A Very Masters of the Universe Christmas

Battleground Teela

Keldor

A Custom Man-at Arms

Moss Man

She-Ra and Swift Wind

Underneath the Christmas Tree this year was a number of the MOTUC figures for my Daughter.  Of Course Swift-Wind and Bubble Power She-Ra were her Favorites.  Santa was able to find here a Man at Arms Head to put on one of the Palace Guards.  And I have been informed by her that Battleground Teela is a new version of She-Ra also.  Santa was kind enough to set up most of them underneath the tree so that she saw them when she woke up Christmas morning.

My Next Diorama: A Mountain Scene for my Daughters She-Ra Figures.

I finally got a chance to take a look at the size of the Eternia Diorama base that I want to make for my Daughter and myself.  I want her to have a dedicated place to play with all her He-Man and She-ra figures as well as I have for doing photo shots of different figures.  I figured that a nice mountain layout would work great as it will give me a lot of cool angles.  I will continue to post pictures up of how it goes.  I will try to be as detailed as possible so that this can be used as a tutorial of how to do one of these dioramas.  I am putting together my list of needed materials and will list everything up that is needed in a couple days. I do know that a couple cheap Christmas Reefs will be needed as that will create some great ground cover.  Probably have to spray paint this thing first.  Large and white is hard to cover, not to mention very expensive.  I usually just figure out what my base is going to be and spray paint it Brown.  Then any ground covering over that is easy as it doesn't completely cover it just looks like exposed dirt.  I'll update as I go.

Battle Cat

Just messing around with the settings on my Nikon SB-700 flash I got for my birthday earlier this year.  Was watching some youtube lessons on how to adjust the settings and figured might as well try it out.  Shot with a Nikon D5000 using the Nikon 40mm Macro lens.  I plan on doing a review of the lens at some point.

Marvel Universe Apocalypse

About 5 years or so ago all I ever collected was the 3 3/4" GI Joe figures.  Then I noticed the 3rd or so wave of Marvel Legends Figures and started considering branching out into some other figures to collect.  I picked up a few here and there, mainly X-Men related figures as that was the most relevant Comic book that I have collected off and on over the years.  When the line moved over to Hasbro I pretty much got out of the line as the quality suffered a lot.  Ironically Hasbro is the Joe brand and that line was having Quality Control problems around then also.  So when The Marvel Universe Figures came out I was skeptical.  That and I had started leaning away from the New Articulation that was also on the GI Joe line.  But I picked up a few and have been collecting choice figures since.  Apocalypse is a pretty nice figure.  Using parts that I believe were also used for Hulk or Juggernaut, this figure stands taller then most in the line.  He has a lot of the movement of other figures in the line.  Even with his shoulder pads and the tubing coming out of his back, his articulation does not seem to be hampered by it at all.  Given his power to enlarge his size in the comics, I wish I had gotten the Marvel Legends  versions as I would be able to display him in more scenes.  I was not really a fan of Apocalypse back in the day but have learned to appreciate him over the years as I have started on and off again reading the comics.  In a line that seems to have more duds then winning figures, this one stands out.  The paint job is great.  Subtle shading is done very well.  Of the whole figure, I think the head is the only part that stands out as being painted a bit flat.  Overall I give this figure an 8/10.

Started getting ready to start the Joelanta Film Fest movie...

I messed around this week with a program called ISTOPMOTION in an attempt to see what putting together the coming years Joelanta Film will be like.  89 pictures later and this is what I got.  http://youtu.be/PCr5vsd9Ze8  Just a short film with no sound as of yet.  Amazing how in the past year I have allowed my entire recording rig to get unplugged and spread out in the mess that is my Studio right now.  I will say though, if you try to use this program and or do stop motion with a DSLR Camera like I am, you will want to put the camera in Manual Focus after getting the focus right.  Also, if your camera allows, use a wireless shutter release.  This stops any motion on the camera and will give you a lot better looking film.  Additionally, I am thinking it will be a lot easier to record the audio first this time.  This is exactly the opposite from what Fran and I have done in the past.  We always just took the pictures with a minor plot and then just recorded audio and pieced it together.  Here is a link to last years film http://youtu.be/wa-JayvR_bo .   I guess the writing of the movie will have to begin as this film is going to take a lot longer then past ones.  I hope to have a much more detailed film by this time next week.  I will post what I have then.