Hollywood Boulevard (US movie icons)

GubernatorFan wrote:Excellent. Great posing and naturalistic clutter. Not to mention the special effects.

Thanks a lot boss! Glad you liked brother!

skywalkersaga wrote:OMG, that is so impressive! The posing, the set-up, composition, lighting, the whole dio of course.... just incredible! And the papers flying everywhere... i presume a special effect but it looks convincing!

Thanks a lot Sky, much appreciated!!! I went traditional this time for the effects, the flying papers are standing on little wires, the armchair has a lil wedging hidden behind... I took two shots, one with and one without the papers, so erasing the wires was easier. The only photoshop effect is the smoke

tankgirlfuzzy wrote:Ha! Love the mess Marty created! That face is perfect for the situation.

Thank you very much!

Diana wrote:WOW! These are fantastic!! Very inspired. And respect for the commitment! Totally worth it though.

Many Thanks Diana!

Stryker2011 wrote:That is so cool. I’m guessing some of the flying/falling paper was done with PS, if not, I’m interested in how you pulled that off, the clutter falling around is so well done, and as tankgirlfuzzy said, the expression is perfect for this sort of befuddled moment. Impressive to say the least.

Many thanks Mark! As I replied to Sky, the papers were holding in the air thanks to little wire stands, with a dot of "patafix" at the end. And to erase those wires easily, I took a second shot without them, overlayed both shots on photoshop and erased the parts I wanted (Actually much more efficient and easier than trying to "stamp" the missing areas of a pic)

BAMComix wrote:Stunningly brilliant! everything about the shots is spot on!

Thanks a lot my friend!!!

davidd wrote:Impressive level of detail and great sense of movement and action in these pics!

Much appreciated David, thank you very much!

Theboo-bomb wrote:Fantastic shot, that office is amazing, such a realistic piece.

Thank you for the great feedback mate!

brassco wrote:i like the smoke effects...like the woofer really exploded!!

Thanks! smoke was added digitally

Been a while I haven't updated this thread, so here are a few recent edits and shots I made... Hope you'll like!

Love the samurai. Funny, I bought the one you did not -- or at least do not show. I've been wondering about this Tom Cruise sculpt. You make it look worthwhile.

wow, those figures look truly amazing. Wonderful outside shots too.

Such realism!! I'm in awe!  

Those are great pictures. I love the movie and your pics are so cool

Pretty cool shots. The landscape and lighting work well with the figures.

GubernatorFan wrote:Love the samurai. Funny, I bought the one you did not -- or at least do not show. I've been wondering about this Tom Cruise sculpt. You make it look worthwhile.

Indeed I didn't buy Matsumoto (yet?) I didn't like his outift, I prefer the ceremonial set, which comes without the headsculpt sadly so I passed for now.
The Tom Cruise headsculpt is a very good surprise, apart from the hair, I had to style it with water and gel, cut a bit of it on the front, but the sculpture itself and paintapp is very very good, far beyond my expectations on a 95$ poptoys release.

BAMComix wrote:wow, those figures look truly amazing. Wonderful outside shots too.

Thanks a lot BAM! Bringing them with me during summer vacations was the best idea I had these last months lmao

skywalkersaga wrote:Such realism!! I'm in awe!  

Thank you very much my friend

Valiarde wrote:Those are great pictures. I love the movie and your pics are so cool

I love that movie too! I know Cruise's movies suffer a lot of criticism, but I do love this actor, his state of mind, even more with the years, and I really loved this "last samurai".

Stryker2011 wrote:Pretty cool shots. The landscape and lighting work well with the figures.

Thanks bro! South of France has a very similar feel as California, same climate, same vegetal species, it worked wonder for the figures!

Quick update, John Wick!

EPIC!!!

Love it. Great lighting, posing, composition, chair, backdrop, pile of guns, ...
Maybe a little too much smoke there...

Awesome!!! That lighting is absolute perfection.

What a great shot. The light through the “shades” is so cool. Love that pose.

Excellent John Wick scene! For the Tom Cruise samurai (or in general), I love the prototypes for the yet-unreleased version of the head sculpt, but it has sculpted hair.

That's a great shot of John Wick!

I always love Your pictures. The sunset one is so amazing. You made it outdoors ? I just wonder how You did the sunlight on the figures, but it´s real sunlight. Thanks for showing ! Ahh, and the gunsmoke ! I really wish i could do such great effects.

Yeah, this light through the shades is always a fantastic effect. sooo cool.

And he really got a lot of guns. Are there any left elsewhere in your collection now?

I always greatly enjoy your meticulous shots

Diana wrote:EPIC!!!

Love it. Great lighting, posing, composition, chair, backdrop, pile of guns, ...
Maybe a little too much smoke there...

Yup lol, I could barely see the smoke while editing, so I went a bit heavy on it in the end

skywalkersaga wrote:Awesome!!! That lighting is absolute perfection.  

Thank you Sky! Taking the best from those cheap bathroom vents lol, gotta refrain myself or you'll see those blinds on every picture

Stryker2011 wrote:What a great shot. The light through the “shades” is so cool. Love that pose.

Thanks a ot Mark! I really advise you guys to go check your general store for those bathrooms vents and grids, they have a lot of potential, and they come in so many shapes and sizes...

GubernatorFan wrote:Excellent John Wick scene! For the Tom Cruise samurai (or in general), I love the prototypes for the yet-unreleased version of the head sculpt, but it has sculpted hair.

Yeah I saw that, which makes me happier that I secured this version... the hair color is a bit weird sometimes depending on the light, and it needs a serious hairstyle, otherwise the likeness is great!

BAMComix wrote:That's a great shot of John Wick!

Thanks BAM!

Ephiane wrote:I always love Your pictures. The sunset one is so amazing. You made it outdoors ? I just wonder how You did the sunlight on the figures, but it´s real sunlight.  Thanks for showing ! Ahh, and the gunsmoke ! I really wish i could do such great effects.

Yeah I shot these last summer in the south of France, after finding the good spot and shooting for an hour, the sun came down and it was even better so I reshot my figs again lol... Came back home covered with mosquito bites lmao
About the gunsmoke and other "overlay" effects, it depends on the app or program you're using, but it is a very simple thing to do... Feel free to ask or message me to chit chat about that when you want

Illusion wrote:Yeah, this light through the shades is always a fantastic effect. sooo cool.

And he really got a lot of guns. Are there any left elsewhere in your collection now?

I always greatly enjoy your meticulous shots

Thanks a lot! Well that's a big part of my gun stash, but not everything, would be crazy to unequip all my figures... But I confess the recent Neo with his full armory was helpful

Some Tarantino to carry on, I know this movie didn't meet the success of his previous releases but I really enjoyed it... Hope you'll like Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth





"well it's official buddy, I'm a has-been"

I haven't seen this movie, but I can still appreciate your excellent posing and photography. Reminds me a little bit of The Nice Guys, with Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling, which have not been done (I think), but you can probably kitbash easily enough.

GubernatorFan wrote:I haven't seen this movie, but I can still appreciate your excellent posing and photography. Reminds me a little bit of The Nice Guys, with Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling, which have not been done (I think), but you can probably kitbash easily enough.

Funny you mention the nice guys, I recently purchased a loose HT headsculpt of Russell Crowe as superman's daddy... He will pair nicely with Ryan Gosling to make the nice guys

Have you finally watched "once upon a time in hollywood"? After the oscar I came across a video of Ricky Gervais introducing the movie premiere on stage, saying to Leo di Caprio "geeez three hours long, by the time it was over Leo's date was too old for him" lmao

More Tarantino... I just received Django, sadly KGHobby lost my parcel with Calvin Candie in it, sold out by now... Hope you'll like!

Fantastic pictures Blackpool!

Beautifully shot, as usual, Alex. There should be other options for Calvin -- whether intended as that character or not. Look on Monkey Depot, among other places.

Nice pics. The breath steam is a great touch.

Today was my first time seeing this thread, and what a treat.  Blackpool, the amount of time and skill that went into making these is incredible.  

You mentioned that Jack Sparrow is one of your favorite figures because of the detail...I have a confession to make.  When I saw your first photo I thought to myself, "wow!  That really looks like him", When I saw your second photo I thought you'd included a still from the movie to show how close they'd come to the real thing.  I had to go back and look twice to see that it was a model.  Absolutely incredible.  And I agree with the others who have complimented your use (and creativity) of light.  The figures and dioramas are great, but the light is what sets them in a league of their own.  Awesome.

Beautiful job with those subtle clouds and the light. Winter shots are a totally other atmosphere , especially love the blues in it.

Parcel lost? Like, in Hong Kong, in transition, locked down China?

BAMComix wrote:Fantastic pictures Blackpool!

Thanks a lot my friend! Been on a cow-boys spree recently lol

GubernatorFan wrote:Beautifully shot, as usual, Alex. There should be other options for Calvin -- whether intended as that character or not. Look on Monkey Depot, among other places.

I'll have a look thank you bro. Order was also including the quite rare redman toys "blondie" set (and you saw me coming lol, that calvin candie was both for this character and for some "once upon a time" sequences when he plays a western actor)

Stryker2011 wrote:Nice pics. The breath steam is a great touch.

Thanks a lot Mark, I wanted to get that winter ambiance that I did enjoy in the first part of the movie

Arcata wrote:Today was my first time seeing this thread, and what a treat.  Blackpool, the amount of time and skill that went into making these is incredible.  

You mentioned that Jack Sparrow is one of your favorite figures because of the detail...I have a confession to make.  When I saw your first photo I thought to myself, "wow!  That really looks like him", When I saw your second photo I thought you'd included a still from the movie to show how close they'd come to the real thing.  I had to go back and look twice to see that it was a model.  Absolutely incredible.  And I agree with the others who have complimented your use (and creativity) of light.  The figures and dioramas are great, but the light is what sets them in a league of their own.  Awesome.

Thank you very much for the kind words! That Jack Sparrow figure is surely one of my favorite, and one of the most sophisticated figures I own, the variety of materials and the level of details is insane, the likeness to the actor is spectacular, and at that time Hot toys wasn't greedy about alternative heads and accessories, moveable eyes and so on... He's a real pleasure to pose and shoot honestly.

Here is a recent shot I did with him

Ovy wrote:Beautiful job with those subtle clouds and the light. Winter shots are a totally other atmosphere , especially love the blues in it.

Parcel lost? Like, in Hong Kong, in transition, locked down China?

Thank you Ovy! I gotta confess for the light, shooting with movie or videogames backgrounds helps a lot, not because it naturally lights the figure correctly, it doesn't lol, but it greatly helps to match the light locations and angles, the colors... Way easier than pulling it out of nowhere.

Parcel actually lost in a private carrier warehouse somewhere in the netherlands beginning of february... For unknown reasons my order from last december got shipped thru hongkong post as usual, but then got handled to private carrier DPD netherlands (the target was France lol). KGHobby only filed a claim to HK post, tho I invited them to contact DPD after DPD told me only the shipper could bring up a claim. It all escalated in paypal dispute as they were  not offering any help besides sitting and waiting until after the paypal protection which I didn't accept, and paypal recently refunded me the whole order. I guess I'll stick with giantoy and toyswonderland for a while to give them time to get back to normal service.

And some more "Once upon a time in Hollywood", sorry for spamming about this movie lmao, I just love it (tho I do understand thata lot of people don't)

I love all your figure photography , but that Jack Sparrow ....I had to double take , I thought they were reference pics , they are outstanding !

Those latest Jack Sparrow photos are incredible!  

skywalkersaga wrote:Those latest Jack Sparrow photos are incredible!  

Agreed. Those pics are awesome.

That's a nice load of new pictures! Great photography! You really captured the cinematic style of the movies in your photos.