Before and After

Before After

My retro-fits are not typical of most retro-fits. My Charlie McCarthy alterations are substantial inside and out. I'm about to enter a new phase with some significant improvements in mechanics. The final outcome won't be so different, but the ease of building will be much improved.

Meet "Carlisle"

Charlie 9 is finished and ready to meet his new boss. He's available for auction on Ebay.

The better to hear you...

This little guy got ears today. I like big ears on my vent fgures (as you may have noticed). It's difficult not to like a character with big floppy ears.

Getting control

Charlie 10 has been a challenge. He is the last of the group who will have eyes retro-fitted. He's a cute character face, but he's been a tough little dude to build. Of course, he's still got a ways to go, but I think he'll turn out fine. He probably won't have self-centering eyes, but his eyes will work smoothly side-to-side. As you can see, he's being fitted for his control post. I expect that he'll be finished in a couple of weeks at the latest.

Charlie 9, pictured below, will be the first (actually second if you count Miss Sheila) who will have springs instead of wood dowel posts in the back of the eyes. This is a much easier way to make self-centering eyes.

A nose and upper lip

Here's the second look at my latest project. I've sculpted a nose and and upper lip. I'm very pleased with the progress of this fellow.


By the way, I'm selling a pair of Mike Brose cast hands and feet. I bought them for my first "Fred Project" figure, but ended up using Braylu hands that came already attached to arms (which I don't make) and Braylu legs.

If you're interested, check 'em out on Ebay.

First step, the eyes

My experiment mounting the eyes first inside the head worked great. I wrapped the eyes in cellephane before mounting to protect them from the Magic-Sculpt.

Glen Rappold had an excellent idea to use wood balls as stand-ins so as to not ruin the expensive Mike Brose cast eyes, but I wasn't confident the wood balls' irises would properly line up in the eye sockets. However, since the Mike Brose eyes survived the sculpting unscathed, I will now build a set of wood eyes and use this figure's eye sockets to properly place the irises on the wood balls. Then I'll use the wood ball set-up as my stand-ins for the good eyes in my next project.

Next step is to finish sculpting the face. Check back for a progress report!

The value of "Magic"

During my Ebay auction of "Little Miss Sheila", an Ebayer asked me if I thought the vent figure that appeared in the movie "Magic" was really worth $3,000 at auction. I had to write back that I didn't consider myself qualified to answer, but that every auction price I've seen for a "Magic" figure has been substantial. I suggested that he pose the question on the Yahoo forum "WORLDVENTS" for an exptert to weigh in.

So how 'bout it? Any experts out there know much about the market value of the figure? I'm not into collecting figures, but I know there are many who enjoy finding and buying rare and/or unique figures. I'd like to learn more about it.

Where the heck ya been?

I've been in Seattle at a Management Conference. All of the company's TV Station managers get together once a year at a fancy resort and share ideas, attend workshops, strategize and eat and drink to excess. I'm glad to be home. Other than the wining and dining, one must be very well-behaved around colleagues and corporate superiors. And I'm not accustomed to being that well-behaved that many hours in a row. It's exhausting.

Back at home, I have listed "Little Miss Sheila" on Ebay.

I'm having a monumental struggle with my other project. The eyes will not set right. I'm trying different strategies and methods, but so far I've been unhappy with the result. I like the way the guy looks, but until I get the eyes to work right, he'll be a work in progress.

I have another character started. He's the one where I'm setting the eyes first, then forming the face around them. I hope that becomes my regular method of madness.

Miss Sheila

I've finished my first "semi"-pro" style vent figure. She's made from a Danny O'Day I purchased on Ebay. The original puppet was in very bad shape. I cleaned it up, repainted, installed brass mechanics, steel springs and made the eyes myself (first time for that).

She has a ball-and-socket neck for 360-degree head turns, moving mouth and side-to-side self-centering eyes. Her fingernails are even painted pink. She'll go up for auction on Ebay in two weeks.

I think she turned out kinda cute!

RE: "Sorry to bug you...", A Helpful Hint

Hi Kenny,
You might want to consider using wood balls of the same diameter wrapped in Saran Wrap to completely eliminate anything from happening to the good eyes. They are available from "Michael's" and similar craft stores.

Best,
Glen Rappold

RE: "Harry & Me", jimmy in Kansas City, Mo. said...

Here in KC, the city council is trying to ban street performers, classifying them along with homeless people asking for money on street corners. It's pretty sad they can't see the difference. I've never done street performance myself (my vent act is done mainly for senior citizens), it looks like it could be fun. Maybe I should try it one day before it's a "crime".
9:21 PM

Sorry to bug you...

For the first time I'm going to mount the eyes on a stable platform and sculpt around the eyes.

On previous figures, I've mounted the eyes late in the game after sculpting the new face and had to cajole, adjust, manhandle and persuade the eyes to finally operate smoothly. This time, I'm starting with fluid eyes mounted properly. I'll wrap the eyeballs in saran wrap to protect them. If I wreck them, I'll consider this pair my "working" pair and replace them at the right time.

I'm sure I'll run into some new wrinkles, but that's part of what makes this fun.

Re: "Harry and me", Anonymous said...

What a cool act! I never saw a street ventriloquist act... I did see the 'Saw Lady' who was in the movie 'Dummy' (with Adrien Brody, about a ventriloquist) in the NYC subway ( http://www.SawLady.com )and I thought that was a cool street act. But I sure wish I could have seen you...
1:39 PM

Harry and me

Back in 1974-75, I was a street performer in San Francisco. I moved there from Ashland, Oregon where I had met a talented young magician named Harry Anderson. At Harry's urging, we packed up our props and moved to "Babylon by the Bay" to find our fortune.

We actually worked on a stage inside The Cannery courtyard, a large brick shopping attraction at Fisherman's Wharf. (That's me and Harry outside the Cannery in the photo). Each day, Harry performed three or four 30-minute magic shows to my guitar accompaniment.

Of all the street acts in San Francisco, Harry and I were able to extract more money from a crowd than any other performers of the time. And we did it with ventriloquism.

Now let me state for the record, Harry's magic show was terrific. It was mysterious, fun and hilarious. We'd start the show with maybe 4 or 5 spectators and finish the show with 200 people gathered around that small courtyard stage. As any street performer will tell you, the real trick is getting the folks to pay up before they get away at the end of the show.

Here's how we did it.

I would stand center stage while Harry stood next to me. He would do a long, blusterous introduction of me while I stood there straight and tall. He would pretend to hypnotize me and I would "fall into a deep, dark state of boogie-boogie". My eyes would bug out and I would stand absolutely still. And then the singing would start. And I STILL wouldn't move a muscle.

Harry would hold his hand behind my neck and pretend to be a bad ventriloquist. The folks would laugh. But then he would start speaking over my singing. And then they would realize that I was the one singing. Instead of the crowd moving away, one-by-one they would move closer and closer. As they got to the front of the stage, Harry would hold out the large brass church plate we used to collect money, and each and every audience member would feel obliged to drop a dollar, five, ten or twenty into the money pile.

We may have looked like street urchins, but we usually dined at very nice San Francisco restaurants.

Harry later went on to star in the NBC comedy "Night Court" and later "Dave's World" on CBS. And you know where I've ended up.

Making dummies.