Kabuto Mushi MK II: Wave Seven

Marty "Loctite" Hansen rolls into 2015 with three brand new colors showcasing his popular Kabuto Mushi MK II production figure!

Continuing his recent theme of famous Japanese character homages, Marty has put together some very clever combinations utilizing an assortment of all new spray applications. My personal favorite is the Cyborg Mushi, which is shown above surveying the Frozen Zone that has taken over most of New England.

Cyborg Mushi also makes a good rival for Redlaw Argen, as they both pay tribute to the excellent classic Henshin Cyborg series by Takara (thank you Paul L. for maintaining the best link).

Head over to Mushi Central to check out the rest of TGB's latest offerings.

Congratulations on another unique and exciting wave, Marty! 

Glyaxia Heavy Armored Block Trooper

Another older build, slightly modified and updated with the recent Glyaxia wave of parts.

I still play around with the original version of this Block Trooper, so getting a chance to make a few in the yellow and blue has been a lot of fun! These beefballs pay direct homage to the classic series, Armored Trooper VOTOMS, as well as the late era Microman Armored Suits of legend.

Acromaxx

2013 has been filled with some really fun projects, which helped to balance out the various curveballs that were thrown throughout the year. One such project was Toyfinity's resurrection of Robo Force.

Working on the Robo Force relaunch ended up taking a bit longer than I had originally anticipated, with many weeks spent up at the shop working with the always amazing Ron Daley. By the time we finished the prototype I had taken around 500 pics of the process, attempting to catalog the various alternate builds that we tried to hide within the parts as well as the actual progress. John, Mike and Charlie over at Toyfinity were always encouraging and trusting and made for great partners in the development of their new Maxx Zero.

Once we finally got Maxx into production, John and I spent a lot of time talking about how to roll the new series out, and the best possible way to coordinate the releases with the story John wanted to tell. As we had been shooting ideas back and forth for the greater part of a year, the decision to have some shared colors across our respective lines seemed to make the most sense, for potential building as well as for crossover story purposes.

The recent blue hues from the Ecroyex wave were selected to pay homage to Takara's Giant Acroyear and Mecha Acroyear (thanks Microforever!), two true classic toy designs from Japan. As strange as this may sound, as a child I would always dream of seeing characters from one series color swapped with characters from another series. Something about that idea still sticks with me to this day, so when the chance came up to possibly see Maxx sporting the colors of a Giant Acroyear, we had to go for it.

It's been a true privilege having the opportunity to work on bringing Maxx and the Robo Force back to life with the Toyfinity team, and I'm really looking forward to watching the line expand in 2014.

Microshow Nanobots

The little "Nanobots" shown above are another few refugees from the old Microshow booklet. The size on these two is extra tiny, with joints raided from the forgotten Robo Wheels line by Mattel (with designs by PLEX). Their bodies are sculpted from plumbers compound and the backpack on Nanobot Korec (the brown one) is made from cut and glued fake leather.

Having "companion" mini robots running around is a classic concept, so naturally I could not resist slipping the idea into the jumble-rama that was the Microshow.

This pair spent a ton of time in my pocket (they were built in 2004), yet somehow managed to survive all the travel. Seeing them next to the Glyan up there is kind of a trip, as they look like some kind of mini mecha munchkins.

Another Time, Another Team

During the making of the old Microshow booklet back in 2004, lots of  Micro themed customs were born. Initially everything was kit bashed with additional sculpting done using plumber's compound, but as things progressed certain characters were completely sculpted, with Stikfas joints chopped and used for connection points.

Above are a few shots detailing some of the fully sculpted figures, with only the joints made from Stikfas (a combo of the softer weapons plastic and the classic black plastic). The black straps are from hair bands and the leather is fake stuff that was cut and glued from discarded fabric sample swatches.

The guy with the helmet, Microsoldier Ingram, is based specifically on the pilot from Takara's Biosuit kit from back in the mid 80's. I love that old kit and its pilot represents the Real Type design principle perfectly to me. Making his helmet removable drove me crazy, as well as building his gun.

The female, Microsoldier Kira, is an original design and so is Microdroid Ranic, a character who eventually made its way over into Glyos to become the foundation for Buildman.

Also, if you've never been (or haven't been in a bit), check out perhaps the best Microman site out there, Microforever.com.

When the hell is Microman going to come back, anyway?!