About me
To tell a little bit about myself I guess I would have to start with childhood. I was born in Dearborn Michigan and raised for six years in Argentina. One of my memories from there was when my parents would drop us off at the movie theater to watch Star Wars. I must have seen it 5 times, and I fell in love with the whole thing. Shortly after that, I remember walking down the promenade in Rosario when I first spotted a Star Wars Action Figure. It was Obi-Wan Kenobie, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Darth Vader. Of course in those days there was no way to ever ask for them. Then when we finally moved to California years later my parents went out to dinner and when they came home they had stopped by a store and bought all of us kids Star Wars figures (which eventually all became mine after trading and dealing with my siblings). From there on, every Christmas, birthday, or special occasion I would get a new Star Wars toy. I collected many other kinds of toys from He-man, to Thunder Cats, G.I. Joes, Transformers, X-men, Sky Commanders, and yes, Go-Bots, but none would ever take the place of Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi memorabilia. At one time I was 10 figures shy of having the entire collection of all three movies and when I learned to drive I made it a hobby to go on treasure hunts for rare collectibles from many collector shops and comic conventions throughout California. I even did a road trip to San Francisco when they turned the Art Museum into a Star Wars Universe Museum and took many pictures of all the models, sculpting, costumes, vehicles, and displays of storyboards, and weapons. From there is when I got the idea of making toys look as close to movie quality as possible and had the dream of one day working for a company like Kenner (now Hasbro) and designing Star Wars Toys for a living. Growing up I got into collecting comics as well because Star Wars had a run by Marvel which the first issue was a huge comic book. The first toy I modified was when the new line of X-Men figures came out they had “Weapon X” Wolverine and while shopping around a local Thrift store I saw a glass case that had a fake flower inside and thought of that figure and how cool would it look inside there like in the comic books. I did it up and put fake blood all over it and took it to a comic convention and sold it for $25. I modified many toys after that and recently started taking pictures of them all and am always looking to take it to the next level.
About my work, I would say that it starts with making something that I would want to buy or have in my collection. I always was a fan of miniatures and the details that is added to such a small figures or vehicles. Never really played much of those dice games but enjoyed looking through the books and magazines that featured them and other modeling magazines. I used to go to the local library and look through model magazines and there was an issue that featured a guy who did this diorama of the inside of the Rebel Base from Empire Strikes Back and had a nice detailed ship with a Rebel Hoth Solider in a hangar that looked all worn down and garage like with lights and all. That picture inspired me to do a big Hoth Scene using a mixture of mediums such as the Ertel Model kits for the AT-AT Walkers, The Hoth Die Cast collection, and some of the micro machines ships-just to keep everything to scale. I have a couple of pictures of that from a 35mm camera. I drew it out and used my Star Wars Books and pictures I took on my trip to Star Wars Museum in SF and did a lot of kit bashing. I ended up putting it up at a Comic Book Store for a window display for the re-release of the Star Wars Special Edition back in 1994. From there, my imagination took off and I started playing around with Super Sculpty and was challenged to do a Chewbaca head which I thought turned out pretty cool. So after doing a few projects with that I decided to take a class at Gnomon School of Visual Effects in Hollywood, CA. John Brown was the instructor, and he taught me the fundamentals of sculpting, how to build armatures out of wire, how to use some tools, and how to turn read a drawing into a sculpture piece. It was a great class. When modifying a toy, I try and do it to where it is still playable, so if it has moving parts they can still move around freely. I guess the bottom line is to have that passion to do what it takes to make it look right no matter how long it takes. That is because I only have a limited time to work on these projects so I make use of my weekends and just while watching a movie after work, but if I had a job doing just this, I can do it all day long…
