Sightings > Making the Mosquitor Mask

As you may recall, Pixel Dan wore an awesome Mosquitor mask for this past San Diego Comic Con. He’s got an interview up on his site with Glen Coleman, the fellow who made it. Mr. Coleman is also working on a pretty badass-looking Skeletor mask.

The interview includes downloadable patterns to create your own Mosquitor mask.

Sightings > Troops of Doom webcomic

Collector Kraig Furtado sent in a note about his webcomic/figuretoon Troops of Doom. In the comic, “G.I. Joe battles Star Wars for Lego technology. Check it out for a laugh. Started back in February 2008 with over 400 episodes. Updated as often as possible Monday to Friday.”

Sightings > Santa Claus Pirate Ship

“Ho ho ho and a bottle of peppermint schnapps!”

There are few things I love more than Santa Claus toys (especially ones that aren’t based on any specific property). So I’m pretty excited about this Minimates Santa Claus Pirate Ship from Diamond Select Toys. Due in November, it’s available for pre-order at BBTS for a mere $12.99. Here’s what DST has to say about it:

Christmas is coming, but it’s not coming in a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer. No, this year Santa Claus is on a boat! DST’s 2-inch Minimates mini-figure of ol’ Saint Nick comes with his festively painted pirate ship, which is packed with opening hatches, extending planks and removable sails (not shown). It’s the perfect stocking stuffer for the Minimates fan in your life, or for anyone who likes boats and Christmas.

Sightings > The Hero Project

In theory, I could probably write a Sightings post about a Kickstarter campaign for a toy every day of the year. That said, if one goes out of their way to contact me and has a product that looks pretty good, I’ll pass the word along.

The Hero Project is an attempt to create a toy line that captures the essence of heroes. The project’s founders believe “action figures play an important role in children’s social development. They are pathways for kids to act out their fantasies, to work out for themselves the differences between right and wrong and to push at the boundaries of their blossoming imaginations.”

The line will start with Rama. As you may recall, there have been Rama figures in the past (as well as his monkey buddy Hanuman), but the idea is for the “Unibody” format to be used for multiple heroes throughout history:

The goal for the line is $125,000 – very high for one of these projects, but as they explain on the page, “steel molds used to reproduce a figure are expensive and that expense grows exponentially with scale, complexity and quality. A small and simple Pokemon item may cost $5000 to make a mold, $15,000 for Batman or Ninja Turtles figure, and upwards of $30K for most larger scale figures. Ordering a sizable batch of large, multi-part figures is costly and like most people we know, neither of us has an extra large bundle of C-notes sitting around to front the capital.”

As of right now they have only $21K with nine days to go. $21K isn’t bad at all, but it’s not anywhere near what they need. Still, I wanted to help spread the word – you never know what could get the snowball rolling down the hill.

Sightings > R.C. Short Circuit #5 Robot

Though never produced, Matchbox showed off a remote control Johnny Five from the film Short Circuit in their 1988 catalog.

The fact that there have never been any Short Circuit action figures makes me sad (aside from some unlicensed, high-cost pieces a few years back). If NECA can give us a Claptrap from Borderlands, why not a Johnny Five? NECA seems like the perfect company to do it – they’ve already shown a penchant for producing toys based on 1980s sci-fi properties (Gremlins, E.T., Predator, Aliens), and they’re willing to produce lines that only have a handful of figures in them (Evil Dead II, half of the Player Select licenses, etc.).

Pic via ParryGamePreserve.

Sightings > S.H.MonsterArts Burning Godzilla

S.H.MonsterArts Burning Godzilla
Due 11/12 for 7,140 yen (U.S. price to be determined)

This figure, based on the Big G’s appearance in Godzilla vs. Destroyah, features an entirely a mostly brand-new sculpt and translucent orange parts (corrected because a few small parts like the claws may be re-used).