He-Man customs/alterations

[oracrest]

This is a little personal project that I have been working on for a little bit. I remember when I had the Masters of the Universe toys when I was younger, I would commonly trade out arms and other parts to create new custom characters. It was simple because many parts of the old toys were removable. I took that same mindset, but approached it with different artistic skill sets that I had acquired over the years, and its been quite a fun and explorative project.

As a general rule for myself, I only used parts of the original MOTU toy series, combined with somewhat raw materials and found objects. I strictly didn't use any parts from other toy lines. It seemed more fun and creative that way. I've attached a little bit of fiction for each of these characters as well. I hope you like them.




Hideous and frightening in form, this beast is a champion of the great battle arenas. Pitted against man and beast alike, he has yet to be felled in mortal combat. Whether from a lost line of of a once greater species, or some grotesque creation of a dark sorcerer is unknown. The beast does not speak, but appears to understand those that do.










In ages past, for crimes long since forgotten, this monster was shackled and chained in the deepest dungeons. Bloodlines of kings came and gone as it sat undying in the cold and wet darkness. Any remnants of sanity and intelligence long since cracked and broken away from such solitude. In a fit of bestial rage, the prisoner tore it's weakened and rusty bonds away, and escaped once again into the wilds. Hunters traveling the furthest stretches of untamed wilderness tell tales of the chained beast who haunts the forest, feasting on the fleshes of the land.









The idea I had for this next character was of an immortal demon, with tremendous physical constitution. As a ritual, he would carve patterns into his ever healing flesh, and pierce himself with large decorative rings. From these rings he would hang dismembered pieces of victims.










This mechanical man exists as a combination of technology and magic. What little essence of thought and will that could be harnessed by the strange arts gave life to the otherwise cold and dead metal man. Acting as a guardian and service drone for it's creator, this clunky robot wields slow but great strength. A large amount of maintenance is required to prevent rust decay and stiffening of joints.



















In a failed experiment of sorcery, a hive of overgrown and violent wasps was created. Overtaking their creator, they escaped to the nearby swamp lands. What scattered remnants of magic that coursed through their bodies, and down their bloodlines, gave rise to this sentience of living sap and honey. drawing upon the collective thought of the hive, and attaining a form of consciousness of it's own, this amorphous monstrosity is neither it's own being, or the collective thought of the hive, but a strange combination of the two. Allowing the hive to now travel, this beast slowly lurches through the lands, providing protection and transportation for this cursed wasp colony.












I always loved skeletor, But hated that idea of a skull attached to a muscular man. With this one, I wanted to hide the body, and leave the physical form more to the imagination.

[Angroc]

all this is awesomeness. especially love your interpretation of skeletor.

[Kinjiru]

I love what you did with Skeletor. Great concept! The rest is also great! Congrats!

[oracrest]

thanks guys!

hey, I cant figure out how to make the small thumbnail image next to the thread name. Is there some secret trick, I cant seem to find anything....

[Steph Laberis]

I admit - at first when I saw this was a He-Man redesign thread, I wanted to roll my eyes. Then I took a peek and was so very pleasantly surprised

My favorite of the lot is Buzz-Off, by far. Great use of found objects and keeping with the style for each one, they look like they all inhabit the same world wonderfully. The best crit I can offer is that the big hinge on Lobster-dude's claw (sorry, totally forgot his name!) takes me out of the moment, I'm sure you wanted functionality with it but I woonder if there might be a way to wire a real lobster claw to the same effect. Plus, it's a great excuse to eat lobster

Thanks for sharing Matt, you're making me want to bust out the sculpey again!

[nanook]

i was always strangely fascinated by he-man and that whole motu kaboodle. they were the first action figures that really caught attention and got a lot of negative response around here when they first came out.
not that i liked them very much - i was just fascinated by the way they looked so completely like out-of-shape-chunks-of-plastic and hideous with their legs bent outwards like that. like they just got off the loo...

anyway - what you made there is absolutely brilliant!!!
great concept and execution!
and, yes, skeletor is the star of your bunch.
and he did look particularly crappy in the old days.
from an artistic point of view you really turned $#!+ into gold!

[The Dark Power]

These are really cool - if only they could've looked like this when I had them years ago!

[oracrest]

Originally Posted by nanook

i was always strangely fascinated by he-man and that whole motu kaboodle. they were the first action figures that really caught attention and got a lot of negative response around here when they first came out.
not that i liked them very much - i was just fascinated by the way they looked so completely like out-of-shape-chunks-of-plastic and hideous with their legs bent outwards like that. like they just got off the loo...

anyway - what you made there is absolutely brilliant!!!
great concept and execution!
and, yes, skeletor is the star of your bunch.
and he did look particularly crappy in the old days.
from an artistic point of view you really turned $#!+ into gold!

Thanks man! I understand what you are saying. There are parts of some original characters I have shied away from using because they just look really dumb.

On the flipside though, there is tons of sculpted detail that got washed over in a single color when the paint got applied to them in the original toys, so it is cool to be able to make those details stand out more now.

[acornboy]

Very cool stuff! I especially like the redesign of Skeletor!

-Sam

[Robert.B]

hahaahhahaaha! awsome!

[TheDirtSyndicate]

hey, do you have a hig-rez jpg of this photo?
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1321/...479f500a64.jpg

i wanna use it as my new wallpaper.
fucking cool shit man.

[oracrest]

Originally Posted by complete2

hey, do you have a hig-rez jpg of this photo?
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1321/...479f500a64.jpg

i wanna use it as my new wallpaper.
fucking cool shit man.

Um, i think so, let me check when i get home, and see if i can find a bigger one. flcikr sizes them down automatically, it sucks.

[Bones Weep Tedium]

Woah --- Skeletor is so scarey! Great job!