Author: Ron

More Fun with Laser Pointers and Action Figure Pics

I had so much fun taking pictures of the figures in my laser pointer how-to post that I spent the next day looking for more guys to shoot. I’ll spend a little less time on the how-to’s here, as it’s pretty simple to get really nice shots using a laser pointer as a primary light source.

The shot above is the Marvel Legends Icons Ultimate Ghost Rider. It’s always been relatively easy to light up the translucent flames on his head – here, I used my cell phone and tablet with a flashlight app for some backlighting highlighting his head. What I used the laser pointer for is to get some additional light on Ghost Rider and his bike to simulate light coming off the flames. I aimed the laser at my cheap DIY reflector and beamed it back onto him. Would have liked to get a little more spread (his arm didn’t get any of it) but I still like the effect.

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Hot Toys Reveals Wolverine from X-Men: The Last Stand

As much as my wallet hates me, I’ve become a huge fan of Hot Toys – but I am trying to figure out what’s off about their X-Men: The Last Stand Wolverine’s head sculpt. I have no doubt that based on the feedback they’ll get from these reveals that they’ll go back and rework it.

Wolvie will come with a severed Sentinel head for a base, and it will have light up eyes, just like from the Danger Room sequence at the start of the movie. Come to think of it,  it’s about time to watch X3 again.

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Pop Culture Shock Reveals Street Fighter Sagat and ThunderCats Tygra Statues

Pop Culture Shock’s Jerry Macaluso sure has a way of making me want to plunk down a whole wad of cash on these statues from Street Fighter and ThunderCats. But as these are wayyyy out of my price range, all I can do is feel nostalgic about the heyday of SOTA’s Street Fighter action figure line and feel a bit letdown that Bandai’s ThunderCats line didn’t really deliver on the classics front, despite releasing Tygra (it missed the mark for me.)

Both of these statues are in 1/4 scale, and will be available through Sideshow Toys and specialty retailers.

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How to Use Laser Pointers for Dynamic Action Figure Lighting

There’s so much to love about MatthewK’s photo reviews. I spent some time talking with him about his setup and process, and one thing we discussed was how he creates lighting effects for things like laser beams or jet pack flames, like you can see in the “Space Ace” portion of MattK’s Masters of the Universe Classics Vykron review. The secret, he told me, is tiny LED lights – that and a whole lot of patience. Basically, he sets up in darkness, opens the shutter on his camera, triggers his flash for the basic lighting, and then draws the lighting effect he wants. The patience is key, because it takes a lot of tries to get it just right.

Since I am a pretty impatient guy, I thought I’d try something simpler. I found some action figures and accessories that I could try lighting with a couple of simple laser pointers that my wife picked up for me. So, while you won’t be getting laser beams in this article, you might still find some pretty cool looking action figure pictures – I’ll explain how I set up each shot so you can try it for yourself.

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