Coy's Toy Chest logo

This is a logo I made for my buddy Coy for his website, where he sells sweet 80s Transformers, GI Joe's, Ninja Turtles, HeMan - you name it!  Oh I photoshopped everything but the banner, just so I don't get sued haha!  His website is www.coystoychest.com.

Bioshock's Sander Cohen (version 2) with Mannequin

This is my second attempt at Sander Cohen, Bioshock's resident disturbed artist. I used a different base figure for him and I also wanted to add one of his creepy mannequins that appear, and reappear many, many times in Fort Frolic. The DC Direct "Planetary" Elijah Snow base figure for Cohen was easy to paint over sine he was all white. Cohen's mannequin was made to look like he used plaster over a human body. I used a plant for the mannequin's rabbit ears, which fans of the game will understand. (Note he no longer has any arms even if he wanted to take them off). And on the plaster Sander seems to have painted little moths...creepy.

Cohen is holding a splicer mask that he repainted to his liking. He also includes a flower and paintbrush that I used Aves Apoxie and a toothpick to make. Check out those classic two-tone kicks! I think Sander would definitely wear pink. Oh and the mannequin's picture frame is also made out of Aves Apoxie. Tried to take a few moody shots with some gloomy lighting. I think they turned out nicely. Here's the breakdown of what's in the pictures:

Sander Cohen base figure - DC Direct "Planetary" Elijah Snow figure
Flower - Aves Apoxie
Paintbrush - Aves Apoxie and toothpick
Mask - Bioshock ladysmith splicer mask repainted

Mannequin base figure - House of the Dead zombie figure (plus Aves Apoxie, minus some limbs)
Mannequin rabbit ears - plant from Pirates o.t.c
Picture frame - Aves Apoxie
Figure display - Pirates o.t.c.
Poster - printed out

Base figure I used

Mannequin work in progress

Shadow of the Colossus 3" Vinylmation Mickey Mouse

This here is my first custom Vinylmation. I got this blank white vinyl Mickey way back during my Easter vacation to Disney World in 2009 with my family and girlfriend Val. Didn't want to customize it until I had the right inspiration I guess. Playing through Shadow of the Colossus for about the 6th time recently, I was definitely inspired. Here is the 3" Mickey as Wander. Wander, the main character, must climb a series of 16 colossi and defeat them only by finding their weak points and putting his sword to good use on them. Defeating all 16 would release his girlfriend from a sort of deep sleep or curse. Pretty much one of the most beautiful games I've ever played and I've been playing them for 23 years so that's saying something.

Onto the symbolism of what I painted. On the front side I wanted to depict Wander as he looked in the game using a key element of gameplay. I painted his ear as the sun because in the game you have to use your sword's reflection of the sun to locate the next colossus in a massive open-world environment (including desert, forests, caves, lakes, etc.). The sword is from another figure I borrowed. The glyph on the front of his shirt is actually what the weak points of the colossi look like when you find them, only theirs glow in a vibrant light blue. 

On the back side I used a reference picture of a colossus and painted him as a black sillouette. But I wanted to give a feel for his texture so I added some brown and green to depict the colossi hair that you had to latch onto in order to actually climb the darn things! They were made of mostly stone, grass, fur, and parts that looked like building features. There was a very architectural feel to all of them since they basically rise out of the earth when you find them. Anyhow I painted his pants green and it doubles as grass for the scene on his back.

On the sides I wanted to add some feathers of different birds hanging on his belt. In the game you could collect lizard tails, but I liked the look of hanging bird feathers instead (a little artistic license).

All in all I really like how it turned out. Up next I will be customizing a 9" Vinylmation Colossus to accompany Wander here. Enjoy!

Paints - Testors and Citadel acylic flats

Reference pictures:

Finished Wander figure:

The Artist:

The dog and the girlfriend's pretty nails:

The Mutant Raphael (Universal Monster)

Well hey there! This wasn't really a difficult custom, but the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had a huge influence on my cartoon watching when I was a little Joe. I collected them all, and recently I got my hands on a pretty beat up Raphael figure. His paint was chipped and rubbed off, so I figured I'd give him a new paintjob! His name is The Mutant Raphael and he is from a Universal Studios series of Turtles that Playmates put out in 1994.  Anyway, I wanted to give him a new paintjob that made him look like he was straight out of an old Universal classic horror flick! P.S. huge horror/zombie fan here!

I used Citadel and Testors paints, mixing a few greys to get that greyscale feel to the figure. I Photoshopped him into the sewer photo, but I kept his original paintjob, get it? If I saw this guy stumbling towards me in a dark swer I wouldn't know if I should run or throw him a slice of black and white pizza!

Finished Raphael:

Bioshock's Dr. J. Steinman (a very plastic surgeon) (SOLD)

My Dr. Steinman started out as a Freddy Kreuger in a surgical outfit. I switched Freddy's glove hand with Jonah Hex's. I popped his head off, added a Jonah Hex head, and sculpted his mask, head piece, flap on his chest, buttons on the flap, a bunny mask, some intestines, and a red adam bottle. A good amount of sculpting, but I love the game so I don't mind the work. The corpse and gurney are from a McFarlane X-Files Mulder set. I cut open the corpse and added plenty of nastiness to the pure white gurney. I bloodied up Steinman's face, hands, bonesaw, gurney, and corpse. Pretty much repainted everything here. Throw in some surgical tools and he's all set!! Enjoy!

base - Freddy Kreuger
head - Jonah Hex
mask - Aves Apoxie
right hand - Jonah Hex
head piece - Aves Apoxie
bunny mask - Aves Apoxie
adam & eve bottles - Aves Apoxie
intestines - Aves Apoxie
flap and buttons on surgical gown - Aves Apoxie
corpse and gurney - McFarlane X-Files Mulder set
tools - fodder
paints - Citadel 

Reference:

Work in Progress shots:

Accessories:

Finished Product: