THE FIRST CUSTOM ELENA EDEN TOY / ACTION FIGURE BY DSNG!

Today I'm quite proud to present this lovely gal... those of you that have followed my work since the late-2000s probably know who Elena Eden is. She is one of the prominent Original Characters from the DSNG Sci Fi Series. And if you google "Elena DSNG", you will see lots of pics of her.

Elena was always designed to be voluptuous and sexy, but years later, her design started to slightly resemble the shape of Coco Austin, the wife of rapper IceT - and I've freely used Coco as an art reference for Elena in the past.
 
Having an upbeat personality and a cheerful disposition, Elena is a supermodel and an entrepreneur and she is currently dating General Obed, one of the Top 5 Centura Elites. And the Centura are the unified military force of planet Avera - one of the 7 major planets in the Makuran Galaxy, where the DSNG saga is based.
Prince Azzar Omenus [the main protagonist in the DSNG Chronicles] is a Centura elite as well, but he is not grouped among the Top 5. Instead he is the SCO, the Senior Commanding Officer of the Centura; while his powerful and lascivious cousin, Titron Omenus, is the King of the Averans.
Yes, the King is rather lustful and he has a ton of classy girlfriends aside from his regal wife, Bella Ezen Omenus, who is a friend of Elena [and Bella is a former girlfriend of Azzar; but trust me, it's a looooong story].
 
Now I'm sliding in some process pics, showing the early development stages, along with the putty additions. I use Milliput for my sculpting, and it's quite good ;)

 
 

 


Prince Azzar, King Titron, and the Centura Elites are all super soldiers. And Azzar is grouped with the highly respected Alpha Senturis - the Black-Ops soldiers. And during some of the future adventures in the DSNG ebooks, there is one gifted gothic gal that was added to the Centura elites, and her name is Yatalia.... so perhaps they are now tagged as the Top 5 + 1 or Top 6, or something like that...

Those new fans who are intrigued by the saga can start reading more about it over HERE, in this Blog. And that link will take you to the "Exploring DSNG" series of Blog articles, and they are filled with tons of pictures and info that I've presented over the past 3 years, showing the main heroes, villains, vehicles and locations from the DSNG Sci Fi Series!
[And here's a shout out to the evil golden gal Kinera Foxx, damn it! LOL]

 

 

Anyway, roughly a month ago [yes it took me that long], I started working on the action figure of Elena, based on the Wasp mold from the Marvel Legends toyline. And it took longer than I expected... because I was learning and working. I've customized several cool Transformers in the past, but the 5 to 6-inch tall action figures require a lot more precision, in my opinion.

But finally, Elena is done and I like the way she turned out. Clearly I had to enhance the original mold. And although it's hard to get Elena to stand by herself, I gladly utilize a figure stand to accomplish that feat.

Below is a comparison of the evolution of Elena's core design; the pic on the left was drawn back in 2011, and the other two pinups [with the colored version] were done in 2017. Her hair and face are a bit different, but you can tell that it was done by the same artist ;)

 

And I've called this the first Elena toy, since I may make more in the future. It is my dream to have toys like this mass produced, so that the true fans can have a piece of DSNG history sitting on their desk, at work or at home. Stay tuned for more, & don't forget to like and share!
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FYI, you may have to click on the word-link below on the right side that says "Older Posts", to see more posts from the blog archives!

CUSTOM TOY SUV BUILD BY DSNG: REVELL HUMMER H2!

Those faithful fans who follow me on Instagram are aware that I was recently building a Revell toy model SUV, a Hummer H2, from a box of disassembled parts that had roughly 80 pieces in it, including the stickers.
It was a fun hobby build, but towards the end, it got hard... really hard; because after the main assembly, I had glued certain things together and I completely built & glued the carriage separately from the chassis... but some of those parts were to be assembled together, not separately, so that there would be no snap-together problems due to the tight fitting clearances.
Thus I had to break it apart and cut various edges with a small saw, and then glue it back together...

Alas, that's what happens when you're too cool to follow the instructions LOL.

Anyway, the pieces of the SUV truck came as plain white plastic, which looked quite dull. So first I painted it White as a base coat [with the paint and primer combined, purchased from Home Depot], and  then I painted it with Tamiya X-8 Lemon Yellow. I had to add 2 coats of Tamiya Lemon yellow, or what I call "classic X-men yellow", and then I kept adding more and more paint to even things out.
There are a few spots of paint on the windows of the vehicle, because I added the paint after the assembly of the glass panels, and I should have done it before that stage. Plus the entire interior cabin, the dashboard, the seats, center console and the rear trunk area had to be assembled, glued, snapped-in-place and painted, as shown in the pics below.

 

 

Nevertheless, I am proud of the outcome. This toy SUV doesn't roll fully, per the glue I added in one of the axles, but I don't care. It was created as a display piece, not a rough-edged play toy.  I almost wish that I had chosen to build something easier, as my premier model vehicle project. But on the other hand, per the tough obstacles that I encountered and conquered during the assembly, I'm pleased with the experience points that I gained.

I did add the Scorponok Transformer toy during the assembly phase [before I started encountering the tough problems]. And when the job was done, I added a 3.75-inch Steve Rogers Captain America toy [purchased for like $6 on ebay] just to give you an idea of the scale.
The Hummer H2's scale is 1:25, and it it roughly 7 inches long from end to end, and less that 5 inches tall. In a way, I feel that this yellow Hummer H2 would be good as a beefed-up adult version of Bumblebee, who is often shown as a teenage Chevy Mustang... but that's just my opinion ;)
Remember to like and share!

THE OPTIMUS PRIME SUPER TOY BY THE COMPANY THREEA!

There was a time that toys were akin to plastic bricks with arms and legs that didn't even move. And back in the 80s, the transformers toys had as much articulation as a standard Lego man.
But times have certainly changed. And a few years ago, the company from Hong Kong named ThreeA produced an Optimus Prime collectible item that has over 60 points of articulation.... granted some of those points are linked to gears and piston movements, but that's still more articulation that the human body.
Prime stands at roughly 19 inches tall, and that is more than 6 inches taller taller than the standard 12-inch ruler used in classrooms. And although it cannot transform, this guy still looks extremely imposing and dominant. His stoic eyes and the circular headlights mounted on his chest can light up, per small batteries installed within him. And this toy should come with his two classic energy blades, a bladed knuckle, and a large mega-striker cannon [as seen in the right pic below]. And his metallic fingers are articulated, so he can point forward or pick his nose if necessary.

The thing is, Prime's overall design hasn't changed too much in each of the Micheal Bay movies. And although he looks like a fearless Robo-Knight with a sword in the latest promo pictures for the fifth TF movie, his upcoming toy designs still don't look that different [per what Hasbro has revealed so far]. Hence this toy by ThreeA will be relevant for years to come, even though its design is based on the Transformers Dark of the Moon movie that is roughly 6 years old [since DOTM was released back in 2011].

 


Honestly, I can't even comfortable call this item a toy. Its more like a trophy that you buy and it sits in a lighted glass case in your bedroom; and it stares at you every morning, while you're wearing your fancy underpants.
And this collectors item is on sale for $430 at BigBadToystore.com .... so.... yyyyyeeaaahhhhNo. I shall not be buying this item any time soon. Not unless Prime can get up and mow the freakin' lawn and cook me some damn waffles every morning :)