Author Archives: Knives

Wednesday’s Wallpaper of the Week

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This week’s Wednesday Wallpaper comes from Tomorrow King enthusiast, Kaiserfrog19. He was kind enough to send me several options for the week and this one just blew my socks off! I just know you’ll dig it as much as I do.

click on your desired screen resolution to download!

“TK Assault” by  Kaiserfrog19

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See ya next week!

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THE WORKSHOP – Wee Zombie Bashing Bat – by Goatbot/Simon

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Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! If you’re lonely and sad today.. take heart! A new Workshop awaits!

What a treat today is… A little back history first. When I first got into collecting 3A, I remember seeing all these pictures of Tommy Mission figures holding these awesome little baseball bats. They all had different decals, witty scribe.. some had blood splatters, nicks/scratches etc. I ordered my first Tommy fully expecting to have some variant packed in with him. To my surprise, no bat.. just a dumb glowing hand (kidding?). After a smidge of digging I came to learn that these amazing little things were handmade by a fellah who, going completely off his various forum names, seems to have an intense, yet healthy fascination with goats.

Huge thank you to Simon/Goatbot/Goatballs/Goaty for this fantastic workshop! He was kind enough to create not just one, but TWO different tutorials for us! The second we plan to post later in the week. This one is the most complex yet and you get play to play with power tools. Please be safe and don’t poke your eye out kid!

– Knives

Howdy folks, must be a slow news week as Knives has very kindly asked me to provide him with a tutorial or two… you lucky people .. its a big honor to have been asked  so thanks mush.
To the bat tutorial then..
For those of you who feel the need for some blunt force trauma in your lives, nothing says emo better than 3 foot of hickory planted firmly in the jacobs…  hopefully this tutorial will make enough sense so ye can make your very own baseball bat…
This is a wee bit more demanding and requires you have a few tools laying about but if you can do it, anything goes.
Materials :
  • power drill, cordless preferred unless ye have a bench vice or indeed a wood lathe (I use an 18v hitachi cordless impact driver drill)
  • fine toothed saw ( gents,  mitre etc )
  • wood rasp
  • small hobby files or a dremel
  • sandpaper or better still aluminium oxide cloth 80 , 120, 240 grit should do it
  •  12 mm HARDWOOD doweling , available in most hardware stores and model hobby shops. Ye can use lengths of twig, sticks etc but this will make th job way harder..
  • electrical tape, medical tape etc ( for the grip )
  • paint, pens, decals
  • bees wax or spray varnish
  • COMMON SENSE
  • dust mask
  • Well ventilated work space
Okay this my method only ! Those of ye with better tools and workspaces will no doubt adapt accordingly, I apologize for the picture quality as it was cold and no one was willing to take pics of me making toy bats… bastards..
Also a shout out to dedguy for inspiration and for making bats look so frick’n cool
To start off with I find it best to sit on a wee box or something low to the floor with materials and tools close to hand. Then I measure and cut how many bats I want to make..the bat should be around 13.5 – 14 cms but the over all length ye want to work with should be about 17 cm.. The  remainder should be enough to fit snugly into the chuck  of the drill . Bats come in all shapes and sizes so decide on the look ye want before hand. I make bats of differing styles and also of differing handle widths to accommodate various hand sculpts. Note its better to go too thin as ye can always  bulk out the handle with “grip tape”.  After inserting the wood into the chuck, engage the power to see how well the woods been seated… if its off it will wobble alarmingly.. just re-house it until it spins  ” true” .
I then put the drill on the floor and brace it with a well planted foot across the battery housing ( as per the picture above) when its stable, select th speed ye require ( higher speeds work best) and away ye go .
With one hand operating th drill trigger I use the wood rasp to waste away the rough shape of the bat. I work on the opposite side of the wood to where I’m positioned taking care not to impose too much pressure on the wood..
Working your way from the chuck to the end of teh bat will have the best results but be wary of lingering too long in one spot lest ye thin it out too much.
I work my way up from the chuck end along th  barrel of the  bat a couple of times then stop to see how I’m doing… if I’m satisfied I’ll take a sheet of abrasive paper 80 – 120 grit, fire up the drill again and use th paper to smooth and shape teh bat to the required shape and finish.
BE CAREFUL HERE .. you can grip th bat with the paper but be aware that it can snap if your grips too tight, also the transferred heat  can cause nasty friction burns to you if yer not careful… try explaining that to your girl friend or nearest medical professional.
I usually leave the grip end until last as this reduces th likelihood of it snapping at the weakest point. I use a wee elliptical metal file to flare out the bottom of the handle and to create the hand stop at the end taking care to thin out the wood below the knob so as to make cutting off the wood sprue neater and easier.
 
Once yer satisfied ye can take the bat out, cut it off at the base and sand the base and top of the bat by hand .. If I’ve done this properly ye should now  be teh proud owner of a 1/6 scale  baseball bat !
or have a fine  toothpick…
or maybe  a burnt hand full of splinters.
Once yer done with this part its then up to you on finishing touches. I usually polish the wood with beeswax, paint it if required, then add weathering and teh odd nick or scratch before a final coat of varnish .
Your AK crew is now tooled up and ready to roam the streets..or your shelves, doling out righteous woody justice !
Thats it …done and dusted.
Many thanks for your time and patience and a huge props to Rad Toy Review.
cheers !

We hope you enjoyed this Workshop. Check back later in the week as we bring you another from the mighty Goat!

We’d love to hear from you here, on our Facebook or Twitter page. We’d love for you to share with us your own customs. Let us know how we’re doing and what kind of workshops you’d like to see.


Coming This Week!

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Last week turned out to be a pretty slow one around here. Some delays in shipments and technical difficulties backed a few things up but this week we hope to TOTALLY redeem ourselves. 🙂

– The Workshop will get not one but TWO new tutorials this week that I know your gonna flip over! If you’re into 1/6th and custom toy accessory goodness check back soon!

– The much delayed, yet totally worth it 3A’s Blind Cowboy and Ghost Horse Review

– A few surprises

2012 NYC Toy Fair News #1

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The New York City Toy Fair is in full swing and I’m 4968 miles away.  I WISH I could somehow have made the trip but alas, my bike needs a new tire and it’s an incredibly long swim. This year was simply not meant to be. All I can do is scour the info-webs for some of my favorite toy manufacturers reveals and post them here all in one tidy place for you.

Kotobukiya Bishoujo Statues

The much teased Harley Quinn final(?) artwork is on display and as well as teaser art for Mass Effect 3’s Femshep! Koto’s Ivy statue turned out incredible. I’m betting Harley will come out just as polished. I can’t wait to see the final sculpts! Stay updated on Kotobukiya stuff on their Facebook page.

image from kotobukiya 

Mattel has a bunch of new Masters of the Universe Classic figs to show off. I grew up on MOTU and love seeing the line revisited and old familiar faces pop up.Stinkor anyone? Check here to see the full list of everything Mattel has on display as well as release dates.

image from matty collector.com

Who? Who I ask you, doesn’t love LEGOS? My favorite line of LEGOS has been their classic Star Wars line, but my love for super heroes my trump it as LEGO revealed a whole slew of Marvel licensed goodness. From the Avengers to X-Men.. I can already tell my mini-fig collection is going to grow leaps and bounds!

image from LEGO

I have two weaknesses, turtles in a half shell.. and turtle power. The new TMNT toys from Playmates look great! Cool little touches like the scar on Raph’s shell have me really excited to have this guys in hand.

pic from playmates

pic from toynewsi.com

Wow, Square Enix/Play Arts Kai protos of Mass Effect toys look in-cred-i-ble! They consistently somehow wrangle together my favorite properties from Street Fighter and Batman to Metal Gear and Mass Effect.

pic from toyark.com

Speak of Metal Gear and Batman, you can preorder those over at bigbadtoystore.com and urban-collector.com right now!

pic from bigbadtoystore.com

OK, that’s part 1 of my mini coverage Toy Fair 2012. So much good stuff coming in the next few months! With my shelves are already at maximum capacity, I may have to knock out a wall to find a place for it all!