Return to Labyrinth

Jake Forbes, the writer of Return to Labyrinth (a manga sequel to the movie Labyrinth), commissioned these plushies. His website is http://www.gobblin.net if you're curious about his doings and work.

I was very surprised when Jake emailed me and then thrilled that he wanted me to make him some plushies. After all, I'm still pretty much a newb (Toby is the 13th human plush I've made! I don't know if that sounds like a lot or a little, but to me it seems little.) Also, Jake will be showing them off next week at the San Diego Comic-Con! It was exciting to hear that he's planning on giving them away to such people as Lisa Henson, Kouyu Shurei, and Chris Lie. I admit that it made me feel a little more important.

I worked everyday since I received the commission to complete it on time for Comic-Con! So many episodes of Family Guy, King of the Hill, TMNT, Futurama, the Simpsons, etc. watched...




Anyway, for Toby, I gave him brown boots to give him a more earthy look...like Link from Zelda. And then I wanted him to be more Labyrinth-like, so I drew the Jareth amulet on the back of his clothes since those green lines on the front had to lead somewhere, right? I also put a part in his hair that's not seen in the photos, but it didn't come out as cool as I thought it'd be.




For Moulin, it was my first time making a female character. So in order to make her good, I gave her breasts, an actual waist, and some pretty eyelashes. I guess I'm a little too detail-obsessed, because I drew in a bunch of intertwining lines and whatnot on her corset, hand-things, and hairbands. Also, the design on the light blue strip is exactly like the one in the picture. Even some of the designs on the corset are identical to the ones in the picture. Needless to say, this plushie took like twice the time it took to make Toby, but I'm very pleased with the results. But now my mom is saying that I should stop making plushies because they're not worth the effort and it hurts my eyes. I disagree and I'm probably not stopping since I like making people happy with my creations. As for her accessories, she has magnets sewn into her hands so she's able to hold up the umbrella and the book (which has magnets in it). The umbrella came out a bit crude, but umbrellas are hard to make...It does the trick though. I would've added more wires so it looked less like a pyramid, but then it would've been too heavy to support.

For this Jareth, I used a paler yellow than the yellow I used before since my friend said his hair was too yellow. I'm not sure if this is an improvement, but at least it matches Toby's hair. If only fleece came in a "dirty blonde" color.

I'm taking commissions if you'd like a doll of some sort, so send me an email if you're interested and read my COMMISSION INFO HERE. If you're only interested in Jareth, then click here and scroll to the bottom for prices.

Jareth likes asymmetry

So I received a commission to make Jareth in this outfit. You know, the one where he says, "Nothing? Nothing?? Tra-la-la?!"

I decided to move onto a higher quality fabric for the skin, which is microsuede. It's quite easy to draw on, but less stretchy...It seems the color I chose wasn't quite peachy enough, but hey, he's the thin white duke, after all...isn't he?

I must say the jacket took forever. There's the whole asymmetry of it, the odd lapels, the belt, the studs, the shoulder plate, the elbow thing, and the cape. That shoulder plate alone took me the whole two and a half hours of Inglourious Basterds to make (yes, I must watch TV/movies while working to keep myself from going crazy). I'm just glad it's over and done with. I don't know how many times I had to rewatch the scenes where Jareth wears that outfit to understand the physics of it. Thankfully I <3 Labyrinth or I would've gone insane.

I'm taking commissions if you'd like a doll of some sort, so send me an email if you're interested and read my COMMISSION INFO HERE. If you're only interested in Jareth, see the post below for prices.

Jareth the Goblin King from Labyrinth

Note: Labyrinth copyright belongs to Henson, Froud, Lucas, etc.

I never really had it in my plans to make a Jareth plush and I wasn't quite sure what pushed me to make one suddenly. I guess I wanted to make the best Jareth plush out there so people would notice me. Maybe I can even get a company to want me to help make a plush, you know, do a commercial order. I'd quite like that.

Well, back to the point. Labyrinth is my favorite movie. When I rediscovered it at age 17, I fell in love with Jareth. I would photoshop myself next to him--that was how much I adored him--and I would try to get all my friends to watch this movie and persuade my best friend to find David Bowie sexy as well (remember that's 17-yr-old me!). I went absolutely crazy over Mr. Bowie. I rented movies with him in them, I bought all kinds of merchandise, watched all of his music videos, not to mention I dreamt about him all the time. Now I'm 23 and a lot more calmed down. Although if I were on Deal Or No Deal and I was down to the $300,000 and $500,000 suitcases and they offered me a chance to sit down in David Bowie's home and have a cup of tea with him and a signed autograph instead of taking the money, I would take the deal. For real. I would do almost anything to see him in concert. But alas, one should not babble on about this.

Anyway, so the plush. What to say? The most challenging part was the hair. Layers upon layers of hair. Probably too many layers. The eyebrows and makeup took a pretty long time as well. The other parts weren't too difficult, but I also chose the simplest costume. He is easily poseable, so that is good.

Now, JARETH COMMISSIONS:
As much as I'd like for everyone to have a Jareth plush, I unfortunately can't let him be part of the $60 sale. Jareths will be sold at $80-$120. Why? For one thing, his hair and eyes/eyebrows take a very long time to do. Secondly, his costumes are often elaborate and I most certainly hope no one commissions me to do costumes 1, 3, and 5* (Of course I will do these, but they will also be more expensive). Lastly, he is one of my most favorite characters ever and therefore deserves to be sold at a higher price. If you think this price is crazy expensive, well, remember that this is a 16-inch-tall plushie with poseable limbs and other plushie artists tend to sell such dolls at much higher prices. I can do smaller Jareths for a lower price. 10" will be the smallest size and they will be $65-$105. These prices do not include shipping. Shipping in the US will be $7 for one plush (since these plushies are bigger than the usual and therefore heavier). $12 for two, and shipping gets cheaper the more you buy. Add $2 for insurance (optional). If you're still interested, leave a comment and read my other COMMISSION INFO HERE

*Costume #s:
1: When Jareth first appears in Sarah's house = $120
2: Magic Dance outfit = $80
3: When Jareth gives Hoggle the peach = $100
4: Ballroom scene outfit = $100
5: Within You outfit = $120
6: Thirteenth Hour outfit = $90

Yuki Eiri from Gravitation

Maki Murakami's Gravitation is one my favorite animes. I was first taken by it when I saw this music video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZmUzVuBl5A. It's really one of the better AMVs out there. Anyway, I related to it at the time since I was in love with a fictional character that reminded me of Yuki. And then I watched the actual anime and Yuki proved to be colder than I'd liked. But he was still gorgeous, no? I really love Maki's drawing style. I occasionally try to imitate it in my work.

Now back to the plush before I babble to oblivion about that. This was my first time using the fabric minky. It was actually quite a nightmare to use because it sheds on the sides so one has to fray-check every edge. But it really is the softest stuff; I like petting Yuki because of it. Sadly, I've kinda been frightened away from minky. His eyes are really nice too, I must say. The color was slightly off because apparently when I mix my yellow and black paint together, I get green o.O?? His ears were also a little too high, so now I'm more conscious of ear placement. And just so you know, in the last photo there, the cigarette was not photoshopped into the photo. It just looks strange since Yuki shouldn't be smoking cigarettes that large!

I'm taking commissions if you'd like a doll of some sort, so send me an email if you're interested and read my COMMISSION INFO HERE.

Pedobear

My brother's friend commissioned me to make him a Pedobear drift charm. I didn't really know what Pedobear looked like when I accepted or what a drift charm was. And then I learned. So I made him his charm and now the 6" Pedobear will drift in the wind as the car speeds along. Meanwhile, the larger Pedobear needs a home. If you are interested in purchasing it for $20, leave a comment. He is 8.5" tall and made mostly of fleece.

I'm taking commissions if you'd like a doll of some sort, so send me an email if you're interested and read my COMMISSION INFO HERE.

Subaru and Seishiro from X/1999

Well, as a follow-up to my last post, this is now on X/1999, a sort of bittersweet anime by CLAMP. A fellow deviant saw my last Subaru plush and asked me to make her Subaru and Seishiro from X. And so I made them. She even asked if I could put magnets in their hands and faces so that they could hug and kiss. And of course I was willing to indulge her yaoi fantasies <3. So I went on eBay and ordered me some of those super strong neodymium magnets. 100 of them for $5.99. I used 18 of them up for this project. Sadly the magnets in the faces didn't create a strong enough pull for a kiss, but at least the ones in the hands worked fine.

Newest additions: Double the wire. And it was my first time making trenchcoats. Subaru's came out better than Seishiro's. It was also my first time making boots and a tie. Seems that everything came out alright.

I'm taking commissions if you'd like a doll of some sort, so send me an email if you're interested and read my COMMISSION INFO HERE.

Subaru Sumeragi from Tokyo Babylon

What is Tokyo Babylon, you ask? Well, if you read manga, CLAMP is a pretty big Japanese mangaka group nowadays. They created Tokyo Babylon in 1990, along with RG Veda and Man of Many Faces. Since TB didn't have a real conclusion to the story, the characters show up again in X/1999 and we get a more conclusive ending. Yay?

Anyway, Subaru Sumeragi is a lovable character for being extremely kindhearted and willing to go out of his way to do good things. He also gets embarrassed easily (especially by his twin sister who tries to set him up with their good friend Seishiro.) But I've said too much.

So I made a plush of him. The newest additions were hand-painted eyes and wires for poseability. The hat came out a bit crude because of the glue. And the jacket was annoying to make. But overall, he turned out pretty cute, eh?

I'm taking commissions if you'd like a doll of some sort, so send me an email if you're interested and read my COMMISSION INFO HERE.