Odd coincidence department #2

Spam -- unwanted, unsolicited -- is one of the biggest annoyances of life with email... but occasionally the waves of crap toss up an mildly amusing bit of flotsam.

Such a thing arrived in my email inbox a few days ago -- an offer for the drug Propecia -- sent to me by none other than...

... the Fugitoid!

Well... not really... but it did come from a "Dr. Huneycut"...

"From: DR. Huneycutt
Date: Sat, Mar 10, 2012 10:35 am
greetings my darling
get freee propecia pr0ffessional suuper
Greyson Huneycutt"


... and that's not TOO far off from "Professor Honeycutt", the name of the scientist whose mind was trapped in a robot body and became the Fugitoid.

Like I said -- mildly amusing. -- PL

Lots of little Turtle heads

A couple of days ago I found myself in my office at Mirage, with about half an hour before a conference call, and decided to sign the rest of one carton of Fugitoid collector figures. Actually, I don't sign the figures -- just the boxes. Dan Berger usually asks me to do this a few at a time, as we get orders, so I thought it might be good to get ahead of the curve a little bit.

When I sign the boxes, I do a quick little Turtle head sketch on each one, and as I put them back into the carton after signing them all, I thought it looked kind of cute -- all those little white boxes with little Turtle heads on them.

So I took a photo. -- PL

Blast from the Past #276: "Fugitoid" pencil layouts

I stumbled over these when I was looking in my files for some art to hang on the walls in our house. They are my rough pencil layouts for several chapters of the original "Fugitoid" comic book. I was a little surprised to see these, as I had forgotten that I had done layouts for that project. The group of layouts that I found does not represent the entire book, so it's possible that Kevin did some or all of the first and/or second chapters... but it's also possible that I did all the layouts. At this point in time, I can't recall.

Back when I did these, Kevin and I were still planning to release "Fugitoid" in individual five-page chapters. The idea was to print these on one sheet of 17 by 22 inch paper, so that when folded you would have four pages at 8.5 by 11 inches, then the last one would be a huge "poster size" page visible when you unfolded the sheet (we got this format idea from some "poster magazines" which were popular at the time).

Of course, we never published it in that form. A couple of years later, when we decided to blend the story of the 'Toid into the TMNT universe, we added a few more pages to the tale and published it as a regular (though somewhat oddly-sized) comic book which led into issue five of the TMNT comic.

I didn't find any layout pages for Chapter 1, and only this one page which I think is from Chapter 2, when Honeycutt first realizes what has happened to him...



Here are some page layouts from Chapter 3...

Page 2



Page 3



Page 4



Here are the first two pages from Chapter 4...

Page 1




Page 2



Here are all five pages to Chapter 5...

Page 1



Page 2



Page 3



Page 4




Page 5



And finally, the five pages of Chapter 6...

Page 1



Page 2



Page 3



Page 4



Page 5



You may have noticed that some of these pages were drawn on paper with alternating white and green bands. This is another good example of "using what is at hand". This paper was stuff left over from my word processing experiments at the Dover, NH Public Library -- the library had installed a computer with a dot-matrix printer and it was freely accessible to anyone who patronised the library. It was the first time I'd ever used a computer, and I loved it. The printer printed on the classic green and white "computer paper", and I saved any blank pages it might print and used them for various purposes... including, in this case, drawing pencil layouts for a comic book story! -- PL

"Fugitree relics" for sale!

What you see in the box in this photo are some of the fifty Fugitoids I used to decorate our Christmas "Fugitree" in 2009. I made a special label for the boxes and signed each one.



These "relics" will go on sale shortly, and I believe they will be sold for $25 each. -- PL

P.S. Here's a link to the ordering information at miragelicensing.com:

http://www.miragelicensing.com/paypal/fugitoid.html

The Fugitree is no more

Yesterday I spent some time doing post-Christmas clean-up, mostly taking down some of the lights I'd put up for the holiday. A number of those lights were on the mighty Fugitree. I decided it was time for the ritual dismembering of the Christmas tree, and -- after carefully removing the fifty Fugitoids and the scattering of silver balls -- I got out my long-handled loppers and proceeded to cut every branch off the tree.

I've done this for the last eight or so years, as I discovered that it makes getting the tree out of the house quite a bit easier, and less messy (not so many needles falling off as I when I used to struggle to manhandle a full, albeit now dried out tree, through the doorway). It's also kind of fun.

For the last five or six years, I've been saving these denuded trunks in the garage, with the idea that at some point I might transform them into walking sticks. I haven't done it yet, but I still hope to. Here's a photo of the remains of the Fugitree with the other trunks in the garage (the Fugitree's trunk is the tallest one).




I want to thank my daughter Emily again for suggesting the idea for the Fugitree -- it turned out to be one of the best-looking Christmas trees we've ever had. -- PL

P.S. I think I am going to offer those fifty Fugitoids for sale, though I have not yet decided on a price.

The Fugitree is up!

Yesterday my daughter Emily came home for Christmas, happily avoiding the many snowstorm-related flight delays that plagued many people over the last few days. That afternoon, we were able to continue our tradition of going out to buy a Christmas tree together.

Last night we, along with Em's friend Zach, worked to transform this naked tree...



... into the mighty "Fugitree"! As the idea of decorating the tree with vacuum-metalized Fugitoid figures was originally Em's idea, it seemed only appropriate that she should be involved in helping to hang the fifty shiny 'droids on the tree. Here she is -- slightly blurry -- hanging 'Toids on the tree.



We had a disagreement about what kinds of lights to put on the tree -- I wanted our usual mix of white and colored lights, while Em pressed for just white lights. In the end, we went with her idea, and I must say I now agree with her. She also bought a small selection of shiny silver globe-style ornaments to compliment the Fugitoids, and I think they work well. Here's a view of the whole finished tree...



... and a close-up...



... and Em, Zach and Louis posing with the Fugitree.



And finally, here's a shot of the tree as it looked in the light of day when I got up this morning.



I think it looks a little better at night, but still pretty darned cool either way. -- PL

Preparing for the Fugitree

A couple of days ago I decided it was time to start preparing for the creation of the "Fugitree" (as one of this blog's Commenters wittily named it). So I hauled in the huge box of "Fugitoid Collector Figures" from Playmates that I've had sitting out in the garage, and started the process.

It's drudge work, involving opening each small white cardboard box, carefully slicing open the little plastic bag, removing the Fugitoid, and affixing a loop of ornament-hanging wire around his neck. I'm not sure how may of these I'm going to do -- the big box holds one hundred Fugitoids, but I think the tree will look great with just half that number, maybe less. We'll see.

(I'm saving all of the packaging materials so that when Christmas is over and it's time to take the tree down, I can put each Fugitoid back into its little box.)

I've already done about twenty of the figures, and here's a photo of them in a large bowl I've borrowed from my wife.



Emily's little dog Louis, sitting on the couch, displays his total lack of interest. After all, Fugitoid Collector Figures, while chewable, are not edible. -- PL

Blast from the Past #258: Another advent calendar Christmas card

I posted once before (http://plairdblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/merry-christmas-eve-day.html) about a personal Christmas card I made which incorporated an Advent calendar. I found another one -- it's undated, but judging from the style of drawing (especially the "old-school" Turtles), I would guess it was from December of 1984.

I drew the top part on coquille board. This card was pretty big -- each half was 8.1 by 11 inches, so when taped together in the middle, they made a folding card which was 22 inches wide and 8.5 inches high when opened. Here's what the card looked like when unfolded:



And here are the little surprises which would be found as each "door" in the card was opened:



I think this may have been the second and last of these cards that I did -- they just got to be too labor-intensive and time-consuming. But that being said, they were also a lot of fun. -- PL

Nothing like a big box of shiny robots to brighten up a fellow's day

Last week, I came into Mirage after a bicycle ride and found a large carton from Playmates in front of my office door.



Wonder of wonders, it was a box containing one hundred of the vacuum-metalized Fugitoid collector figures! Goongala! It even had some messages written on it by Gary and Mike.

It feels good to finally have in my possession a substantial number of these gleaming beauties. Kudos, once more, to Playmates for making a dream come true.

I mentioned the arrival of this bounty to my daughter the other night and she suggested that we decorate our Christmas tree this year with Fugitoids only. I said I thought it might be a hard sell, trying to convince my wife of the virtues of a Christmas tree laden with SAL-1000 'droids. But there will definitely be one or two of these shiny boys hanging on the old Yule tree this year. That vacuum-metalized coating will surely reflect the Christmas tree lights in interesting ways.

Mirage will be offering some of these figures for sale, but not for a while -- probably not until next year. But until then, you should be able to find them in some stores. Playmates tells us that they currently have Entertainment Earth (online retailer), Diamond Comics (distributor which services many different smaller retail shops), and Big Bad Toy Store (online retailer) signed on to carry these figures. -- PL

Fugitoid news

While there may be one or two of the limited edition vacuum-metalized Fugitoid figures on display at the San Diego Comicon this week, sadly, it appears that there will be none available for sale there. Fans who want one of these shiny robots will have to wait a little bit longer.

However, progress is being made, and here are a few photos to prove it.





What you see here is one of several samples that we received from Playmates a few days ago -- not many, but enough so that Mike Dooney, Dan Berger, Eric Talbot, Jim Lawson, and my brother Bruce each now possess one of these beauties.

I'm happy that Playmates revised their packaging plan, which was originally to just package each 'Toid in a plastic bag. Instead, they have wisely opted for that bag PLUS a molded two-piece plastic "cradle" that offers much better protection for the figure. Thanks, dudes! -- PL

Fugitoid just misses the last shuttle to Free Comic Book Day

(Do they really have Free Comic Book Day on D'Hoonib? Hmm...)

Anyway, we're only a few hours away from heading up to New Hampshire for the FCBD event in Rochester. It's on Saturday at the Knights of Columbus Hall at 40 Columbus Ave, Rochester, NH. The doors open to the public at 10AM. Hope to see you there! -- PL

Fugitoid, still on the run...

I've been having more fun taking photos of the vacuum-metalized Fugitoid figure in different locations. Yesterday, while bicycling with Rick and Rob, I stopped along the way, at a spot on the banks of the Connecticut River, to take this photo...



And today, I thought it would be fun to pose the 'Toid next to my favorite local roadside waterfall. Unfortunately, my shiny little friend slipped out of my grasp as I was positioning him on a mossy rock, and fell.

In falling, his left arm popped out of its socket (this has happened a couple of times before, and I have Super Glued it back in), and he fell into the rushing water in two pieces. I managed to grab his body before it was swept down the stream, but his arm vanished under the water. I was starting to freak out as I imagined the arm getting lost somewhere downstream.



Fortunately, the arm got trapped under a tiny waterfall, and -- because it's so shiny -- I was able to see it and retrieve it without too much trouble. Except for soaking my sleeve and watch, that is. -- PL

Fugitoid on the run in the forests of D'Hoonib...

... or maybe just in a puddle on a rock near my house.



I know I already posted photos of the vac-metalized Fugitoid prototype, but I've been waiting to take him outside so I could get some shots with some cool environmental reflections -- you know, that classic sky/earth thing you see in chrome. The weather lately has not been great -- many clouds, very little sun. It lightened up a bit yesterday, and I decided to try to get a photo or two of the 'Toid in some natural surroundings. This was the best one.

Sharp-eyed fans may have already noticed that the pose of this non-articulated figure is largely based on an image of the Fugitoid from one specific page in one of his comic book appearances. Can you guess which one? -- PL

All things come to he who waits (maybe)... [updated with feet 04-03-09]

Gary surprised me today with this prototype for a possible...

...wait for it...

... VACUUM-METALIZED FUGITOID!



Actually, it wasn't a TOTAL surprise, as we have been working with Playmates on the possibility of doing this for a special promotion -- yet to be worked out -- and I had seen some photos of it a few days earlier. But I wasn't expecting to see it "in the flesh" today... and it's about ten times cooler than seeing it in photos.



IF this gets made and offered for sale, it will be non-articulated. That's a little bit disappointing, but I'm so happy with the way this thing looks that I don't care. He's so... so... so SHINY! You can even see me reflected in his head as I take the photo.



And here's a photo illustrating a nice detail -- the bottom of the Fugitoid's feet! They even got that right. Cool!



I have to thank our friends at Playmates for going this far with this project. If you are familiar with the Fugitoid figure that came out a few years ago as part of the 2K3 TMNT toy line, you'll notice that this figure is based on that one... but with some newly sculpted subtle details that, to my eye, make a big difference. -- PL

BLast from the Past #169: Fugitoid pinup

I can't recall if this drawing I did back in 1985 of the Fugitoid running through a robot junkyard was ever printed anywhere. It's possible we used it as a pinup in one of the comics.



I do remember having fun incorporating junked versions of various famous robots into this drawing. -- PL

Blast from the Past #48 repost: Fugitoid action figure concepts

Back in 1988 or 1989, I did these drawings of the Fugitoid in the hopes that Playmates would do an action figure version of him... which they eventually did, and it was nice, but not quite what I was hoping for. Note below the somewhat desperate hyping ("think of the play value!"), and the comment about vacuum metalizing. (This is the process by which plastic is given a metallic-looking coating... I'm not entirely sure if there is any real metal involved in this process, but the end result is a very cool shiny chrome effect.)



My pathetic pleading for vacuum metalizing of various TMNT figures (especially the Shredder) was kind of a running joke between me and my friend Karl Aaronian, when he was product manager of the original TMNT toyline at Playmates. When Playmates first did the TMNT toys, they had no idea how they would sell and were understandably cautious with expensive processes like vacuum metalizing... but I still bugged them to do the Shredder's armor in this shiny metallic technique, as opposed to the somewhat drab painted armor on the first Shredder figures. Eventually, they did, and it looked cool.

Anyway, my idea here was to enhance the "play value" (toymakers' jargon!) of a Fugitoid action figure by giving it a variety of removable/replaceable multi-function limbs. Cool, huh?



Fast-forwarding more than a decade later, Playmates did another Fugitoid figure to go along with the new Turtle toys based on the 4Kids TV show. This one was much closer in design to the original comic book character. (Note: The text in the image above was written in 2003 in reference to this new Fugitoid figure Playmates was developing, but the artwork was from the late 1980's.) Sadly, it was still not vacuum metalized. I guess you can't have everything. -- PL

Blast from the Past #34 repost: "Who is this? Fugitoid" iron-on

This is another piece of art from 1983 (pre-TMNT) done to be used to make iron-on t-shirt transfers -- this one was penciled by Kevin and inked and colored by me.



We did a few of these at the local Portsmouth, NH copy center, the only place in the area with a color laser copier (actually, now that I think of it, those devices were nearly as rare as hen's teeth back in 1983). These iron-ons were created to promote the "Fugitoid" comic story we had done, which at that time we actually planned to publish in the form of "poster comics" -- four 8.5 by 11 inch pages which then unfolded into a huge 17 by 22 inch fifth "poster" page. (This is why, if you have the original "Fugitoid" comic book, you may have noticed that nearly every fifth page is a full page spread.)

The original art was done in reverse, so the iron-on appeared in the right orientation when applied to a shirt. For this "Blast", I flipped the art so it would read easier. Now that I think of it, this may be the first color image of the Fugitoid that we ever did. -- PL

Blast from the Past #29 repost: "Who is the Uknown Ninja?"

A fun little drawing done by Kevin and me in 1984, this features our robot character the Fugitoid dressed up as a ninja. Kevin pencilled this one, and I inked it. I don't think it was ever used for anything -- just another drawing done for the heck of it.



Looking at this again makes me think it could have been a lot of fun to do something like this in the comics. -- PL