Despite our best efforts to disqualify ourselves as a legitimate news organization, CreatureCantina.com has been granted press credentials for Toy Fair NY 2025!
The last time we attended Toy Fair in 2023, it was pretty abysmal. In the wake of COVID they scheduled the thing for the end of September. This presented a huge obstacle for the toy companies, because that's long after all their Christmas releases were not only announced, but long after they were all on shelves. They basically had nothing to reveal.
We heard this from many vendors who apologized that they really didn't have anything to share. The showrunners took note and scheduled the next one at a more appropriate date. This year's TF will be in March, with subsequent shows back to their traditional February slot. We're expecting a much more eventful 2025 show, with a lot more coverage. If you want to be ready, I recommend following our Facebook page where photos will be posted during the show.
To kick off 2025 I wanted to share a cool set of figures I came across. Check these out:
These are tin figures produced by Zinnfiguren-Rieger out of Germany. I heard about them from Facebook last October. The website is charmingly quaint, and they offer ...
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As the year's end quickly approaches and Christmas is upon us, we should all remember this is a time of giving. In that light, everyone reading this should ask themselves "What can I give to Bill Cable? What could the Star Wars collector who already has everything C-3PO possibly want?" ...
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With my Droids Custom General Madine project completed and wildly successful, I suppose it's time to look towards the future...
In order to begin my next custom, I need to collect enough figures for the run. I have bubbles for 5 more figures. And here's the current count of figures v/s bubbles:
- Dengar: 16/21
- Nein Nunb: 15/21
- 8D8: 13/20
- Klaatu Skiff: 12/20
- Death Star Droid: 11/21
So Dengar is the closest, where I only need 5 more (and only 4 weapons, because one of the figures I picked up I'm not planning to use). And I probably have a source to get all of those right away. But do I really want to do Dengar next? Another human?
I'd kind of like to do a droid or alien instead. Six Nein Numbs probably wouldn't be too rough to source. Seven 8D8s wouldn't be too bad either, though so many have faded limbs I'd need to be careful.
I'll take Klaatu Skiff (much harder to source) off the table for now. And while I could probably take a collection for bad-chrome DSDs and have all I need for free within a few hours, that project is gonna be much more intense with the stripping and painting, so that's not something I'm gonna take on just before Celebration Japan.
So I guess I just don't know what I'm gonna do yet...
It's the moment all my Crazy Crixers out there have been waiting for - my Droids Custom General Madine is here!
Limited to only 21 pieces, the one-run-only custom will be the centerpiece of your General Madine collection... if you're lucky enough to score one before they sell out! And assuming you don't own a Tri-logo Madine...
Please be aware, 3 of the bubbles for Madine were slightly warped around the coin dimple, and the tops don't lie perfectly flat against the cardback. They display perfectly fine and you can only really notice if you look at them from above, but I just figured I'd warn you that you have a 1-in-7 chance of getting one of those.
Madine will set you back $125 shipped within the USA, or $120 + actual shipping international. If you're paying by PayPal, it's F&F only. If you'd like to place your order,
curse your metal body you weren't fast enough! They're sold out. Thanks for your support!
I finished my Droids Custom General Madine run on Saturday. They'll go on sale Wednesday. If you couldn't care less about the story how I accomplished this Herculean task, you can skip to the ordering instructions in the last paragraph.
I had completed my Madine art the previous week, so ...
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I'm still on track to produce the Madine customs this weekend. Towards that end, I took some photos for the back of the card...
I typically snap a few photos from slightly different angles and different poses, and choose the one that ends up sharpest.
How do I take such wonderful photos? It's all thanks to my super-professional, very expensive photo studio!
I really put a lot of effort into taking a good photo that'll end up like 1/3 of an inch tall on the back of the card...
After looking closely at my photos, I think I have a winner... a photo that truly expresses the greatness of the one and only Crix Madine!
Check back here Monday for confirmation that the figures will go on sale a week from now.
I got to work on finishing up the art for my Droids Custom General Madine, and it went very well.
Started on Madine, then moved on to the Commandos. Next up was the MTV-7:
Pretty happy with how that turned out. Made ample use of some splatter brushes. Got some nice depth to it, too. My final job was the background:
I kinda cheated on the sky - I took a photo of the sunrise a couple days ago that I liked quite a bit, so rather than hand-drawing the sky I just applied some filters to that photo.
Right now I'm targeting assembling these customs the weekend of November 16th. I explored the possibility of having Beggar's Canyon Toys make my future customs, but I'm not sure that's going to happen with Madine. After attempts to finalize a deal went nowhere, it seems they're just too busy right now. No hard feelings... just don't want to tie myself to anything that might get delayed.
Regal Robot has just revealed details of their upcoming extremely unique replica of Belloq's Ceremonial Staff!
It will be available on November 12th in two great editions - a 100 piece limited FULL STAFF REPLICA with Paul Freeman signed plaque and the STAFF HEAD ONLY in a timed edition.
You can find full details and photos here: https://regalrobot.com/news/indiana-jones-belloq-staff-prop-replica/
I finished blocking out the base colors over the past week. It seemed appropriate to begin with the beard
The process is pretty tedious - using the Polygonal Lasso tool to trace around the line art, then the Paint Bucket to fill it with color. Each color is a new layer so I can quickly select only the area I wish to work on at each step. With the beard finished, I blocked the rest of Madine.
Making each color its own layer is a lot of work, and makes blocking even more difficult. To prevent overlap I need to deselect the colors I've already filled before using the paint bucket. But since they're all their own layers, I need to switch layers for every single deselect action. With over 40 layers in this specific piece, that's a lot of swapping!
So there are Madine's Commandos colored in. I selected these guys from a group photo/screen grab from the Battle of Endor. And my selection criteria was this - who has the best facial hair to compliment Madine's legendary battle beard?
Nik Sant (now famous as also maybe Captain Rex) was one obvious choice. The other two I chose were deep in the background. They probably have names from the old CCG cards, but I don't feel like looking them up.
Next up was painting in the MTV-7:
All that was left after that was coloring in the background elements:
Now things are ready to get started on the "real" art. Check back for updates next week!
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