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*****Ladies and Gentlemen, Live In Concert...THE WOGGLES! *****
Back on November 9th of 2018, my friend Manfred Jones, lead vocalist of perennial “garage rock” band The Woggles http://www.thewoggles.com/, and I discovered we had a mutual love for Mego action figures from our childhood. As a Mego action figure customizer, this inspired me to want to create a set of Woggles action figures for him in the style that was near and dear to both our hearts.
I messaged him that I was planning on making a set and would unveil them June 13, 2019 at the annual Customego Hall of Fame dinner in Columbus, Ohio. I invited him and his bandmates to be my guests but scheduling conflicts prohibited this, and, just in passing, he quipped, “We'll have to incorporate them (the dolls) into some sort of album cover artwork using some sort of Mego Bat Cave or Planet of Apes Tree House as a backdrop/setting!”
And, that is where the most wicked, cool custom Mego project ever got started.
My mind started racing with images of custom Woggles action figures in their matching stage outfits posed, performing at various playsets Mego manufactured back in the 1970s: The Batcave, the Star Trek Bridge, the Planet of Apes, Wizard of Oz Emerald City, The Lost Continent, and list went on!
I sent pictures of the various playsets to Manfred and I could almost see his eyes as wide as saucers when he replied, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” To which I chimed in, “The name of the album can be 'Where in the World Are The Woggles?' and it shows the viewer that they are everywhere! In the world of comic books, in outer space, in the prehistoric age, etc. etc.” Unfortunately, Manfred says they do not have any material ready for a new album, to which I respond with an amazing degree of prognostication, “Hey, maybe for your greatest hits album due out next May? Hint. Hint.”
The project kept growing in my mind and took on a life of it's own.
I couldn't just have The Woggles posing in these playsets, we needed them to perform! So, at each they will play to crowds comprised of Mego action figures who corresponded with that particular setting. At the Batcave they will perform for Batman, Superman, and the rest of the Justice League; at the Star Trek Bridge they will perform for Captain Kirk, the Enterprise crew, and all of the Star Trek aliens; and so on and so forth.
But, why stop there I thought?
Being the consummate performers they are, The Woggles would truly make each of these performances a night to remember, right?! At the Batcave they would don the costumes of Batman's greatest costumed villains and perform a set as Joker, Penguin, Riddler, and Two-Face; on the Star Trek Bridge they would perform a set as the doomed “red-shirts”; at the Emerald City they'll dress and perform as Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tinman, and Lion...they would put on shows their audiences would never forget!
In my mind, though, there was still something missing. The grand finale!
I needed a stage big enough to contain the energy of The Woggles, clad in their red, ruffled tuxedo shirts, AND all of their adoring fans. Mego never made a stage playset, but Mattel did. They made one for a line of Barbie figures called The Rockers. It was huge and it would be just the right setting (we just need to change that Rockers logo to The Woggles logo and we'll be set). This was big enough to accommodate everybody for one last show where all lines of action figures could gather in one place and enjoy the show side by side. We'll have Batman, Blackbeard the Pirate, Mr. Spock, and Dr. Zaius arms raised, standing side by side; Dorothy, Supergirl, Lieutenant Uhura, and Zira will all be together, front row swooning for The Woggles; because if The Woggles have a super power, it is the power to bring people (and non-people alike) together through the love of their music.
The desired end was crystal-clear in my mind, and now I had to execute a plan to achieve that end.
I needed to create action figures based on The Woggles, complete with accessories, instruments, and up to 10 different costume changes; I needed numerous playsets and action figures I didn't own; I needed a professional photographer to capture the true essence of my vision; and I needed them all to gather (and together) in one place (Columbus, Ohio) at the very same time (June 14th, 2019). Simple enough.
I enlisted the artistic skills of my friend Andrew Covalt, renowned action figure sculptor and animator to sculpt the heads. In my completely biased opinion, Andrew created his finest work. And, he did it in record time as he was incredibly busy with his day job working on Cartoon Network's 'Rick and Morty' out in Hollywood. To him I am truly grateful.
Retro toy manufacturer Classic TV Toys, who specialize in helping '70s kids relive their youth by producing Mego-like action figure versions of DC Superheroes, The Three Stooges, The Monkees, Scooby Doo, KISS, and a host of other franchises, is where I picked up most of the clothing and instruments for the band (and Yes that is a Gene Simmons bass that Buzz is playing and Yes I did send Gene his royalty check already).
Some items I had to modify and some items I had to dye different colors, but for the most part they were good to go. My dear friend David Lee was my lifeline for the ruffled, tuxedo shirts. Those were old, white pirate shirts from the Mego World's Greatest Pirates line which I dyed a beautiful ruby red per Manfred's instructions: “If you can dye the ruffled shirts then red is the color.” Why David was hoarding those ruffled shirts for so long is still a mystery. Personally, I think it was for a line of custom Jerry Seinfeld dolls he was working on, but we may never know.
Finding a drum-kit was a daunting task. Most toy drum kits look just like, well, toy drum kits. They are either made of flimsy cardboard or are made in a single-color plastic or are not in scale. Swooping in to save the day was my old pal Nick Katerelos from Queens. He had a toy drum kit (two actually) in scale complete with toms, snare, cymbals, working bass drum and hi-hat. One minor problem though, was that the kit took up so much room I had to rearrange it to get it to fit into each playset we were using at the time. Hey, you work with what you have, right?!
Jason Young and Paul Wasson contributed their artistic talents by photoshopping The Woggles logo on to the main stage set up and printing a Woggles logo-ed bass drum sticker, respectively.
I asked three friends, fellow Megoheads, and big-time collectors who lived near Columbus if they could transport their collections to the hotel for the project. Scott Jenkins, Scott Brown, and Dan Pearson couldn't say “yes” fast enough and supplied me with all of the Mego action figures and playsets I needed. Their generosity can never be quantified and I can never show them enough gratitude.
I knew from the get-go I wanted Sean Gordy to be the photographer for this project. Sean's father Chad, and I, have been good friends for the better part of two decades and I've know Sean since he was a little boy who would come to the annual Mego conventions, which are affectionately known as Mego Meet, with his father. He had become a talented Mego customizer and a gifted photographer in his own right and I knew he would understand my vision and be able to capture it on film. Had he known he was going to be stuck with me in a dark, Columbus hotel room for 10 and a half hours he may have turned me down, but thankfully he didn't. I cannot give Sean enough credit when it comes to the finished product. It was if he could read my mind and transform it into images to share with everyone.
Funniest story from my Odyssey had to be when Sean and I, holed up in the hotel room for hours, ordered some pizza for delivery around 9pm. I answered the delivery driver's knock at the door. The room was in complete darkness, other than the spotlight on the set-up, and he says, “what's going on in here?” I am certain he thought we were shooting porn, but when we turned the lights on and explained to him what we were doing, he was absolutely enthralled and wanted to watch. True story
The saddest story from this has to be the passing of Woggles' guitarist Jeff Walls before we were able to complete the project. When I started this adventure there wasn't even a hint that Jeff was sick, let alone would be leaving us in less than six months. When his diagnosis was revealed Manfred reached out to me and asked if we could get his head sculpt completed as soon as possible so Jeff could see it. “I'm sure it will lift his spirits,” Manfred said. I called Andrew and without hesitation he agreed to get Jeff's sculpt done immediately. I spoke to Andrew on a Wednesday and it was in my hands, from Los Angeles to Chicago, by Monday.
I sent pictures of Jeff's head to Manfred on May 13th to which he replied, “The word awesome is too weak to describe the overwhelming magnificence of (Andrew's) work! Thanks tons Austin! I'll send these photos over to Jeff!” Jeff passed away on May 29th, just two weeks after seeing his sculpture and two weeks before the photo-shoot.
I then made it my personal mission that this project would be a fitting and lasting tribute to Jeff's memory.
I meticulously painted each head, making sure hair and eye color were correct (except for Manfred, I just had to keep his signature orange hair as it was in his youth). I made sure each Woggle's clothes fit perfectly, and each playset was in perfect shape, and all ancillary characters I chose were in pristine condition, and every single item was, well, perfect!
When the dust settled in the early morning hours of June 15th, the final numbers read like this: 7 set changes; 13 costume changes; 260 photographs; 10.5 hours of isolation; and 2 extra large pizzas – one meat-lovers the other pineapple and ham (with garlic dipping sauce and banana peppers).
I shared a few photos that evening with Manfred, much to his delight. But, because there were so many, it took Sean about four weeks to sort through them all to select and “touch-up” the very best.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, The Woggles were putting together a “best of” collection (just as I had hinted to months earlier) called, “The Wicked Coolest Songs”. I receive a message from Manfred essentially telling me to get a “move-on” with those pictures so they can use them with the new record whose sales revenue is being donated to the Jeff Walls Family Fund.
I was beside myself with excitement. What started out as just a fun project that would only be shared with a few people was now going to be shared with and bring joy to so many more. I had to pinch myself to see if this was really happening.
Now here we are on November 20th of 2019, a little over one year to the day after Manfred and I started brainstorming about this project, and The Wicked Coolest Songs by The Woggles was released on CD and vinyl, and included an insert showcasing, in my humble opinion, the wicked, coolest custom Mego project ever orchestrated. And, now, after all this time, I finally get to tell all of you, the story behind it all.
All proceeds go to the Jeff Walls Family fund so please buy a copy at https://thewoggleswcr.bandcamp.com/a...-coolest-songs
I want to thank everybody involved in making this happen: Sean Gordy, Andrew Covalt, Scott Jenkins, Dan Pearson, Scott Brown, Jason Young, Paul Wasson, David Lee, and Nick Katerelos.
A special thanks to all my family and friends for listening to me talk about this project for the better part of a year!
Please check out classictvtoys.com and figurestoycompany.com if you are at all interested in reliving your youth. They have lots and lots of cool stuff there.
Thanks to The Woggles for the inspiration.
Much love and blessings to Jeff Walls and the Walls family.
And, the most thanks to Manfred Jones for his guidance and friendship during this entire process. I truly appreciate you!
Below are the hi-res images of the insert from The Wicked Coolest Songs by The Woggles along with a selection of my favorite pictures from the photo-shoot. The entire set of pictures along with more "work in progress" pictures can be seen on my Facebook page.
I hope you enjoy my customs as much as I do, and, as always, Thanks for Looking!!!
Peace, Love, and Woggles!
Austin
I messaged him that I was planning on making a set and would unveil them June 13, 2019 at the annual Customego Hall of Fame dinner in Columbus, Ohio. I invited him and his bandmates to be my guests but scheduling conflicts prohibited this, and, just in passing, he quipped, “We'll have to incorporate them (the dolls) into some sort of album cover artwork using some sort of Mego Bat Cave or Planet of Apes Tree House as a backdrop/setting!”
And, that is where the most wicked, cool custom Mego project ever got started.
My mind started racing with images of custom Woggles action figures in their matching stage outfits posed, performing at various playsets Mego manufactured back in the 1970s: The Batcave, the Star Trek Bridge, the Planet of Apes, Wizard of Oz Emerald City, The Lost Continent, and list went on!
I sent pictures of the various playsets to Manfred and I could almost see his eyes as wide as saucers when he replied, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” To which I chimed in, “The name of the album can be 'Where in the World Are The Woggles?' and it shows the viewer that they are everywhere! In the world of comic books, in outer space, in the prehistoric age, etc. etc.” Unfortunately, Manfred says they do not have any material ready for a new album, to which I respond with an amazing degree of prognostication, “Hey, maybe for your greatest hits album due out next May? Hint. Hint.”
The project kept growing in my mind and took on a life of it's own.
I couldn't just have The Woggles posing in these playsets, we needed them to perform! So, at each they will play to crowds comprised of Mego action figures who corresponded with that particular setting. At the Batcave they will perform for Batman, Superman, and the rest of the Justice League; at the Star Trek Bridge they will perform for Captain Kirk, the Enterprise crew, and all of the Star Trek aliens; and so on and so forth.
But, why stop there I thought?
Being the consummate performers they are, The Woggles would truly make each of these performances a night to remember, right?! At the Batcave they would don the costumes of Batman's greatest costumed villains and perform a set as Joker, Penguin, Riddler, and Two-Face; on the Star Trek Bridge they would perform a set as the doomed “red-shirts”; at the Emerald City they'll dress and perform as Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tinman, and Lion...they would put on shows their audiences would never forget!
In my mind, though, there was still something missing. The grand finale!
I needed a stage big enough to contain the energy of The Woggles, clad in their red, ruffled tuxedo shirts, AND all of their adoring fans. Mego never made a stage playset, but Mattel did. They made one for a line of Barbie figures called The Rockers. It was huge and it would be just the right setting (we just need to change that Rockers logo to The Woggles logo and we'll be set). This was big enough to accommodate everybody for one last show where all lines of action figures could gather in one place and enjoy the show side by side. We'll have Batman, Blackbeard the Pirate, Mr. Spock, and Dr. Zaius arms raised, standing side by side; Dorothy, Supergirl, Lieutenant Uhura, and Zira will all be together, front row swooning for The Woggles; because if The Woggles have a super power, it is the power to bring people (and non-people alike) together through the love of their music.
The desired end was crystal-clear in my mind, and now I had to execute a plan to achieve that end.
I needed to create action figures based on The Woggles, complete with accessories, instruments, and up to 10 different costume changes; I needed numerous playsets and action figures I didn't own; I needed a professional photographer to capture the true essence of my vision; and I needed them all to gather (and together) in one place (Columbus, Ohio) at the very same time (June 14th, 2019). Simple enough.
I enlisted the artistic skills of my friend Andrew Covalt, renowned action figure sculptor and animator to sculpt the heads. In my completely biased opinion, Andrew created his finest work. And, he did it in record time as he was incredibly busy with his day job working on Cartoon Network's 'Rick and Morty' out in Hollywood. To him I am truly grateful.
Retro toy manufacturer Classic TV Toys, who specialize in helping '70s kids relive their youth by producing Mego-like action figure versions of DC Superheroes, The Three Stooges, The Monkees, Scooby Doo, KISS, and a host of other franchises, is where I picked up most of the clothing and instruments for the band (and Yes that is a Gene Simmons bass that Buzz is playing and Yes I did send Gene his royalty check already).
Some items I had to modify and some items I had to dye different colors, but for the most part they were good to go. My dear friend David Lee was my lifeline for the ruffled, tuxedo shirts. Those were old, white pirate shirts from the Mego World's Greatest Pirates line which I dyed a beautiful ruby red per Manfred's instructions: “If you can dye the ruffled shirts then red is the color.” Why David was hoarding those ruffled shirts for so long is still a mystery. Personally, I think it was for a line of custom Jerry Seinfeld dolls he was working on, but we may never know.
Finding a drum-kit was a daunting task. Most toy drum kits look just like, well, toy drum kits. They are either made of flimsy cardboard or are made in a single-color plastic or are not in scale. Swooping in to save the day was my old pal Nick Katerelos from Queens. He had a toy drum kit (two actually) in scale complete with toms, snare, cymbals, working bass drum and hi-hat. One minor problem though, was that the kit took up so much room I had to rearrange it to get it to fit into each playset we were using at the time. Hey, you work with what you have, right?!
Jason Young and Paul Wasson contributed their artistic talents by photoshopping The Woggles logo on to the main stage set up and printing a Woggles logo-ed bass drum sticker, respectively.
I asked three friends, fellow Megoheads, and big-time collectors who lived near Columbus if they could transport their collections to the hotel for the project. Scott Jenkins, Scott Brown, and Dan Pearson couldn't say “yes” fast enough and supplied me with all of the Mego action figures and playsets I needed. Their generosity can never be quantified and I can never show them enough gratitude.
I knew from the get-go I wanted Sean Gordy to be the photographer for this project. Sean's father Chad, and I, have been good friends for the better part of two decades and I've know Sean since he was a little boy who would come to the annual Mego conventions, which are affectionately known as Mego Meet, with his father. He had become a talented Mego customizer and a gifted photographer in his own right and I knew he would understand my vision and be able to capture it on film. Had he known he was going to be stuck with me in a dark, Columbus hotel room for 10 and a half hours he may have turned me down, but thankfully he didn't. I cannot give Sean enough credit when it comes to the finished product. It was if he could read my mind and transform it into images to share with everyone.
Funniest story from my Odyssey had to be when Sean and I, holed up in the hotel room for hours, ordered some pizza for delivery around 9pm. I answered the delivery driver's knock at the door. The room was in complete darkness, other than the spotlight on the set-up, and he says, “what's going on in here?” I am certain he thought we were shooting porn, but when we turned the lights on and explained to him what we were doing, he was absolutely enthralled and wanted to watch. True story
The saddest story from this has to be the passing of Woggles' guitarist Jeff Walls before we were able to complete the project. When I started this adventure there wasn't even a hint that Jeff was sick, let alone would be leaving us in less than six months. When his diagnosis was revealed Manfred reached out to me and asked if we could get his head sculpt completed as soon as possible so Jeff could see it. “I'm sure it will lift his spirits,” Manfred said. I called Andrew and without hesitation he agreed to get Jeff's sculpt done immediately. I spoke to Andrew on a Wednesday and it was in my hands, from Los Angeles to Chicago, by Monday.
I sent pictures of Jeff's head to Manfred on May 13th to which he replied, “The word awesome is too weak to describe the overwhelming magnificence of (Andrew's) work! Thanks tons Austin! I'll send these photos over to Jeff!” Jeff passed away on May 29th, just two weeks after seeing his sculpture and two weeks before the photo-shoot.
I then made it my personal mission that this project would be a fitting and lasting tribute to Jeff's memory.
I meticulously painted each head, making sure hair and eye color were correct (except for Manfred, I just had to keep his signature orange hair as it was in his youth). I made sure each Woggle's clothes fit perfectly, and each playset was in perfect shape, and all ancillary characters I chose were in pristine condition, and every single item was, well, perfect!
When the dust settled in the early morning hours of June 15th, the final numbers read like this: 7 set changes; 13 costume changes; 260 photographs; 10.5 hours of isolation; and 2 extra large pizzas – one meat-lovers the other pineapple and ham (with garlic dipping sauce and banana peppers).
I shared a few photos that evening with Manfred, much to his delight. But, because there were so many, it took Sean about four weeks to sort through them all to select and “touch-up” the very best.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, The Woggles were putting together a “best of” collection (just as I had hinted to months earlier) called, “The Wicked Coolest Songs”. I receive a message from Manfred essentially telling me to get a “move-on” with those pictures so they can use them with the new record whose sales revenue is being donated to the Jeff Walls Family Fund.
I was beside myself with excitement. What started out as just a fun project that would only be shared with a few people was now going to be shared with and bring joy to so many more. I had to pinch myself to see if this was really happening.
Now here we are on November 20th of 2019, a little over one year to the day after Manfred and I started brainstorming about this project, and The Wicked Coolest Songs by The Woggles was released on CD and vinyl, and included an insert showcasing, in my humble opinion, the wicked, coolest custom Mego project ever orchestrated. And, now, after all this time, I finally get to tell all of you, the story behind it all.
All proceeds go to the Jeff Walls Family fund so please buy a copy at https://thewoggleswcr.bandcamp.com/a...-coolest-songs
I want to thank everybody involved in making this happen: Sean Gordy, Andrew Covalt, Scott Jenkins, Dan Pearson, Scott Brown, Jason Young, Paul Wasson, David Lee, and Nick Katerelos.
A special thanks to all my family and friends for listening to me talk about this project for the better part of a year!
Please check out classictvtoys.com and figurestoycompany.com if you are at all interested in reliving your youth. They have lots and lots of cool stuff there.
Thanks to The Woggles for the inspiration.
Much love and blessings to Jeff Walls and the Walls family.
And, the most thanks to Manfred Jones for his guidance and friendship during this entire process. I truly appreciate you!
Below are the hi-res images of the insert from The Wicked Coolest Songs by The Woggles along with a selection of my favorite pictures from the photo-shoot. The entire set of pictures along with more "work in progress" pictures can be seen on my Facebook page.
I hope you enjoy my customs as much as I do, and, as always, Thanks for Looking!!!
Peace, Love, and Woggles!
Austin
looks great Austin
Comment