Star Wars | BLACK SERIES

Star Wars action figures are growing up with their audience.After 35 years of fantastic plastic standing tall in pop culture at 3¾ inches, Hasbro is releasing the "Star Wars" Black Series this year, beginning a new set of 6-inch figures that will feature more articulation and an increased attention to detail.

Priced at $19.99 each, eight figures are planned for 2013 — Hasbro will primarily draw characters from the original "Star Wars" trilogy of films while also bringing in key players from the prequels.
The first wave of four, due out in early to mid-August, includes Luke Skywalker in his X-Wing Fighter flight suit, fan-favorite droid R2-D2, bad guy Darth Maul and an Imperial Sandtrooper.
"We consider them the best figures that Hasbro's ever produced for 'Star Wars' that meets the sensibilities of romancing the character as well as the playability and poseability that fans really appreciate," says Derryl DePriest, Hasbro vice president of boys marketing.

Hasbro has had success with the scale before with the 6-inch Marvel Legends figures based on Marvel Comics heroes and villains. In terms of "Star Wars," though, the Black Series will act as a transitional point between the 3¾-inch toys — "which is rooted in the childhood memories of generations of now-grown kids," DePriest says — and the 12-inch Sideshow Collectibles figures for adult collectors.

The current "vintage"-style line of 3¾ figures will also continue under the Black Series banner.
In creating something new and different with "Star Wars," the color black became an inspiration for toy designers, DePriest says. "It's one of the main colors of 'Star Wars' all the way back to the beginning, and it's the approach that Lucasfilm has taken with their collector-oriented product line. We're bringing that simplicity and essence and focus on the character now to the toy aisle."
The Black Series appeals to those newbies who want to start a series from the start as well as those hardcore collectors who gobble up anything having to do with the words "Jedi" or "Empire" and "are looking for something new and their interest isn't as piqued by the 15th cantina alien we have yet to do," DePriest says. "We realize folks want their iconic characters delivered up in a new way."
With "Star Wars: Episode VII" coming from new "Star Wars" director J.J. Abrams in a couple of years, as well as comics, novels and other media adding to the universe George Lucas started in 1977, it's a good time to figure out different scales and toys for the next generation of Star Wars fan, according to DePriest.

Before then, however, the Black Series also gives a chance for parents to connect with their own little "Star Wars" fans.

"Our focus here is the adult collector, the dad," DePriest says. "We know they have their own generation of youngsters they like to share the adventure with. It can be something for dad, and the 3¾ world can be something for the kids to share."

Source: Detroit Free Press

GeekSummit's CUSTOM NECA ROBOCOP | The Helmet Project

Chapter 3: SUCCESS!!!

When we left toff last week we had our head manicured down to a pretty nice Peter Weller likeness if only in passing. Still some things needed to be done to bring it up to the bio-mechanical look that needs to reside under the helmet. So on to more sculpting and sanding and fitting. The plan was always to make a solid 1 piece sculpt of the head. So we made a mold and cast a couple versions. Here appropriately we are using the Battle Damaged Robocop. The head and neck post were replicated so with a little bit of dremmeling it pops right into place like a stock piece. Though this newly created head would not fit back in the original helmet, a scheme was cooked up to still use this head with a cast of the helmet without making any further adjustments.

Luckily while pouring my head mold, I had enough excess silicone to pour a small helmet mold. So I filled the helmet with modeling clay and stuck it to the bottom of a 2oz to go sauce containter. Then I took a fast food ketchup cup cut the bottom out and flipped it over and hot glued it to the bottom of the sauce container. this allowed me to have an water tight seal and keep everything in place. I let everything sit for a couple hours and there we go we had a mold for a head and neck as well as a helmet. I had much more complicated plans for casting the helmet but this chance made mold seemed to do the trick just fine.

I took the head and took a small section of hobby vinyl. I heated up the vinyl until it became "gooey" or very stretchy. I pulled it over the head to create a "tent" over the features that would give us a fitting but not too tight.  I let it cool and mixed up my casting resin for the head. With the head poured I took the remaining resin and poured it into my helmet mold. I took my wrapped head and lined it up with the helmet and submerged it into the resin. I held it in place until the resin turned color and then I let it sit for a few minutes. When I came back I was immediately pleased to see that the helmet had poured great so wet to cleaning the bottom edges. Now with my cast head and now second layer cast helmet I began to twist OH so Gently....

POP!!! 

 So now I have a cast head with fitted helmet. Too much you say? NEVER!!!

  

Success!!! My extremely short term dream realized!! 

The head and neck are cast as a single piece, so once trimmed and cleaned it pops right into the socket on the original figure. matching paints will be a new challenge for me. I'm more of a primary man myself but this time I'll be dabbling in blue/silver I guess. I may have a few tricks up my sleeves to handle the finish of the paint. I may work in layers of clearcoat and silver to give it a little inner shine.

The helmet was an amazing feat. This first version is a little brittle because the hobby vinyl folded over itself creating pockets of resin with "pleats" inbetween  so it is a sensitive piece but it definitely shows the ability to cast the helmet "live" on the figure to create a perfect fit. I'm excited.

Things have worked out pretty nicely. I am really nervous about which part of this process is going to go wrong honestly. It has been such a simple and near flawless trip so far that I just can't imaging what will go wrong. We've suffered no proportion loss, the helmet fits perfectly, the little bit of mouth that shows from the bottom is just enough and not far from the original (nearly more realistic). And of course the overall paintjob on these figures have been imporved. With the number of variants of the Robocop figure produced only this year, this is a GREAT step in the right direction.

It's actually a nice piece to solve all kinds of issues:

• Corrects the "nosey" original version of RoboCop where his nose pokes out.
• Brings new life to the Battle Damaged 25th Anniversary figure
• Adds Even MORE BadAssness to the Spring Loaded Holster Version
• Is simply the only remaining version to be seen... (unless you count RoboCable*)

*Which I wouldn't be opposed to, and if you know who that is... God bless you and if you don't know who that is, its a character from a series of SciFi Channel Produced Robocop films shot on a porno film budget.

 

Unmasked Robocop makes for the perfect battle damaged version from RoboCop I

 Thanks For Looking!!!

 

GeekSummit's CUSTOM NECA ROBOCOP | Removable Helmet

Chapter 2: The Helmet
  
So with NECA's Robocop, Battle Damaged Robocop, Glow Worm Robocop, and Spring Loaded Robocop... where do we go from here? HA.. Ha HAAA!!!!!!

TAKE THE MASK OFF!!!

Brilliant!!!

So How do we do it??

LET ME SHOW YOU!!!

So I've only been on this kick since I picked up the spring loaded Robocop and i LOVE THIS FIGURE... But, one stone remained left unturned. The helmet... The only iconic feature left to reveal was the man inside the suit... or the man whose face, brain and some vital organs were transplanted onto a suit.

I love starting with Mattel's WWE  figures. They can give you such a great start when you're needing to hit a likness but there are none around. There is such a variety of characters that if yo squint hard enough you can make out just about ANYBODY's face that you want to see. At Toys 'R' Us the other day I was struck by this new The Miz figure. The eyebrows beating down on these wide open eyes really beams out from the package. So I picked this guy up and just kinda stared at him for a second right in the eyes until I guess my mind built the rest out of periphery. Immediately I waltzed over to the NECA/Movie Junk Isle and I picked up a Robocop figure for scale assesment. They seemed to have similar enough proportions. I was sold but I didn't bite right away. At $20 a figure I thought I'd just let it marinate for minute.

On a coincidental trip to a K-Mart on my lunch break I look up and WWE figures @ $9.99 are buy one get one1/2 off and there were 2 The Miz sitting right out in front. So... at already %75 off just ONE figure from Toys'R'Us I made it happen... and I'm glad I did.

Here are some comparison shots of the original head next to what we have created.

 

It's immediately apparent that we have taken a lot of plastic off of our original model. The striking eyes are about all that will remain, that and the mouth which will be accentuated by thinning out the cheeks and jaws. 

On the right of course is the original The Miz head. On the left is my new sculpt "whittled" from this original head. I call this process MicroCephloplasty*... what, too heady? HAhahah

This is a process i have worked with several times before. I started doing this years ago when I tried to convert my first DC Super Heros Superman into a Christopher Reeve figure. You could say that MicroCephloplasty was my start in customizing... Itty Bitty plastic surgery.

Pretty striking resemblance yes?

Anyway back to Robocop. So I took this The Miz head and first knocked off all the hair with a combination of exacto and dremmel. smoothed it over and made it a nice clean bald head. Then I came back and knocked off the ears. I could have stopped there BUT the likeness was definitely pulled together. I couldn't let the eyes do all the work. 

I looked up some quick references on Peter Weller's face in and out of the Robocop context and saw that he has one of those damn pixie noses. Really thin and defined, so it was Whittlin' Time
 with a brand new exacto blade. Time to knock this honker down to a near resemblance of The man who is Part Machine, Part Man, All Cop.

As you can see the  head is well proportioned to the helmet, BUT of course the helmet is fitted for the faceless Robocop figure so it wont slip over the head. Grinding out the inside may be a little counter productive so if I do move to a fitted option that may require a couple back and forths with molding and casting. If it were to work it could be an exciting personal advancement.

The face itself is a very much thinned down version of The Miz with a Micro Rhinoplasty to taper that nose down to a more pointed look, the cheeks have been brought up using the dremmel and .75" buffing wheel. All in all, a nice likeness. The head will still have to be trimmed some to fit it into the now open socket where the original lower face once was.

For presentation purposes I went ahead and roughly trimmed the head out to fit in the open socket. Still we have some areas competing for space but we still have a very nice fit. and a great likness.

The top rear of the head will still need to be sculpted on some to give it that "Borg" look as the face meets the metal skull casing. there will be some additional details added once that process starts.

 I'm very excited about this project. I hope to take this into full mold & cast as I arrive at my ideal model. This has gone so well so far that I may only have to do it once... I LIKEY!!!

Thanks for looking, Creep!!!

GeekSummit's CUSTOM NECA ROBOCOP w/ SPRING LOADED HOLSTER

Chapter 1: The Paint

I have been keeping an eye out for the long awaited Spring Holster Robocop. I pre-ordered on online super cheap but then I ran into a couple SUPER CHEAP at a local shop. I wish they had done this the first time. Also since the last round of Robocop figures that nose issue has been fixed. It was an odd piece to leave hanging.

The holster mechanism on this guyis impressive. The inside is not showy but the closure on these things is amazing. Every line disappears when the leg is deactivated. It's pretty impressive. That being said, this feature and the fixed nose is what we wanted and its what we got. Definitely a nice score.

Anyway, the reason I'm posting this figure is because I have taken the awesome figure that NECA gave us and pushed it up a notch. With all the new detail we got on Battle Damaged Robocop you figure we'd get a little something new with this figure as far as appearance. I really wanted to bring up the detail of this already awesome sculpt.

It was a really simple process. I took a 1/2" flat brush and black acrylic and liberally painted it onto every surface. Then I'd take a paper towel and wipe the surface build-up off while leaving detail "Deposits" on the underside of the more indented contours. I repeated the process over every side of every limb and here we are. The Robocop we deserve.