114 replies to this topic

[ironmask]

So, I was contacted about being a part of the Strange Monsters project (although, at the time, it was nameless), and the prompt was that I could basically do any kaiju that I wanted. How hard could that be? I sculpt monsters! I love kaiju! Slam dunk, right?

 

Haha, nope. To be brutally honest, from the moment I sat down and put the pen to the sketch pad, I hated everything that I came up with. Nothing resonated, nothing made sense, nothing seemed to speak to this amazing opportunity I had been given. To be brutally honest, I gave up on sketching. It felt too forced, and figured that I would try my hand at trying to just sculpt it as a raw flow of consciousness.

 

Ha. Ha. Ha.

 

The first one I did, was this gob of random shit, from this crazy tri-claw to this head with three faces on the front, but was wearing this three-was gas mask thing... I'm shaking my head as I write this, because "who makes a custom gasmask for a ten story tall monster?" Ugh. But, there were a few things that I did like about it, and I sculpted it again. It was supposed to be this this nuclear graveyard monster, and it looked positively stupid. I ended up sculpting the thing four times, and hating it four times. 

 

The awesome part about failing, is that you learn a hell of a lot more from it. I learned what I didn't want my figure to be, and that gave me a much clearer direction of where I wanted to go than the creative tabula rasa I had been (most courteously) given. I wanted my monster to be nuclear in origin, to pay homage to the birth of the kaiju genre. I wanted to pay homage to Haruo Nakajima, and make it look like a man in a suit. I also wanted to play off of the Fukishima nuclear disaster, and all of a sudden, the concept was born. This monster would have no expressiveness, nothing to make it sympathetic. This monster would be made out of every dead cell created by a nuclear catastrophe. He would be the Elephant's Foot, incarnate. 

 

Ladies and gents, I present to you: The Necrolossus. (And I also present to you, in green, one of the Necrolossus failure scupts)

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[Ridureyu]

Well, that's beyond amazing.

[ironmask]

Here's some pre-production pics of the wax proto-casting in whole, and pieced out for the rotocasting:

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[jkaris]

Incredible! Kick ass job there bro!

[BaltanII]

There are people - not anyone that comes to mind here, but in general - who pay lip service to the idea of creating a homage to the classics of kaiju only to churn out something way off the mark or, worse, generic as heck. You get it. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't noticed yet but your suitmation nod is 100% spot on, clever and subtle, and describing the direction you took only further cemented the idea. Were I in your position with any kind of sculpting talent, I'd probably make a similar call on decisions like the gasmask, but your failed sculpt most certainly has its charm and would be a worthy inclusion in the Ironhaus family regardless of the implausible direction.

 

But I digress! Once again, you birth a monster that I really like. My wallet trembles.

[Sixthwizard]

Man....even the "failure sculpt" effin rules

[PlasticSoul]

The sculpt just kicks ass. Dude not only nailed the concept but took it in a direction that only he could. While i was trying to make a monster with an unknown origin that could be the hero or the villain depending on your perspective Ironmask just went straight for the screw you mine is nothing but pure evil and it's societies fault it's killing everyone in the entire world. Love it.

 

Can't even recall how many nights i spent working on my part of this project and thinking about how his beast and mine would do in a full on city crushing battle against one another. Then of course the occasional teaming up to face a bigger threat thing. So.Much.Fun.

[ironmask]

Mine would kick yours' ass, homie.

<3

[PlasticSoul]

You'd do alright man.

 

Until Necro gets dragged into the water and has to fight on the ocean floor.

[ironmask]

It'd be like putting everything else under that water in a microwave, but I digress.

[redjarojam]

Here's some pre-production pics of the wax proto-casting in whole, and pieced out for the rotocasting:

I like the cuts on Necrolossus. They allow for future customization/expansion. Different belly face or new arms and whatnot.

[ironmask]

Yeah, there's a lot of cool possibilities.

[ironmask]

Yeah, well, haha, I am getting antsy. The brass casting will be revealed either next week or the week after, which is exciting. This has been a really long process.

[ironmask]

So, Unbox unveiled the Necrolossus, and here are the pics they released:

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[Rubberhammer]

So, Unbox unveiled the Necrolossus, and here are the pics they released:

Man, I love all those teeth.

[ironmask]

Thanks, dudes!

[Sixthwizard]

When can I buy some of these damn figures?

[ironmask]

We haven't heard a hard release date yet, but it's coming soon.

[BaltanII]

Don't know why exactly, but the Unbox shots make the right arm look very unflattering compared to your original pic. Everything else looks alright. Does the angle of the pose make that much of a difference?

[ironmask]

From my understanding, that shot is of one of the early test pulls, and that right arm will be corrected come production.

[ironmask]

Unbox unveiled it "officially" on their instagram yesterday ( http://instagram.com...JLP/?modal=true ). They used the same picture with the test pull.

[PlasticSoul]

https://instagram.co...unboxindustries

 

[ironmask]

It's been a long road, but I am really proud of how this beast turned out.

[TinyPink]

Wow!  Hot damn, man.   

 

OK, let's go -- I'm ready for the kickstarter yesterday!

 

 

[ironmask]

There's not going to be a KS. Unbox Industries was kind enough to get this line up off of the ground.