If you are following me on Instagram you will already know that the “Zombooger” art toy figure is the newest release from Mr Blank Toys. This is the first figure in a series of characters called “The Crustious Boogers” that are The California Raisins figurines customized as famous people and characters from pop culture. The first is a zombie, but I have a few more in the works too… Coming Soon!
To get started I purchased a bag full of California Raisins off of ebay:
Then, for the Zombooger figure I carved the face into an exposed-skull zombie face using clay carving tools that I heated up over a candle fire. This is what the figure looked like before (right) and after (left), notice the blackness from the plastic burning:
Once the carving was done I painted it booger colors:
My first packaging idea was to do a 6″x9″ card back that featured a picture of a movie zombie, but in the end I wanted a simple basic packaging that was small and compact, like you would find in a real store. I may still use the original packaging idea for a more “gallery” style setup but for now I’m going with simple. Here’s the original packaging:
Once I was happy with the figure concept prototype, I needed to make a mold and cast copies of it in resin. For this process I headed on down to the local craft store and bought some Amazing Mold Rubber and Amazing Casting Resin (“Amazing” is the brand of the materials not what I thought of them). This was my first time actually molding something I made so I didn’t really know what I was doing. I watched a bunch of Youtube videos on the topic first and when I thought I knew what to do good enough, I gave it a shot. Here’s a video of the molding process:
Once I had it molded I cast 10 copies of the figure out of white resin and painted five of them based on the original prototype:
In the end I think the figure came out just as I hoped. Even though I am not 100% happy with the molding rubber and casting resin I used, it still came out great.
I have more resin and mold rubber being shipped soon (from Smooth-On), and when that gets here I plan on molding and casting some other figures I have ready. Now that I have the Pressure Pot they should come out even better.
The “Zombooger” is a limited edition 2″ resin figure. Carded on a 4″x6″ store display card. I only made a total of 10 for the first run, 5 of them I left unpainted in white resin (“ghost” variant) and 5 of them I painted (labeled “original”). They are Now Available from our Shop. More figures from the “The Crustious Boogers” series will be available soon… Upcoming: Mucky McFly, Loogie Armstrong, Frank Snotra, Sneezy E, Phlemmy, David Boogie, Snot Lebowski, Gene Sniffons, Schnozsquatch, and one as-of-yet unnamed… So stay tuned!