From custom artist Brian Shapiro:
I present my latest Incognito Series figure! This one’s abstract for sure. It is called “Mikey Mouse” in celebration of the upcoming movie, Monsters University, by Disney. With a lift from his friend, Sully, Mike Wazowski scares up some laughs as Mickey Mouse! Of course, things don’t go according to plan when poor Mikey’s vision is obstructed and Sully’s shoe doesn’t fit!
This set was inspired by the insect characters from Disney/Pixar’s 1998 release A Bug’s Life . It features many of the beloved heroes, villains, and wildcards from Pixar Studios second movie. This set features 12 designs, followed by one Mystery Chaser. For full photos of the set please visit my Flickr stream.
The series will go up for sale on the Facebook group: Vinylmation Exchange Customs. On Sunday May 12 at 7:00 PM PST the official post will open. There are 12 bugs available for purchase, so the first 12 people to claim their box on the post will secure a their bug. Limit one bug per person. This purchase includes one randomly assigned character from the set, as well as a signed artist card. Each box will sell for $90, with shipping expenses included.
You can keep track of my work at http://jaredcircusbear.tumblr.com
Contact me for custom commissions at jared_circusbear@yahoo.com
A Wreck-it Ralph custom set designed by artist Mike Vetrone will be available later today, Nov. 19, 2013, at VinylmationWorld.com. The custom series consists of 8 Vinylmations and will be released at 10pm EST / 7pm PST exclusively on the Vinylmation World Online Store. They will be $85 each, which includes shipping to anywhere in the US.
Custom Artist Brian Shapiro is back with a very intriguing series customs set for next year:
I present my last custom of 2013 which is a preview of a series I’m going to do in 2014 called Invertimation!
That mischievous prankster, the Cheshire Cat, has teamed up with other tricky characters like Stitch and Genie to invert the colors of some of Disney’s beloved characters. To undo this magic spell on your phone or tablet, simply invert the colors on it and look at the photo as shown. For iOS devices go to Settings>General>Accessibility>Invert Colors. I’m not sure how to do it on Android. If you are viewing this on a monitor, invert the colors on your phone and look at the pic with your device’s camera. Enjoy!
Next up is Experiment 626!! See you in 2014!
Destination Vinylmation: I’ve never seen your stuff before. How long have you been a custom vinylmation artist?
Amber Gonzalez: I have been doing customs since August of 2012. Still new and loving every minute of it.
DV: Have you always enjoyed creating art?
AG: I’ve always been crafty. Started painting canvases about 6 years ago.
DV: We asked you to pick your favorite custom so far, and you picked your newest one, Bilbo Baggins. Why do you like this figure so much?
AG: I’ve always been a huge LOTR fan. Last year I made a custom Frodo. With the new movie The Hobbit I knew I had to make young Bilbo Baggins.
DV: I saw the movie, it was much more entertaining that I thought it would be. What else inspired you to make this piece?
AG: I collect LOTR Lego sets and that’s what inspired me to make custom vinyls of them .
DV: Lego makes great video games. Have you tried out the Lego LOTR video game?
AG: I do play all the Lego games. Sadly I bought the LOTR Lego and then my wii died.
DV: That’s a bummer. I think mine’s almost dead too. What was the most difficult part of this figure?
AG: The only hard part was trying to blox a myth and legends Bigfoot so I could use the over sized feet 🙂
DV: Awesome. From the pics of Big Foot I didn’t even know he had different sized feet! How did you make the ring?
AG: The ring is a Lego accessory. They work perfect for vinyls
DV: I love Lego, if you’ve ever listened to the podcast I always joke about leaving Vinylmation to do a Lego podcast. What’s your favorite favorite Lego Minifig?
AG: I would say my favorite Lego minfig is Professer Snape from Harry Potter. One of my all time favorite characters.
DV: Ok, we should get back to vinyl. What is your favorit Disney made vinylmation figure?
AG: Oo tough one. I’d have to say the 9″ UP, I don’t own it but it’s always been a grail of mine 🙂
DV: Thank you for your time. We have one more question for you. Do you take commissions and where can people find out more about your art?
AG: I do! People can email me at vongeek@yahoo.com and also find me on Instagram : HeartBakers
DV: Very good! Well congrats on the awesome piece and let us know the next time you have something interesting to show off! And remember custom artists, you can always email us to display your custom pieces.
Calling all custom artists. This March, Destination Vinylmation will be holding the first annual March VinylMadness contest. Vinylmation fans will be voting in a bracket style play-off to determine their favorite custom figure.
Here are the rules for submitting your custom vinyl creation:
Eligible Vinyls are:
Any custom created by you.
Since Vinylmation started.
Any size or platform of Vinylmation.
Accessories and sculpting is allowed but we are only accepting individual figures (no sets or dioramas).
Submit up to three customs and rank them for us in your email. Your first choice is guaranteed to get in.
Multiple entries will depend on number of entries we receive and will be determined by Destination Vinylmation. Deadline is February 14th, 2013. The contest will start in March of 2013.
To enter, send an email to DestinationVinylmation@gmail.com with the following info for each figure:
Name of figure.
Date made.
Artist name (to be hidden during contest).
A photo of the front of the entire vinyl.
We would also prefer two other photos (to show off back/details/unique parts) but not required.
All photos need to be of the finished Vinylmation.
Additional notes:
Artists are welcome to pimp their figures on their own sites/facebook pages/twitter feeds when voting happens, in fact we encourage getting the word out, however please no negative posts toward other artists or figures. This contest is to help create awareness for and enjoyment in the Vinylmation community of custom work.
If you have any questions feel free to email us. We’ll answer these questions and then add those answers to this post.
Another regular here at Destination Vinylmation is the custom artist Crazy4Vinyls. We heard he had a great set of Rescue Ranger figures and we asked for more details. This is what he said.
Destination Vinylmation: What was your interest in doing a set of Rescue Rangers?
Crazy4Vinyl: I was actually contacted by a collector who wanted me to create a rescue ranger custom for him. I believe the first one I made for him was Gadget. He wanted her to go with the official rescue ranger set. After he got her he was so pleased that he contacted me wanting an entire set.
DV: I love that you included Zipper as a Jr. You have great choices in characters, how did you choice which ones include?
C4V: The person who I created these for is the one who picked all of the characters so the credit goes to him, I just created them.
DV: Are you a fan of the show?
C4V: I shouldn’t admit this but I have never seen an episode of the cartoon, ever.
DV: That must make it harder to do a set. What was the most challenging part of this set to design/create?
C4V: The hardest part for me was to try and capture an expression or look for each character. I was trying to stay away from the normal generic faces and tried to create these customs as if they came right out of the cartoon.
DV: What is your favorite Disney created Vinyl these days?
C4V: Most everyone knows me for my love (obsession) of the LGM from park series 2. This was the first vinylmation that I purchased while on a trip to WDW and continues to be my favorite. I have now collected 23 of this figure.
DV: Don’t worry. Nick’s collected armies like that of Stormtroopers, Bees, and several other figures. In case they don’t remember, where can people see your stuff and do you take commissions?
C4V: You can find me on facebook in two ways:
Customs page: Crazy4Vinyls Customs by Josh Edwards. You can send me a message there.
OR
You can send me a message through my regular facebook page Josh Edwards
You can also contact me through e-mail: edwardsjmn123 at comcast.net
DV: Thanks again for sharing these with us. Let us know the next time you have something interesting to share!
 |
 |
 |
 |
Destination Vinylmation: Welcome back Rust, explain your latest set.
Rust This World: Vinylmation 2-Tone is the culmination of several months work. My intention was to create an extremely stylized but also cohesive set of 12 figures. Since I incorporate a lot of shading into my figures anyway, I wanted to see what it would be like in a 2-toned black and white only style, giving it a super contrasted comic-book look.
DV: It looks great! What characters did you use?
RTW: Included in the set are Ariel, Beast, Donald Duck, Pinocchio, Cheshire Cat, Jessica Rabbit, Buzz Lightyear, Maleficent, The Evil Queen, Scar, The Hatbox Ghost, and Sorceror Mickey. There 3 different versions of Mickey because as soon as I showed him off on Facebook, I got over 10 messages of people wanting him.
DV: I don’t blame them, these figures look great! How can I get one?
RTW: There are 14 figures in all and in order to make it fair to everyone who wishes to purchase a figure, I will be selling them blindbox. The price will be $65 per blind box and they will be sold exclusively through my online store at rustthisworld.bigcartel.com starting at 10 am PST (1 PM EST) on Sunday, January 13th and will be available until they’re gone. There is no set limit on how many you can purchase.
DV: Here’s $650. Can I have 10? Just kidding. Good luck on the sale. Where can people find more of yours?
RTW: Visit my website at rustthisworld.com or become a fan on facebook at facebook.com/rustthisworld or follow me on twitter @rustthisworld
DV: Can you tease us about what you’re doing next?
RTW: My next project after this series is working with 11 other artists for the Custom Artist Project series 2. For info on that, join our group facebook.com/groups/ArtistProject/
DV: That project last year was beautiful, I can’t want to see what they do this year. Thanks again, and keep on collecting!
“First let me introduce myself, my name is Josh Edwards a.k.a. Crazy4Vinyls
and I have been making custom vinylmations for over a year now. I’m not
sure how many I have created since I first started but what happened to
me recently took me by surprise. I recently finished a custom 12 piece
Simpsons set that I created for a couple of reasons. The first was my
love of the show and second I was inspired by a recent blue sky article
on Vinylmation Kingdom. After I finished the set I listed most of the
customs on ebay and thought nothing of it. A few days went by and I
went to check on the listings and discovered that all of them were
removed except for one. I saw in my messages that ebay was contacted by
20th Century Fox. This was considered a copyright infringement. I am
not here to argue what they did was wrong because Fox does own the show
and have the right to have the items removed. I was surprised because I
have created numerous non-disney customs but this was the first time
I’ve had items removed.
We found custom artist Lawrence Sharma online last week showing off his almost completed Monster’s Inc customs. When he finished them we got a chance to speak with him about his work.
Destination Vinylmation: How long have you been an artist?
Lawrence Sharma: I’ve been doing art since I was really young. I mostly dabbled in pencil sketches and comic book styled art until high school when I tried my hand at more digital mediums of art (graphic design, photography, photo manipulation). It actually wasn’t until a couple years ago that I picked up a paint brush to start painting my own clay figures. Then I found out about vinyl toys…that’s a whole different story.
DV: How long have you been doing custom vinyl? How did you first get into vinyl?
LS: I actually just started customizing vinyls quite recently. A couple of years ago I first made a robot mascot out of a Munny for a company my friends and I were trying to start up. I also was able to make a Ron Weasley out of a Munny about a year ago, and that where it ended before I found out about the Vinylmation series. My friends collected vinyl toys and the “DIY” aspect of them just appealed to me.
 |
 |
DV: That’s cool. What’s your favorite Disney designed Vinylmation?
LS: My absolute favorite vinylmation is the Urban 5 3D Mickey Chaser! It really stood out to me when I first started collecting. It was just so creative.
 |
 |
DV: Your Monster’s Inc set is incredible. What made you make this set?
LS: Thanks a lot! I made this set mostly because I wanted to do a Disney custom instead of more customs inspired by comic book characters. My friend BK gave me a Vinylmation Jr. he didn’t want so I immediately knew I would use it for a custom. My girlfriend, Chelcie, actually really loves Monster’s Inc. so I decided to make a set based on the characters.
 |
 |
DV: Sounds like a good place to start. While making this set of three characters, what was the biggest challenge?
LS: The biggest challenge had to be finding time to paint the figures. I had done the sculpting and mutilation of Mike a couple months before I actually was able to sit down and paint the figures. School and work just ate up a lot of my time, but the monsters were always sitting in the back of my mind.
DV: I know the feeling. When you got the chance to sit down and paint, what ended up being easier then you expected?
LS: The painting, actually! I’m still figuring out how to paint my figures since it is a relatively new medium for me. I was so surprised at how quickly I was able to paint them once I got started. I just got in the zone, I guess.
 |
 |
DV: I really like your choice to use just the head and feet for Mike. How did you get the arms into his head?
LS: I want to say I used a drill because it seems easiest…but since I didn’t have a drill lying around I had to poke holes on each side with box cutters and I “drilled” into the head with a screwdriver. After some cleaning and sanding, he had the arm holes he needed!
DV: Wow. Well that’s certainly a unique way of doing it. Anything else about the set you want to talk about?
LS: Just that I’m really happy with how it came out and I’m grateful to everyone for all the nice comments and props I’ve been receiving. Thanks everyone! KCCO!
DV: They came out excellent, especially for a first time Vinylmation custom artist. How can people see your other work or request commissions?
LS: You can follow me on instagram @Lsharma or go to my facebook page www.facebook.com/lawrencesharmaart (slowly updating it) to request commissioned work or to see some work I’ve done in the past. Don’t be shy!
DV: So what do you think about the upcoming prequel, Monster’s University?
LS: My initial reaction to it was disappointment because I wanted to see Boo
again and I don’t like the idea of Sulley being a bully. However, the
more we see of it, the more excited we are. She still bugs me to buy her
the for armed monsters University sweater from the website too.
DV: Those are pretty awesome. Thanks for letting us pick your brain. Let us know the next time you have something cool to show off. And don’t forget to keep on collecting!
LS: Thanks!
