Halloween

Stan Laurel

This is my second attempt at making a Stan Laurel figure. I have included a comparisson picture above (the bottom one) so you can see the differances.

This time around, his outfit is based on what he wore in the show Towed in the Hole in 1932. And of course, I just had to paint him in black and white again!

Stanley is the first figure that has the ability to turn his head. I drilled a hole in the bottom large enough to insert a screw that goes up into the head.

As simple as his face looks, it was the most difficult part of all for me. I had to re-do it more than once!

Halloween Merry-Go-Round

Here is the first play set/display that I have made. When you turn the tree, the wheel in the middle spins, and all of the spooks chase Ichabod around the tree!

I made this toy with The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in mind. The dead tree with a large hole in the middle is based off of my memories of some of the trees in Disney's The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. The stone mile post that says "New York 30 MI" is based off of an old mile post that is actually still in place beside the Old Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.

Displayable Figurines

These toys are probably not suitable for little children to play with, but they make for nice displayabe figurines. Don't the fall characters look nice with fall decorations?

Philadelphia Flyers Snowman

Time to take a break from the fall theme. Here's a character for the upcoming winter season.

I wanted to make something with a hockey jersey on it, but I didn't feel like making an actual hockey player at this point. While I was carving this guy out, I thought I was making another scarecrow, but this time with a Philadelphia Flyers jersey and a touque. When it came time to make the arms, I made the decision that he was going to be a snowman instead.

This fellow was very time consuming to paint. Making the logo was very difficult work, and I was worried that I was going to make a mistake that would be difficult to correct. Thankfully, it worked out well. I don't really like how the number turned out, but oh well.

The jersey that he is wearing is based on the very first home uniform that the Flyers wore back in 1967 (which is also the reason for the number 67 on the back).

The snowman was made from ten pieces of wood

Ichabod Crane

This Ichabod Crane figure is based off of his appearance in Disney's The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. Ichabod is the unfortunate schoolmaster who was chased through the forests of Sleepy Hollow by the Headless Horseman.

Making Ichabod took a lot of work! His head was a real challenge, but while he doesn't look identical to the Disney character, I think this is about as close as he's going to get.

The reason for the unusual positioning of Ichabod's arms, is that I am planning to someday attempt to make a horse for Ichabod to ride on. The raised arm would hold his riding stick, while the arm pointing forward would hold the reigns.

I chose to give Ichabod a happy expression over a frightened face, simply because I thought it would be easier. Plus, for most of the cartoon, Ichabod looks happy. So even though it would look odd for Ichabod to be smiling while being chased by the Headless Horseman, when he's off the horse, at least it looks like he's giving a friendly wave.

As I said, Ichabod is the most complex figure yet, and was made from 12 pieces of wood. I still need to figure out something for the bow in his hair!

Ghost

Here's a glow-in-the-dark ghost for the Halloween collection!

Yet another figure with extended arms! I think it gives the figures a lot more character, plus the ghost just had to have them!

For the base of the ghost, I wanted it to look like he was hovering over the dead grass and weeds on an autumn night. A few colorful fall leaves are scattered among the grass as well.

Scarecrow

Here's a brand new scarecrow for the Halloween collection. I did make another scarecrow earlier this year, that you can see in an earlier post. However, this one has a totally different appearance. The reason for the particular look that this scarecrow has, is that I wanted him to have more of a colonial times appearance (hat, shirt, jacket style) so that he would fit in better with the Sleepy Hollow themed characters.

On this fellow, the arms and the hat are separate pieces. The hat is actually made from two separate pieces. Instead of having just a straight pointed hat, I thought that it would look nice if it had a bend to it. So, I cut the point of the hat in half at an angle, rounded off the edges, and glued it back in place.

With this figure I did a lot more experimenting with blending colors. I don't know what anyone else thinks, but I like how it turned out! This is one of my favorite figures to date.

Headless Horseman

This past August we went to New York state and passed through the village of Sleepy Hollow. This was the setting for Washington Irving's story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Check out the picture of the Old Dutch Church above It was built in 1697! I have read the story and have always loved the Disney cartoon based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, so I just had to see this place!

Anyway, with Halloween approaching, it seemed the right time to make some Halloween characters, and Sleepy Hollow's Headless Horseman was a th the top of the list. For this figure I knew that I would have to try something new by giving him an extended arm. He had to be able to hold that pumpkin!

What I did to make this figure was to first carve out the body on the wood lathe, and then then use the rotary tool for a little extra detail on the collar. Next came the pumpkin, which was made from a separate piece of wood. For the extended arm, I drilled a hole in the side of his body at an angle so that his arm would be lifted up. After figuring the length that the arm would need to be, I took a craft stick, cut it to length, then cut it in half at an angle to make the elbow joint. After gluing those in place, I used half of a wood bead for the hand, and then glued the pumpkin on top. The cape is made from a piece of felt, glued to the back of the Horseman's collar, and has an added piece of string around the cape and collar to serve as the tie for the cape.

One of the best features of this figure? The pumpkin face, as well as the Horseman's hands buttons and seam down his shirt all glow in the dark!

Sesame Street characters

Here's a picture of the Sesame Street lineup all together.

Cookie Monster

I wasn't sure how well Cookie Monster would turn out, but overall, I'm satisfied with the result. His head took a LOT of carving to get close to the head shape of the Cookie Monster puppet! When painting, I tried to give more of a texture to his blue fur brushing a darker blue wash over the lighter blue.

Oscar the Grouch

This is not the first Oscar that I have made, but he's the first one that I've kept for myself. This time around, I tried to make his garbage can look a lot more grungy and rusted by adding a few more colors to it, as well as a few dabs of metallic looking silver to give the trash can more of a realistic look.

The lid of the trash can is a separate piece with a staple glued in place for a handle.

Ernie

Bert needs a buddy, so here he is! Don't they look happy to finally be together?

Ernie was a fun one to make and I am pleased with how he turned out. Like Bert, his hair was made out of black yarn and his ears were made from the cut off ends of craft sticks.