Any help with identifying this guy? Standing on a US quarter for scale with the help of some sticky putty: He wasn't designed to stand at all, maybe a parachute jumper or pilot/operator figure for a larger toy?
Pretty odd how he's looking up. Tried the light from several angles and nope, that's what they meant. Like he's looking up at his chute strings to make sure they aren't tangled?
Yeah that's cool. He's interesting! Will be making use of him as a photographic subject for diorama pix.
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Using 4x4x2 inch craft or hobby boxes for mini space diorama housings. Surfaces are accreted layers of Golden's Crackle Paste, Clear Granular Gel, Glass Bead Gel, Clear Tar Gel and assorted Iridescent Acrylic Colors. "Skies" are mostly Golden's Micaceous Iron Oxide acrylic gel. The rounded forms at lower right are random gobs of Great Stuff Gap & Crack Filler insulation foam that I am transforming into scale sized boulders.
What's underneath the surface of the planet? More of the planet I guess. Figured they'd look stupid hanging there with plain bottoms so I stretched the sculpted acrylic terrain onto the bottoms. It's like the other side of the planet even, and I made sure all stand evenly so they could also be placed on a shelf or tabletop.
This one sort of made itself. Just happened to have the toy forms out on the table and was like, wait a minute ... A dinosaur, with spacemen. Can do, and this specimens is already promised to a very enthusiastic buyer who called "Baggsies" on it first. Others are in production and I have plenty of dinosaurs & spacemen both. Lots of acrylics. More boxes incoming.
Keeping the backs bare for the time being. A hanger tab or hook would go got there so it can be displayed on a wall, and you have to enforce a front/back dynamic for that. But they may be painted black at some point, not there yet.
The tree needs to be fixed to the ground and I'm not sure if those are the right spacemen yet. I'd like the dinosaur to seem like it's towering over them, peering through the branches. I'd also like to have the toy pieces fixed to the ground in some way that allows the owner/viewer to remove them for other adventures, then place them right back where they were until next time. It becomes a playset.
"What's underneath the surface of a planet? More of the planet."
Sat back and laughed. Could not have plotted out the combination better, and just from writing this blog I've decided those Golden Astronauts may have to stay. The allosaurus is contemporary manufacture and so is the tree.
Likely subconscious source of inspiration: Weird War Tales #36, from my favorite comic book series. Knew I'd seen something like it before, and then again there's the whole history of pulp science fiction artwork's juxtaposition of prehistoric creatures against advanced beings. Already making another one and will go back through my comic book covers & pulp scifi artwork discs for other cool ideas. Post-post modernism.
The "set" in question. Came bagged with the reproduction header card at upper left in a very modern bag. Twelve ~30mm spaceman figures and a bootlegged Thunderbird 5.
The suspected source of the toy forms, 1970 Multiple Toymakers "Space Case" playset, which also includes a non-wheeled Billy Blastoff space buggy. Unfolds into a space station as shown at lower left.
US quarter for scale. Nice little thing.
No markings.
But it does like something got rubbed out at the mold stage between the 6 and that raised hump.
Here again on the tail at lower, looks like something got scratched out.
Figures are very crudely cast. Shiny waxy plastic, no markings on their base undersides.
For comparison, at right one of the "Space Set" copies, at left figure on the left from a UK cake decoration vendor's set with Hong Kong marking on its base's underside. Notice that the figure on the right doesn't seem to have a pistol, nor do any in that pose from the grouping above, which at first I'd concluded had to be a casting error.
Same sources as above. Figure on the left's pistol is indistinguishable or outright removed. MT/MPC did remove the firearms from their 54mm spacemen in either 1968 or 1969 with a casting change to three figures. The "Space Case" playset these figures are presumed to have been taken from with a 1970 date on it. So these may have undergone some editing prior to being cast. The angular relation of the suit ribbing on their upper thighs is also visibly different.
By contrast these are the four figures obtained from the UK cake decorations vendor. All weapons present.
All four marked Hong Kong, came with a blue lunar module similar to the "Blue Shield" sets.
For further comparison figure at left from the UK cake lady, in white from a different "lot" of vintage plastics. The angular strokes used for the rippling in his space suit different at just about the hip level from the red figure.
Same sources as named above and this time the difference in sculpting is quite noticeable around the hip section. Upper left chest region as well.
Angular relation of the ripple strokes on the back of their thighs is quite different. Their molds appear to have been created from slightly different models.
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Sorry been away so long, took the summer off and been moving operations from Utica NY back to my family's hometown of Syracuse NY. Now back in quarantine with the 80+ year old parents and let's so some space blogging.
Very stoked to finally get these in, ordered the very day before the international travel ban went into effect from my man Snerdley over there in Spain. Glad the President let them through.
If my understanding is correct, these were distributed by a company called Camy as a premium giveaway for a chocolate bar in or around 1968.
Very different.
Comansi OVNI 2000 figures, same era.
Not sure if the green figure is meant to be an alien or if he's just green.
OVNI 2008 in green, OVNI 2004 in gray.
I like that lantern. Space Chimp by Safari from a "Space Toob". Those are cool.
I need crappier fonts and cheesier color. Mockup demonstration of a combine painting I want to see, estimated size would be 32x40 or so. Misspelled "Ossining" (d'oh) but then again it's meant to suggest a design by some guy over in Hong Kong from 1972. Circle in the middle of the top is meant to suggest a hole punch for a display rack. "Future Management" is a fictional business I invented and refers to a song by Queen drummer Roger Taylor from his 1981 "Fun In Space" album. "Babs & Babs" is a song by Robert Fripp + Daryl Hall from their 1977 "Sacred Songs" collaboration, sounds like the name of a closeout store. "515" is a song by The Who from "Quadrophenia" and along with "Number Nine" is my favorite number to utilize when needing a cool number. "Hand Painted By Real Artist" is from a Marx windowboxed "Lunar Exploration" set. The "US Space Heroes" is one of the names Payton Products used for their bagged sets of two inch MPC spaceman copies.
Working on additional moonscapes for other backing cards, and formulating how to make painted wall boxes for individual figures to be housed within. I don't want to just show them loose on a table and do want viewers to choose an astronaut for their very own.
Forty three recast five inch MPC spacemen, likely manufactured in Mexico during the early 1990s. Brought them home for less than a dollar a head, with a sackful of recast equipment for my vintage figures as gravy. Time for our Immersion in the Culture of Collecting moment for those not yet hip to what these are:
The figures were first manufactured c.1963 by a company called Multiple Toymakers (or MPC) and I had two or three as a child. Destroyed by the age of eight and lost to the Sands of Time. MPC manufactured them between 1964 and 1972 or so after which the space toy craze had puttered out. The molds ended up in Mexico and during the early 1990s were utilized by unknown parties to apparently cast several railroad cars full. I re-discoverd the form last spring and began a collection of both vintage figures as well as the Mexican recasts. Which are looked upon with a certain amount of scorn by collectors as they were very cheaply made from the original MPC molds using a horrid plastic which has not aged well. Original examples are still soft & supple, these will crack if dropped onto a cement floor and cause grown men to weep in regret for having wasted their money on them when there's so many vintage figures going around. Just gotta know where to look.
In fact, the vintage five inch MPC spacemen aren't even that hard to find, but the equipment they came with darn near impossible & the figures lacking without it. Or at least that's how I felt about it, and upon realizing the score would provide ample accessories for the eighteen vintage figures I've obtained was sold. If I can paint and sell even a few of the figures at a modest rate it all pays for itself. And if I can sell them all, including as elements in space artworks, I can score a boxed 1962 Marx Toys "Operation Moon Base". Man Alive.
Decent, and there's plenty of helmets to go around. Only six of my vintage figures lacked helmets so, there's more. But the plastic is stiff and brittle, so the oxygen packs will stay with the recast figures as I paint them.
Worked out to forty one figures to paint with at least two examples of the 10 original MPC poses. Two of which I do not have vintage 60s/70s examples of in my collection so two get bagged up with those for the time being. Two smaller spacemen by Crescent Toys at lower left from my man "Finklehop" on e-b4y. He's good.
I picked sixteen figures to start with, all sporting broken guns or tools so I won't be so self-conscious about screwing them up. Utilizing the Golden's metallic Iridescent Acrylic Colors to create foil suits in Sgt. Pepper and Major Tom colors. I'd imagine Major Tom would have wanted a nice day glow lemony green space suit. Something "trippy", maybe shimmering under the lights.
Also: Acrylics are not the right material to be painting on plastic with but it's what we have in the house. And it's time to make art out of this stuff so, away we go.
Ogle shelf time. I'm looking at the vintage packaging for ideas on how to present the painted figures. And just looking at it. Some of it has survived even longer than I have, so far. It's re-assuring.
Sadly the red did not make the cut. The metallic shades have little microscopic bits of reflective stuff which seem to bond well with the surface of the figures, cast in the kind of plastic used to make filing cabinets or waste baskets for sale at less than reputable dollar stores. So using acrylic paints is trying to use petroleum on petroleum and it either slips right off or scratches if sneezed on.
The metallics also scratch super easy, so a can of spray acrylic clear coat is incoming, both to help preserve the metallic foil suits which worked and to hopefully give some flexibility on using primary colors like those above. Rubber suited goons from a James Bond movie, or DEVO.
Space Pyramid in progress, with the picture being all that remains of the rubber red goon suit color.
My rule is that if just stacking them into their box overnight scratches the surface they get re-done. Soak in warm water for ten minutes and it lifts right off with a dish scrubber.
Step three is crafting bits of moon terrain on the topside of their bases using Golden's miraculous Crackle Paste compound. Does exactly that, and if applied correctly with just the right staining & a surface coat layer of Clear Tar Gel will look like they are standing on (and in) the surface of an alien world.
The green didn't survive either. And as a testimony to how well the metallics adhere to the filing cabinet plastic the figures are cast in, applying the crackle paste to their bases results in it just sliding off when dry. Here its adhering nicely to a primer layer of Iridescent Copper Light fluid acrylic. Also using an Iridescent Silver (Fine) which is full body.
Looks like a kick line rehearsing the big "Planetoid" scene from ALIEN: THE MUSICAL.
Working with mom, who is a badass artist in her own right. The painting is all taking place up in her dining room as it has the best natural daylight in the house. Certainly better than my Lunar Module down in my dad's basement which has all the charm of the Nostromo's C-deck. I pretend I'm on Skylab, and yesterday marked 31 days since I'd last been at my apartment in Utica. It'll be there, but we agreed that I cannot re-enter the house after interacting with anyone until the pandemic stage is over. Both parents in their 80s. We sit it out and why should I be the only one who gets to have all the fun.
Four which didn't make the grade. Note the flaking on the yellow suits especially.
Bingo. Note how the metallics used to "prime" some of their boots hung on, and all of the crackle paste as well.
"We're on this Planetoid ... following an Alien noise ...
We only gotta walk two clicks ... to get to the Derelict ..."
Kane's solo just before they find the Derelict. Am pleased with how that yellow came out.
Word on a Wing. A Stranger in a Strange Land.
"Please, don't be long."
Two more of the moonscapes in progress, for use both as a giant "backing card" for sets of spacemen and as diorama backdrops in window box structures. Sculpting terrain into which the figure can be removed, played with and replaced is also on my mind.
The Broken Gun Squad, having stared first with the figures which had broken or damaged toos/guns. Blue guy second from bottom left is an example of the "reverse-detailing" method I'm trying, where I prime the figure with a lighter color then leave his oxygen hose and web gear straps alone when painting the body a darker color. Hoping it allows a cleaner result, though in the end they are meant to be painted objects rather than customized toys.
