Friday, February 10, 2012

Canne'boid + Astro Nautilus = Canne'nautilus!




















I had the idea to combine a canne'boid with an Astro Nautilus back in September of this past year. I'd sat on the idea for a very long time until Matt Doughty mentioned to me about the Outer Space Man custom art show that is happening in February at Toy Tokyo. So, having an idea of what to make already, I set to work. I added a custom cardback & bio card to complete the custom and give it a little more character.

For those of you attending the art show, be sure to come say hello. :-D

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Spy Monkey Creations Armory Packs = Shnoopin' Awesome

























The fine folks over at Spy Monkey Creations were so incredibly generous to send me 2 sets in advance & even those some parts immediately went to upgrade Canne'borg, I was left with alot of extras to work with.

"After using some Venom Armory weapons to combat his armored canne'boid brethren, specifically Canne'borg (who used to be his former rival 'Crunchmouth'), he decided to upgrade his mechanical arm further with the mysterious weaponry. Their dark allure of power proving too tempting not to use, N'ykk's dark side was brought out in full causing him to shed his Glyaxia Command allegiances. His former Neo-Sincroid Commander, Kik'bek, joined the Secticore Tracker Unit to try and see if it's too late to un-corrupt him. The longer N'ykk uses the Venom weapons, the more his body assimilates into itself, so it is unknown if he can be saved, or even if he wants to be..."

I'm having a blast building with these things, I've already upgraded N'ykk like 3 times since I posted the new banner for the blog, and Canne'borg might be due for an upgrade too depending on what parts N'ykk is willing to spare. I can't make N'ykk any larger though, if I do he won't be able to fit in my pocket anymore. O_o I like the male/male zig-zag piece in this set as it is very useful in creating the illusion of N'ykk holding the axe when in reality it's attached to his wrist. His mechanical hand was made from 3 parts that can combine to form a robotic pelvis of sorts and it's also another great addition to this pack.

These things are the perfect addition to any Glyos builder, and I know $20 may sound expensive but you get a TON of parts to build with for that price, at least 42 I think. I'll have to order another set or two in different colors maybe for when (or IF....) N'ykk turns from the "dark side" but still wants to use Armory technology, not sure what color though, maybe the gun metal sets.

Thanks again to Jeremy from Spy Monkey Creations for the advance sets, I hope you guys did great in sales yesterday & can't wait to see what else you guys have coming down the pipe. We may need mechanical snake parts next, I'd love to build a articulated glyos snake or something similiar- plus if you combine a snake body with the hilt parts from the sword you could make some wicked Dr Octopus-like tentacles. O_O

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Welcome to February!

It's amazing how the simple act of taking ONE new photograph a month to make into the banner for the blog is so incredibly difficult. Last year I had banner photos for September, October, December, January, but nothing for Novemeber, February or March. Looking at last year's January banner (which has doubled as this years January banner...) I was amazed at how much snow we had then VS this year when there's been relatively little.

For February I wanted to do a new photo banner but couldn't find any Valentine's Day themes I'd like so I went with another theme: Spy Monkey Creations Armory sets! In the above photo we have my own canne'boid "N'ykk" (named as such due to him loosing his right hand while in battle at New York Comic Con last October) locked in deadly combat with Canne'borg, latest creation of the mad scientist canne'boid Baron Ivan Von Boidochevski. Also in the shot is the good Baron's first successful canne'stein and loyal patch-work assistant, Nikoliar Voktor.

Baron Boidochevski was the only surviving member of his pack after a bomb was accidentily detonated nearby. The bomb's radiation rapidly increased his intellectual capabilities to mad scientist levels, as well as allowing his body to emit low levels of radiation (i.e. he glows in the dark). Seeing as his pack was blown to bits he used his new-found genius to re-assemble them piece by piece....just not in the correct order.

Nikoliar's body may be put back together, but his mind is a little sketchy; he's a compulsive liar and it's virtually impossible for him to tell the truth much to the Baron's annoyance. Building him was alot of fun, and if you look you can see how he's been cobbled together from canne'boids of different sizes as well as colors; he has about 20 stitches in his head that I baked in the oven like tiny clay staples & then pushed them into his head one by one. Tedious yes, but very rewarding.

Canne'borg used to be the canne'boid known as Crunchmouth before being blown away by the ruthless armored canne'boid Gutshot. Baron Boidochevski proceeded to step 2 of his plan and utilized bionic implants to re-animate Crunchmouth, who now serves him as a loyal robot.

The names for the baron & his assistant were thought up with my good friend Nate Levy of the Average Intelligence podcast. We were texting back & forth about the custom glow in the dark canne'boid (who later became the baron) I'd just made for him. He commented on how it looks like a mad scientist and the what followed was a LOT of awesomeness. As he inspired the concept of a Frankenstein canne'boid and as the baron will need an assistant, the two 'boids will be leaving for Nate's glyos shelf within the week.

Thanks again buddy, it was a awesome time to make these. Now,what's next? ;-)

Stay tuned for some pictures of Spy Monkey weapon builds, probably within today give or take an hour or so.