i love this stuff healey, or whatever your name is.... but i am really really confused by the acceptance here on skullbrain. i've been under the impression that skullbrainers are anti bootlegs/knockoffs (i.e., the whole killerj thread thing), yet you obviously knockoff motu, dragonriders of the styx, & m.u.s.c.l.e. its really hard for me to get past the whole some stuff is ok and other stuff is not ok to rip off/bootleg thing...
The fact that I had no idea what you're talking about probably accounts for a bunch of people on here who are in the same boat. Obviously because I'm new and whatever. Thanks for the impromptu lesson in old school. I didn't know some of his stuff was based on them... I do love the star wars wrestler stuff and the melting men he's been doing.
its cool. i just think it is lame that killerj gets assaulted for ripping of the marusan bero figure, and calling it sarumon, like its an original sculpt. yet, healy here "creates" ghroul, yet majority of it, mostly the head, is a rip off of dfc's dragonriders of the styx figure guliz, without any credit or acknowledgement of the orginal, and nobody says anything about it. like i said before, i love your stuff healy, i just believe that all things should be criticized equally.
I think Healey's figures, and something like the Sarumon, are on two totally different levels in terms of what they actually are, and what people base their criticism on. It seems like a bunch of the figures Healey has made are bootlegs... and are produced with the intention of being exactly that, a bootleg. There's no shame in labeling it as such. Nobody is claiming it is an original sculpt, but rather a figure produced by Frankensteining various toys of the past into something new and fun. The Sarumon however is a brand new sculpt... no bootlegging involved... he just didn't stray very far at all from his inspiration in creating the character. It's unoriginal and boring, and in my opinion, didn't bring anything new to the table.
I don't think David is fooling anyone or trying to pass of his pieces as completely original. He's more like a DJ mashing up toys and everyone tries to figure out the reference. That's what he does. I like Killer J but I think people just figured that the Sarumon was a completely original sculpt when it was more homage than anything else.
American Movie kicks ass. I personally enjoy the mash-up pieces. Taking parts and frankensteining them together can produce some very cool and interesting results. That being said I can understand how they aren't for everyone.
right on. these are totally for me. i just see some inconsistencies with skullbrainers and there whole some bootlegging is ok and other stuff isn't thing. i love bootlegging. but apparently you have to give "homage" to the original artist (sometimes) in order to be accepted. my personal take on the whole thing? bootlegging is supposed to be shady. with that said, again, i will reiterate, i LOVE this stuff that i am seeing from Healey. and i thought Schank's "final thoughts" would be a perfect way to drop whatever i was trying to get at and lead it straight into tangent-ism...
I don't know where to weigh in on this stuff but I think I have a good place to start. For me these mash up figures at first seem very unoriginal but after some thought I begin to feel nostalgic. Main reason being my childhood was packed with toys however gi-joe (3 3/4 scale) always had a tendency to break, but hot glue and random toy parts re-built them in horrific mash-ups. So I guess to me it all seems very fun, and regardless of the lack of actual sculpting it is definitely a creative project at its core.
3 & 1/4" scale? really? those must be super rare! so i want them! (just kidding man, my nerdiness technicality totally breaking though here, over the whole 3-3/4" thing). but i totally hear you on this. the mash-up concept wasn't introduced to me from re-hashing broken toys. it, i think, was from ljn's AD&D figure Zorgar. i never played AD&D, so i am not familiar with anything about the game (are these characters from the toyline that i played with growing up the same as those people play with via pen & paper?), but the fact that the figures right leg was covered in bright blue chainmail while the rest of the figure was covered in earthy conan-esque tones was really noticable to me. i honestly recall breaking toys to rehash them in this fashion, making an army of "outcasts," like in the junk world from the Transformers movie. man, those were the days, and recollecting all of that, i am happy to cement my life in nerdism...
I remember playing with that same figure. Half conan-esque with a head sorta like Frazetta's Death Dealer. Looking at it now it looks pretty meh, but back then I thought it was pretty cool.
I'm really happy that people have opinions on my work whatever they may be. My work has and always will consist of different formulas. For instance the 3.75 mash figures. The formula is so simple and obvious that I did it around 40 times and spent nearly a year painting the series. So that work is more about coincidence and ridiculous labor. The grhoul was three creative minds coming together via my hands. And as for the head or face it is a new sculpt that usually gets overlooked because of its size. To me that's great that you would actually have to do a physical comparison or really know your stuff. The only figs that are exact copies are the sunshines. Why? Because I'm pretty sure anybody could sculpt one. Those pieces are more about the amazing appeal of character design at its greatest. I copy more unknown sculpts to make it more interesting and they're usually super cheap and super popular. I'm happy to be on sb and I'm pleased with any and all feedback. Thanks for paying attention in general...
Welcome BTW! Love the Ghroul, I thought it was an actual plastic toy with articulation when I ordered it but still love the damn thing. I think I've seen your other stuff before just wasn't sure who you were in particular, just some dude who did cool "bootleg MUSCLE figures" haha.
