Thursday, November 6, 2014

Resin City Ransom


I'll be headed down to Pasadena this weekend for DesignerCon 2014, no matter how many street gangs I have to fight my way through.  I'll be bringing a thirst for culture, a pocketful of dank, and the latest bootleg offering from Scraped Resin!  An action figure tribute to the greatest NES beat-em-up of all time, Alex features 3 points of magnetic articulation and comes packaged in a resealable card. 

In scale with your favorite 90's toy lines, this 4" brawler is only available at the Galactic Jerkbags booth #1228, this DesignerCon for $50. I'll be signing at the GJG booth from 11am - noon on both days of the convention, so stop on by and smash a trash can against my face!


Any unsold Alex's will end up in the Scraped Resin store for those who can't make it down to DCON, so don't spend all your money at Hack's Chicken Shack!  See ya in Pasadena!

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Pagoda is coming...


For the road warriors of the apocalypse, wandering through the fallout for gasoline and weapons, there are worse things than death. Run while you can. Survive if he lets you. The walking disaster! The war king of the wastelands! All hail… Pagoda!


This was my personal challenge to come up with a 3 3/4" figure that I would have wanted as a child, which allowed me to pull from a bunch of vintage figure parts I had been eyeballing since entering the resin hustle. Kitbashed from more than 7 different toys, this war king of the wastelands is my interpretation of a Lord Humungous meets the Cenobites type of brute that oozes radiation and violence.


I'm finalizing an arrangement that will put Pagoda into one of my favorite toy stores, and I'm really excited to be branching out like this. More details as soon as humanly possible, but keep an eye on my Instagram feed for new Pagoda variants.

Friday, June 13, 2014

"Dude, that goalie was pissed about something."


From the abandoned GUTS series “Cartel Enforcers” comes Sgt. Stab! This bootleg mashup will be thrown into all new orders, while supplies last!


What better way to get a Sgt. Stab than order the new Jason Voorhees bootleg. A holiday 1 off based off the upcoming Pagdoa figure, featuring articulated arms, Worms helmet hockey mask and Friday the 13th cardback!

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Neon-Zero: Time Bastard!


In the last days of 1989, The Ultimate Warrior assembled a Survivor Series team that would be able to match the might of Andre the Giant's army and lead pro wrestling into the glorious 90's. The Rockers were an obvious choice due to their tiger-striped bandanas and double-drop kick, and the trio searched the globe for a fourth member that would give them the edge over Andre's forces. They found Neon-Zero, Mexico's greatest champion, and promptly asked him to join the team, due to his unmatched brutality and conveniently matching slime green ring gear.


Sensing they had an edge with their new team mate, Andre opened his time portal and ambushed Neon-Zero, tossing him into the unknown future. Now in 2014, Neon-Zero fights to return to his own time to ensure he isn't erased from history. Will he get his revenge on Andre the Giant, or will he need to be replaced by a hungover Jim Niedhart?


...but what if Neon-Zero never made it to 2014?

Trapped within a spiraling time warp, a ghostly Neon-Zero travels through various time periods, battling dinosaurs and robo-Nazi's, desperately hoping he eventually finds the right portal back to 1989. Will he get his revenge on Andre the Giant, or will he completely fade way, forever lost in time.


...but What If?!?

Before Andre could toss Neon Zero through the time portal, a warrior from the future barreled through from the other side! Sporting a glowing eye and giant metal arm, he claimed to be the ultimate hero from the 90's. Seeing an even better oppurtunity, the Ultimate Warrior asked this post-apocalyptic mutant to join their team, changing the course of pro-wrestling...forever!


One of the most highly sought after one-offs is back, with a new set of arms and a fully fleshed out backstory! Featuring magnetically articulated arms and a removable helmet, this 3.5" resin figure comes bagged with a header that reflects the timeline they are from. Featuring an edition of 6, with two styles of chase figure, including Son of Cyclops, who comes fully painted with a bonus resin head. Available in the Scraped Resin store this Friday, June 6.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Battling Bastards: From Parts Unknown

For a main event luchador, life is all about fame, glory and Cadillacs! But what about the opening-match jabroni's working for $20 and a torta? Who are these villainous journeymen wrestlers destined to wander the Mexican wrestling circuit as perennial losers? Scraped Resin celebrates these misfit luchadores with their new figure series, Battling Bastards: From Parts Unknown! With their debut coming up this Friday, I thought it'd be a good time to get a closer look at the From Parts Unknown crew...

Greg Havasu came to Mexico to deliver dropkicks and party. And he's all out of dropkicks.

Banned from competing in the U.S. for obvious health and legal reasons, Zombie Chris Benoit roams the Mexican wrestling circuit, hungry for competition.
Scars and Stripes: Soldier-turned-wrestler who is ready to declare war on the Battling Bastards!

...Mondo Gecko Steve Buscemi?

Joe Leader: King of the space perverts.

Silencio: Mysterious luchador or restless spirit of vengeance?

6 unique one-off resin figures will be available at noon PST, this Friday, 2/14 in the Scraped Resin store. Each 4" - 4.5" figure features full magnetic articulation come with stickers and a limited edition trading card. Best of all, they come packaged in deluxe cardbacks featuring a resealable bubble and original artwork by painter Casey Garcia, all for only $30! Which one will you get?

Thursday, February 6, 2014

How to clone a Chupacabra


In a company full of insanely colorful characters, picking the second Hoodslammer for their own action figure wasn't a clear cut choice. Drugz Bunny, Virgil Flynn and the Stoner Brothers are all obvious choices for plastic immortality, but when the dust settled, it was the Mexican Werewolf, El Chupacabra that stood victorious.
As a bootlegger, I take existing action figure parts, remix them together in (hopefully) interesting ways and make molds that will allow me to create as many copies as I want to cast in resin plastic.

"Why don't you sculpt from scratch?"

Why don't you go fuck yourself?!? But on the real, original sculpts are awesome when done right, but take a lot of skill and patience to pull off. By using old toy parts, not only do I get to produce slicker looking toys, but I get to speak in the universally familiar language of action figures.


The challenge of bootlegging El Chupacabra was to break down his appearance and convert it into parts I could pull from my own collection, or eBay, all while trying to keep it in scale with the previously created Dark Sheik figure. The first items I fixacted on were his ring gear, noting that his kickpads rose into a dualed-fork design and his torso design based around his pecs and abs. The dualed-fork element reminded me of Superman's boot design, and I figured I could mimic the torso using a Vegeta Dragonball figure torso.


While it took 3 different Supermen figures to nail the appropriate size, I was just happy to get the body nailed down. The head took months of browsing eBay and cycling through the memories of childhood, trying to find a head that fit Chupacabra's look. I looked at countless werewolfs, Sabretooths and Morbius figures, but none quite captured his fanged ferocity and wild mane. About to call it quits, I stumbled upon a random action figure from the Underworld line of movies. Having only seen the forgettable first entry, I had no idea a toy line existed. Not only were they the right size, but featured a character named Lucian who was, you guessed it, a great fit for Chupacabra.


Once the pieces are in place, I'll make a mold using legos and silicone. It's a two part process that involves encasing one half of each figure part in silicone, and once cured, encasing the opposite side. Chupcabras long hair resulted in an oddly shaped head piece that required a slightly tricky mold that would allow the resin to get into the nooks and crannies of his mane, while keeping the pour hole inconspicuously placed. For the arms, I did what any enterprising bootlegger would do and re-used the same arm mold as the Dark Sheik figure.


Liquid resin gets mixed with various dyes and pigment powders and then poured into each mold. The plastic starts to solidify after only a few minutes, so once filled, the molds are quickly put into a pressurized chamber to help shrink tiny bubbles that have settled into the resin. This is why the translucent figures are so clear and glassy! A few hours later and the plastic will have completely set, allowing me to inspect the goods.


Pieces are pulled from their molds for inspection and any excess resin that slipped between the mold parts is scraped (hehehe) away. If the mold was done right, the mold seam shouldn't be very noticable, but this is generally the point where various sandpapers are used smooth out any rough spots. They're then vigoursly scrubbed with rubbing alcohol to clean away accumulated dust. If you hadn't guessed, this is generally the most boring aspect of making action figures. Weed helps!


With the finish line in sight, the figures parts are then painted (when necessary) and glossed. Having invested so much work into them at this point, a sloppy paint job can be a devestating way of ruining an otherwise awesome figure. That's why I insist on collaborating with my wonderful girlfriend and paintbrush samurai, Anna Morales, who's steady hand has helped bring many of the recent Scraped Resin characters to life. The figures are then carefully covered in layers of industrial gloss, sealing them with a crystal sheen that helps smooth out the sanded elements and brings the resin to life. From there, the figures are glued together and packaged, and a well deserved victory beer is guzzled.


Want a Chupacabra of your own? Join me this Friday at The Smoklahoma Bowl where sex, violence, liquor and toys will be loudly celebrated by a standing room only crowd of Hoodslam fans!

Friday, January 3, 2014

New Year's Revolution

DesignerCon 2013 was like getting slugged in the gut by the collective creativity of the Internet. A lot of really cool bootlegs on display and getting to meet the resin- encrusted creators behind the pieces really brought out the competitive spirit in me. For 2014, I have my sights set on making the most hardcore bootlegs possible and won't rest until I'm choking on money and resin dust.

The first Hoodslam bootleg, Dark Sheik, had a great debut at "Hoodslam: Non Denominational Winter Season Celebrational Festivity…of Doom.....DOS!" last month. Anyone lucky enough to attend the spectacle known as Hoodslam knows that it's not exactly an environment conducive to selling non-alcoholic merch, so we were happy as hell to see them move as fast as they did. Not only are we working on more Sheik figures to help meet the demand, but we're already working on the next characters figure, scheduled to debut at February's show. While we're not going to reveal exactly who yet, let's just say you might want to lock up your goats.

When you're a main event bone-breaker like Ultimate Carlos or Mixtape, you get a dope theme song, finishing move and fleshed out backstory. But what about the opening match jobbers working for $20 and a torta? Who are these villainous journeymen wrestlers destined to wander the Mexican wrestling circuit as perennial losers? We'll be exploring this question with the next Battling Bastards series, From Parts Unknown.
On top of that, the Bastards have a rare distinction of being one of the few all-Mexican groups of anti-heroes, so taking a queue from the xenophobic world of real life lucha libre, I tried to make nearly all of the villains non-Mexicans to play up boos they would receive from Tijuana audience. Americans, Canadians, I was even able to sneak a Martian into the mix. And seeing as how these villains are basically being brought in to job to the Battling Bastards, I figure it's only appropriate they are made up of leftover scraps and unused casts laying around the Scraped Resin workshop. Sure they were built to lose, but at least they look great doing it!

What about the packaging? Oh...let me tell you about the packaging. Anyone who's ever explored a flea market or Dollar Store knows that no bootleg is complete without some amazingly bootlegged art. Since the start of Scraped Resin, we've been trying to get painter Casey Garcia to submit a piece for a special cardback and have finally bugged her enough to receive an awesome rendition of Ultimate Carlos, previewed above!

...Pagoda is coming.