Gabriel's Girls and the Photography of Doom

28 minutes ago, cfx said:

Further OT, but have you seen this scratchbuilt Galactica model: Part 1 and Part 2

I love stuff like this.  

I think I have seen some of it years ago.  Way back I used to be really into reading forums dedicated to modelbuilding.  I've always been absolutely fascinated with studio miniature building.

The Refit Enterprise and the Galactica are big ones for me.  It's very interesting to contrast them.  With the Enterprise, you see the builders slowly forming the ship and detailing as they go.  With the Galactica, the shape is there from the very beginning and the entire challenge is adding all the ludicrous amounts of detail/grebles.  Not only that but the challenge used to simply be IDing what model kits were cannibalized for the thousands of detail pieces on the photographic miniature.

 

Tecra looks really cross eyed here like a Dragonball Z character.  I guess she's looked like that all along.  I honestly never see it when looking at her in person.

I had forgotten that I had posed Tecra with her pet Moop.  I had just been doing other stuff, then I turned and saw her there watching me, calmly scratching her pet's ear.  I have to admit I did a double take and briefly wondered how she got that way until I remembered.

 

I like that red bustier from the Checkmate/Elegant set.

I found eyes to show up different in pictures too, but that said I have a terrible time placing them where they look right to me. With Rin Tohsaka, I remember that @foo said there's something about her head sculpt that makes it difficult:

 

20 hours ago, Gabriel said:

I turned and saw her there watching me, calmly scratching her pet's ear

Staring at you: “Mwahahah, I’ve been planning how to steal your card again”

Jus' chillin'.  Listenin' to some tunes.

Hee hee, I just LOVE that last picture!

 

 

Billy

I had one of these as a tiny little kid.  Now I have one again.

If Amber doesn't steal it from me.

What is in that box?  Or is it the box that's the item?  I love ST:TOS.

It's a Diamond Select reproduction of the 70s era Mego Starship Enterprise Action Playset.  For the image above, it's in carrying case mode.  It opens up into a facsimile Enterprise bridge with a "transporter" on the left.  It also has several pieces of plastic furniture: a nav console, two stools, and the captain's chair.  It's scaled for the 8" Mego figures.  As you can tell from the graphic on the outside, it was the 70s and accuracy to the source material wasn't a big thing.  Despite that, the playset works surprisingly well, particularly if you're 5 or 6.

I had intended to take some more pictures this weekend.  Not sure how that's going to work out.

I wasn't sure what it was either, but now that you describe that, I remember seeing it in the Sears Christmas catalog. I used to have some of those Meco figures. I know I had Kirk and Spock, and Bones and maybe I had Scotty. I remember how Spock really looked like him, while Scotty wasn't a very good replica. Because I'm old, I was in junior high or high school when these were out, so I got the figures but the playset was not for me at that age.

Looking at that Enterprise art on it, I think it's a pretty good representation other than the weird extra large protrusion of the lower saucer and also how the deflector sticks out so far. Pretty cool art though. I don't still have much stuff I had long ago, though I believe I still have the Star Trek Technical Manual, and I might still have the Enterprise blueprints somewhere. I'm not sure what happened to the figures; my parents sold or otherwise disposed of a lot of stuff when I went to college, since I wasn't around to complain, so that may be where they went. Too long ago to remember.

 

Wow that looks in really good condition; is it from that long ago or has there been newer releases? I haven't seen one of those figures in years, but I still think that's a really good likeness to Spock, and for something that came out in the mid 1970s it's pretty amazing, compared to typical such toys of the time and even now really.

I didn't know there were three variants: http://www.megomuseum.com/startrek/misterspock.html

I'm sure I had the lighter skin. I believe I got at least Kirk and Spock early and think I might have had the "lipstick" versions, but it's impossible to remember now. I remember practicing photography taking pictures of them; I might still have 35mm slides; I'll have to look.

I had completely forgotten they had the Gorn and other aliens.

23 minutes ago, cfx said:

Wow that looks in really good condition; is it from that long ago or has there been newer releases? I haven't seen one of those figures in years, but I still think that's a really good likeness to Spock, and for something that came out in the mid 1970s it's pretty amazing, compared to typical such toys of the time and even now really.

I didn't know there were three variants: http://www.megomuseum.com/startrek/misterspock.html

I'm sure I had the lighter skin. I believe I got at least Kirk and Spock early and think I might have had the "lipstick" versions, but it's impossible to remember now. I remember practicing photography taking pictures of them; I might still have 35mm slides; I'll have to look.

I had completely forgotten they had the Gorn and other aliens.

As mentioned earlier, the playset is a Diamond Select remake.  About 10 years ago Diamond Select started doing re-releases of a lot of Mego Trek stuff, as well as doing a few figures which had never been released before, such as Sulu, Chekov, and Khan.

I must have been going through some kind of collector snob phase at the time, because I didn't pick up any of the stuff back then.  I kept seeing figures in one store I'd go to.  They even had multiples of the Enterprise, but I kept on turning my nose up at it.

More recently the Mego Corporation has been reborn.  That's where my Spock and Gorn come from. They're current releases.  If you're interested, you can find them on Amazon or the Target website.  You may even get lucky enough to find them in a Target store in the entertainment section.

The Gorn has become a quick favorite.  He's just really cool.  Like a DD, pictures don't do him justice.  He's just fun to play with.  I can only hope the new Mego will license Land of the Lost so I can get a Sleestak for him to hang with.

22 minutes ago, Gabriel said:

As mentioned earlier, the playset is a Diamond Select remake.

Oops. Obviously I read that, but I was more enamored of your description of the set and that part escaped my brain lol.

I suspected your Spock might be new because I figured the outfit on an old one would have deteriorated by now. It's nice that the new ones look like the earlier Mego pictures in that link I posted rather than the later ones.

I remember seeing a Khan in some toy show coverage a few years ago, but I don't know if it was this one or something else. Like the rest of these, the Gorn's head sculpt looks quite good.

Love the silent story.  And thanks for the info and more photos of the playset.  Very nice.

I've been picking up some new game stuff.

I would have taken some more, but my heart wasn't in taking photos and it wasn't like anything was turning out good anyway.  But at least Misty (my Rem) has a couple of images now.

53 minutes ago, Gabriel said:

I would have taken some more, but my heart wasn't in taking photos and it wasn't like anything was turning out good anyway.  But at least Misty (my Rem) has a couple of images now.

One secret to good photography is work your subject. I find this a bit hard with dolls because they take a lot of effort to pose and they are more like a still life that requires a lot of adjustment before the image is what you want. Balance can be an issue that makes you want to get that shutter pressed before she face plants off the table:

On 8/19/2017 at 7:16 PM, K-2 said:

 

From what I have read, even the pros take a lot of mediocre photos and then have to brutally go through the camera roll and discard the rejects. Trying a lot of things with a subject is a big part of what gets a good image.

1 hour ago, BeyondTime said:

From what I have read, even the pros take a lot of mediocre photos and then have to brutally go through the camera roll and discard the rejects. Trying a lot of things with a subject is a big part of what gets a good image.

THIS.  All day long.  Digital film is CHEAP.  Take as many photos as you can at all sorts of angles and differing distances from the subject.  Snap away!  Yes, it might take longer but when you go back thru all those pics you are almost certain to find a few that are real jems.  I am in no way a pro when it comes to taking pics of my girls but after 9 years of it, I do think I'm getting the hang of it.  😉  And I take TONS of photos.  Literally.  For most of my posts that I share 30-40 pics, I took over 200 and tossed all the ones you don't see.  I do no processing tho so that limits me to taking the time to set the camera up and the girls so I get the right lighting or angle for what I'm after.  What you see me post is what the camera saw at that time.

So in closing, take a ton of pics and then choose the good ones.  Then try to remember how you got those and repeat it the next time.  Yo'll get the hang of things soon and then get better in the process.

 

 

Billy

One of the reason that I use a static background, and focus more on classic portraiture, is that I have really low light in that part of my apartment. My camera is always on a tripod, and the flash is on an umbrella stand. My vision is also kind of crap which makes focus on doll faces hard. In low light autofocus is a bit meh, so I usually can't see that the focus is right until the image is on the computer.

The upside to my setup is that I can use tethering, so once the shutter is pressed the image is right on the computer with a few seconds, you can also trip the shutter from the computer. I find seeing the details of the image full size helps a lot with dolls, and I can immediately crop to see if the doll composition is what I want.

Tethering is a function in Lightroom, but if you don't like Adobe you can usually buy software from your camera that supports it, and it's often more full featured with your camera than the Lightroom version. Having a laptop is a plus, but if you have a desktop you just need a longer USB cable.

On 11/1/2018 at 9:14 PM, Gabriel said:

Introducing Marion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marion is a KOS-MOS head on a DD f3 body. She's named Marion for a few reasons:

 

1) I think the KOS-MOS head works better as something other than KOS-MOS.

 

2) I was going to give her the brown wig you see, so I thought of how she is the vessel for Mary in the game. Therefore Marion is a nod to that.

 

3) I've always felt KOS-MOS was heavily inspired by the battle androids or "marionettes" in the old 80s OAV called Black Magic M-66. Marion is a nod to that too.

 

And, if you've played the first Xenosaga game on the PS2, these pics are my attempt to homage that.

I know, old post, but can't resist to appreciate the exact way you presented Marion. Just like in the game. I love it! Nice! I have always thought she's the most beautiful doll Volks has until now. 

About your second point, I think the brown color fits perfect with her, but maybe you could try wigs with longer fringes. Personal tastes of course, but I think this kind of wigs are the most suitable for her. Tell me what you think.   

Edited February 9, 2020 by Pit

23 hours ago, Pit said:

I know, old post, but can't resist to appreciate the exact way you presented Marion. Just like in the game. I love it! Nice! I have always thought she's the most beautiful doll Volks has until now. 

About your second point, I think the brown color fits perfect with her, but maybe you could try wigs with longer fringes. Personal tastes of course, but I think this kind of wigs are the most suitable for her. Tell me what you think.   

Thank you for the compliment.

After making a big deal about that wig, I almost immediately changed it.  Marion switched for a while to SD16 Daria's wig for a while, and she looked pretty cute in that, very not-battle-death-android and more like a sort of a shy and bookish sort.  Then she switched to the wig from the Dragon 2020 Azerin wig (there are some pics of her in that wig in a maid outfit in this thread somewhere).  She's stuck with that for a while, but she'll probably go back to being a brunette eventually.  She's not as frequent of a hairstyle changer as Amber, but she's caught a milder form of the same bug.