Just for fun part 5: M.U.S.C.L.E. II

This is pretty much an update.
I was a kid in Japan in the 80s and I was a big fan of the Kinnikuman manga.
The toys were everywhere at the time, and they even made their way to the USA under the name of M.U.S.C.L.E. (Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere).
These little rubber minifigures captured the imagination of young boys.

To the left we have Sunshine, Ashuraman, and Sunigator (The Claw)
To the right we have my versions, The Rend, Dice Kingu, and The Gleam.

I made Gleam first, he is my tribute to Sunshine.
Sunshine was such a cool character, he was clearly inspired by the superrobo Gold Laitan and the real life skyscraper in Japan called Sunshine 60.
Sunshine was a bad guy, a massive behemoth who also had shape shifting abilities.

I chose the Arch de Triumph shape of Sunshine because it's my favorite!

I worked and worked to do the Claw, it just wasn't turning out the way I wanted so I put it to rest and worked on other projects.
Hey sometimes you just gotta step away and get some fresh air and do something else.

So I worked on Ashuraman, it was all about the rotating head.
Ashuraman is the prince of the underworld.
He looks like a god from Buddhism or Hinduism, sporting 6 arms and 3 faces.
In the manga he could rotate his head and change his face much like Man-E-Faces except the other faces are exposed to the side, the one in the middle is activated.
I made Dice Kingu which has 4 faces.
This was quite challenging to make, but I'm quite happy with the end result.

The original Ashuraman faces:
1) Warai no kamen (mask of laughter, this is his normal face)
2) Reiketsu no kamen (mask of cold/heartless)
3) Ikari no kamen (mask of anger)

Dice Kingu faces:
1) Skull
2) Jack O' Lantern
3) Alien
4) Cyclops

He doesn't have 6 arms but his head rotates!
There was actually an Ashuraman minifigure back in the day that had a turning head!

The last project here was back to The Rend.
I just had to make The Claw.
Originally I though that each finger could be made using Lego pieces, but I had to scrap that because it simply wasn't working.
I am happy with the end result, geez I can't even tell you which one was harder to make, this or the lightsaber!

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Just for fun part 4: Into the Star Wars!

After working on the lightsaber gimmick, I wanted to do more Star Wars inspired creations. The R2D2 style Fright Droid. The Darth Vader inspired Darth Clops. Desu-Man (Death man) is a skull head. The Fright Droid comes with a removable brain piece. Darth Clops not only comes with the lightsaber gimmick arm, his eye is what I call GDR (Glitter Done Right) it simply means that the glitter is sealed on the inside and not sprinkled on the outside where it constantly keeps falling out. Desu-Man is just a plain skull head but like my other creations it's over sized compared to your standard minifigure so that it really stands out! I was definitely thinking Darth Vader when I designed this version of Desu-Man who I called Desu-Vader at the time. I improved the head design to make the skull larger and the facial features more clear to see. This Darth Clops is missing a horn but his mouth area I really liked so I kept. The head has a thin slit on the crown so you can inter...

Just for fun part 2: Lightsaber

BSHZZZ! I am your father! The gimmick works just by simply pushing the darn thing. The vintage Kenner 3.75" Star Wars action figures are legendary! I was fortunate enough to experience that in the 80s as a kid. The rumors were true, Boba Fett was the coolest figure at the time, at least everyone in my class and all the older kids said so. As crappy as Darth Vader was, starting with his vinyl cape that easily ripped, a head that was prone to coming off, and his way too stubby lightsaber, the result may have fell a little short but it was a figure made of dreams. At the end of the day Kenner put Darth Vader in our hands, so that we can make him command Storm Troopers in our very own world, which was probably the living room. I got to say that the most ambitious part of the Darth Vader figure was that lightsaber gimmick, where it actually extends and retracts! So I just had to try and replicate this marvelous idea.. but in Lego format. This was quite an ambitious pro...

Just for fun part 1: M.U.S.C.L.E.

My tribute to M.U.S.C.L.E. (Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere) Sadly I will not be selling REND but I will be selling GLEAM. REND almost but not quite came out the way I wanted it to, so for now he is scrapped unfortunately. REND and GLEAM Rend next to the original! The Claw was a fascinating and popular Kinkeshi that has captivated the minds of fans all over the world since the 80s! In the manga The Claw was the final form of a morphing reptilian fighter named Sunigator. The final form turned out to be the foot of a T-rex. Rend body is 3D printed in a neon orange like color. Rend is what nightmares are made of! Gleam next to the original! Sunshine is a very popular Kinkeshi and character from the 80s hit manga Kinnikuman. He can change his shape and this is one of the cooler versions because it looks like the Recognizer ship from the film Tron. It is suppose to be the famous Paris landmark Arc De Triomphe. Gleam looking OG as hell sporting ...

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