New release Maquette and Statue Thread

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GeorgeC

Electric Tiki doing maquettes of Popeye and Betty Boop

Post by GeorgeC » October 29th, 2004, 3:47 am

Electric Tiki ( www.electrictiki.com ), the company founded and run by animation clean-up artist Tracy Mark Lee, is releasing maquettes based on the Popeye and Betty Boop characters next year!

Right now, there are only preliminary designs of the characters on the Tiki website.

Betty Boop is being released in 2 versions with the same pose: full-color and classic black-and-white flapper.

Popeye has 2 distinctly different statues being released, a classic Fleischer Popeye (black shirt captain's cap Thimble Theater version) and the Famous Studios white US Navy sailor suit Popeye.

I hope Electric Tiki reconsiders and actually drops the Famous Studios Popeye. Most Popeye fans prefer the Fleischer Popeye and I'm sure more than a few would prefer a black-and-white variant of the Fleischer Popeye as opposed the Famous Studios Popeye.

GeorgeC

Christopher Reeve Superman tribute statue unveiled...

Post by GeorgeC » February 7th, 2005, 12:44 am

Courtesy of ToonZone comes this link:
http://www.capedwonder.com/DC-S.htm


It features photography of a commissioned statue of the late Christopher Reeve dressed up as the live-action movie Superman.

It's a remarkable likeness and very lifelike!

Definitely one of the best Superman statues I've seen depicting the best actor to portray Superman in live-action.

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Post by Ben » February 7th, 2005, 7:07 pm

That is unbelievable!

Excellent tribute, and a fascinating site - even though I shoulda been working, I spent a couple of hours looking about!

GeorgeC

New Fleischer Popeye statue "ruff" sculpt unveiled

Post by GeorgeC » February 23rd, 2005, 10:50 pm

I got permission from the proprietor of Electric Tiki, maker of excellent busts and statue sculpts of classic animation characters and TV icons, to post a link to their rough sculpt of the classic Fleischer Studios Popeye design:

http://www.electrictiki.com/classic%20t ... popeye.htm


It's great, don't you think?

Pretty soon, they'll be taking preorders for this statue AND Betty Boop within the next month or two I'd guess.

On top of that, I got confirmation today that Electric Tiki IS planning to do a B & W variant of the Fleischer Popeye design!

Cool news...!

There goes my statue budget for the year! :lol:

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Post by Ben » February 26th, 2005, 5:01 pm

Well that just looks fantastic!

How much, and when?? :)

GeorgeC

Update on Electric Tiki Popeye maquettes -- PREORDERS OPEN!

Post by GeorgeC » April 6th, 2005, 11:33 pm

Electric Tiki ( www.electrictiki.com ) is taking preorders for the Popeye maquettes!

Both are $60 and currently being offered singly or as matched pair (first 25 pre-orders ONLY) for $145.

These are the best looking Popeye statues I've seen -- particularly the Fleischer maquette.

Electric Tiki has a picture now of the painted Fleischer maquette prototype here: http://www.electrictiki.com/classic%20t ... opeye.html ,

and here's a photo of the matched pair set being offered -- http://www.electrictiki.com/classic%20t ... yeset.html

I still prefer the Fleischer Popeye myself...

As of yet, Electric Tiki hasn't decided which statue will get a black-and-white variant, but frankly it makes more sense to me to do the Fleischer Popeye as a black-and-white variant since he appeared in more B & W cartoons than the Famous Studios Popeye...


I'll do an update on Betty Boop when they have the preorders or any additional information available for that statue.

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Post by Ben » April 7th, 2005, 10:02 am

Don't think I'd go for the Famous Popeye, but I do like the attention they've brought to the stand he rests on, with the star and the Paramount stars around the edge - nice!

It's Fleischer Popeye all the way for me, and don't think the colors look bad at all (very much in keeping). I'll likely never get around to picking one of these up though... $60 plus shipping to the UK is gonna be rough, and I had one occasion before where it was opened by customs and not packaged back together again properly, leading to a heafty import fee, plus a huge nightmare in trying to claim back damages/getting a replacement.

For the record, here's the rough Betty as she stands now:
http://www.electrictiki.com/classic%20t ... culpt.html

GeorgeC

Post by GeorgeC » April 7th, 2005, 4:10 pm

Yeah,

I'm still waiting to see how Betty Boop turns out.

All that's been posted at Electric Tiki is the rough sculpt so far.

The color Fleischer Popeye sculpt took me by surprise. I really didn't expect to see the color version so soon and I pre-ordered it as soon as I checked the website yesterday!

I MIGHT get a black-and-white Popeye if they do the Fleischer version in a variant.

No question it's Fleischer Popeye all the way for me.


As for Betty Boop, I'm getting the black-and-white version after I see the painted prototype. Popeye I can get in color, but Betty's a black-and-white character as far as I'm concerned.


Ben, the only thing I can say about your situation is that I empathize. It's not fun trying to import things from across the sea when shipping charges and customs are a B@%#@! In the States, I'm lucky that there are multitudes of very good importers that generally generally don't charge more than $10 above the across-seas price.

However, I am aware of a statue company in France that does produce statues based on classic American animated characters. Its name is Demons & Marveillies (or something like that) and I've gotten MGM character statues (Droopy, Red Hot, the Wolf) from them at comic shops in the US for reasonable prices. I'm pretty certain they have done Popeye statues and ALMOST bought a Popeye statue they made around 6 years ago. The reason why I didn't buy it was they mixed up the Famous Studios' Popeye sailor hat with the Fleischer Popeye outfit! I was also told that that this statue had a tendency to fall over because it was well-balanced. Yeah, it's nitpicky, but I hate it when companies miss details like that.

I've also seen other companies produce Popeye statues, but the D & M and Tiki Popeye statues are the best I've seen out of the whole lot...

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Post by Ben » April 8th, 2005, 9:01 am

Thanks for the tip George - I actually own a few Demons & Marveillies already!

It's actually so cheap and easy to hop on the EuroTunnel and visit France (and a fun day out) that I've gone over specifically to pick up a reserved item or two!

Prices are about the same, though I have to watch myself - seeing such a large selection all "available" to me in one go is such a temptation!

Best buy so far is a pair of bookends featuring Droopy, Red and the Wolf - biggest disappointment was losing out to a FANTASTIC chess board made up completely of Tex Avery characters (the French are Tex-mad out there).

I may still try and hunt one of those down, but space is another issue! :)

GeorgeC

Post by GeorgeC » April 8th, 2005, 2:50 pm

Yeah,

I never could figure the French out...

Now, I KNOW British intelligentsia HATE the US :lol: ,

but the French keep licensing all these obscure, old US animated characters and making toys and statues out of them!

(Obscure in animation is anything that isn't Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse to the general public!)

This is supposedly the country that complains the most about American culture contaminating their fair, wine-soaked, bread-cooking country!

I never understood WHY the French liked Jerry Lewis (the only film he made I give a darn about is the original Nutty Professor), but at least they have good taste in animated characters! :lol:

GeorgeC

Update on Electric Tiki Popeye maquettes...

Post by GeorgeC » April 9th, 2005, 3:46 pm

I got an e-mail from Electric Tiki today.

They are only doing one black-and-white Popeye variant statue..

And yes, it's the FLEISCHER Popeye!


Hoo-zah! :mrgreen:


I'll post news on when it's available to pre-order...

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Post by Ben » April 10th, 2005, 10:19 am

And you couldn't post this here?:
http://animated-news.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=489


Please George, could you update news on threads already started in their respective original threads?

Makes cleaning up a lot easier!

Thanks! :)

GeorgeC

Electric Tiki does a Magoo Maquette

Post by GeorgeC » May 27th, 2005, 2:45 am

Pictures of the new statue are here at http://www.electrictiki.com/classic%20toons/magoo.html


Personally, I'm not buying it as I'm not a big Magoo fan.

I am getting the Fleischer Popeye statue which is available for pre-order now... Tiki still hasn't decided which company is carrying the B & W Fleischer Popeye variant.

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Post by Ben » May 27th, 2005, 6:32 am

Not a big Magoo fan myself, but a nice tribute!

Also, I love the "here is the approved design (subject to change)" wording! :)

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Post by Macaluso » May 27th, 2005, 7:42 pm

I'd like one, even if I'm not a magoo fan.

for graduation on wednesday, I got this AWESOME Mickey Mouse statuette... thing, and it EASILY tops the 520 bucks and new car for a graduation present.

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