The Artist and The Ego

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T13:34:00.000-08:00

We will be having free range Tofurky.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T18:41:00.000-07:00

Protect Your Geek Valuables...

2009-04-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

And save the earth at the same time.

These display cases are made from recycled dresser drawers that were on there way to garbage heaven. The only materials purchased to complete project were molding and plexiglass.

These are pretty easy to make. Take one drawer, remove the bottom of the drawer and use the bottom of the drawer as a template to cut a plexiglass piece of the same size. Place the plexiglass in the bottom of the drawer. For the front of the display case cut 2 pieces of corner molding the length of the drawer and cut another piece of plexiglass the size of the top of the drawer just like you would if you were making a cover for it. Place the plexiglass down and place the corner molding on top of it and glue it to the sides of the drawer. let it dry, once it is dry you should be able to slide the plexiglass out of the drawer. Remove both pieces of plexiglass and paint the case. Once dry replace everything again and it's done.

Living in New York, not a day goes by that I don't see dresser drawers on the sidewalk. what a absolute waste, but I guess that is great for people like me who like to remake things from discarded items. honestly the total cost of the 4 cases I made ended up costing me under $20.

These can be mounted on walls using L-brackets or can stand on their own since the face of the drawer are larger the other sides.

On a related note I made these from scratch. While I like these, at the time that I made them the cost was about $20 for 2 cases but I know the cost of materials have gone up so high now that making more will be cost prohibitive. Especially since I figured out a way to make nice looking, easy to make, inexpensive display cases.

The cost can even be lower if you scout your local hardware stores for scrap wood and molding and your local window stores for scrap plexiglass which they regularly throw away.

I plan on making more and maybe selling them online. Any takers?

Skull Mailbox

2009-04-23T16:47:00.000-07:00

This Mailbox skull was made using some scraps of 1/4 plywood and paint.
I used to work at Home Depot and they throw many things away. I took some scrap wood to make stuff with, this was one of those projects. This is were all my mail goes to die.

It's hanging on the wall next to the entrance door of my apartment. It hangs with a frame hook.

Like most of my projects this one started with junk I had laying around and using that as a limitation to what can be made with it. I think I work better with limitations, but it would be nice to have no limits as far as resources, tools and time. I think I could make better and cooler things if I did, stuff I can conquer the world with.

This was a fun little project that involved little thinking and is quite useful.

The Seventh Voyage of Dunny

2009-04-18T08:14:00.000-07:00

This Kidrobot Dunny was inspired by three things an extra pair of portable speakers an extra pair of a friend's Dunnys that were trash bound and the great Ray Harryhausen.

I decided to put the speakers inside the Dunny's heads and then I realized I no plan after that. After some thinking, I decided I would make it a cyclops and looked it up on the internets for reference. The answer was Ray Harryhausen's Cyclops from The Seven Voyages of Sinbad.

I spray painted the inside of the speaker protecting the center with painter's tape to make it look like an eyeball. I also added a clear plastic ball as a wart so I could see when it is powered on you see a red dot in the ball. This is only on the right speaker because inside the head is the power switch, motherboard and amp.

I did my best to make the second one as exact as the first since it was handpainted. I think I did a fair job. What I really need to do is invest in an airbrush so I can do stuff faster and better.

The speakers work but they are not the best sounding speakers in the world, they are more form than function in this case.

I drilled holes on the backs of the Dunny's Head's for the speaker cables on display they are hardly noticeable. My only real gripe is that the right speaker has the the power plug and the plug for the left speaker on the top of the head which is visible when plugged in. Unfortunately it was the only way to fit all the electronics inside the head.

At the time it was a satisfactory project but now I think I would have done things differently. In fact I have some plans for another Kidrobot custom that hopefully will come out better than this one did.

Nothing says I Love You like a hairy chest...

2009-04-13T17:55:00.000-07:00

Using the template I used for the Mini-CD game console emulators, I made a Hair Metal Jean Jacket Mix CD. Inspired by my Hair Metal Drummer Mix CD.

I used many images from the internet and put them together like a collage using photoshop layers. The starting point was of course a hairy chest, I was going to use Paul Stanley's hairy chest, the famous singer of KISS. Quite Possibly the greatest hairy chest ever. But ended up using some random dude's chest from the web.

I also searched for images of patches, pins, buttons and jean jackets. Including this awesome back patch of Guns N' Roses. Which is the back of the Mini-CD's Jacket/Wrap.

I added the effects such as shadows and stretched out the images to make it look like the patches and pins and buttons were really on the jacket.

As a finishing touch for the CD case's label I made a hairy chest with the words Hair Metal shaved into it. If anyone can guess whose chest this belongs to you'll get 1,000 aqua net* points.

I have other genres of music planned for this idea, such as a Punk Leather Jacket, Hardcore Hoodie, Emo Sweater and Death Metal Jacket. Hopefully I'll get those done soon.

*10,000 Aqua Net points gets you one can of Aqua Net.

G.I. Joe - Silent Issue Animated

2009-04-02T10:09:00.000-07:00

For this project I took the famous issue #21 of the original G.I. Joe from Marvel animated with sound and effects.
I had assistance from my friend Sebastian who helped me with the music and some of the effects.
Those who know me, know my love for all things G.I. Joe.
I will make it available for download and Bit Torrent very soon.
Please visit my friends myspace pages, he is an extremely talented individual.

http://www.myspace.com/sebroxsmsounds

http://www.myspace.com/moosechildren

Hair Metal Drummer Mix CD

2009-03-27T08:25:00.000-07:00

After the Super Mario coffee table was finished, I had a lot of these empty containers...

I really believe that almost everything can be recycled or reused in one way or another. You just have to see the potential in things that would otherwise be thrown into a landfill. With that I decided to challenge myself and to see what could be made with these empty containers.
The result was a Hair Metal drum kit with two mix CDs.

I gave this to my girlfriend as a gift, because who doesn't love mix CDs? Although in this day and age it is a dying form, I still like putting together mix CDs.

First, I got into a really sleazy mindset, to think
like a hair metal drummer. Naturally a hair metal drummer would have woman's breasts on the bass drum. The drum set would have stickers of sponsors and their favorite rags such as Hit Parader and Metal Edge along with a Misfits sticker for street cred. The bass, toms, floor, snare and cymbals were made from the empty push pin containers.

Every hair metal drummer needs a can of Aqua Net. I firmly believe that the life of the hair metal drummer depends on it --like you and I depend on water.

When you pop the lid off the bass drums, you find the mix CDs -- which were burned on mini-discs. Hours of hair metal exists on these mini-CDs. And I printed CD labels with shots of some dudes' crotch.

As a bonus I added a fake hair metal drummer name and autograph to the breasts of the bass drums. The drummer's name is GZ Ivan and the autograph says "love ya!" with arrows pointing to the breasts. Classy indeed.

To epitomize male chauvinism, I added a shot of a woman's crotch to the snare drum; because what else does a hair metal drummer do but bang the skins.

Super Mario Coffee Table

2009-03-25T07:47:00.001-07:00

One would think that this is a video game tribute site. But who doesn't love Mario Bros. they had the sexiest mustaches in the history of time. I think that's why Snake in Metal Gear got himself a mustache, to be part of the cool kids club.

I found a table on the sidewalk, took it home and inspiration took shape in the form of Super Mario Bros 3. The first thing to do was to take the video game cover and turn it into a mosaic in photoshop for reference. The image was done in the size of the table top.

The next step was to get supplies, cork board, push pins, paint and vinyl plumbing pipes. This ended up costing a lot more money than I planned for, because I kept running out of push pins.

I cut the cork board to fit the inside of the table and began putting the push pins down following the pattern of the file i created in photoshop. My girlfriend helped me with the push pins because it became really painful after a while. The next step was putting the pipes on the legs of the table. This required some trimming and sanding of the width of the legs in order for the pipes to fit.

The next step was to paint the table including the pipes. The legs were painted dark green to look like the stalks and the corners were painted to look like the pyranha plants

The last steps were glueing down the cork board to the table and placing a piece of Plexiglass over the push pins. I was very satisfied with how it turned out even though I had even more ambitious plans for it.

One man's trash is another man's

2009-03-24T18:02:00.000-07:00

I found a scrabble board game on the sidewalk and decided to take it home to see if anything can be done with it. This is what I made with it.

A Scrabble end table. My Girlfriend actually suggested this idea to me.

Once the idea was in place, I just needed some supplies. I went to the hardware store to get lumber studs, a small piece of plywood and paint. The Plexiglass I already had, another sidewalk find.

This was once one of those fancy scrabble boards that come with edges for the tiles to stay in place. It ended being perfect for the the plexiglass to fit flush on the inside edge of the gameboard. under the board there is a few layers of foam core to prevent it from sinking.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH GAME BOYYYYYYYY!!! (Flava Flav)

2009-03-21T08:59:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest things ever invented. Portable gaming, for those who need to get their game on while on the crapper.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gameboy

This was by far my favorite to do from this project because of all the unique elements of the gameboy.

I cut the screen portion of it out and made the cd label inside the game screen of Tetris. It came out perfect, in my opinion.

All the details of the console remain. This was definately the most satisfying console to replicate.

Unlike the previous consoles I made the cd label the game of tetris playing on the screen instead of a game cart.

The back of the wrap came out great because I got to put the loaded cart as part of the design. I also included all the details such as Nintendo's 800 number for repairs in case I ever need it.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Super Nintendo

2009-03-21T07:54:00.000-07:00

While The Genesis was riding high along came the Super NES to crush it's hopes and dreams.

It was like Superman to Lex Luther.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Nintendo

SNES also brought with it a simple design for the console. By the time I made this one I was getting the hang of replicating the designs, so this was relatively easy compared to the Atari 2600 and the Genesis.

Once Again I crammed as much detail as possible into the sides. the Control plug holes, power light, etc.

By this time the carts were getting smaller while holding more information. Now one can fit about 750 games in a mini-dvdr.

They even started simplifying the bottoms of consoles by this time as well, it didn't even have a grill to dissipitate the heat.

The Sega Genesis Explosion

2009-03-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

The Genesis brought with it what the master system was missing, a slick design from the future. A future with terminators and Mcfly's. It also brought with it totally kick ass games.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Genesis

Once again I tried replicating the details of the design to the best of my abilities. The hardest parts being the sides since they are about 1/4 inch thin, not much room to work with.

16 Bits of Awesome were inside this baby.

I took this picture with a CD case and an Ipod for scale. Mini-cdr's are like a cute baby dinosaur in terms of technology but who cares.

Inside one can possibly put loads of games and a emulator and run it on one of many systems. But of course that could be illegal in some parts of the world.

Just to clarifly something, these are printed on card stock, cut, folded and pasted together.

The Sega Master System - that really smart ugly kid in class

2009-03-19T13:51:00.000-07:00

The answer to the NES was Sega's Master System. A really cool console that from my perspective could only be attained by wealthy jerks and spoiled brats. I'm still jealous to this day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Master_System

If anyone is wondering how I did these, well I took some pictures I found on the internet and painstakingly worked layers on top of the photo.

Once I got the template for the mini-cdr in place, it was only a matter of placing the photos and stretching to fit and working the layers on top of it.

I Like the simplicity of the carts, but i am guessing they saved money on not having to pay artists for extra art on there carts.

The bottom of the system is once again the back of the mini-cd wrap. Seems like a lot of work but I really enjoyed being so accurate with them.

Nintendo Entertainment System - The Cliff Notes Version

2009-03-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

The Reagan era brought with it the ultimate weapon in mind control, The Nintendo Entertainment System or the NES. I actually did this mini-cdr console first but I am going in chronological order.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System

Such a simple design but it was definitely not easy to do especially since it was my first time trying out this project.

This was a lot of fun for me even though I do own a NES.

Pictured together for scale the real NES and the spawn I made in my lab.

The back of the cd-wrap opens up in the back to release the case inside.

The cd label inside is the design of the classic cartridge of Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt together. That damn dog from Duck Hunt is still laughing at me.

As I did with the other consoles the bottom of the console is the back of the cd-wrap.

Honey, I Shrunk The Atari 2600

2009-03-19T12:11:00.000-07:00

I'm a kid of the 80's, so my first project is a tribute to one of the most influential toys/game consoles of the era, the Atari 2600.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600

I took a mini-cd-r case and using photoshop I made a wrap for it in the design of the classic wood veneer version of the console.

Inside I put a classic game cartridge as the design for the cd label/booklet.

I even took it a step further and made the back of the wrap the bottom of the console.

Inside the actual mini-cd-r, well, it could be anything but the obvious would be to have an emulator loaded with games to play on your computer or console that can run emulators.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_emulator

1st Post...oh boy

2009-03-19T12:04:00.000-07:00

OK, So I decided to start a blog about the stuff I enjoy making. I hope that whoever reads this gets some enjoyment out of it.