Wednesday, November 6, 2013

DesignerCon is here

We'll be making the trip down to Pasadena this weekend, 11/9 - 11/10, for the always epic DesignerCon. In addition to stocking up on the latest resin bootlegs and finally getting to see the Suckathon in person, we'll be bringing along the latest offerings from Scraped Resin, along with some classic Battling Bastard goodness.


We had the chance to collaborate with The Mark Ultra on the first entry: Lord Demonico! Having produced some of our favorite resin bootlegs of the last couple years, it was a god-damned honor to get to work with Mark Ultra and we're extremely happy with the results.



Who is this mysterious master of the black arts? And what powers does his mystical time helmet possess? This 3.75" supernatural terrorist comes carded with a resealable bubble and features a removable resin helmet for $40. A collaboration bootleg between Scraped Resin and The Mark Ultra, this DesignerCon exclusive will be available at The Resin Syndicate booth (#512).


Viva La Parka! Lucha libre's toughest skeleton cast in two-tone resins for $15 each. This 3" tribute to the Chairman of WCW will make his bootleg debut this Saturday, also at The Resin Syndicate booth (#512).


We'll be throwing any unsold items into the Scraped Resin online store next week, so check back if you're not able to attend.

Friday, September 27, 2013

Breaking Bastards & the return of El Cabroncito


To commemorate the anxiously anticipated series finale of Breaking Bad, Scraped Resin is releasing a limited run of Battling Bastard resin bootleg figures. Breaking Bastards will feature Ultimate Carlos and Mixtape in both 96% pure blue crystal and cooking-suit yellow resins, and will go on sale this Friday at noon PST. Each handmade, magnetically-articulated figure will be fully carded with resealable plastic bubbles and will be sold blind-bag style for $50 each.


The highly requested El Cabroncito will also make his return to the Scraped Resin store, featuring a run of 8 blind-bagged figures in random colors and new header art. The first edition sold out in less than 24 hours, and priced at only $25 apiece, these won’t last long.





Head on over to the Scraped Resin store more details. Don't sleep!*


*meth joke

Friday, September 13, 2013

Battling Bastard Custom Showcase #1

While things have quieted down here since the Mixtape drop, the resin dust has been flying at Scraped Resin HQ. We have a few fun figures and projects planned for the next few months, but before we get too ahead of ourselves, we wanted to show off some customized Battling Bastards that have started to pile up in our image folder.
The first is a set of figures created as gifts for the recent wedding of my favorite cousin, Casey Garcia, to her awesome partner, Cindy Clark. If it wasn't for Casey, I doubt I would be as obsessed with action figures as I am today, as we both feverishly collected He-Man figures as children and spent countless hours pitting Eternia's finest against Skeletor's clan during our formative years. Case has been one of Scraped Resin's biggest supporters since we cast up our first bootleg, so I was determined to pump out the coolest figure's I'd ever made for my cuzzo.
The results are Mixtape, and the newest member of the Battling Bastards universe, Steve Buscemi (?!?) cast up in GID resin with black paint details, which I've dubbed "Glo-Force". Steve has been floating around the Battling Bastards universe for longer than you may think and we'll definitely be expanding on that in the near future. A big thanks to my girlfriend, Anna Morales, who has graciously lent her painting ability to the team. The detail work on display here looks great and we can look forward to much cleaner paint apps moving forward.



Both figures feature compatible magnetic articulation, allowing for wacky, mash-up fun.


This next custom is especially exciting for us, as it pays tribute to the coolest motherfuckin' wrestling show in the world right now: HOODSLAM
Hoodslam combines violence, pop culture and intoxication with a true love for professional wrestling in a way that I'd never seen before, and it's fair to say that I view having a few beers at a live Hoodslam show the way religious fanatics view going to church. After attending my first show earlier this year, I knew I wanted to approach them about making figures of their outlandish characters, and decided on customizing a Mixtape figure to show them I meant business. Using a MvC Zangief head and a new set of ripped arms I'd recently molded up, I turned the Tijuana Turntable Terrorist into the russian powerhouse, Zangiev, as portrayed by local grappler Alexis Darevko.



I'm proud to announce that Zangiev and the rest of the Hoodslam team were thrilled with the custom figure and they've given me their blessing to move forward with official Hoodslam bootlegs. I've since been amassing an army of action figure limbs, heads and torsos, assembling plastic versions of Hoodslam's depraved warriors. More info on this very soon.


Check back next week for more custom Bastards and info on this month's drop which will include some timely variations of Carlos and Mixtape, as well as the return of El Cabroncito!

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Drop Day!: Secret Colorways and Bonus Swag

Only a few hours until Tijuana Turntable Terrorist, Mixtape, is released into the wild! Last update, we gave a preview of all of the Mixtape colorways, save for one, and since we're so close to the drop I figure I'd go ahead and let the cat out of the bag.

Bloody Bastard: Santo's Blood Mixtape stands guard at the bridge to hell... I mean, Sacramento.

Anyone who scored during the last Battling Bastard drop will instantly recognize the silver bullet and blood red resins dripping over each other which can mean only one thing: Santo's Blood Mixtape. This unique, supernatural variation will be go to a customer chosen at random during tonight's drop, so good luck and may Santo bless you.

Battling Bastards vs. G.I. Joe: A sign of things to come?
And as a bonus to everyone who places any order within 24 hours of tonight's drop, we're throwing in a limited edition Mixtape filecard done up in the classic GI Joe style. The figures will go up in the Scraped Resin store on tonight, at 5pm PST, so set those alarms!

Monday, August 12, 2013

Incredible and Devastator Mixtapes & full colorway reveal!

Ah, the age old question: Who would win in a fight between the Incredible Hulk and the combined might of the Constructicons in Devastator mode.  While the Decepticon wrecking crew would have the size advantage, our money is on Bruce Banner ripping each vehicle from the giant robot until only a slime-green junkyard is left.
Is there any better color combo than green and purple?  Conjuring images of the Joker, Green Goblin, Annihilus, Piccolo and the previously mentioned brutes, it's a popular color scheme for modern toys and one I couldn't resist casting Mixtapes in.  Unable to decide on a single version, I flipped the colors on these two to create two unique variations. 


And not only does this colorway get two unique interpretations, but they are also the only two Mixtapes to feature heat-sensitive resins!  That's right: Put your Mixtape in the sun and watch the translucent purple resin magically turn blue. 


That just about rounds out the available colors for this drop... or does it.  While we're remaining tight-lipped for now, I will say that mysterious chase figure may be familiar to long time Battling Bastard fans and features some supernatural resin effects.  In the mean time, check out this nifty colorway chart outlining the various Mixtape versions, and their quantities. 


The figures will go up in the Scraped Resin store on Wednesday 8/14 at 5pm PST, so mark those calendars!  Check back this Wednesday for a final preview for last minute hype and a visit from the mysterious chase colorway!

Friday, August 9, 2013

Cardbacks and Killa Bees

Another day closer to this Wednesday's drop, and another colorway reveal. Today we get a sneak peek at the black and glow-in-the-dark version of Mixtape, the Killa Bee colorway. As I was mapping out the different color Mixtapes I wanted to create, a black and GID version was one of the first on the list, and as he was brought to life he started to remind me of the glory days of Wu-Tang and that masked album cover.

As a kid, nothing thrilled me more than a glow-in-the-dark toy, and with these two entries marking my first official GID releases, I plan on using it as often as possible moving forward.
Shifting gears a bit, I am currently neck deep in cardbacks, figure bubbles and packing materials as I prepare for next weeks release, and wanted to take a minute to give a closer look at how the packaging for each figure is created by hand.

The cardback images are designed in Photoshop and printed on to posterboard. Regular scissors will result in jagged cuts, so some heavy-duty shears are employed to keep things crisp.

Reclosable plastic bubbles are purchased off Ebay and a hardcore silicone adhesive is applied to make sure it doesn't budge once in place.

The bubble is kept in place by putting another piece of posterboard topped off with some heavy Mexican candles.  I'll go cast some resin while this cures for a few hours.

Since the bubbles are slightly larger than the figure, I designed a little box that can be folded up, filled with cardboard and inserted at the bottom of the bubble. This will give the figure a snug fit and provides a good spot for additional text. I promise I won't hide any cool stuff in these, so no need to pry them open and mess 'em up, hehehe.

Throw in a sticker and a Battling Bastard and now you have yourself a top shelf, carded resin bootleg.

The figures will go up in the Scraped Resin store on Wednesday 8/14 at 5pm PST, so mark those calendars!  Check back Monday for even more colorway reveals, including a full breakdown of the 10 figure colors.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Candy Apple Mixtapes and full drop details!


Dig that sweet pearl effect! The countdown to our next drop continues with some more great photos as we get a closer look at the Candy Apple Mixtape colorway and reveal the details of next weeks drop.

 
This first edition will feature a run of 10 carded figures in 4 different colorways with a special chase figure thrown in to the mix. Each figure will run $65 and will come with a full color cardback, featuring a resealable plastic bubble so you can display your Mixtape carded or loose. The figures will be sold blind-bagged and will go up in the Scraped Resin store on Wednesday 8/14 at 5pm PST, so mark those calendars!
 

Come back Friday for a closer look at cardback, including the steps involved in creating each one by hand.  Stay tuned as we will be revealing the rest of the colorways including a breakdown of how many of each will be included, and even more hype for the Tijuana Turntable Terrorist, Mixtape.

Monday, August 5, 2013

The Mystery of Mixtape

While Mixtape's enigmatic lucha mask shrouds his face in shadows, it's nothing compared to the mystery of his past. Rumors of growing up in Brooklyn, or possibly Tokyo, have never been confirmed, but he first appeared in Tijuana in the late nineties with a crate full of records and clothesline that could almost take a man's head off. 

Adding to the mystery is the fact that nobody has ever heard the bastard speak since he showed up on the scene. Typically behind his trusty turntables, he communicates strictly through record scratches and audio samples, generally able to get his point across effectively.

While a widely feared rudo in the ring, his DJ service's Yelp review is currently only 2 and a half stars due to a tendency to only play Wu-Tang records, regardless of the clients requests. As Ultimate Carlos began assembling his army of lucha thugs, he needed a giant bruiser and someone to coordinate entrance theme music. In Mixtape, he had found both!

A huge thanks to Jessina Z. for the dope new pics.  Check back this Wednesday when we'll reveal a new photo highlighting a different colorway, as well pricing and drop details.

Friday, August 2, 2013

Mixtapes, Molds, and Mystery Parts

It was a long July, but the first, big run of Mixtapes are done, and are currently striking assorted b-boy poses for the photographer.  Get ready for some strong hype before I drop them in the next week or two, and in the mean time, here's a little peak of how we're filling time during this calm before the storm.

I got your back: Beautiful new cardbacks for the upcoming Mixtape drop.
 
Mystery parts: I have some bad-ass plans for these and will be breaking them out soon!
 
Rise from your grave!: Busted out some of my older molds for some custom figure remixes.

Check back next week for release, colorway and pricing info on the latest Battling Bastard, Mixtape.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

A new Bastard enters the ring...

Mixtape: The Tijuana Turntable Terrorist
 
A little preview of Mixtape, the newest lucha thug to join Ultimate Carlos' crusade to destroy false luchadores.  Little is known about the hefty enforcer, other than he doesn't seem to say much and is usually seen lugging a few crates of records with him.  More info on newest Battling Bastard coming soon, as we prepare for our biggest drop yet, featuring a bigger run than normal, awesome cardbacks, and magnetic articulation.  Stay tuned, lucha fans!

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Mistico: The Most Bootlegged Wrestler of the Modern Era


Alien. Luchador. Ninja. Samurai. Cage fighter. Just a few of the titles Mistico has worn throughout his career...in bootleg form anyway. Created in a Mexico City lab as a modern day El Santo, the young wrestler would take a mouthless mask to extreme success in his home country before exploding onto the international scene as both a lucha libre icon, and the most prolific bootleg action figure of the modern era.

The man that came to define the name Mistico began wrestling at age 15, paying his dues and learning his craft on the lower end of the card of Mexican wrestling shows near Mexico City. His big break came in 2004 when CMLL, the oldest and most respected wrestling company in Mexico, literally blessed him with the Mistico persona. Wrestling priest and inspiration for Jack Black's Nacho Libre, Fray Tormenta, brought the young wrestler out, claiming to have raised and trained him at his orphanage. The spiritual overtones gave the Mistico gimmick a holy aura that really helped the Mexican crowds rally behind the smaller luchador, but the fact that he was a bonafide lucha prodigy didn't hurt. His small stature and superhuman agility allowed him to show off a level of technical crispness that was missing from lucha main events, and as a result, he became the most popular wrestler in the country in years.


Chicks dig the mask: The original Mistico holding one of the many titles he won during his CMLL run.
The man behind the mask grew up in the famously violent slums of Mexico City called Tepito, where Santa Muerte-tinged violence isn't uncommon, and where pirated and bootlegged goods are freely sold in open markets. It's somewhat poetic that even with the fame and success he's achieved, he's become an icon as a bootlegged action figure, and I'd like to think that thousands of his unauthorized figures have been sold in same marketplaces he frequented as a child.

Unlike most bootlegged figures, where the child is looking to get a reasonable facsimile of an existing toy franchise, the Mistico bootlegs are seldom presented as wrestlers, making them appear as generic or original creations resembling a Power Ranger or ninja assassin. That means that while thousands of children will grow up with Mistico in their toybox, very few will connect the figure with the man himself. Compare that with the most famous bootleg luchador of all time, the static "one hand up, one hand down" lucha figure that is commonly found in 6 packs anywhere crappy Mexican tourist merch is being sold. While these are commonly painted (poorly) to resemble a wide spectrum of lucha characters, a closer inspection of the mask sculpt reveals the signature characteristics of El Santo's famously plain mask. A distinctly Mexican toy, it's tough to mistake the base figure for anything other than Santo himself.


Original bootleg: Several examples, both customized and scrubbed clean, of the first lucha figure.

The first Mistico bootlegs started showing up stateside around 2008, with generic Ninja 2-packs starting to appear at flea markets, dollar stores, or any other spots hocking mass-produced Chinese imports. Using what I assume is a shrunken head from the 2006 CMLL figure line, an enterprising bootleg designer attached it to the body to a generic action figure body creating something greater than the sum of it's parts. The stylized eye shapes and mouthless mask design offer a versatility that lent itself to several variations, including samurai, aliens, and MMA combatants. I give a lot of credit to the enterprising bootleggers for squeezing out as much usage as possible out of their figure mold, but they really struck gold when they started throwing together groups of figures and random accessories into full-on Mistico playsets. Cybernetic wings, Wolverine claws, even a straight-up motorcycle were carded with 4 or 5 multi-colored Mistico figures. And when that wasn't enough, translucent plastics and even battery-powered action features were included. Each new playset pushed the envelope a little further, and as of the publication date of this article and 5 years after finding the first Mistico bootleg, new variations are still being spotted in the wild.

And now I present my personal collection of bootleg Mistico playsets, all acquired by walking countless flea market aisles and sorting through piles and piles of crappy toys. While rarely costing more than $12, the hunt and scarcity of them makes me treasure them more than most of the "art toys" purchased online.
The "vanilla" Mistico uses the entire CMLL figure mold, whereas most just slapped the head on a plain body. This one is still commonly found in Dollar Tree stores, often featuring a chainsaw accessory and a fucked up paint job.

The Ninja's were the first figures I stumbled across and I literally didn't believe the information my eyes were sending to my brain. Completely amazed by it's existence, I bought it and uploaded pictures to a lucha libre message board, where other miscreants offered up cash for it. But even with it's $2 price tag, I couldn't part with it. I'd occasionally run into uninspired color variants of those first Ninja figures at Dollar Trees and gas stations, but it wasn't until about a year later that I realized the Mistico bootleg had become a sort of phenomenon.
Translucent Power Ranger Misticos! The first playset to be discovered, and you can bet your ass I started lose my mind when I spotted that see-through red Mistico with pterodactyl wings and working eye lazers! Plus airbrushed prehistoric flame weapons for his henchman?!? Did someone lace my morning corndog with acid, or did this somehow actually exist? Just to be sure, I wolfed down the remaining corndog and handed over the cash for this magnificent bastard.
As MMA became more and more popular, speculative bootleggers made sure to keep all of their bases covered as they converted a handful of pro-wrestler figure molds to mixed martial artists (you know, the kind involved in ladder battles). I applaud their bold decision to feature a masked MMA fighter, giving this version of Mistico some extreme tats, a Rob Liefeld torso, and stylish black-and-gold biker shorts.
While some of the other sets have a sense of "lets just throw together some similarly colored stuff together and card it", this bad motherfucker seems a bit too calculated for that. Maybe I'm projecting based on how bad-ass this turned out, but I definitely detect that some love went into this playset. As if some rogue bootlegger, up late in the toy factory decided to challenge himself to make the most balls-to-the-wall awesome set and when he exhaustedly collapsed in a pile of plastic figure bubbles and tiny ninja stars the next morning, this was what was assembled at his workstation. Wolverine claws? Why not! Samurai helmet? Sure, and why not throw a Kendo fencing mask in while we're at it. The cherry on top? A god-damned Action Cycle! I love this set so much that there are explicit instructions in my will for this to be presented to me on my deathbed, so my last moments are not spent sharing cherished moments with loved ones, but rather finally putting Mutant Samurai Mistico on his rad Action Cycle.
A bit of a callback to the Super Samurai series above, they even got the figures right on the packaging this time. Part of being X-treme must involve better quality control! The same set of Samurai and Kendo armor are included, albeit in a flame color scheme this time, but the real kicker is the full size kid's sword included with this set. While the heavy sword tends to jostle the rest of the smaller accessories packaged, the bootleggers showed some real ingenuity in ditching extra in-scale accessories for a Power Ranger-style sword they could wack a younger sibling with once they were tired of the figures themselves. X-treme, indeed! 
Alien Spider


Alien Spider The most recent playset find, this one features a UFO figure that is commonly sold by itself wherever bootlegged toys are found. The detail that helps this transcend from a shitty toy set to a head-scratching bootleg treasure is paint application to the UFO figure itself. Had you ever noticed that Spider Man has the same eye shapes as a generic UFO? WELL THE BOOTLEGGER SURE DID! An intricate web design mimicking Spider Man's costume has been faithfully applied, creating an interesting "What If?" scenario where Peter Parker was never bitten by a radioactive spider and was instead granted his great powers from a spider-themed spaceman. Throw in a few Spider-Clones and a Mistico Venom or two and you got yourself some flea market gold! Safety tested, of course. ;)
Where's the Wolverine claws? And no Action cycle? What a gyp! Man, some bootleggers have no class!

Out with the old: Mistico adopts the Sin Cara persona / Mistico II makes his debut.
While new Mistico bootlegs are still seemingly being produced, there has been a major shift in the identity of Mistico, the wrestler. Over the last two decades, it's become more and more common for top-level luchadores to relocate to the United States for broader fame and a bigger payday. This leaves the promotion they've left feeling a little betrayed and with a hole in their roster, and they're quick to rectify both situations by putting a new wrestler under the established mask. While the masses don't seem to mind, or even really notice for that matter, hardcore lucha fans tend to hate these bootlegged wrestlers, as they generally don't live up to the greatness of the originators. This exact scenario recently played out when Mistico, having thoroughly conquered Mexico's wrestling industry, jumped ship to Vince McMahon's WWE. Like an evolving Pokemon, his mouthless mask gained some aerodynamic wings, and he announced the not-very-awesome name of Sin Cara. Not too long after that, CMLL announced new Mistico would debut in the same mask and costume as the original. So far, it's fair to say that neither experiment is working as well as they'd hoped, with Sin Cara seemingly unable to find the rhythm that made him such a phenomenon in Mexico and Mistico II's first year is plagued with lackluster matches and multiple injuries. Proof that the emergence of a lucha god is a once-a-generation occurrence that simply can't be manufactured...unless you own a bootleg toy factory.



Did you know Mistico has also been bootlegged as a sticker?  Get your Cabroncito sticker pack in the Scraped Resin store!

Thanks again to Jessina Z. for the majority of the photos here. If it wasn't for her help, this article would have been my words joined by several photographs of giant glares.

Monday, May 6, 2013

El Cabroncito: Santo's Blood edition


The bootleg universe of the Battling Bastards just got a LITTLE bigger.  El Cabroncito, the death-defying Mexican mini, joins Ultimate Carlos' army of lucha thugs with the latest release from Scraped Resin.


This Santo’s Blood Edition involves a two-part casting process using stage-blood red and silver-bullet resins, with no paint applied.  Each figure features unique blood drips; a supernatural Rorschach test that may very well cause your soul to unravel.  Generally sold at lucha libre events and Brujaria shops, these idols are commonly found adorning dashboards or spiritual alters in an effort to protect the owner from violence or bloodshed, at least outside of the wrestling ring.


Only 6 figures are available in this edition, and will never be produced in this colorway again.  Each resin figure will be packaged with an El Cabroncito vinyl sticker, a limited edition Saint card commerating the Santo's Blood colorway, and a header card featuring Lucha Libre legend El Santo.  The figures will go up for sale on Wednesday, May 8th at noon PST at http://scrapedresin.bigcartel.com and will be $30 each, shipped.



A big thanks to Jessina Z. for joining the Scraped Resin clan as our ringside photographer. You can see more of her work at her Flickr and Tumblr, as well as future Battling Bastard posts.  Stay tuned!