A great posing manikin!

[William Whitaker]

Sakievich came by my studio the other day and told me about the new 18” Spiderman action figure with 67 points of articulation.
Intrigued, I went out and bought one. The cost, with tax, was $26.00. It was made in China with slave labor – it had to be at that price!

[William Whitaker]

The figure is surprisingly heavy. That’s good. It won’t blow over in our windy studios. The joints, particularly the hip joints, were very stiff. At first I thought I might break it as I tried to position the thighs at the hips. I haven’t assembled a toy since my kids grew up and getting it out of the packaging while I sat in front of the TV was a big challenge to me. I was obviously born too soon…..

[William Whitaker]

It has three joints in each foot and stands very nicely. My first standing attempts were made on a plush carpet in front of my TV. If I could stand it there (and I did) you action-figure-experienced folks can stand it on gravel!

[William Whitaker]

You’ve all seen those awful wooden posing manikins in art supply stores. They are almost useless. The best current art figure is this little 12” plastic fellow and he is no match for Spiderman!

[William Whitaker]

Every finger joint is operational and this is probably the best manikin currently available for working out posing ideas. It ain’t perfect, you can’t raise the arms high over the head in a realistic way, but I haven’t seen anything better on the market at any time in my life.

[William Whitaker]

The day after I took these photos, I took the figure to my workshop and began to grind off the extremes in the triceps and biceps, ground off some of the spider web relief, and found that the blue sections are paint and the figure is cast in red plastic. I’m going to do more grinding and shaping and then spray it with flat light grey paint.

I bought two more of these figures so I can work out compositional groupings. They are going to be very useful around the studio.

I wonder if we approached the makers to see if they would be interested in manufacturing a toned down version in grey plastic for our use. Any ideas?

[donkeyslayer]

hot damn! i should start my figure collection with spidey. really nice find. it was really nice to hear you speak in austex. very inspiring stuff =]

[S.C. Watson]

That is totally cool. Where did you pick it up at - I'm thinking seriously about nabbing one for myself!

Cheers,
~Oreg.

[William Whitaker]

I bought it at our local TOYS-R-US. Check Walmart and other places. You might get it for even less. I recommend it highly. I have three of them now. I will customize them all.

Posing the figure and moving it around gives me variations on my original compositional idea. I can then make rough drawings, giving it a pot gut, or a larger head (or smaller feet). It is very useful in the studio.

[donkeyslayer]

could you stand him on one foot to show us his capabilies? :arcfreak: :ahha:

[Joeslucher]

There's a Doc Oc 18" scheduled for later this year. If you can take the arms off that would be incredible, as it would be an average body type with that much articulation.

[-W.-]

Could you show a picture of the package ?

[William Whitaker]

Easy enough to do. I'll post an image of the package tonight.

[SilentFire]

Well after seeing the pics you posted I went out and grabbed one for myself. My first thought was "wow that's huge" I never really pictured it to be so big I'm sure glad I got it though not only will it make for a good pose resources it will go nicely in my collection as well

[William Whitaker]

Yes, it's bigger than you'd think. Also it has heft. This really seems to be a much better drawing manikin than a toy.

[Visceral 619]

Everything u said about the existing manikin's is so true, i had the dumpy wooden one...so many painful memories of trying to get a pose which looked like it had some kind of motion.

Thanks for the great referance, its greatly appreciated.

[Jaku]

Thanks mr. Whitaker for showing it to us.
I´ve just arrived home with mine and played a bit with it. It´s really great!

[geoffd]

HA! bought mine at Target. $18 bucks. not bad at all!! kinda stiff to pose but he loosens up after a bit.

this is awesome!!

[Gonzo]

Just got back with mine...Target makes me happy.

Spidey is currently hefting Red Bull cans.

[bRyaN]

Amazing...

I will be buying one if i get my paycheck today...

[davi]

fantastic william,

i found it on amazon(which is what toys-R-us uses now).

Here you go guys:
http://www.toys-and-merchandise.com/...sin=B0000D12XS

[Jason Manley]

leave it to master bill to find an action figure that can be put to better use than all the poser mannequins.

I miss ya already william.


J

[JoshuaTheJames]

I heard my friends talk about this but, I didn't realize how cool it really was.

Thanks a lot Mr. Whitaker!

Thanks to you those things will send out everywhere!

-Joshua

[jrr]

that thing is so damn cool. i gotta add that to the collection.

[Stray]

That's pretty sweet, I'll have to go pick one up...but damn those biceps look huge.

Now they need to release a Cat Woman version.

[Red_Rook]

omg great, I want one. :eek: Nice find William.

[treeboy]

Found it for $19 at Target...

its GREAT! I've had it half an hour and I already love it. :jump1:

[Forge]

you should go on the forum of spawn.com mike... they spend their time doing thing like that... and most of the time it's pretty fun to see Spidey and The predator fighting versus the T.rex from Jurassic park !

[Stray]

I got one at Target today, they were on the clearance rack in the toy section for $15!

[Stray]

Here's some poses, I'm not a very good photographer but I hope these helps ya a little bit Mike.
Also if I were going to paint this I'd try vinyl dye, it works really well with plastic because it doesn't coat the surface it seeps in and stains it. The only problem is I don't know how well it would take on the surfaces that are painted...


Looks a little awkward because of the suit, but his arms raise pretty high

*POW* Yes he maintained this pose without falling over

You talkin' ta me?




He lost a contact lense...


A little air guitar :rock: