- Race the World! and Wild Rides
Thunderbolt (Diesel engine!)
I have about 50 of each Hot Wheels book so you can order multiples for your friends and family. I only have about 10 of the Exo-Force book.
I grabbed this picture of the new box art from here... Brickshelf
Linebarrel from recent anime Linebarrels of Iron. I watched the anime and it was pretty cool. All the mechs are CG and looked better than most CG mechs (I usually hate CG stuff when it is mixed with 2D).
H.A.B. or Hyper Armored Block. A decent looking original mech design that was made into a limited edition figure. The quality of the figure isn't all that great and one of the joints was broken when I opened the package. Still cool though.
Falguen from an old anime called Dragonar. I also have the Dragonar figure. This toy is really well made with an all metal skeleton and double joints for the elbows and knees so it is super articulate!
The VF-25F from recent anime Macross F. A GREAT anime series so check it out! This is the 1/100 scale plastic version. It is fully transformable. The process is really complicated and you have to remove, then re-attach the legs. There's a better , larger version with metal parts and a cooler transformation method but it costs $250! I won't be getting that version until I win the lottery ;)
Some super deformed (SD) versions of the mechs from Macross F. How cute!
Transformers Masterpiece Grimlock. Now this is a toy! I like him better in dinosaur mode. You can see the trailer for the MP Optimus Prime in the background. The foot claws are metal... I hope they don't scratch my display case :(
Nendroid Yoko from Gurren Lagann. OK, so she's not a mech, but she is from an anime about a mech.
The only bad thing about having all these mechs is that they get dusty and they are hard to clean. I keep al the original boxes too and I'm running out of space to store them.
I have a wireless mouse and keyboard for the PC (Left) to cut down on the clutter. The MAC is my main system. You can see my Wacom Intuos 3 drawing tablet to the right. I had to buy a new tablet when I got my MAC because it only has USB ports and my old tablet had a serial cable. Those things aren't cheap and I wasn't too happy about that, but the new Intuos 3 is so much better than my old tablet that it was worth it!
The mechs are not to scale... I think the BK weighs bout 2X as much as the Spector. I'll post the other mechs next time!
1) Layouts: LEGO gives me a script which includes a panel by panel breakdown of the action they want. I make really rough sketches to show how I will compose the page. You can see that I roughed in the word balloons too- it is important to make sure you have enough room for the text!
Most of the studio was dark and crammed full of animators working quietly to meet their daily footage quota. Everyone was in super crunch mode and had to work CRAZY hours. I was really jealous of the creative atmosphere but not the workload :/
Scrat's maquette. There was a whole room full of these things that I wasn't allowed to photograph. Maquettes are used to help create the 3-D models and also as inspiration for all the people involved in the project.
Horton's maquette. I just recently saw 'Horton Hears a Who' and it was pretty good. Loved the vulture character! Everyone at Blue Sky kept asking me if I had seen the movie and what I thought of it. They really gave me a hard time when I told them it was "in my netflix queue..."!
The next day Michael, Kwan, and I went into the city and spent most of the day at the NYC con. Next years con is in December 2010, which means that it is almost 2 years after this years! What are they thinking??? This years con seemed to be set up a bit better than last years and had more anime stuff so I was pretty happy. I didn't buy much but it was cool to see all the sights.
Speaking of sights... I was greeted by a life sized sleestak statue. Look out kid... I think it's hungry!!! AWESOME!
Oh the cosplayers! Baroness, Porkins, Chewy, Baroness. The Chewbacca guy was on stilts so he was about 7' tall and it was pretty intimidating. I'm 6'3" and I'm not used to people being taller than me, especially big hairy people in masks.
There were organized activities for kids in the upstairs area. Here you see younglings preparing for their struggle in the upcoming apocalypse. Honestly, is it really a good idea to teach your kid how to use a sword? I think not.
...aaaand finally, here's Michael and Kwan's cat, Toby. What a sweetheart. Aghhh... he is burning me with his laser eyezzzzzz.
Last week was pretty busy and I think this week will be more of the same. I'm working on the tight pencil for a new Hot Wheels book cover and then I have to get working on the interior pencils for the same book. I'll probably have to ink a 2 page LEGO Brickmaster comic along the way. I just finished coloring a book cover that has been on my back burner for a few months and it feels good to finish it!
Great news! I was accepted into the Western Massachusetts illustrators Guild! I've been waiting to join for along time so I am honored that it has become a reality. The group has a lot of EXTREMELY talented artist, writers, and designers. I've been to 2 meeting so far and thoroughly enjoyed both of them!
Drawing these really made me wish I had more spare time so I could make some mechs for myself!!!!
Medium Mech:
I think all 4 of these books look great... much better than the first few did. It took me a while to get my drawing chops back after making video games for so long but I'm finally back in the groove and constantly working to get even better (it only took 3 years...). Cars are so hard to draw that I had get my brain wrapped around the whole concept. Drawing the ellipses for all the wheels is a mega challenge but templates help a little.
I hope this helps resolve some of the questions people have about what happened to Sensei and the rest of the team. I have no idea what was supposed to happen after this, but I am definitely curious about the secrets hidden in the jungle!
I am really excited about this comic. I hope you like it because there's more in the works and it is shaping up to be a fun humorous adventure. This Star Wars stuff is hard to draw and the review process is meticulous so I have to make sure the designs and everything else are spot on.