Monsterforge’s Masters of the Universe “Moh-Toos”
See this post at the October Toys forum for a clear look at the new Moh-Too one-off clay customs created by Monsterforge (blog, Twitter). I posted a teaser image from this series a few days ago (post here) and immediately called Charles to nag him about getting the Skeletor.
No luck at securing the Skeletor for myself — these toys will be blind packed — but I think I managed to talk Charles out of basically giving these toys away. Artists, when you create awesome work like this that’s one-of-a-kind pieces please don’t undersell yourself. These are some cute little customs and I suspect a lot of collectors — including Masters of the Universe fans — would be happy to own one of these.
But at the price Charles quoted me when I asked I have to admit that my first response was to tell him I would take the entire run. Seriously, his planned price was so low that securing every single one of the toys would have cost less than a lot of people spend when 3A drops new toys . . . and these Moh-Toos are hand-crafted works of art and not mass-produced toys!
So with any real luck Charles is going to put a higher price tag on these toys. Because if he doesn’t I promise you I’m going to try to buy every single one of them. I bet they would look fantastic in a little diorama.
Related articles
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- Toy Commercial Tuesday > Pre-Filmation Animated He-Man Commercial (poeghostal.com)
- Spotted Online – Masters of the Universe Concept Art Book Review (battlegrip.com)
Those are cool little He-dudes, I like whenever Clawful makes it into any line up. Snake Men in that style would be boss too.
And since this seems like as good a topic to ask this question in as any as it’s about custom made figures; I’ve been seriously thinking about trying my hand at making some sort of little figure/statue/etc after reading tons of back pages of this site and seeing all the crazy cool little things people are making, but I don’t know where to leap off as it were. I’m just sort of wondering if you had any suggestions of material to use as far as sculpting goes, I know you’ve mentioned plumber’s putty in the past, but I have no idea what sort of consistency it is, how well it holds detail, etc.
Simply amazing. If my wife was not mad at me for all the crap i been buying lately I would try to get one of these.
Charles is a madman, that’s all there is to it.
Thanks for the article, Phil! You always do such a good job of covering what’s happening in the art toy community! And thanks to you guys who left kind words. To answer some questions for Black Zarak: There are about as many types of sculpting compound as there are types of paint… which means a TON of different routes. I use Sculpey, which is an oven baked polymer clay compound. Sculpey isn’t inherently strong stuff and can break if dropped or handled roughly (unless you cook the heck out of it… then it gets pretty darn tough– which is what I do). Epoxy compounds like plumber’s putty, on the other hand are hard as a rock when they cure, and they require no cooking. Most epoxy putty has a tacky, sticky feel to it, and it sticks to tools and hands like crazy unless you keep both very wet. I’ve used it before, but i find it to be a hassle to work with, and it costs a lot more than Sculpey. But you pay for the durability you get… epoxy putty is tough as nails!
A guy who has a lock-down on different types of materials is customizer John Mallamas, otherwise known as Jin Saotome. His site always has great articles on making customs and using different materials:
http://www.jinsaotomesdangeroustoys.com
Hope that helps, man!
Jin Saotome is indeed a master of the craft, I’ve always been amazed by his work. I could never hope to be anywhere near that good, but I’ll definitely take your advice on materials and check out his articles. Maybe someday, Battlegrip will be reviewing something I made!