Rish Outcast 282: Marvin Haggler

Rish ruminates about Heinlein's Rules For Writing, first readers, and his newest story collection. Then he and Big talk about what a terrible barterer Rish is, and present an interaction they call "Marvin Haggler."

As always, you can download the file by Right-Clicking HERE.

And of course, you can support my Patreon by clicking HERE.

Logo by Gino "Marvin Shaggler" Moretto.

Oh, and here's a link to the various iterations of "Female Protagonist:"

Digital version
The paperback version
Audiobook on Audible
And the hardcover not even my mother will buy

Not Bad For A Little Furball (2)

A few days back, I showed the repaint I did of Wicket W. Warrick, but you know, I never explained WHY I was doing it.  The answer is twofold: first, because I really enjoy painting.  It relaxes me and the voices that constantly tell me to kill start singing Echo and the Bunnymen songs (they really like Ian McCulloch apparently).

The other reason is that since Hasbro started the toyline in 2013, they have only ever released three Ewoks (well, four, if you count the white Paploo repaint this last year), even though there are seventy-two Ewoks credited in RETURN OF THE JEDI.*  But when I was a child, I would often take the headdresses off my Ewoks and switch them around, so mine looked distinct from the ones owned by Steven or Dennis or Ryan, and I thought, "Hey, I could do that with the ones they've put out, and double or triple the number of 'distinctive' Ewoks in a display or collection."  Madness, you say?  Well, maybe, sure.

So, Hasbro's website put these guys on sale recently, so I went ahead and ordered a couple of extras, so I could paint them.  And the first to arrive was this one, Paploo:

He's dark brown/reddish brown) with a light tan hood.

I had a bugger of a time getting the hood off the figure--indeed, the head popped off much easier.  But that made the painting around the neck a simpler task, so ah well.

Wicket's cowl looked good on the (headless) body of Paploo, so I thought this would work.

Now it was time to paint the body.  I picked a light tan, since the factory paint was so dark.

It may seem to be white in the above photograph, but it's actually a tan color . . . maybe the bathroom tile is tan too.

I was amazing while painting to discover how detailed this figure is, with fur that's realistic and way more fun to paint than armor (sorry if I said this on the Wicket post, but it's been a month since I wrote that).

It was incredibly difficult to get the paint right on the eyes and nose and mouth.  Ultimately, I grabbed a toothpick and used that instead of a brush.  It was not ideal, but it was a lot better.

It turned out to be a real pain to get Wicket's cowl on Paploo's head, and I kept having to cut the ear holes longer and longer (it's not a soft material, despite its leathery look).

Here are both of my repaints together.  I think they turned out well . . . but it did make me wish I had a dozen more, so I could try all sorts of new combinations.

And be careful what you wish for, by the way--they're still on clearance on Hasbro's website.

*I counted.  That's how much I love you guys.  Er, guy.  Singular.

Rish Outcast 270: Have Toys Will Travel 4

Rish gets together with Cousin Ryan to talk about toy-selling . . . for the last time?

Spoiler: Maybe.

As always, please download the file by Right-Clicking HERE.

And pretty please support my Patreon by clicking HERE.

Logo by Gino "Have Toys, Will Unravel" Moretto.

Rish Outcast 254: Have Toys, Will Travel 2

Rish tells more toy selling war stories, and is later joined by Cousin Ryan, who has even more.

To download the episode, Right-Click HERE.

To support me on Patreon, click HERE.

Logo by Gino "Have Yots" Moretto.

(no, "yots" aren't anything.  It's a made up word)

Rish Outcast 252: Have Toys - Will Travel

Rish talks (at length) about being a vendor at a recent toy show.  

With way more to come.

To download the episode, Right-Click HERE.

To support me over at Patreon, go HERE.

Logo by Gino "Have Henry - Will Cavill" Moretto.

Rish Outcast 232: Toy Hunting High and Low

Rish and Big reminisce about going on toy runs, back in the day.

To download the episode, Right-Click HERE.

To support me on Patreon, come on, just click HERE.

Logo by Gino "Lie and Ho" Moretto.

Blog 5/11 & 5/12

 5/11

I got a paper jam today in the "new" printer.  Ugh.

But after I figured out the inner workings of the thing, it came right out . . . without breaking anything off inside.

I only had forty minutes to write tonight, and opened the Wikipedia page about Rodgers and Hammerstein, but before I knew it, they were announcing they were closing, I hadn't read any of the article, and I had crossed over the 41,000 word mark.  I wonder what I could accomplish if I came here at six or seven instead of eight o'clock.

I went to GameStop after I grabbed lunch (alone, I usually meet my cousin on Wednesdays), and they had an X-men figure I wanted to buy (it wasn't supposed to be out for months), but their computer said they couldn't sell it to me until . . . November?  What the what?  No big deal, I said, and tried to buy a Star Wars guy instead (I am incapable of simply being satisfied with nothing), and that one, the guy said, couldn't be sold until June.  Huh.  Out of curiosity, I asked about the overpriced Hulk figure.  First off, instead of the super-expensive $34.99 I assumed it would be, it rang up as $44.99 (!!!!!!), but secondly, it couldn't be sold until September.  Well, that couldn't be, so I asked him to ring up two figures I already bought a month or so back . . . and they couldn't be sold until the end of May.  That was super strange.

I grabbed an even older figure, from February or so, and it couldn't be sold until next week.  So we knew something was wrong.  I gave the guy my telephone number and asked him to save me the X-men guy for when the system got sorted out.

And here's the reason I'm typing all this: around five-thirty or so, I got a call from GameStop, and the guy said, "Hello.  I spoke to your husband earlier about an action figure, he tried to buy it but the system wouldn't let him?  Can you tell him that the problem is fixed now?"  I told the clerk that I was the one who had come into the store, but it made me think.  I'm flattered that he thinks I'm capable of getting some guy to marry me, but find it strange nonetheless.

WRITING/EXERCISE: Writing.

5/12

One of the goals I said I'd work on in 2022, besides that kiss-your-own-butt challenge all the TikTokers are obsessed with, was writing a story where there was a positive representation of a step-parent/stepchild relationship.  The year is almost halfway over, and I haven't taken a crack at it.  It's easy to say, "I'll tackle that one day," but I keep discovering how fast those one days pass by.

My four year nephew had a preschool graduation ceremony this afternoon, and I was pretty adamant that I wasn't going to go to it (he's got a dance recital on Saturday, and four is just too young to do anything, really.  I mentioned taking him to baseball practice the other day, right?), especially since he's going to be in preschool again next year, same teacher.  But because my sister and my niece both came over, and were making a big deal about it, I changed my mind.

I had made a Humpty Dumpty cartoon for him to hold up, and went through the rhyme with him three or four times (in addition to however many times my mom and sister rehearsed it with him), so I guess I was invested that much at least.  We walked three blocks to where the graduation was, and man, it was rough--the kids just couldn't stand still or be quiet, and my nephew didn't seem to know the words to any of the songs.

At least the kid wasn't the most troublesome child in the group (that was a little girl who kept jumping around, pushing other kids, trying to stick things into the fire alarm switch on the wall, and then burst into overloud tears when she felt either a) they'd been standing there too long, or b) the attention had been off her for too long.  The whole thing lasted around twenty-five minutes, which was just long enough (and too long to keep the children's attention, or that of the children in the audience).  At one point, to my horror, another kid also recited "Humpty Dumpty," but he didn't have a kick-ass illustration to go along with his.

The lesson I took after the little graduation was that whatever they're paying this teacher, it ain't enough.

Oh, I was pretty happy when that figure I bought with all my trips to GameStops yesterday sold today.  I was less happy when I got an email from the buyer, claiming her son bought it without her permission, and could I please cancel?  

Still, that stuff happens, so I listed it for sale again.  And before the end of the day, somebody else bought it (though for fifteen dollars less than the first buyer*).  And before I could do anything about it, that buyer too emailed me to tell me that it was a mistake and could we please cancel?

Of course I canceled and listed it (yet) again, but it does give me pause, wondering just how cursed this figure is, and how much ill luck will befall anyone who obtains it.

WRITING OR EXERCISE: Both.

*Which ultimately doesn't matter, does it?

4/18 Week In Review

4/15

I'll admit two things.  One: I quite enjoy doing the daily blogging again.  And two, I haven't remembered to do it each and every day.

I thought I'd be pretty tired today, after the late night anoche, but it was really only an hour or ninety minutes less sleep than I'd normally get, but I was fine. 

I worked on the audiobook ("Almost there," as Red Leader said), and then, feeling like editing something, I opened up the reading I did of a short story called "The Gold Bug," a couple years ago for a contest Marshal Latham was doing.*  I recorded it a few months ago and never did anything with it, because I felt like it was super weak and lame.  But in editing it this afternoon, I surprised myself by kind of liking it.  

It's written from the point of view of an eleven year old boy who misinterprets something that happens while on a family vacation, and was based on an experience I had on a family trip back in the Eighties, where I saw a car in Redlands, California, then saw that same car the next day in Santa Monica, over an hour away (79 miles, according to Yahoo!).  

I also incorporated a time when somebody put beer bottles behind the back tires of my Uncle John's car, so they would slash the tires when he backed out (a memory that amused me, damn my very eyes).  The story is still not a great one, but I'll happily put it in the next collection as a sort of bonus.

I'm at the library now, and there are eight other patrons up here with me (that I see).  I predict that by the time I leave, it will be just me, as it always is every Friday.

I finished that Joe Hill story "Late Returns" that I was reading, and sent it to Jeff, who always wanted to work in a library.  He loved it . . . and told me he already had a copy.

4/16

Usually, I go to the library on Saturday afternoons, but we were pretty busy today.  There was a big toy trade in the capital that was starting at noon, but people began setting up at nine in the morning (or earlier), and customers started showing up at ten (or earlier).  I heard about this online, not knowing that it was supposed to rain in the afternoon, so they'd moved it to earlier in an attempt to avoid that.

On Facebook, collectors were already posting that they'd bought up all sorts of great junk, so I loaded my two older nephews into the car, and we took off.  The teenaged nephew has his own debit card, which he'd lost for several months, and we stopped off at his bank so he could withdraw some cash.  Only once we were standing in front of the ATM did he reveal that he didn't remember his PIN.

I texted his mother, my mother, and his father, hoping one of them would know the number, but they didn't respond.  So, we left empty-handed, with me pretty frustrated.  Then, just as we were approaching the parking lot sale, my nephew called his mom for the third time, and she picked up.  She knew his PIN, but we had left the bank ten minutes before.  We drove around, looking for another bank, and this time, the boy was able to withdraw plenty of cash.

Still, by the time we did arrive at the toy trade, it was surprisingly busy. There were, at a guess, thirty vendor booths in a parking lot, and there were many, many tempting items for sale, some for bargain prices.  I spent less money than I brought, but still way more than a sane person would spend.  But hey, that's cool.

Ironically, though, my nephew didn't end up buying much of anything, despite us arriving a half hour late to get him money (he bought some Pokemon cards and one action figure, but spent most of the time sitting in the car, looking at his phone and drinking my soda).  There was one guy who was selling Star Wars Black figures for five dollars each (they retailed, until 2022, for twenty bucks), and I bought a handful of them.  Then, when he was packing up, he said I could have all that were left for $25.00.

The wind began to blow, hard and cold, and boxes full of inventory started flying, as well as canopies and displays, so the toy show ended more abruptly than it was supposed to.  My eleven year old nephew bought a few figures, and we found a vendor who had a box of free items we pilfered to bring to the four year old.

I have, over the years, developed a sick fixation with Dewbacks (Star Wars lizards from the first movie).  I ended up buying five more, which I'll probably never do anything with.  

Oh, and speaking of fixations, Big Anklevich recently became obsessed with creating a spaceport display, complete with various droids and aliens, and I thought it would be fun to buy a bunch of R2-D2s and C-3POs, then paint them to look like different robots, so I was pleased to find a couple vendors selling Artoos and Threepios for a buck apiece (one vendor had 'em for fifty cents).  I'm not sure if I'll end up painting all of them, but it would be fun to try.

Because Big has been so interested in getting aliens and spacemen for his display, I should have been a real friend and picked up some toys to send him.  But everything was a bit too hectic, and in my defense, I did buy him the Star Wars toy he's been wanting for years and years now.**

4/17

Today is Sunday, and Easter, and this morning, I gave myself one hour to edit audio, then twenty minutes to blog, setting my phone alarm both times.  And both times, when the alarm went off, I jumped and exclaimed "Jesus!"  I'd like to think it counts as part of the Easter celebration.

I finally got all the files uploaded and approved for my audio collection.  The total was eight hours and two minutes.  Now all I have to do is upload a five minute sample (figure I'll just do part of the story "Who Can It Be Now?"), and it will be ready to submit.  And yes, it was a gigantic pain in the ass, comparable to the time I tried to do sit-ups with a hemorrhoid, but I suppose it's worth it, if just one person buys it.

Okay, eff that.  I hope a lot more than one person buys it.

As I mentioned yesterday, I grabbed some cheap Star Wars figures, and thought I'd start with the easiest project: turn C-3PO into the evil droid Nobot.  

I had an oversized kiddie toy I got for a buck, and I sprayed it over with primer (which looked pretty good, since it turned out the primer was black instead of the usual grey):

But Nobot is a beat-up grey robot, so I painted over it quick and messily, figuring the worse it looked, the better.***

Well, it ended up looking pretty darn bad, but that's okay, since this was just a practice.  The other paintjobs should be more painstaking and detailed.

4/18

I got my audio collection all uploaded to Audible, and we'll see what they say.  Since the last audiobook I put up for sale (in 2020), they now tell you to expect your title to go up for sale within ten days, barring any errors or inconsistencies they flag beforehand.  I remember them saying that they had hired a bunch of new employees during the pandemic, because people were suddenly listening to audiobooks more than ever before, and this is probably a result of that.

I didn't really feel like writing today, but I did get "Balms & Sears" to the 31K mark.  Just think, if I made a penny for every hundred words in the book . . . well, that's more than I'll actually make for it.  But ah well.

*Basically, the contest rules were, Write a short story with the same name as an Edgar Allan Poe story or poem.  I wrote mine, about a gold Volkswagen Beetle, and started on a second story about a pretty girl a lonely guy meets at a college party, named Anabelle Lee.  Never finished that second one, though (maybe one day Marshal will do the contest again and I will write it--it's the sort of story you could write from start to finish in a single sitting).

**Yes, it was that disgusting toy where it's Jar Jar's mouth, and there's a lollypop in the shape of his tongue that little kids were supposed to suck on.  They wouldn't even allow that thing at the Hustler store on Sunset Boulevard (believe me, I looked).

***I was just going to use it for a quick shot in a video, right?

March Sweeps - Day 415

Today was incredibly busy for me.  I had more work to do than I usually do, or it was a regular day and I was just eleven times lazier than I usually am.  It came out to the same thing either way.

I didn't have time to do anything, not go to the library, not do my run, not to blog, not watch TV.  But I had to take the garbages around, so I put on my rollerblades again to push them around, and I did almost fall down at one point, which reminded me of just how terrified I am of using them on the concrete, even after all these tries.

Rollerblading In March: 6 (of 10)

 Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In March: 2229

This isn't a Tale of eBay Horror,* but it's a little irritating thing I'm going to say to keep myself from writing for two more minutes.  I've complained about Star Wars collectors, and how finicky and bitchy and entitled they are (and I'll continue to do so--they are the absolute worst**), but it's my understanding that that mindset affects Pop Vinyls and GI Joes and Transformers and Marvel and--if you can believe it--Power Rangers fans as well.  

I've gotten so tired of what are known as MOC collectors ("Mint On Card," meaning a package without any bends or scrapes or imperfections) that I now often deliberately open the first figure I find of something I'm going to sell, so I can sell them as loose/Used instead of packaged, which not only costs more to ship, but you have the NIB collectors ("New In Box," a synonym for MOC collectors) to deal with, and you have to find a box to ship them in.  Whereas, if I sell them loose, I have thousands of envelopes I've bought (in bulk) that save me hours and several headaches a year.***

Could I sell them for more if they were in absolutely pristine condition?  Of course.  But my entire beard would be white, instead of only little patches of it I'm constantly trying to hide, hoping I can still play a high schooler in a CW show.

So, over the weekend, I found some new figures, and the first thing I did was take them out of the box and take pictures of them loose, knowing that if you are one of those collectors that complains that one of the corners of the box is dented, you'll pass right by mine with no interest.  I'd like to only sell to people who will play with/display their figures from now on, even if it means I sell far fewer items.  

I put them up for sale, and the next day, I had an email from some douche who thought it would be helpful to send the following: "Those cost twenty dollars new at the store.  Your's are USED." 

That's it, not really worth blogging about, but hey, it kept me from writing for . . . oh dear, eighteen minutes.

Push-ups Today: 151
Push-ups In March: 2299

I did get some writing in at the end of the night--it was after one--on my "Lara and the Witch" story, and it's actually closing in on the end.  If I were as productive as I was this time last year, I'd have finished it by now, but today, I don't really know how the story's going to end.  Maybe if I had gone on my run, but I made my choice as to how to spend my time today (Marshal and I did a podcast together, so that's at least something), and I'll make sure to run tomorrow, see if I can't focus on that story and find out where it should end up.

You never know where your mind will go when you exercise, though.  Lots of times, whatever song I hear or vehicle or person or house I see influences where my mind goes.  And sometimes I'll just turn on a YouTube video and listen to it while I run, and then I'm thinking of nothing.  I guess you could say that about this blog as well.

Words Today: 795
Words In March: 18,287

*Though I did finish the next episode--only two years late!

***Sometimes it horrifies me when I'll hear a fanboy complain about THE LAST JEDI, all this time later.  But hey, bring up the Prequels with me sometime, and I'll still just let 'er rip.  Much like I did in the library the other day--they're still fumigating that section of the second floor.

***Case in point, I sold a Star Wars droid on Sunday, and haven't found a box to ship it in, so it just sits on my desk, until I can find the perfect box, probably pissing off the buyer.  But my only other option is to ship it in a big box, which means I have to find some kind of padding for it, and it will weigh more, which costs me more money to ship.

January Sweeps - Day 371

This was the first Saturday in months I haven't gone to the library (I think), because my nephew and I were going to the city for a toy trade (long story short: he got some excellent stuff, I got . . . to pay for gas), but I still managed to write a little bit at the end of the day.

Basically, you bring a box (or crate, or truckload) of toys, and people either trade their stuff for yours or buy your stuff outright.  It gives you a chance to get rid of stuff you don't want, and maybe help another guy complete his collection.  And if you're my nephew, people simply give you stuff, because . . . well, I'm not sure why they do that.

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In February: 677

It was a big success for my nephew (he got a figure for free that he later sold for forty dollars), and there was free pizza (I only got one piece, but no big deal), and he wants to go again next month.

I'm not much of a people person, as you may know.  But there is something kind of neat about going someplace and mingling with others who have similar interests/passions as you.  Sort of like church, but without the judgment.  

A guy had a black Optimus Prime (an evil version) called Nemesis Prime that I was awfully tempted to buy, but luckily, I have almost no money right now (I managed to pay off one of my credit cards in January, so that's a small success there), and I would've regretted it had I bought it, since it's far too big to display with the other half dozen Transformers I have on my windowsill at present.

Push-ups Today: 131
Push-ups In February: 590

One of the things I most dislike about myself--besides 1) my face on video, pictures, or mirrors, 2) the fact that I'm a middle-aged man who still talks to himself every single day, 3) my inability to maintain a job or a human relationship, and 4) that I can't hit the high notes on Air Supply songs--is 5) that I start many, many projects and never finish them.

Heck, I may hate that more than talking to myself or failing to hit the high note at the "I don't know what to saaaaaaaay" bit in "The One That You Love."

Case in point: I started a new "Lost & Found" story a couple of months ago, started a high school-set werewolf story/screenplay that would've kicked ass, started my Outpost Pandemic novel in January, and began a Valentine's Day "Lara and the Witch" story just yesterday . . . and they're all in various states of abandon.  And today, I started writing my "Bossk P.I." sketch, instead of continuing a project.  I think it has real potential (of course, it's already a failure because I intended it as a comic sketch and came up with a dark-ass ending that negates any comedic potential it might have had), but I only got about a fifth of it written because I've never written a Mystery before.  I don't even know how to go about it.

And so, of course, I'll never finish it.  Predictable, really.

Words Today: 591
Words In February: 4507

August Sweeps - Day 210

Chadwick Boseman died today.  Big Anklevich texted me and told me, and it didn't seem believable.  It's the old folks that he and my cousin let me know have died, and Boseman was young.  He was forty-three, and died of colon cancer, which he'd been battling for four years (CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR came out four years ago).  I don't talk about the movie BLACK PANTHER much, because it was one of those gargantuan hit movies that everybody else was always talking about, like AVATAR or JURASSIC WORLD or I dunno, TITANIC.  So I didn't feel I had much to say about it.

But I did end up seeing it a second time, after it had made so much cultural and financial impact, and was surprised by how good it truly was.  And that's about it, all I have to say, except that it's been interesting to hear how much T'challa/Boseman inspired and touched people.  

I took my nephew to the movies tonight, and it'll probably be the last time.  He was so restless and bored and wiggly and he'd grab my arm and bite me several times during the film.  When I got home, I found that Every Single One of my Black Panther figures had sold, all at the same time (but all to different people at least).  It's crass, I suppose, that so many people scooped up the figures I've had listed for years now (Hasbro made a movie BP in 2019, some in 2018, and one in 2016), but I looked through my inventory, and I don't think I have as many of the figures left as sold all at once, since the same figures were available for sale in multiple places, and they all sold in all places tonight.

I gathered up all the BPs I'd accumulated over the years, and that's what the above picture represents.  You'd think that eight would be enough (to fill our lives with love), but it's not.  My nephew was telling me how much the Chadwick likeness figures are now selling for on eBay, but I don't feel like I missed out.  I had these up for sale for months, some for years, and now they're all gone . . . and maybe the people who bought them will get joy out of them knowing they didn't get price-gauged.

Sit-ups Today: 113
Sit-ups In August: 5260

Oh, I forgot the point of this daily blogging...

Today was very nearly the day: the day when I didn't write.  

It didn't really occur to me, because I was busy all day, and then, whoops, I effed up again with the water.  I was about to do my nightly exercise, so I turned on the water in the sink, so I'd have some to splash my face with after my run . . . and then I started in on sit-ups, went ahead and did my run, never remembering I'd left the water running.  And it was the hot water I left running too.  

I didn't even discover it at first either.  I was downstairs, checking to see if the washer was empty (it never is), and I thought, "Holy smoke, what is that smell?"  I might even have said it aloud: What is that smell?  And then I saw the water coming through the ceiling and the puddle on the floor (it's just a concrete floor in the basement, complete with cracks in it, and that actually helped once I ran upstairs, turned off the water, went through every towel trying to soak it up, then went back downstairs to see what I could do there.

That took a good long time, and I never even got my laundry done.  Then I came up here and started to read the Chadwick Boseman tributes.  And around 1:15, I realized I had not written today.

Should I even bother? I asked myself.  I might even have said it aloud: Should I even bother?  After all, I'm pretty sick of it.  Sometimes I feel like it hasn't amounted to a toot in a tornado.  And as down as I get on myself--hoo doggy, do I get down on myself--I think I deserve a break.

But I tried anyway.  I managed about three hundred words between two and two-thirty, then quickly pounded out a few more, hoping to at least reach five hundred before I went to sleep.  Now it's 3:06am, and I'm only at 483.  I think I'll go check on the water damage, and see if I can't find the strength to do just a few more words.

Then I'll get that break in, you know?

Words Today: 700
Words In August: 27,935

Anti-Venom T-Rex

So, you may ask, "Rish, why do you do these painting things, when you could be writing or working on podcasts?"  To which, I say, "Come on, give me a break."  I find painting extremely relaxing, and while I finish up "The West Wing," it feels like multi-tasking.

Anyway, Anti-Venom is a character I was unfamiliar with until I saw an action figure of him in 2015.  Turns out, I've known who he is my whole life.

Flash Thompson, one-time nemesis and later friend of Peter Parker became a superhero in his own right when the Venom symbiote bonded with him, creating a new version of the character that calls himself Agent Venom, Anti-Venom, and most cleverly, Agent Anti-Venom.**

He has a white design, with a black spider, and a neat face with black and white and red, like this:

I had a used 2015 T-Rex (from a used lot I bought last year with various loose dinos in it) that I grabbed to paint.

First thing was to cover it in white.

To my surprise, the figure's skin ate up that white in a great, rather-lifelike way.

It looked preeeetty good, but then I did the head.

And wow, the head makes all the difference.

Dude, the red eyes and black teeth totally lend themselves to a T-Rex's head shape.  It looks awesome!

Having never read a comic featuring Anti-Venom, I shouldn't give a single crap about the character . . . but I like the design so much (especially on a dinosaur), that I think I'd count myself a fan all of a sudden.  Is that weird?

Next up was to paint the spider . . . which was the least-successful part of the custom.

Best picture so far:

And here's the final product:

Here he is squaring off against the Carnage Indoraptor:

And here's all three together:

I don't know where to go from here, except that I still have two more 2015 T-Rexes.  Hmmm.

Rish

*I did a little research just now, and I read that Flash can only be merged with the symbiote for a short time before it starts to take over, and he begins murdering people.  I can totally get behind a story like that.

Carnage Indoraptor

So, after my successful Venom-saurus (and unsuccessful Venom Hulkbuster), I decided to go back to the dinosaur well . . . this time with a take on Marvel's Carnage.

Carnage was a spin-off character of the Spider-man/Venom franchise*, and his first appearance was this:

And unlike Venom's many transformations, Carnage's modern appearance is still really similar, like this:

In other words, he hasn't changed all that much since he was created.  Of course, once the movie comes out, that'll no longer be the case.

Shudder.

So, after Venom, I wondered which dinosaur to do in the Carnage style.  I thought initially, of grabbing a smaller T-Rex (there's one at Target with a baby Rex that's a good size), but I didn't have one handy.  I also thought of using the Carnotaurus, since it has a name that's so similar.

But I didn't like the stubby arms or the super-compacted head.  No, what I needed was a dinosaur like the Velociraptor, that looked like a predator, but wasn't as big as a T-Rex (in the same way as Carnage has always been depicted as thin and wiry, unlike Venom's huge bulk).

And lucky me, the main dino from FALLEN KINGDOM, the Indoraptor, can be found on the cheap.**

And since I had done the Venom paintjob without realizing I'd want to document the process, I made sure to take plenty of pictures for this one.

So, here's what he looks like right out of the package:

It's an excellent design and a great toy (there is a slightly larger one that makes noise that was a Target exclusive, but I never bought one of those--or found it for cheap).

There's something vaguely (or not-so-vaguely) human-like about the design, especially the arms, which have an almost Carnage aspect to them anyway.

The cheap red paint that I used kind of looks bad, but the way the black seeps through it kind of looks good too, in an actual reptile kind of way.

You could almost stop right there, just leaving the head, belly, and tail black, but I wanted to at least do the spider justice.

Then I discovered that Carnage, unlike Venom, Anti-Venom, Agent Venom, Lady Venom, Agent Anti-Venom, Monster Venom, Baby Venom***, Venomhorse, Chupacabravenom, Grannyvenom, Old Man Venom, Monkeyvenom, and Gilligan Venom, doesn't have a spider symbol on his chest.

Instead, he has black ooze all throughout his body.

Much like you do.

So, I just drew them on with a Sharpie.  It should have looked terrible . . . but somehow, it didn't.

 I tried to recreate the white eyes I did for Venom-saurus in exactly the same way.

So, this is the finished product (with a few more lines throughout):

I am really happy with it (and my nephew took it to school for Show & Tell).

And here are my two Symbiote-sauruses together:

Carnage has always had tons of tendrils and wisps coming off him, so I think I could use a glue gun to do that on a future one (if I do one), as well as making a longer tongue for a Venom.

There's also a white symbiote, called Anti-Venom, which might make for an interesting repaint.

To be continued . . .

*Amazing Spider-man 359, in 1992.  By this point, I had stopped reading the comics, but I do remember the first comic I saw him on (Amazing 361, which I bought out of curiosity).

**For now.  Dollars to donuts, it'll sell for thrice that price by Christmas.

***Wow, there really is a Baby Venom.  I thought I made that up.