3-D Monster: July 2013

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Clever Customs!

As some of you know, back in the day, I was a maker of custom Mego toys from the 1970's. I was even kind of a big deal for a while there ;-). I focused primarily on the DC and Marvel characters that Mego never produced, and it got so big that I ended up doing it full time for about three years until the DC Comics lawyers brought the gravy train to a screeching halt!

Thankfully, others have not only picked up the torch, but some have even been so creative and skillful, that they have truly set the bar to a new height. One of these artists is popsfartberger.

Yes, I said Popsfartberger. This guy is as elusive as he is genius; I scoured the interwebs looking for any information to his true identity with zero results. What separates Popsfartberger (I just love saying that) from other very talented customizers, is that he has decided to take on the goofy, none-too-detailed world of the 3 3/4" action figures from the late 70's and early 80's.

Now before all of you decide to attack me for blaspheming our precious Star Wars toys from that era; I'm not talking about those! Sure, he does some Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and GI Joe customs, but I'm talking about the lesser known MEGO line of 3 3/4" goodness. You know, Pocket Superheroes, Eagle Force, Star Trek TMP, etc. However, instead of the family-friendly fare that Mego provided, his subject matter takes a darker, more adult theme; movies such as Jaws, Blade Runner, Dawn of The Dead, and Taxi Driver, are but a few examples of the many properties from that time period he creates.

What I, as an artist and former customizer find especially impressive, is how he takes the essence of the original toy lines and not only does an incredible job capturing the style of the action figure, but he also does a phenomenal job in creating professional packaging that perfectly encapsulates the design style of the time with the subject matter. Kuddos, my friend! I can't find a website for him other that his Ebay page, but here are a few of his creations up for auction.

M.O.D.O.K.: Mental. Organism. Designed. Only. for Killing... and COFFEE!!

How can you not love M.O.D.O.K.? He's a giant head with little stubby arms and legs flying around in a funny lookin' chair!

My oldest son, who picks the best gifts ever, gave me this killer coffee mug for my birthday! He said; "it's easy to buy for you Dad, because if I see something that I like, I know you'll like it, too!"

AWWW!

If any of ya'll want to enjoy your morning joe with M.O.D.O.K., you can buy one here!

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

WINE TIME!

For All You Old Mo-Fo's Out There!

The X-Men: Days of Future Past Viral Marketing Campaign Has Begun!

Of course, the big attraction/nemesis for this installment are the giant, mutant-hunting robots; The SENTINELS! Created by Bolivar Trask (played by Game of Throne's Peter Dinklage), the towering robots were created as a defense force for humanity against the perceived "mutant threat", and could perform a DNA scan on any person in a crowd and determine whether or not they possessed the "X" or, mutant gene. Naturally, the association to be made is the parallel with Nazi Germany and the holocaust. This is sure to rankle Magneto more than the others as he is a concentration camp survivor.

Now 20th Century Fox has launched an elaborate website for Trask-Industries.com to give more background on the company and history of the Sentinel program. Fans of the superheroes have long wanted the Sentinels to appear in Fox’s film franchise and will finally get their wish in the seventh film, out May 23, 2014.

Until then, I have scrounged up some early concept art, models, and a couple of actual screenshots from the film to give you a better look at "humanity's last hope".

Friday, July 26, 2013

Hope I'm Not Overdosing You on Spider-Man, but Here's The FirstOfficial Trailer!

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Spidey and Electro Have a Staring Contest (Spidey Wins)! And STILL No Pictures of The Rhino!

Yeah, definitely more similar to "Ultimate" Electro

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

This is a Real Ad... I shit you not.

While browsing jobs on Craigslist today, I ran into this lil' gem! I even emailed the guy and asked him to let me know if he actually gets any responses because I too, enjoy looking at titties. If anyone is interested in taking off your top for this skeevy perv, you can view the actual ad here.

My favorite part is the compensation; "Depending on experience".

Tell me; how much experience do you have with your boobs?

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

This'll Put Things in Perspective For You...

That little dot you see is every person you have ever known, every feeling you have ever had, and every place you have ever been.

From the Yahoo article;

NASA has unveiled spectacular portraits of Earth and its moon from billions of miles away in images captured on Friday (July 19) and released today by the teams behind the agency's Cassini spacecraft at Saturn and its Messenger probe at Mercury.

In the photos from Saturn, Earth appears as a tiny pinprick of light amid the haunting rings and glowing sphere of Saturn, which Cassini has been orbiting since 2004. Though the picture doesn't show it, more than 20,000 people on Earth waved at Saturn at just the time the photo was taken, as NASA had coordinated a plan to involve as many Earthlings as possible in the portrait.

The cosmic picture took advantage of a rare total eclipse of the sun from Saturn, which allowed Cassini's sensitive cameras to image Earth without being damaged from looking directly toward the sun, which appears to lie very close to our planet from the perspective of Saturn. The photo shows Earth from a vantage point of 898 million miles (1.4 billion kilometers) away. [See the photos of Earth from Saturn and Mercury]

"We can't see individual continents or people in this portrait of Earth, but this pale blue dot is a succinct summary of who we were on July 19," Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement. "Cassini's picture reminds us how tiny our home planet is in the vastness of space, and also testifies to the ingenuity of the citizens of this tiny planet to send a robotic spacecraft so far away from home to study Saturn and take a look-back photo of Earth."

In Messenger's portrait, Earth and its moon are both easily visible, though each is just a point of light. The photo was taken from orbit around Mercury, 61 million miles (98 million kilometers) away.

Monday, July 22, 2013

I Watched The Conjuring Yesterday...

All I can say is... HOLY... SHIT!!!

This movie not only goes to the top of the list as best horror film of 2013 thus far, but it also earns a prestigious position on my top ten list of the scariest films of aalll tiiime!

The visuals are terrifying and the acting is superb; Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are perfect as real-life ghostbusters Ed and Lorraine Warren. Also, Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston (yes, the guy from Office Space) are perfectly cast as the bedeviled couple struggling to keep their family safe amid the chaos.

I enjoyed this film so much that I would love to see an entire series devoted to the real-life cases of these two paranormal investigators!

Go see it today and sleep with the light on tonight!

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Teaser Poster for GODZILLA!

I'm glad they're going really, really big for the big "G" this time out!

Look for it in theaters May 16th, 2014

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - Electro Comic Con Teaser

I'm definitely diggin' the voice!

Should've Listened to HAL 9000...

All these worlds are yours except Europa. Attempt no landing there. Use them together. Use them in peace.

HAL 9000: 2001 A Space Odyssey

New Faces & New Threats in This Hella Long Sneak Peek @ The Walking Dead Season 4!

Premieres October 13, YO!

Thursday, July 18, 2013

X-Men: Days of Future Past San Diego Comicon Pics!

My Favorite Character From The Walking Dead...

Is it the samurai-sword weilding Michonne? Nope. Is it batshit crazy leader Rick Grimes? Not him either. I'll bet you're thinking it's the original Mr. moody-ass loner himself; Daryl Dixon. Not quite.

It's actually Daryl's 1965-1972 (not exactly sure of the year) Triumph Bonneville 750 chopper! As some of you know, I am a vintage bike and chopper FANATIC! While my "black widow" chopper is pretty damn sweet, it doesn't come close to matching the awesomeness of Daryl's ride!

What better way to zip around abandoned cars, fit through tight places, and look totally bad-ass while doing it?!? Now I admit, it's not the most practical vehicle for the zombie apocalypse, being as loud as a jet engine and all; and it's gotta be hard to fire a crossbow while going down the street. If it was me, I'd borrow one of Michonne's swords and take 'em out ala Tom Savini in Dawn of The Dead! Any way you look at it, one thing is for sure; when everyone is crammed into the camper, and it gets stuck behind 1000 cars on a roadway with no way to go around, and a herd of walkers is coming up from behind; who do you think is gonna make it out?

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

It's 3-D Monster CONTEST TIME AGAIN!!!

OK guys, it's that time one more; time to flex your artistic muscles and win some fine swag!

The challenge this time is to design a Star Wars: A New Hope movie poster in the minimalist art style! What is the minimalist art style, you ask? It's a style that conveys the most information by using the least amount of graphics. Check out some examples of minimal art and posters that I have done in the past below;

The prize this time is a bounty of shameless promotion; a Clockwork Orange-themed 3-D Monster T-Shirt (Large or XL) and all five 3-D Monster decal designs (for indoor or outdoor use!) BTW; they look GREAT on the back window of a car where everyone can see them ;-)

So here's the rules and deets; It can be anything related to episode 4, but it has to be in movie poster format; rectangular, vertical or horizontal, must have the movie title somewhere on it as well as the credits. Contest begins now, and submissions will be accepted until August 17, 2013. Submissions can be sent to; . Your panel of judges consists of four experts in the field of everything Star Wars; myself, my wife, and my two boys. The winner will be announced no later than August 20th.

Good luck and may the force be with you! (yeah, I said it)

If You Look up "Asshat" in The Dictionary, This is What Pops up...

I really, really, really can't stand this guy... and not just because he's tappin' dat ass.

More Walking Dead Promotion From Entertainment Weekly

With 3 different collectors covers featuring Rick, a much older-looking Carl, Daryl and his bad-ass chopper, it's very apparent that the prison still has no running water. Showrunner Scott M. Gimple recently teased about a potential new threat facing our heroes in season 4;

“The new threat is something you can’t just stab in the face,” Gimple says. “You can’t talk sense to it. You can’t make a truce with it. It’s beyond all that. It would be a threat in any world, but in this world it is much more terrifying.”

Look for season 4 to premiere way too far away this October!

Meet The New Guy From The Upcoming Season 4 of The Walking Dead!

This morning saw the release of Entertainment Weekly's next cover story, season 4 of "The Walking Dead," and we got a good look at some of the returning characters and a little bit of information on a new threat. Now, EW has debuted the first official image of one of the new characters in the series, Bob Stookey, as played by Larry Gilliard Jr.

Described as a "former Army medic," Stookey's name should be familiar to fans of the comic book series and prequel novels, but he will be undergoing some changes in the show. Instead of hailing from Woodbury and working for the governor, Stookey will instead be found by Daryl Dixon about a week before the events of season 4 start.

“His backstory is not entirely the same as in the comic and the novel,” explains new showrunner Scott M. Gimple. “I think he’s seen things go bad over and over, and winding up in this stable place doesn’t shake him from his experience. He struggles with that.”

“You can see there’s something deeper and darker that’s going on with this character, just from the first episode,” says Gilliard. “We don’t really know what it is. We just know he’s got some issues that he’s dealing with.”

New Character Poster For 300: Rise of an Empire Featuring Xerxes!

Based on Frank Miller's upcoming graphic novel "Xerxes" and told in the breathtaking visual style of the blockbuster 300, this new chapter of the epic saga takes the action to a fresh battlefield—on the sea—as Greek general Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) attempts to unite all of Greece by leading the charge that will change the course of the war. 300: Rise of an Empire pits Themistokles against the massive invading Persian forces led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), and Artemesia (Eva Green), vengeful commander of the Persian navy.

Monday, July 15, 2013

Sweet TAT, Bro!

It's been about a year since I was last in the "throne of pain", so I figured it was time for some fresh ink! A few months ago, a guy named Myles Kimball contacted me regarding my Shogun Warrior toys that I was selling in my booth at a local antique shop.

We got to talking, and SURPRISE! and I have a lot in common; especially giant robots and tattoos. Turns out Myles is a tattoo artist at "One King Tattoo" in Portland! We became Facebook friends, and I was blown away by his portfolio of skin art! He even has an incredible portrait of Great Mazinga on his foot! I knew then that I wanted him to do my next piece! Here's a few examples of some of the epic work they do in the shop!

The next step was; "what am I going to get?" When it comes to tattoos, I choose my art VERY carefully; there's nothing worse than getting inked, only to have "tattoo regret" a few months later. Keeping that in mind, I try to pick something that I am not likely to lose interest in.

For example, I have an Adam West Batman Tattoo. Been an Adam West Batman fan for over 35 years; not very likely to change.

I have a Mego Iron Man tattoo. Been a fan of BOTH Mego toys as well as Iron Man for the same amount of time. Again, I'm not likely to wake up one morning hating either. You get the picture.

After a long search and deep contemplation, I decided on the "Cosmic Moai" by one of my fave artists; "Dirty Donny" Giles. The Cosmic Moai represents three of my long-held interests; "Lowbrow" art, Tiki culture, and UFOlogy. Check out the pics and video below and see how much of a tough guy I was through the process (actually, I edited out the tears of pain and whimpering ;-)

If any of ya'll are looking for some fresh ink, and are around the Portland, Maine area, I highly recommend stopping by One King Tattoo at 635 Forest Avenue! Tell 'em 3-D Monster sent you!