The Lightcore posters and collages:

Here is quick update of the Artisan Earth Island showing a bit of wear and tear and Skylanders. The text is on the picture...

The agony and the ecstasy continues....or should I say, the ecstasy and the agony: the Frito-Lay Fight Rider is a Done Deal!! Woo-Hoo! The Frito-Lay Rattle Shake...D'oh!!
Actually, this apparently happened to a lot of people on the first day. Which they have corrected...BUT....The system they seem to be using confounds the senses...codes on the outside of the packaging (haven't they ever heard of cellphone cameras?!? In 2 minutes a person can photograph every code on a wall full of packages. To boot, if they disabled their "This code has already been used" function...does that mean I can enter the same code everyday? Worse still, they diable the code after several uses by the same user and Don't bother to let you know!?! The jury is still out on this one.....

Addition: As of 11/17, we seem to have won a Rattleshake!!! They emailed a confirmation to us. Which is great and curious. Curious because we did not receive any confirmation yet via email about the Fright Rider we won....hmmm.

Not part of The Lightcore set, this is a shot of the artisan Earth Island we have hanging on our wall. After completion, I took the wall display out into the backyard in full sun and put some Skylanders into position. I created sunken display pads in various places to hold them in place and better conceal their often color mis-matched bases. A bright orange sheet was placed behind the model to act as a "green screen". I was able to remove the orange background fairly easily with editing software and substitute in the sky background. I don't mind doing this at all but I like to explain to you which pictures have been tampered with and which pictures are all "in camera" effects. 

This picture shows a downward looking angle that I like.

Enjoy!

Hail to the Whale!!! Just a great figure to photograph and not a bad angle to be found. The detailing on him is pretty impressive. I would love to see a variant on him (if for no other reason than a way to explore his second upgrade path). I am curious to see if they will continue with things like that for the Giants line now that Swap Force is out. They didn't seem to in the previous iteration of Spyro's Adventure to Giants transition but there are a few indicators-eg. The upcoming re-release of Dino Rang at ToysRUs  ( Nov. 17th, I believe).  As Pumpkin Eye Brawl shows up in game as the standard Eye Brawl, I don't expect an in-game variant. But still, another variation would be welcomed by me and mine. Perhaps he is a victim of his own exquisite detailing....Where to go with a variant? How to improve him? A pose of him in his belly slide would be pretty unique...Seaweed Thumpback?...Barnacle Thumpback?!?
Anyway he is an excellent Lightcore as well and deserved the multi-pose  picture. I have a few of him looking good, illuminated in the caves of our Artisan Earth Island. I will be getting those up after I fill in The Lightcore Album. Enjoy...

 The above photo shows me putting the finishing touches in place...
Interestingly enough, the escaping green gas (Which is what prompted these photos) is no special effect...besides minor brightness and color saturation changes. All looks are made "In-camera". The green gas is where my backdrop drooped down and was touching the figure. It stayed put so I took a few pictures. I couldn't have planned it any better.

 This one (above) is...without a doubt...my favorite!!! The two below are un-watermarked versions for you to use as you wish-Enjoy!

Lol !! Happy Halloween all!
(FYI...The Undead Element symbol is a close up of the Power-A Portal platform)

Happy Halloween!

Here is an un-watermarked version, I will be trying to save un-watermarked versions in the Pica Alblum (click on the slides how gadget in the upper right hand corner). Sometimes the aesthetics are far better and I want people to be able to use them in their own projects!! 

And again...

Happy Halloween!!

For all the Crusher fans...(Only wish I had Granite Crusher!!!...lol)

I wanted to post a cross section of the Lightcore set. As I build the Blog ( and more displays), I want to hear from other players which characters they want to see more of. Perhaps a favorite that is under represented or just doesn't get the Respect!! they think they deserve ( a la Boomer!). Then create some art that does them justice. Let me know who you would like to see.
I have many shots of characters on the Earth island and some others that I would like to clean up and render as sets. Perhaps...by Element, or The Dragons, or Fire and Water. And the Swappers present a whole new can of worms..lol. A BIG can!
Anyway...Enjoy.

What the hay...one more...

Taking a page from the New Star Trek movies (Dated myself there): Lense Flares...Lense Flares....More Lense Flares!!!

And to start it off...Jet Vac the Adventurer....these were some of the first I did and when I looked at them, Jet Vac had the definite feel of Indiana Jones...

The builds continue, as I will be posting more up soon. 

However, I'm starting a new addition to this blog, which was an upshot from all the builds: picture sets of my favorite's:  Activision's SKYLANDERS!

The first set will be "The Lightcore". Based, obviously, on the excellent lightcore figures for the Skylanders Adventures by Activision. These were the first not taken directly on our islands and taken to highlight the creative characters and the excellent work put into making them.

I found myself creating wall displays and taking pictures to document the process. The shots were fun to do and turned out far better than I expected. So...share them with other fans and enthusiasts, I say!

Feel free to copy and use them any way you want..they are there for the enjoyment of all!!!

Here is the final version of the Earth Element Island. Its ready for wall hanging and Skylanders figures. I set it up outside to take some pictures in full light. and to document how it came out. (also to have comparison pictures for how it takes the wear and tear of use).
They turned out excellent. The picture at the top of the blog came from this shoot and was not touched up in any way. (with the exception of being rotated and an identification logo added) The blue sky in the background is just that: regular blue sky. My wife said it almost looks fake!! lol.
I cut the island away from its background and posted a full shot of it above.
I have been considering how to proceed from here and I think I will be gathering some of the "concept art" and pictures I took during construction to present the process in a step by step way. As I moved from the idea to making it a reality, I had to brush off old skills far out of use (soldering for one...YES! soldering!!) and research a whole bunch of methods requiring skill sets I have NEVER had (painting realistic rock for starters). "YouTube" turned out to be my classroom!!