Collections Archives - Page 21 of 91

NECA Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Using Photoshop Levels to Enhance Dramatic Lighting

As much as I love what Playmates is doing with their Nickolodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lines (stay tuned for some quick pics from Talyn coming up tomorrow), I have a special place in my collection for the NECA TMNT figures from a few years back. I had a picture of my TMNT setup from back when I added tap lights to my display cubes, but that picture was from before I had April.

Since then, the shelf and figures had gotten pretty dusty, so I took the opportunity to clean them up and take a new picture. In this article, I’ll also show you what I did in Photoshop with the Levels tool to enhance the lighting effects for this particular shot.

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Art Asylum Star Trek – with Cheap DIY Light Reflector

Art Asylum’s Star Trek figures for the original series are still a stand out in my collection. I love how they customized each figure for the character’s physical attributes – Spock is taller than Kirk, who is taller than Sulu. Today, we’d probably just get one single body reused over and over. The head sculpts are spot on too – Shatner’s is probably the toughest to capture, and I think they did a great job with it.

I’ve wanted to take some shots of these guys for a while now, and this also became an opportunity to test out a quick and cheap light reflector I whipped up a while back. It hadn’t really done anything for my indoor shots, as I often have plenty of light available with my “studio” set up. So I took a little away team to the surface of planet RBY (Ron’s back yard) to see what the reflector could do with natural sunlight.

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Square Enix Play Arts Kai and SOTA Street Fighter Pics

I really do love the Square Enix Play Arts Kai Street Fighter figures. They’ve got great sculpts and paint, and the articulation scheme really gives you some awesome poseability. As I was fiddling with the four that have come out, Chun Li, Akuma, Ryu, and Cammy, I was reminded how much I loved the SOTA Street Fighter figures, and how many of those came out during its all too short toy lifespan. Even though their scales don’t match, I wanted a shot of them together, so I put this together, showing off the newcomers from Square Enix in the foreground, with the SOTA line as the backdrop.

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Street Fighter Cammy – More Easy Photoshop Tips

I’ve been gushing for some time about Square Enix’s Play Arts Kai line (see the latest from Square Enix from San Diego Comic-Con), and after opening up Street Fighter Cammy felt compelled to take a quick and simple picture. Of course, you know what they say about best laid plans – this was not as quick and simple as I’d have liked, but I’m pleased with how this shot turned out after making some easy adjustments, despite not really doing any up front planning for it. In this article, I’ll explain a couple of things that I did to compose this shot in Photoshop.

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Icon Heroes He-Man Power Sword Letter Opener – a Fine Weapon for Masters of the Universe Classics Tytus

At San Diego Comic-Con I picked up one of Icon Heroes’ He-Man Power Sword Letter Openers – just because I have been using my wife’s letter opener and figured a He-Man Power Sword for me would be a much better alternative to the He-Man vs. Skeletor battles we occasionally have when we both have mail to open. On the plane ride back home, I started wondering if a certain oversized figure from the Masters of the Universe Classics line would be able to use it. The answer is yes – it fits perfectly.

Now Tytus has the power! If you want a power sword for Tytus (or a perfectly functional letter opener), you can get the He-Man Power Sword Letter Opener from AFX. It’ll set you back $19.99 plus shipping. Enjoy!