This perplexes me . . . it's got a nice finish and idea behind it . . . but the sculpt is someone elses, it was manufactured by someone else and it's not for an exhibition, contest or show but to sell direct for profit . . . isn't there some kind of copyright issue involved.

Not hating . . . just curious.

Isn't that how all customs work? In the end the original artist gets his money for the piece. It's not like Dril is claiming that he made it from scratch.

It's still a big sal. And some artists like to see there work customized. And for example Bwana likes my custom killers. I bought it so the artist/manufacturer got paid, I do see why this bothers people so much. In the end it is still a toy. Also the Gargamel show it was all customs, did that bother you too?

big sal should be the only toy that gets customized. that thing is so god awful that even people like manimal can't fuck it up

I guess so but if this being is being promoted as an SDCC exclusive/release or similar may be confusing no . . . and by the same token he's not saying that he didn't make it from scratch.


Weren't all the Gargamel customs by the Gargamel guys or at least sanctioned by them?

No big deal . . . s'probably best I stay out of the 'customs' forum!

I never said it was a exclusive, just meant it was available at SDCC. I will fix that.

MANIMAL's last post:
Sat Mar 07, 2009

Has he been faded, or is he still here?

I think Scary Andy's question is more targeted towards the idea that it isn't for a specific gallery where the gallery theme is custom toys(such as It Came From Skullbrain). I don't think it is specifically asked at you either, DrilOne, but to customizers in general. Here are a few questions I have based on this...

I'm sure there are copyright laws on toy designs but how are they inforced? Do toy companies or toy artists care their toys are being reworked(both good and bad)? We know RxH does. The toy has been payed for, so is it the purchasers right to do with it as he/she pleases? Is it a piece of art, where reworking it still has the initial idea, and the original artists influence? Would it be different if I took a print and painted over parts of it, or repainted the entire thing so it remained the same imagery but with different color/texture/style/etc? What if I took an icon(like a Mickey Mouse toy) and repainted it, would the rules change then?

Again these are just questions that I'd like to hear opinions on. Lots of board members and well known artists make custom toys of other artists work.

As always, I love Dril's work. =)
Great job, Alex!

Haha

There's different schools of thoughts on this issue, but at least for me I think that if the original artist/sculptor gets credit, then it's okay.

The one thing that I don't get and want to comment on, besides everything else, is the subject matter.

To me certain toys don't look right with your style. The Rose vampire looked absolutely terrible because the rose/vampire is an organic sculpt much like a sludgy hedoran or dempagon or even blopbus. Those sculpts translate terribly to metal. I don't get it.

I mean you do rust and chains. That seems to be your thing so why not to a mecha godzilla. That thing would be amazing. Or why not mecha kong? Or gargamel micromen? Just a few suggestions but I would love to see a mecha godzilla rusted over and warped. It would so cool.

I guess I don't understand why you don't target sculpts that aren't metal in nature...

Is it because you think most people don't like those sculpts?

A Gachamecha would be amazing, I'd love to see that.

^^
YES! Could not agree more.
Those types of sculpts could work so well.

I just don't get the big sal and vampire.

I think it is obvious the Mecha should look rusty, but when I customize something organic it makes it more unique. What I do doesnt have to make sense, like most Kaiju doesn't make sense. The RV is a under water Rose Mine which protects the ocean, is it realistic no but 90% toys are not. People love what I do and I enjoy doing it. Do you collect whats cool or what you personally like.

And I have customized the mecha

big sal is just a terrible toy to begin with, no custom can make it any better

now that mecha-g on the other hand is really cool, looks like he just got dragged out of the ocean after thirty years

Personally I think people collect the Rose Vampire because it's a rose vampire. And fanatics eat up whatever is thrown at them.

I collect what I like but when I see someone customize something I kind of want it to make sense. I'm a huge fan of gatchabert, joe, joshuajh, pk, lash and toybot but if they painted a toy that didn't make sense I wouldn't buy it and I would wonder why they did it.

In regards to the mecha...
See I think that's awesome. Please do your thing on a gacha mecha. From a logical standpoint...i see a robot being rusted over and crunchy versus something grown in dirt.

Someone did a decayed atat and I thought it was so rad. But if you did a decayed, rusted 'hedoran' it would make no sense, since a hedoran is a sludge beast. I'm not critiquing your talent but your subject matter.

You are right . . . it was more a 'big picture' kinda question'!

I'll catch up on the controversy later but just wanted to say that this is an exceptional custom that made me see the Big Sal sculpt in a totally different way. This isn't just grotesquery for its own sake ... I'm seeing depths of drama and meaning here, as well as a branching out of DrilOne's rusty/military style. Great stuff.

I wonder if Tsuburaya got similar eye rolls when he first unveiled Mechagodzilla? "Goji's not made of metal!"

I can totally see some mad scientist developing a mecha Rose Vampire or Big Sal for that matter.

Big Sal has metal on him, he is in a straight jacket...

This is all opinion nobody is right or wrong. Some of you may hate/dislike customs I dislike Nags and Bemons. But do you really care what I like or dislike?

If someone doesn't like custom toys, why would they open an entire forum that says "Custom Toys" on it? And then even if they're here for the "Fan Art" part of the forum, why click on a thread with a custom toy name right in the subject?

Not hating...just curious.


And personally, I think it looks awesome Alex. Great job on the piece as always. My only critique is that the four areas of bones are in direct relation to the four points that the chains are attached and it seems to calculated. I'd love to see a bit more of a sense of randomness/mayhem to how the bones were scattered.

My original post was a genuine query without malice (or hate, or eyerolling or any other inuendo) and Drilone's already clarified via PM that not crediting the original artist was an oversight on his part and has been corrected, but rest assured that next time I'll be sure to PM you for permission as to what I can and can't view and question before I post . . . NOT!