney branded Dollhouses and Playsets. But being a die-hard Monster Kid from the 70's I was drawn to these:

and these:

So, after the official sale of Marx Toys in 1972 and liquidation of assets in 1980, a lot of the original tooling (molds) made their way to Mexico where some of these vintage toys are still being reproduced on a limited scale.

photo by: James Wozniak

It is from this tooling that I received my Phantom of the Opera figure:

Look for the next installment of this riveting Blog as I share my process and panic in finishing this piece in time for the auction!