Custom Spike Witwicky (G1, see finished pics) & Sparkplug coming soon!

[Mandingo Rex]

***So as not to throw off the lengthy discussion that served as research (and thanks guys for the help), I added pics on page 6***

 

My problem is I can make damn near anything so long as I learn the tools used to make it... It's just learning how to do things that's the toughest part. I really want to learn how to custom sculpt heads and parts, but do it right, like Valkfan or a few others who actually manage quality castings. I'd love to make a Witwicky set, perhaps at different scales (Alternator-scaled, but G1 or Classics-scale would be nice too).

 

I know a company made a set of Diaclone-scale Spike and Sparkplug a year or so back (sorry, can't find the link, but they look like they're made of Play-Doh). They are decent sculpts for their scale, since they're microscopic-tiny, and I suppose that the fact that they exist at all is nice of the makers, but they're still not what I'm looking for. For one, they're not the right size, but they also look sort of... melty, or clay-mationish.

 

I've been looking at finding the right base figure, with at least basic joint articulation. It seems possible to me, especially with computer-controlled sculpts out there, for SOMEONE to be able to pull this off. Finding a 1/24 scale figure for the Alternator scale with articulation AND without ridiculous proportions seems almost impossible. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places.

 

I'm really looking at making a cartoon-accurate Spike and Sparkplug. And maybe Carly and Chip if I feel squirrely.

 

I've found that the GI Joe 25th guys are too big, and something like Dino-Riders people are too small, although their heads don't look that terrible for their size and the time period produced.

[Octopus Prime]

What a brilliant idea! Have you taken a look at some of the old M.A.S.K. figures?

 

http://www.albertpenello.com/mask/toys.html

http://www.albertpenello.com/mask/riker_slingshot.jpg

http://www.albertpenello.com/mask/trakkervol.jpg

 

I believe they're about 1:24, I've posed a couple of them next to the Alt vehicles and all seems to look right. File down some of the sci-fi torso details and rebuild the shirt creases and collar with putty and things should look pretty decent.

 

The big problem though is that the Alts don't really have any footwells, and thus the figs can't actually sit in the cars. I've been thinking about how to over come this, and all I can figure out is to hollow out the thighs and have the shins fold or collapse inside them. Or to have the shins simply removable at the knee (easier but perhaps less "neat").

 

And given that the figure is built out of 8 separate pieces (head, torso, arms, thighs and shins) it probably wouldn't be too difficult to cast them and sell a basic unpainted, unassembled kit. I've got very little experience with casting though, so take that last part with few grains of salt! ;)

[joeformer]

Wow i have been waiting for someone to mention this for a looonnngggg time. ive been painting my wwe micro aggression figures to look like gijoe characters from gijoe transformers and they came out good. Of course they are alternator scale or around there. I would love to see some classics scale witwicky figures. I know the matchbox mega rig figures are around the scale of the transformers classics. movie and animated line. Im not sure of the ip address, but the figures come with the shark attack and terradactyl playset. The figures are the matchbox man figues. Lemme know what ya think.

:bounce :beer

 

My problem is I can make damn near anything so long as I learn the tools used to make it... It's just learning how to do things that's the toughest part. I really want to learn how to custom sculpt heads and parts, but do it right, like Valkfan or a few others who actually manage quality castings. I'd love to make a Witwicky set, perhaps at different scales (Alternator-scaled, but G1 or Classics-scale would be nice too).

 

I know a company made a set of Diaclone-scale Spike and Sparkplug a year or so back (sorry, can't find the link, but they look like they're made of Play-Doh). They are decent sculpts for their scale, since they're microscopic-tiny, and I suppose that the fact that they exist at all is nice of the makers, but they're still not what I'm looking for. For one, they're not the right size, but they also look sort of... melty, or clay-mationish.

 

I've been looking at finding the right base figure, with at least basic joint articulation. It seems possible to me, especially with computer-controlled sculpts out there, for SOMEONE to be able to pull this off. Finding a 1/24 scale figure for the Alternator scale with articulation AND without ridiculous proportions seems almost impossible. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places.

 

I'm really looking at making a cartoon-accurate Spike and Sparkplug. And maybe Carly and Chip if I feel squirrely.

 

I've found that the GI Joe 25th guys are too big, and something like Dino-Riders people are too small, although their heads don't look that terrible for their size and the time period produced.

 

I saw the witwicky diaclones they do look like playdoh. The site I think is impossible toys.com there may be a dash in there.

[Mandingo Rex]

Yeah, those guys at Impossible actually make some interesting & neat things. Kudos to them for even doing it.

Here they are. Again, Diaclone scale must be a batch to sculpt, so I feel for them. But they don't work for me, and they sure don't fit 1/24 scale.

 

Spike

 

Sparkplug

 

Not familiar with any of those other figures, I'll have to check them out.

 

Someone mentioned using the Shia character from the new Indiana Jones series on another thread (Seibertron?) but I think he may be too big. He'd work for a decent-sized Spike, but I'm looking for more of the GI Joe/Transformers cartoon people, the pre-bean-shaped-mouth-and-teeny-nose animé look.

[Octopus Prime]

You know, the more I think about this, the more I want to make one myself! :tftongue

Mandingo, I'll try to dig up some M.A.S.K. figures tonight and upload a picture with an Alt to give you (and anybody else who's interested) an idea of the scale.

I like the Impossible Toys figs! Nice that they include a tool too.

In fact, that makes me think that I'd really like rebuild the hands on a M.A.S.K. fig so that they can hold accessories. Maybe make them able to hold a standard Lego rod? Those sprues full of Lego tools should be about the right size!

 

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?P=6246

[Mandingo Rex]

You know, the more I think about this, the more I want to make one myself! :tftongue

Mandingo, I'll try to dig up some M.A.S.K. figures tonight and upload a picture with an Alt to give you (and anybody else who's interested) an idea of the scale.

I like the Impossible Toys figs! Nice that they include a tool too.

In fact, that makes me think that I'd really like rebuild the hands on a M.A.S.K. fig so that they can hold accessories. Maybe make them able to hold a standard Lego rod? Those sprues full of Lego tools should be about the right size!

 

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?P=6246

 

Those little Lego tools look pretty awesome. Those are new, I hope? Toy ideas in the 80s were awesome (which is why 90% of the awesomest are coming back again, now since kid's toys suck) but they've at least gotten better making them.

 

When I look back at He-Man and other 80s toys, they're fairly atrocious. Sort of how I look at Byzantine art, it's like for a period of time, people just lost talent and then regained it again years later. You just look at proportions and say "Really? Is that how you think a forearm looks? Are we gorillas?"

 

I would really like to find some modern figures, with way better proportions and better sculpted hands and heads... One of my previous creative directors had some nifty 1:24 scale human figures, they were all nude though and you could sculpt clothes for them, which could work... I can't quite think of the name of them, I'll try e-mailing him. I thought that those may work, but they're not really poseable, although they come with tons of limbs so you could assemble mannequin-esque figures who were posed, you just can't really change them...

 

I think they're more for models and model scenery than anything else...

[Octopus Prime]

Yup, the set of Lego tools appeared a few years ago, and is available in current sets. The little "Aircraft Maintenance" set is fairly inexpensive. Here's the full list of sets that it appears in:

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=6246&in=S

 

Or you can join Bricklink and buy just the tools from one of the guys' shops (cheaper that way!):

http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?itemID...&colorID=11

 

LOL, yes He-Man figs never had much of a realistic physique! Maybe he was a gorilla, notice how it's not Hu-Man?!

 

Those 1:24 mannequin figures sound pretty promising too. I guess they wouldn't be cheap, given that they sound like professional products rather than toys.

 

I'm a little annoyed, I can't for the life of me figure out where the M.A.S.K. guys have got to! So my apologies, I won't be able to show you a side-by-side pic. :tfsad

[joeformer]

You know the transformers have been around forever. All the story lines have humans in them. Why havent they made human figures for there toys lines. Not the figurines. Regular mini 1 and a half to 2 inch figures with some articulation. The alternators had a storie with it and there were no figures made. The classics line seems to look identical to the idw comic series. Why not make some mini figures of the mechination and the other cast. Even better, why hasnt there been a mini spike and daniel in there exo suits. They can be like and inch and a half and they have four points of articulation. They can go in and out of there exo suits, which could transform. A lot of toy lines have mini figures like this. Check out the matchbox mega rigs. There figures are about 1 and a half inches with articulation. If hasbro is reading this. Come on makes us some human figures.

:clap :beer

[Paul Prime]

I used some modified Megablocks' Pirates to make drivers for my Alts. They look cool inside the cars, but too small with the robots.

 

 

There are some Pirates with beard, so it will be easy to make the Witwickys

[Guest Primal-Convoy]

Takara released some figs of spike and I think Daniel (in his mech suit). I also think another company like kabaya released (no pepsi) bottle cap figs with spike being one of them.

 

They looked quite good.