Latest Update

First, the really big news. Akiko's sister, Nazuki, Just gave birth to her second child, Sean Francis Hughes (have to check with the parents for the proper spelling). Congratulations to Nazuki and Steve and we'll post some pictures after our NJ visit early next year.

On the movie work front.
Set construction is absolutely dead right now with nothing going on. The word from fellow sculptors is that there are many films set to start and things should be very busy once again in the beginning of '09. People need to escape during a recession so movie making must go on.

Vartan


Still working away on the Vartan maquette. Finally got down to sculpting those darn armor scales.

Action Figures are out and Mighty Muggs are in.


What's the hot collectible for comic book geeks these days... MIGHTY MUGGS!
How could any Marvel fan not love these cute representations of beloved characters known for action, violence and massive destruction.

Giz


And what blog entry would be complete without another picture of Gizmo. Here's a quite moment in between his unending search to get into trouble.

Wrapped Revenge

After working for 4 months as a sculptor on Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, I got an invite to the Wrap Party, so Akiko and I headed out to Hollywood last night to party down with the cast and crew.
We don't get out all that much so it was fun hanging out at a hip club with an open bar, excellent food and a burlesque trio shaking things up for a few tunes. The highlight however was Michael Bay himself presenting a full length trailer that no one has seen yet as a thanks for all the hard work the crew put in to make the film. In true Bay fashion, the trailer had plenty of Armed Forces presence, returning stars and above all else, tons of stuff getting blowed up. We're talking some serious explosions here. Whoa.
Great time LA style.

*UPDATE
Welcome TRANSFORMERS fans. My blog has been linked to a few sites because of the wrap party info. It has been clarified that what we were shown at the party was not an official trailer, but footage shot for the sequel, cut like a trailer. It was for us cast and crew and not something anyone should expect to see released any time soon.
Despite what has been said though, there was at least 3 scenes with robots. However, the robots were ones already established in the first film so no breaking news here.

Fall In SoCal

One of the things we miss most from back East is the fall colors. So every year Akiko and I get in the car in search of changing leaves here in Southern CA.
Our first attempt was a complete bust as we visited Julian, CA the week before Halloween and everything was still pretty much green.
This week we drove 70 miles NE of Pasadena to Silverwood Lake.


It was a really nice area, beautiful weather, but only a hint of fall colors. We got some fresh air, did some hiking (had our first Bobcat sighting) and didn't spend the whole day driving, so it was worth it.


Look!! We found one!

More Cats

I know this doesn't look all that comfortable, but the little dude is asleep like this.


Phantom and Gizmo continue to interact more and more every day. Here Gizmo has taken over one of Phantom's favorite perches.