DustinCropsBoy's blog n' stuff

I HAVE ABANDONED THIS BLOG URL

2011-10-28T16:10:00.000-07:00

All future blog posting as well as all my papertoys will be on my personal website:

DustinCropsBoy.com

Thanks

yer pal for life ~dcb

And the winner is...

2010-03-01T22:11:00.000-08:00

84Tigers wins again! Congrats and thank you to everyone who entered.

Two last minute entries

2010-02-28T20:24:00.000-08:00

Two last minute entries in the Coen-test. Here we have another Anton Chigurh by 84Tigers and a Gaear Grimsrud by Damien T. Howell. Both are available for download here. I will announce the winner on Tuesday the 2nd of March.

Anton Chigurh

2010-02-20T09:33:00.000-08:00

Another Coen Brothers contest submission. This time It's Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men. Download your own here:http://www.pallypal.com/coentest/anton_alexander.html

Llewelyn Moss

2010-02-14T22:22:00.000-08:00

Another submission in the Coen Brothers contest (Ends February 28th!). This is Llewelyn Moss from No Country for Old Men. Submitted by Shoffi. Download your own Llewelyn Moss.

Get yer own Eddy Broth doll - NOW!

2010-02-11T18:55:00.000-08:00

Lock up your valuables, lay the newspapers out on your floor and make room in your bed for America's favorite li'l orphan: Eddy Broth!

The public demanded a cuddly soft Eddy of their own, Sbritt & Monkey in a Dryer answered their calls! Get your own here.

A couple more Coen Brothers contest entires!

2010-02-07T19:14:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple more entries for my Coen Brothers contest. Contest ends in a couple weeks... better get on it! Download these fine papertoys here: http://www.pallypal.com/coentest.html

Haunted Toys

2010-01-27T13:47:00.000-08:00

Check out this huge collection of haunted paper toys that are free to download!
Go here for all of them: http://www.ravensblight.com/papertoys.html.
My favorite is the dancing skeleton marionette:

Coloring book teaser

2010-01-25T22:51:00.000-08:00

Here's a teaser first page for a DCB coloring/activity book I'm working on.

S.Britt/Monkey in a Dryer collaboration

2010-01-12T15:45:00.000-08:00

S.Britt and I are working together on an exciting project. Here is a teaser:

Don't forget to check out these awesome books he illustrated:

Alma

2010-01-11T18:48:00.001-08:00

A perfect li'l animated short:

Alma from Rodrigo Blaas on Vimeo.

DCB times THREE

2010-01-05T10:15:00.000-08:00

My personal mascot - DCB, in paper form. Download them here:
PallyPal bobblehead DCB | Foldskool Hero DCB | Cubeecraft DCB

Original templates from (L-R): PallyPal, Foldskool Hero, Cubeecraft.

1931 National radio papercraft

2009-12-31T10:05:00.000-08:00

My favorite time in history is the 1930s, specifically the year 1931 (it's a long story). So when I found this 1931 National radio papercraft toy on a Japanese website, I was pretty excited! They have more household appliances from various other years in the early to mid 20th century, check 'em out: Panasonic papercraft .

Panasonic boy

2009-12-30T18:01:00.000-08:00

I built this paper toy from a Japanese link I stumbled upon. It's the vintage mascot from Panasonic of Japan (as far as I can tell). No idea what the "N" stands for. Here is a link to the site with the free download of the paper toy (semi-translated with babelfish). (Panasonic paper boy). The link for downloading are the 3 red text links on the bottom of the yellow notepaper graphic.

Walter Sobchak paper toy

2009-12-27T22:50:00.000-08:00

Got the 1st Coen Brothers contest (Coen-Test) submission today. A very nice Walter from Natsaha. I hope everyone was just busy with the holidays and forgot to get their submissions in... but times a tickin!

Download Walter Sobchak

Twiggy paper toy

2009-12-27T18:40:00.001-08:00

My latest papertoy for you to download for FREE is the lovely Twiggy! Get yours here: Twiggy papercraft toy

Coen Brothers Paper Toy Design Contest

2009-12-27T18:13:00.000-08:00

I'm throwing another papertoy design contest. This time around, the design must be inspired by one of the many Coen Brothers movies. The deadline is January 31st, 2010. Go to PallyPal paper toys for full details, download the template and design away. Good Luck!

DCB costume done

2008-09-18T17:37:00.000-07:00

Here is the final pic of my DCB costume just before it was packed up and shipped to me... I should receive it in a few days!!!

DCB Mascot - part 2

2008-09-14T11:36:00.000-07:00

Here is an early progress shot of the DCB costume...

Magic Apparel show

2008-08-25T20:56:00.000-07:00

We debuted our Sweet Pickles t shirt line for kids and juniors this week at the "Magic Apparel trade show" in Las Vegas. We shared the booth with our good friend Dan who is debuting his "World of Mr. Toast" shirts.

DCB Mascot

2008-08-24T06:34:00.000-07:00

Normally I like to tackle all my own projects, but sometimes I know that there is someone better suited for the job. My good friend Holly, the most amazing mascot maker I know, is now in the early process of creating a DCB costume for me. She has the logistics worked out and the fleece picked out.

Holly's previous work is amazing. If you've ever been to DragonCon, she and her group are the ones who always win best in show with their insanely elaborate costumes...

As you can see, I put my DCB costume needs in very capable hands!!!

Dakins

2008-01-28T19:39:00.000-08:00

Here's my Dakin (and other similar figures) collection...
Daffy, Willie, Road Runner, Speedy, Cool Cat, Bugs, Foghorn, Pepé

Elmer, Merlin, 2nd Banana, Tweety, Sylvester, Yosemite

Fred, Barney, Dino, Peebles, Bamm Bamm

Fleegle, Bingo, Snorky, Drooper, Hokey, Yogi

Dudley, Pink Panther, Bullwinkle, Rockey, Deputy Dawg, Mighty Mouse, Underdog, Smokey, Freddy Fast

Woodsey, Bozo, Popeye, Olive, Hardy, Casper, Pinocchio, Laurel, Donald, Hobo Joe

I'm always looking to complete the collections. LMK if you have any for sale that I don't have.

More Sarah art

2007-10-13T20:59:00.000-07:00

I just got my commissioned artwork from Sarah Kargol today. I had asked her a few months ago if she would do a Twiggy themed monster painting... and this is what she came up with:

Yer the best, Sarah!

Amazing new artist

2007-07-22T21:14:00.000-07:00

I was at a street fair in Fargo, ND this weekend. It was a pretty typical midwest arts/crafts show - lots of knicky-knacky crafts you'd find at your mom's house and stuff made from beer cans and old farm equipment. It was pretty dull... But just as I was about to give up on finding anything cool, I stumbled upon a booth of artwork by Sarah Kargol.

I see a lot of art - at art shows & openings, online galleries, in books, etc. There is a lot of fantastic stuff out there lately - but none of it has made me more happy (and willing to buy) than the art of Sarah... I dunno why, but it just made me so happy to look at. I bought only 4 pieces so far, as I wasn't 100% if I had the wall space where I wanted to display them.

But once I got home, I discovered I do indeed have the space for them and more... So I'm commissioning her to make me a piece that will go with these. I'm sure I'll be buying more soon. You should too, before she gets too big and you can't afford it! :D

DCB prototype - part 3 - Box Design

2007-05-23T07:32:00.000-07:00

Here is the preliminary box I designed for the DCB vinyl figure. Things may change along the way... as I have a month or so of time until the figures are done... but for the most part, I'm happy with it (for now)...

Monkey gets a fresh face...

2007-05-13T12:50:00.000-07:00

I just got done redesigning my entire Monkey in a Dryer website...

Let me know what you think of the new look by clicking here: Monkey in a Dryer :D

DCB prototype - part 2

2007-04-23T12:13:00.000-07:00

Got the pix back of the painted up prototype...

DCB doll prototype

2007-04-07T15:44:00.000-07:00

I'm getting my personal mascot made into a vinyl figure. I submitted money and a drawing to gensenfigure.com out of Hong Kong and a li'l over a week later they sent me back pix of the prototype sculpt...

It's damn near perfect... I only require two minor changes. I photoshop my change requests...

My former life as a Dr. Seuss nut.

2007-03-17T22:01:00.000-07:00

Years and years ago I had a Dr. Seuss collection - it was a rather large Dr. Seuss collection - one of the world's largest. This was years before eBay and years before I had any real money to spend on such things... but I somehow managed to acquire a collection worth bragging about. I would scour the country and scrap together what extra money I could and buy all things Seuss. This was NOT stuff like books - but more harder to find stuff like toys, model kits, old advertising, house wares and the like. All of it very scarce.

I even owned and operated a website about this collection and all other things Seuss related. I started it in the early years of the Internet (1997). It was called seussnavy.com and was quite popular. So popular, indeed, that it was written up in a few magazines and eventually even became an officially licensed Seuss site.

Then...

...one day, for reasons unknown (I'm sure they were mostly financial)... I sold the entire collection. All one giant lot on eBay... one bid gets it ALL. I started it at $5 and before the auction was through, it topped out somewhere in the neighborhood of $10k. I saved the eBay page for years on my computer, as a reminder - but have since misplaced it... probably a good thing anyway - it was too painful to look at.

Anyway - the reason I bring this up now is because today, at the book store, I stumbled upon this book:

It's from 2004, but I had never seen it before. I picked it up and started leafing through it when I started to recognize some of the items in it as once belonging to me. I looked back at the cover to find out who the author was - and sure enough, it was Charles - the guy I sold it all to years before! I was quite happy to see some of the collection being in there along with the other stuff that Charles has. I also got a kudos in the back of the book "thank you... original Dr. Seuss guru Dallas Poague". (hee)

I remembered him telling me after he bought my stuff that he was going to combine our collections and possibly put them on display somewhere. He lives close to Dr. S's hometown, so that would be perfect! I'm going to have to contact him and see if that's still going to happen.

So there you go.. just a neat trip down memory lane for me today!

(p.s. - you can see bits n' pieces of my old Seuss site in archives here: Seuss site archives) (please don't laugh at the primitive web design - it was almost 10 years ago)

Help me name my new character

2006-12-15T11:23:00.000-08:00

Two fascinations I have are the blind and the Amish and I've had this character idea in my head for a while now, but never sat down to draw him, until now....

But now I need a name for him. I don't think I want a typical Amish name, but I'm coming up blank... Any suggestions would be great. Thanks

NEW Cereal Forum is up

2006-11-19T10:41:00.000-08:00

The new cereal box collecting forum is up 'n ready for you to visit and become a member...

blast from the past

2006-11-13T10:50:00.000-08:00

Going through some old files - I stumbled across some pix of a Gibby Haynes doll I made. Gawd, that was prolly 7 or 8 years ago now...

I ended up selling it to my friend, who was able to show it to Gibby (both pictured here):

She also got King to sign it too:

I wish I could have been there to see their reaction to it first hand. She told me they were both amused and horrified... PERFECT!

More new Monster cereal fun

2006-11-08T19:35:00.000-08:00

First the nifty new Monster cereal box art is recently introduced by General Mills (see my post a few weeks ago below)- and now Kubrick of Japan releases these spectacular li'l Monster figures (these are WAY cooler than the Funko Monster bobbleheads ever could be):

Toy Tokyo is preselling them now. (I do not have any affiliation with Toy Tokyo).

Puppet Fun

2006-11-05T10:26:00.000-08:00

I have a new addition to my collection of puppets we made for celebs we like... this time around it's Regina Spektor. She was very nice and personable and got quite a kick out of her puppet:

See the other puppets we made here: puppet show.

Mayor at DragonCon '06

2006-09-09T08:39:00.000-07:00

Here are some pix of me in my Mayor McCheese costume at DragonCon '06:

(click to go to the pix)

enjoy.

Monster Fun

2006-09-08T22:33:00.000-07:00

As promised... I got a hold of all 3 of the new Monster boxes and here they all are:

I think I like the Count the best, even though he has typically been my least favorite of the 5 (ok, maybe he wasn't as lame as Yummy Mummy... but he's definetely #4 on my list).

I wasn't crazy about Boo when I first saw it, but now he's growing on me.

I don't think I really care for the Frank much yet, but, like Boo, he'll prolly grow on me soon.

Custom Addams Family bobbles

2006-09-07T18:31:00.000-07:00

Mr. Frothy just presented me with a set of Addams bobbles that he hand sculpted, molded, cast in resin & painted... they are beautiful! I love the grey scale paint job on them and I'm really impressed with how his sculpting skills have progressed over the years - now only if we can get his molding/casting skills to do that same. He only made 2 sets (one for him, one for me) as he hates the molding/casting part of doing these projects. Enjoy.

666

2006-09-05T20:53:00.000-07:00

I don't normally buy older advertising stuff... I try to stick to only kids stuff from the 60s-70s... But today, as I was scrounging through some antique store in some small town in the middle of Wisconsin, I came across this goofy fan:

(click to enlarge)

It's for an 'amazing' product that comes in liquid, tablet, salve or nose drop form and cures everything from colds, headaches, fever, biliousness, malaria & constipation! But WHAT were they thinking by calling it 666? There is NO indication that it has anything to do with Satan or anything of that nature. In fact, it even has a glowing recommendation by an archbishop!!! I'm no bible expert or anything... but I'm pretty sure '666' was a well known number for 'the devil' even way before it was so popularized in the many heavy metal songs of years later. But I may be wrong.

Back from DragonCon...

2006-09-05T18:09:00.000-07:00

I just rolled in from an 18+ hour drive back from Atlanta. This past labor day weekend was DragonCon- the biggest costuming convention around... It's full of every goofball group out there that you can think of. From goth kids, to trekkies, to Star Wars fans, to furries, to gawd knows what and more. This year it took over 3 huge hotels with a gazillion people. My friend Art was gracious enough to do some "professional" photos of a few of his friends at his house before the con. Here I am in my completed Mayor McCheese costume:

Here I am being über-dorky:

I'll post some more pix later. Thanks for visiting.

The coolest cereal graphics in - i dunno - 25 years!

2006-08-26T14:46:00.000-07:00

I just found the new Count Chocula box today - and WOW - it is beyond swell. Kudos to the kids in the art department at General Mills for making a box that looks almost vintage without being overly "retro" - yet still looks modern. I haven't seen a cooler cereal box on the grocery shelf in probably over 25 years. Mr. Frothy found the Frankenberry box, which I have not yet seen. Once I find one - I'll post a pic of that as well. We're anxiously waiting to see what the Booberry box will look like.

I love the fact that the cereal is barely even shown (only a tiny bit on one of the side panels) - very reminiscent of a late 60s-early 70s box - where the character is what sold the product. They're so swell, it almost makes me want to buy them all and display them with my vintage boxes (almost).

Here is a recent "lame" version for comparison:

Amazing Twiggy art

2006-08-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, I am a Twiggy NUT! I have been collecting stuff of hers for over 17 years now and have just about everything there is to have. Well, I THOUGHT I did, anyway. Then along comes these amazing pieces and I just flipped out when I got them...

This is the original painting used in the production of the Twiggy brunch bag:

And this is the original artwork for the Twiggy "thermos" bottle:

Here is the actual brunch bag/bottle for comparison:

They are incredible pieces and truly "one of a kind". I can't believe these came up for sale AND that I was able to get them!

Sugary fun

2006-07-29T10:06:00.000-07:00

Today I thought I'd post pix of my cereal box collection. I had a pretty nice collection years ago, but situations in life meant that I had to sell it. I managed to hold on to 3 of my favorites and later started up a new collection. This collection is only a few years in the making, but I already have managed to get some pretty nice boxes, I think. There are still some out there that I really want (Waffelos, Baron Von Redberry, Cinnamon Crunch, Jets, and a few more)... enjoy!

McObsession (part 2)

2006-07-25T19:44:00.000-07:00

Here are some pix of my rapidly growing Mayor McCheese collection...

First up is the small stuff, pretty easy to find premiums n' whatnot from the 70s - 80s.

Second is my collection of restaurant pieces. A fiberglass Playland™ statue, and 2 wall hangings. All three are very hard to get, as not every McDonalds had them - and most were later destroyed when they would remodel.

And finally, here is my fiberglass McCheese costume head. This was used in the 70s for promotional use only. I doubt very much that 'all' the stores had one. There was probably only one made per region, or state - if that. I don't know for sure, but it's pretty rare nonetheless. I am currently working on restoring it to it's original splendor as well as making a full costume to go with it.

here is a vintage 70s pic of the same type of Mayor costume as the one I have...

McObsession

2006-07-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

I've become obsessed with Mayor McCheese lately. Here are some quick drawings I did in the middle of the night the other night when I couldn't sleep. I'll post some more later as well pix as my large McCheese collection.

McThinker

You can't really see it - but DustinCropsBoy is flying the cropduster.

Got my childhood back...

2006-06-15T21:24:00.000-07:00

I wanna say thanks again to my friend Dan for reuniting me 33 years later with a Pals Vitamins Clubhouse. As shown in the pic below - I had one when I was about 1 year old. (that's me in the fancy red overalls with my sister and two of her friends)

and here it is now...

Of course, it's not the ACTUAL one I had as a kid... but it's the same thing. This one was actually never assembled until I took it out of the box and put it together in all it's glory. I'll re-create my 70s photo later with my son, daughter, and two of her friends. I showed my photo to Dan and a few other collector friends of mine years ago. No one had seen one, let alone ever heard of it before - nor seen any offers on Pals stuff advertising it. It's quite large and I really don't know what I'm going to do it now, but I had to have one - and now I do. I can die happy.

*interesting tidbit about this clubhouse - Dan told me that it is actually the exact same design as the Mickey Mouse clubhouse that was made several years before - just different graphics.

Price Quote Tabulator

2005-12-30T11:48:00.000-08:00

I finally got it all figured out! The new price quote tabulator is up n' running smoothly. Many thanks to Justin at CartoonSmart.com for really explaining Flash and actionScripting so clearly and making it easy and fun to do (albeit, very frustrating at times!)... Though he didn't exactly make one of these - he made other stuff make sense - so I could sorta figure this out on my own.

I made the new price quote tabulator to be as user friendly as possible... just input in what kind of shirt you want, how many you need and how many colors are in your design(s) and it'll instantly give you a grand total price quote. Easy peasey - Japanesey! You can get to it by clicking the tab on top that says "PRICE QUOTE" - ( on Monkey in a Dryer if you got to this blog some other way)

The origin of DCB... (woo woo!!!)

2005-12-07T10:33:00.000-08:00

Going through some old files recently - I came across the original picture that was used as the base for DCB, so I thought I'd share his origin...

I originally came up with the idea of DCB a few years ago as a companion for Mr. Frothy. Mr. Frothy is the moniker of my friend/biz partner. He had used this character for many years for all his promotional needs and signatures. I wanted my own character for the same purpose.

I decided right off the bat that I wanted my character to play hoop & stick. Not sure why - but hoop & stick was stuck in my head that day. Googling "Hoop & Stick" led me to the vintage picture of the French boy you see above. I really enjoyed his outfit and decided that it would work quite well for my character. I then had to figure out what sort of critter he was going to be. I toyed with all sorts of ideas... a human, different animals, different household objects, etc. until I finally decided a grasshopper would be pleasant. I'm not sure why I picked a grasshopper - but I'm glad I did. I printed out a bunch of grasshopper pictures and the French boy and gave them to Mr. Frothy to see what he could come up with. The result is the picture below - the very first incarnation of DCB:

He was PERFECT! Next was to come up with a name for him. That was tricky. Again - I tried all sorts of ideas in my head - but nothing really worked. Then it was suggested that I just call him by my "online name" of Dustin Crops Boy. I already used that name for all my online activity - posting on forums n' such. It was a perfect name for a grasshopper! I really enjoyed the idea of a grasshopper also being a crop duster - since crop dusting is usually done to kill pesky insects - like grasshoppers. It also had the Star Wars thing going on with it (why I had originally picked the name so long before) - so that was cool.

Frothy is a much better drawer than I am. In fact, I hadn't drawn by hand for years and years. I was convinced that the computer had ruined my drawing skills for ever. So, over the next few years, Frothy continued to draw DCB and Mr. Frothy in various situations for promotional items for the T-shirt business. These drawings usually involved DCB doing something malicious to Frothy - like attempting to get him with a firecracker or hitting him in the head with his hoop. Frothy just took it without any sort of retaliation.

As it was decided a few months ago that Frothy was not going to be involved as much in the T-shirt business - I took it upon myself to figure out how to draw DCB for myself. This has been quite a challenge - as I mentioned, I didn't draw at all anymore and hadn't for 100 years or thereabouts. I went out and bought some good pens and paper and forced myself to do it. The results are so-so thus far, but I think I am showing an improvement. Looking at the 'original' DCB picture above - I can see that I really stretched him out... but he had been stretched by Frothy a few times along the way as well - it all depended on the situation he was in. It's much easier to have him do stuff when he's not so squat.

So, be sure to check out my progress in learning to draw as I attempt to continue my comic strip "Lemon Firecrackers". I'm trying to do at least one of these a week. Lately I have been doing more than that - but it all really depends on my schedule and if I have any good ideas. Oh, and if you ever see Mr. Frothy making a cameo in one of the strips - that's "code" that means that Mr. Frothy was involved in the idea of that particular strip.

~enjoy~

dcb

Frothco changes name

2005-11-15T09:56:00.000-08:00

After years of being known as Frothco - we decided to change the name of our tshirt business to Monkey In A Dryer. Things will stay pretty much the same.

Frothco Dot Com will soon be used to showcase the works and projects of Mr. Frothy. Stay tuned for that.

Dresden Dolls puppets

2005-10-11T09:50:00.000-07:00

Frothy is done with the artwork for the Dresden Dolls puppets.

Here is mock up:

(click to enlarge)

I'm going to print them up and have them assmebled this week so we can hopefully give them to Amanda & Brian at the Madison, WI show on Monday, Oct. 17th.