Today’s Custom Tailored Model is … dun dun dun… Pirate Girl Anne Bonny!:

(more…)

Back in 2001, a very young DST was releasing the Dark Alliance action figure series.  The first assortment included the ever-popular Lady Death.  Now, here we are in modern times and a seasoned DST is once again pleased to announce that we are working with Brian Pulido .  Fans have been asking for a year if LD would ever be added to the Femme Fatales line, so here I am saying “Yes!”.  Steve Kiwis did an exceptional job of merging 3 different concept images into one 9″ PVC beauty.  Stay tuned to see her in color…

You heard me right! Yours truly, as part of her job at DST, got to create custom costumes for our models at San Diego Comic-Con!!

So to promote our newest line of Femme Fatales statues, we hired two models to hand out trading cards, lollipops and temporary tattoos. And I got to dress them!

(more…)

I rarely share any behind-the-scenes things with you prior to completed (and usually approved) sculpts.  But then I realized that it wasn’t really fair to the creative team that brings my insanity to life, plus I’ve had a few of you come to me in San Diego wondering what (if any) logic was behind my development choices.  So, here’s a look into what ultimately becomes the Femme Fatales Alice PVC.

To begin with, I have NO artistic ability whatsoever, outside of being able to draw some mean stick-figures (no, literally, I draw stick figures with mean expressions and that’s about it).  That being said, it really isn’t important if my piece is going to be based on a specific piece of art or a comic cover.  The problem comes when I need an interpretation of something.  Thank goodness for the interwebz.  Once I have an idea, I comb the web looking for images that contain the elements I need to convey.  What you see here is a collage of less than 1/3 of what I sent to the sculptor and painter for Alice.

I’ll spare you the tedium, but not only do they get bombarded with jpegs, but for each image there is a chunk of text to explain what I saw in the picture that I want incorporated (or what should be avoided) in my product.  I’m not sure if the finished items are a credit to my ability to convey what I need or to the freelancers’ ability to translate Schaff to English.  Let’s just call it a team effort and move on.

Two different Tarot Statues!

Not only do we have Tarot the Witch of the Black Rose,
but we have a special Tarot in White as a 2010 SDCC exclusive!

See it first here and get it only in San Diego!

As the “odd-jobs” graphic design here at DST, I’m sometimes called in to do unusual projects!
(You know what I mean if you’ve seen the 360 animated spins of the Ultimate Quarter Scale Star Wars Figure and the Minimate Dioramas).

And today my random skills were called in again…and this time it was for our hot mamma Femme Fatale Little Red!

(more…)

Oh Little Red! What kind of trouble are you in today?
The alley is the PERFECT place for Wolves to hide! (more…)

And she’s Back… in Black… (more…)

About 6 years ago, DSTChuck wanted to design a house brand focusing on the popularity of ‘goth’ products.  The plan was to take some of the public domain fairy tale characters and give them a more modern look and feel.  A lot of people spent a lot of time at DST working on proposals for buyers, package concepts, category options, and marketing strategies.  Unfortunately, unavoidable circumstances caused the project to go to the backburner.  Now that the Femme Fatales line has taken off, DSTChuck is looking to reinvent some of the reinventions and use them in this PVC line.  Kicking things off is the new Little Red Riding Hood (Li’l Red, for short).  The images I’ve included show you how we went from the original concept sketch to Sam Greenwell’s sculpt and finished with Kat Sapene’s paint.

We’ve just begun taking pre-orders for our upcoming Femme Fatales Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose PVC Statue and it looks like we have a new potential spokesman in the form of The Tonight Show’s Conan O’Brien! Eagle-eyed viewers might also catch our Hobgoblin Prankster bust.  Check out the video clip from last night’s show after the jump! (more…)