all of these images are part of my original website. i had no idea what i was doing, so try not to laugh at the overall awesomeness of it.
i haven't read through all the text from these pages in well over 2 years. hopefully it's all correct.
so these little guys started way back in school and i just recently saw another deviled egg figure out there. of course the sculpts are different, but it is a similar concept. i guess that's what happens when you don't your ideas out there quick enough. i figure there is plenty of room in the world for all kinds of egg figures. it's not like mine was the first egg figure ever.
1st girl sculpt ever and still the only one. maybe someday i'll do another....maybe.
Mr. Freeze is still my favorite Batman villian. even after The Batman animated series totally butchered his story by making him some punk diamond thief. LAME. how can you go from a man willing to sacrifice the world to save his wife, to a simple thug that got in an accident? i did like the styling though.
these figures have been frustrating for a long time. i've tried at least 3 times to see if Mirage and Peter Laird would be interested in letting me license out and produce these figures as a vinyl toy. unfortunately, they weren't too fond of the idea. i think TMNT as a brand is more than strong enough to be seen in a variety of styles. they've allowed tons of comics artists put their spin on the Turtles. maybe i didn't have a big enough name as an artist, or maybe it was a money issue, or maybe they just didn't like the styling. at least NECA got was to do a collector toy line. it was good to be able to buy good TMNT toys again.
this sculpt also got in front of Mirage for a bit. they like it for the most part, but wanted me to change the gun. i guess my artistic interpretation strayed too much. it obviously didn't go anywhere. i wanted to continue sculpting the other 3 figures, but priorities change, and TMNT has never been a priority for me. i sculpted at least 5 different styles of TMNT figures. i even sculpted a preschool version. i did this because i grew up loving TMNT. i never officially worked on the TMNT toys. i helped out on a couple of products, but nothing i would want to claim. unfortunately, working for Playmates killed my love of TMNT for a while. hopefully, Nickelodeon will turn things around.so this is what Squid Kids Ink used to be. i had a desire to sculpt and usually sculpted my version of other peoples characters. eventually i grew tired of this and started working on my own designs more. all of these sculpts were done in my spare time while working at Playmates Toys for a 2.5 year period. it wasn't the best place for me to work, so i'm glad that i was able to move on. we made molds and castings of all of these figures. i don't have them up on our web store, because we have a very limited supply, if any. the TMNT figures were never for sale, even though we had a lot of requests for them.
-->> It's your ol' pal, Tokka..
ReplyDelete- -yeh yeh yeh ..the damned TMNT ones remain my fave .
And as far as the 'TON goes .. he's just beautiful.
Maybe things happened for a reason, like you said it just wasn't the time.
Like so many indy artists and companies - -it was TMNT that acted as a conduit that brought me on as a fan of their work.
Not to be labor the Turtles point but heavy change is afoot ( even your ol pal Murphy is facing very challenging lifestyle changes as we speak ).
Um .. in the early aughts, even i was faced with a tricky delima that brought TMNT and a very bitter taste about all of it and it was a pure misunderstanding within' that incident.
It took a long time for me to sort that out as it was an issue with um "One of the big guys".
I did learn to separate the incident from the things i loved about TMNT and the stories, artists, characters - - and the controversies.
It's helped me to continue to do that, as Turtles remains an integral part of my existence, my vices, and inspirations.
You have it harder as you were thrown right into the mix by working directly at Playmates and had to go thru' all that bullshit.
as an artist .. i bet it more than "BEYOND" frustrated you.
I do hope these aspects have lightened in the past few years for you guys. And in time you can appreciate some these works.
Many of out here really do appreciate em and have already..
and appreciate you guys.
I'm just sorry there's only so much i can do.
I wish i was super-human.
However - - i am more than willing to help in any capacity within my powers.
So - -
anyway .. thanks.
~ t