So far so good.

Today I celebrate my first year without a drink or a cig. :-) Go me!

Ebay Finds

I did very well on the bay this week:







All really significant finds, and I got each of them for a reasonable price :-)

Super Huge News!

Ok so as most of you know, I have the ninja turtles and the signatures of Kevin and Peter tattooed on my arm. If you haven't seen them, click the "My TMNT Tattoos" on the right side of your screen. ANYWAY! I had emailed Kevin awhile back, asking if he would be willing to draw the background for my arm...I just got a response from him...HE SAID YES! More on this as it develops!

Little Bits of Nature

Clearly not turtle related, but neat none the less. On my way to work this morning I noticed a big red dragonfly perched on the antenna of my car. Dragonflys are one of the only insects that don't creep me out. I thought it was neat! Apologies for the crappy iPhone pic.

Balloon Turtles and SCIENCE!

So let me tell you a story about this little guy. Some time ago I went to the Magic Castle (a magician's club) for a family celebration (a birthday I think). That night one of the acts was a magician who did his entire act with balloons. He made a turtle balloon, and gave it to someone else...I was probably more upset then I should have been that I didn't get it. Well, on my way out of the door as we were leaving, I noticed that the girl who had gotten the turtle THREW IT IN THE TRASH CAN! And I thought "THAT WHORE!" as i practically jumped into the trash can to get it.

So on my way home, very happy with my turtle balloon animal, I was thinking about ways that I could keep him alive the longest. Seeing as rubber is a porous material (its gots holes ins it!) I figured keeping him in a cool place would be the best for him since the cold would make the holes in the rubber contract. HOORAY FOR THIRD GRADE SCIENCE! So I put him in the coldest place I got...the freezer. I thought I might get a few weeks out of him that way... boy was I wrong... The picture above was taken June 26th 2008...roughly THREE YEARS after I put the little bastard in the freezer. Granted, he only comes out every few months to get his picture taken...but I still think that is damn impressive for a balloon animal.

Thanks for listening to my story :-)

It's HEEEEEEERE!

New Desktop

Recently Peter posted some new art on his blog. Unfortunately they were all draw separately which doesn't make for good desktop background. SO I went and shopped them together. This makes a pretty sweet background if you center it and set your background to white.

Drawings From My Childhood

Hey gang,
I found these and I thought I would share them with you. These are pictures of Michaelangelo that I drew in the ages of 9 and 10. Each of them were entered in the LA county fair art competition for that year. The first one never one anything, but the second one won 2nd place for the age group. I think they're neat :-)

NECA Con Exclusives

Seeing as NECA released information about their 2nd SanD comic con exclusive (The Black and White Variant Con Exclusive Box Set) seen here!:

I thought I would take this time to display one of my more recent additions. For those of you who have been reading this blog for awhile, you'll recognize this item from when I acquired it, but it seemed a fitting time to present it in a little more detail.

When I went to the New York Comic Con 08 to have Peter sign my arm, I was able to get this Con Exclusive NECA box set. Kevin and Peter were both there, so I had them both sign it. As my first piece with both their signatures on it, it is very special to me. Oh, these were a limited release of 500, just like the SanD b&w variant set will be.

This particular set has been AFA graded (the only one two be register with the AFA at the time of this posting). You may notice that, even though the box set is in good condition, it recieved an overall grade of a 70. That is because the AFA regards signatures as flaws, and so "no signed figure will ever recieve an overall grade that is higher than a 70." Not that I really care, I mainly had it graded for the protection factor. That is museum grade UV resistant plexi it is cased in.

I love this piece because like I said before, it is my first piece to have both Kevin and Peter's signatures (besides my arm lol), and because it displays REALLY nicely. I hope you've enjoyed this showcasing of it :-)

TMNT Treasures: Post 4 - Scratch Hard Copy

This morning's TMNT Treasure is one of my favorite pieces. This is a Hard Copy of Scratch, one of the rarer TMNT figures from the 90's. A Hard Copy is a Production Stage of creating a figure. This stage is after the wax sculpt, but before the test shots are made. Rather than being made out of the normal figure plastic, Hard Copies are made from solid resin and are held together by metal pins. I particularly like this hard copy because he is in remarkable shape for his age, and has all his accessories with him (also cast in resin). Enjoy the photos.

I just ordered...

This.

TMNT Treasures: Post 3 - 100 Piece Launch Quantity Space Hoppin' Turtles

Bet you didn't think you'd see any 2000+ Releases in my Treasures posts. We'll then my friend, you have been hoodwinked!














Now you might say to me, "Stephan, I have seen Space Hoppin' turtles before, what makes these ones so special?"

And I would say, "Well, you uncultured bastard, before the original Space Hoppin' line was put out, Playmates sold a very limited release of these figures before the public release. 100 of each figure was sold, and was only available on ebay."

Then you'd say, "WTF, you totally made that up. They look exactly the same, I don't buy it. You're just bagging my carpet!"


Then I would show you the back:














I know the picture sucks, but it's a hologram label on the back that says:
Playmates
100 Piece Launch Quantity
(Peter Laird's Signature)
Peter Laird-Creator, T.M.N.T.

BOTTOM LINE:
In the case of this treasure, it's all about exclusivity. People love to be able to hold something and say "there are only X amount of these in the whole world!"
I am guilty of it myself :-)
So, while you will only probably be impressed by these if you're a package variant collector, I still think they're neat!

Original Toon Accurate Raph

Ok, so I realized after I sculpted him that I didn't have a raph belt, so until I get an extra one, youre just going to have to envision him with it on. Anyway... I wanted to try my hand at an original head sculpt that was as close to old toon as I could manage...and this is what I was about to come up with. The body is a complete repaint, and the head is a 100% original sculpt from yours truly :-) Enjoy the pictures :-) And yes, I realize the colors are a little off, I mixed them from what I had on hand...besides, the success with the head sculpt was what was important to me.