Since it is featured in the story, I had Esteban from Donman art sculpt a mace for the toyline!

The book has been live for nearly a month, and I’ve already updated some of the items in kindle. Only the first 12-15 have a misspelling on the back.

The big update today though, was summarizing lore, making it more accessible on the website, throwing out some hints and of course, figuring out the latest batch of changes to wordpress, so I could link the book in the side bar.

pics from the fairly recent “So-Cal Joe Show” coming soon.

(Click the image to read) the next part of the Templars journey into the Porous Earth. The templars learn the origins of their mysterious foes.

I hope everyone has a happy 4th of July! In celebration of the holiday, and the freedoms recognized by the U.S.’s founding father’s I gave Steel Brigade a patriotic makeover!

Remember you can still pre-order Steelbrigade Via Crowdox or BBTS. You can also learn more about Valaverse’s Action Force @ Valaverse.com and join the official home of discussion for Action Force @ Legions of Valave on Facebook.

a look without the armor on:

A de saturated version:

and finally close ups:

I really enjoy making these. Bobby Vala and the sculptor’s he hired really made a wonderful template in the Steel Brigade model. This time I went with what I call the Infinaught  (get it, infinity, naught as in astronaut , but also naught as in not.)

Thanks to Bobby Vala I have  much higher res versions to work with, but I noticed it didn’t have a pistol and holster from the front view, so this time I pulled it from the standard images to put on on int he full geared up mode.

The light blue  strap in the middle of chest armor is meant to mirror Buzz Lightyear’s Star Command logo.  It’s a clear homage, but with differences in the helmet, and sculpt, I think it’s distinctive enough that if Bobby were to do something like this, it wouldn’t be an issue with Disney, hence I left out buttons and the lightyear name badge and star command logos. To be clear, I’m just doing these for fun, but I wanted it to be believable/doable and Bobby has 100% permission to reuse any of my recolors in anyway he wants if he wants. Me ? I’m just day dreaming, and hoping to inspire some physical customs and more sales.

Here is with his gear off:

I have to think our FB’s page resident crap poster and my go to fb group admin Jonsey for helping me make some color choices on where to place the red on the weapons, and his visor color.

Here are some early wip in progress shots: Continue reading →

Long time Joe fan Dacre Bush noticed something interesting about the art first used as a poster at New York Toy Fair, and now used on the back of the G.I.Joe Classified series packaging.  Take a look at Snake-Eyes, notice anything different about him?

The art did change from the original poster to the packaging backing, but only slightly.  Gung-Ho seems to have lost his undershirt, and many fans rejoiced about that. Neither SE seems to show a red dot like the wave 1 figure will above his visor, but interestingly it appears that this SE, is actually dark green with black camo. The head appears black still, but the body definitely seems to be a different shade. I’ll admit it may be just a trick of how the image was captured, but it peaked Dacre’s curiosity, and mine too.

I recreated it below, but didn’t stick with being too close to how the image appeared. I included the head, and it felt wrong not add some brown on the arm guards, knee pads, and shin guards to help show the different detail in the armored bits. Nunchuck, Hit n Run and some Sigma Six designs where in my head while I was at work.

here  he is without camo:

To do the coloring, I used the image 2dtoys released here: I’d recommend giving him a follow, and I really enjoy his work.

You might notice I intentionally altered a couple of things, removing some cracks in the armor and the Arashakage logo on the webgear doesn’t have a box around it clearly anymore, as it wasn’t sculpted and I had to copy and paste a shrunken version from the scabbard.

I had intended on doing a sticker sheet version of SE next, and he is still soon up, and I know have this SE with the background removed, but I think I”ll continue to switch between Joe and Action Force, so another Steel Brigade is likely next.

Guess I’ll have to be 3-4 of these to get a full team?  Don’t see a cap head in there!

Hello All!  I’d like to do a quick showcase of one of my absolute favorite graphic novel series.  Growing up The Adventures of Tintin was one of my favorite reads and as I’ve been re-reading them again recently, I’d like to do a showcase so you to can enjoy them as well.

In the series, Tintin a French reporter along with his dog snowy travel the world to various places solving crime cases and unraveling political intrigue along the way.  The books are somewhat comical, but also give a fantastic snapshot of the period of history during which they were written. (1930s – 1960s).  Each book is its own adventure however some of them do interconnect (almost like a TV series).   Some of them are self contained fictional stories, while others he becomes deeply entangled in actual historical events.  They are light hearted, action packed and a great read for anyone looking for a good adventure graphic novel.  I hope you guys enjoy these books as much as I have!