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.