Christmas, Special Gifts and Loot Crate December 2014 (updated)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY

Figure 1

Eight special people received a very special, personal gift. Here is the history of this special gift. Everybody who received this special gift got this.

Why back in 2012, Hasslefree Miniature started a Sculpting Competition. The rule where: 

Figure 2

1. You must use the female armature HFL503 (Figure 1) as a basis for your sculpt.
2. The Final piece must be able to be cast-able in metal by us. This means you will need to use epoxy putties like Greenstuff or Milliput plus you can add other items like guns or parts of other figures. Fimo is not advised as it can crumble under the pressure exerted on it when a mould is being vulcanised.
3. You must agree that the Final Piece that you submit will be sent to HF for production and you will relinquish all rights to reproduce that piece for personal use or for profit.
4. People who enter the contest (but only once regardless of how many entries they enter) will receive a set of a metal copy of the winning entries (resin instead of metal ones), a copy in metal of their stuff that gets produced in metal, vouchers for the winners and runner ups and 20% off an order (which was added just before they started shipping the prizes.

Figure 3

I decided to enter the competition to see how well I would do. I manage to pick up four armatures to use. I based each of them on characters from several sources, make sure to do some changes to copy right characters to not break any copy rights.

The first one was based on Lily Rain Eve from an online computer game CosmicBreak (Figure 2). I dropped the shoulder less sleeves (or at least that is what I think they are), hair decorations and weapon. This makes her able to fit into other things like a Martial Artist. This finished green in show in Figure 3. Here is some background of the character: 
Not much is known about Lily Rain other than she is an Angel Force member. It's possible that she is a Neet because she is often seen lazing around with domestic technology. It also supports the fact that she doesn't go directly into battle. Then one day her friend were being attack and she was wounded. An ancient, sentient weapon known as E.V.E. answered Lily's call for help. Turning her into Lily Rain Eve.”

Figure 4

He second was based on Kallen Stadtfeld/Kouzuki from the anime Code Geass (Figure 4). Again I dropped the shoulder less sleeves, however I added short sleeves to her red to. I also did not do her headband as I was worried that it might be a pain to do. I do wish now I tried it. The main reason I did this character was that I was making a team based on the Black Knights from Code Geass for a miniatures game called 7TV. I was trying to find a figure I could convert (modify) and with the contest I decided try to do her. This finished green in show in Figure 5. Here is some background of the character from Wiki:
“Kallen Stadtfeld is half-Britannian, half-Japanese, but believes herself to be a Japanese person at heart and prefers to be known by her mother's maiden name, Kouzuki. Her father is Britannian and her mother is an Eleven; her father comes from a prestigious Britannian family, which Kallen benefits from. She attends the Ashford Academy, where she later becomes a member of its student council and is one of its most outstanding students. Her brother, Naoto Kouzuki, with whom she had a deep connection, was a former leader of her resistance cell before his death.

Figure 5

Both Kallen's stepmother, a Britannian, and biological mother live with her in the same house, but her biological mother is employed as a maid and is often mistreated by both her stepmother and Kallen herself. After her biological mother is arrested for using Refrain (a fictional drug which lets people think they're reliving the past), Kallen changes her views and decides to fight against the Britannian Empire not only for her brother, but to fulfill her new wish for a world in which she can live happily with her biological mother.
Kallen leads a double life as a normal Britannian student and as a member of a guerrilla resistance group against Britannia, which is later reformed into the Order of the Black Knights by Lelouch Lamperouge. In school, she portrays herself as a weak-bodied high school student who obeys all of the formalities, and goes by her Britannian name of Stadtfeld. However, her personality changes into a very strong-willed and forceful one when she acts as a resistance fighter.”

Figure 6

The third was a Silicon character from some of my old stories, Shen the Silicon Lorddess of Lust. This was major redo of her. As the original designs (that came from a dream from 15 or more years ago). Her original design was of a female in yellow spandex with golden boxes over her shoulders that came from ever the shoulders or her back. The boxes had large symbols engraved in them. Now a days she is a sharp shifter with an internal skeleton (skin shifter might be a better description than sharp), changing her look to blind in or for what she needs, for example combat look I model her in. This finished green in show in Figure 6.

Figure 7

The fourth was a character based on the Start Trek online game I briefly played called Izrei Rasesay (Figure 7). She was the Trill Science Officer of the star ship(s) my character commanded. Sadly this figure was near finish in time as I had a major problem with one of the hands. Sorry I do not have any pictures of the greens on me.

Figure 8

The entries were stent off to them around Christmas time 2012. Sadly due to problems their end the polls for voting never come up until the end of September 2013. The winners were not reviled until the end of October 2013. Sadly none of my entries won, however they sadly the might product some of the non-winning entries in metal (but it does not mean that they will be released to the general public). Figure 8 shows all the winners from the Contest.

In October this year I got an email from them saying that at least one of my entries were being produced in and not long after that it was revealed that the figure based on Kallen Stadtfeld/Kouzuki and the figure based on Lily Rain Eve were going to be produced in metal and people who entered the contest would be able to order extra copies. I decided to order nine extra copies of each to make it ten copies of each. I set I planned to keep unpainted to display somewhere with the greens, one set for gaming and the other eight sets I decided to paint up and give as Christmas presents to eight special friends. I will not be listing the people who got these, however the version of this that they got did have a list so they will know. Figure 9 shows finish painted nine sets. The Two figures on special bases on the left edge are my set.

Figure 9

Now that is over and done there is another thing I wanted to talk able. On Tuesday I received my December 2014 Loot Crate. I was plan on posting pictures of the content on Tuesday or yesterday,but never got around to it. So I decided to merge it with this special Christmas post.

It had an excursive POP! Joker Batman, an excursive cover Batman comic, Groot socks, a paper Simson's Wallet, a Captain America car freshener, a Ghost Busters door notice, Tetris sticker set, a free 30 day trial of Crunchyroll and the monthly badge and mag, as well as a couple of other minor bits. This was a great crate. The Joker Batman and Groot shocks are AWESOME. However I do not think this crate lived up the HUGE hype that it was getting compared to past crates I have seen. Here is an unboxing video of the Loot Crate from Shadypenguinn.

Until next time have a Merry Christmas and Keep Rolling.