Thanks all for the heads up. i hate to say it but... now it's on... (lol)
Some of you know that the only thing I really collect are 5"-ish SMB figures.
At the time this project was started, I had about 23 figures.
Out of those 23, two were custom, four were unlicensed, one was a bootleg and one was a candy dispenser (lol)
I willingly purchased the unlicensed characters as they were the only way to get specific characters in this scale. the bootleg, I got the ol' bait N switch but got my $ back (Thanks eBay!). I will say this, however. i do NOT recommend buying bootleg figures. you can clearly see the difference in the quality of the bootlegs vs. the legitimate figures. I wish i would have saved the money to put towards a better purchase of a real figure.
Anywho...
I do not keep my figures at home. I have a 12 year old daughter and an almost 2 year old daughter & I worry about them getting ahold of my precious.
So I decided to bring my collection into work.
Here is a pic of my collection (when it was smaller) with some papercraft questionmarks and a very lame background I used to use to take photos of my singular figures.
So, this was cool but it wasn't what I envisioned in my head. I wanted the best features of all of my favorite Mario games....
I plan on having two "stages". Still, even to this day, i am unsure if i want the stages to co-mingle, lol, or if i want them completely separate scenes. As you can see from the two rectangles, they are created separately, so i am still thinking this through. i may make the scenes identical & have that little gap be a nice Water Hazard for Mario & his pals. (looks like i'll need to get some Cheep Cheeps & Bloopers!) lol
without further ado...
[TOP VIEW]
This, being a work in progress, There are something's that are not right & may not be perfectly to scale. This bothers me. People here at work don't even notice it. but they aren't SMB dorks like i am so...
I began planning stuff out... i started by flattening a cardboard box to make my "stage". I wanted it to be lifted from the ground to show the sides of the stage, so i cut apart a paper-towel tube for the feet of the stage. Due to this being made out of cardboard, it'll be easy for me to move when My Wife & I go to our new home in July of this year. I plan on making a "Man Cave" all video-game themed & figure this would be pretty cool on a shelf somewhere.
Back to the development......
I found a nice print of the New Super Mario Bros Wii game online and was able to create a simple template using MS Paint (advanced, huh?!?!?! . You can see in the next pictures the cardboard "stage" and the unattached template of the ground for the stage.
I attached sections of the stage, super-glued the feet onto the stage and even started building a little tower by applying a second template i made to a small cardboard box (the same box my Mr. L custom was sent to me in). I ran out to Home Depot and bought some PVC pipe for the display. After all, What is a Mario display without pipes? In this next picture, you can see the way i attached the templates to the stage and tower, the feet under the stage and the PVC pipes (not painted just yet...)
***12/2/14***
I finished the tower, which became a bigger pain than i originally imagined. The paper & glue wasn't sticking as well as it did on the stage & i ended up making a slight mistake on lining up the template on the front of the tower. I got super frustrated and was ready to rip it off and start over again but decided to just outline the grass area to make it less noticeable. it hides the line-up mistake very well... and when all the figures are on display, i don't believe anybody even notices the "shadowing" under the grass. i may re-do this at a later time. You can also see here that the stage wasn't finished.
***12/7/14***
last Friday, I had some down-time at lunch and finished the stage. & it looks pretty damn good. at this point, i began feeling a little proud of my cardboard/glue/paper display. (sorry about the box in the upper left-hand corner, it has some of my work-information on there and i did not want that out on the world-wide-inter-webby.)
I made a couple changes to the template so they wouldn't look identical. Here are some new "towers". Smaller than the original. Also, you'll notice - i still haven't spray painted the PVC pipes. I am not sure if i want to make them all green. Or some green, some yellow, some red like in the New Super Mario Bros Wii games. The other thing that sucks is... the pipes... there is no way I've found to make them taller or any different heights while keeping the Mario look without accurately cutting PVC pipe and somehow attaching the two without a coupler. i don't know if you've ever cut PVC pipe, but it is a pain!
speaking of the New Super Mario Bros Wii game... i originally said i wanted this to be some of my favorite aspects of all the super Mario games. Unfortunately, i was wondering if things would look strange together. Here are all these 3d figures, nothing is pixelated... and everything from the older games are. So i am unsure how i am going to successfully pull this blend off. I have yet to begin work on the backdrops of my scenes. Or work on the second scene at all. As i type this... maybe i'll use that other "stage" for the original SMB game? i dunno just yet. the figures are still 3d'd out, so that may not work. I did do a small test by making a pixelated angry sun from SMB3 for the backdrop. He is attached to about an inch & 1/4 cut of a paper towel roll (which you cannot tell, due to the lack of shadow in this picture) but i think it may just work out pretty well.
***12/9/14***
Today, I added a door from SMB2 to the tower peach was standing on top of. I am starting to like the contrast between the HD new Wii type games and the old school 8-16 bit games. it's looking pretty sweet. I made sure to make the door the perfect size for Mario to get in, seeing how he is the main focus of the series. Mr. L (which you can see to the left) also fits in the door size perfectly, however, due to his positioning being a lot closer than the door, he looks gigantic next to it.
I may take another photo later that reflect the size accurately.
I wanted to bring a nice vibe of SMB1, which everybody knows... from young to old.
So I started looking around at items around the house I could use to somehow capture a little bit of the original game that made us so addicted to this Mario character.
I came up with this nifty idea which turned out pretty decent.
Leftover Starbucks straws:
I created my own Papercraft block using a template for a different block (in paint, again). I found an image of a Mario Flag online and pasted a reverse image on it so the flag would be identical on both sides... then cut it into a triangle.
attached two LARGE Starbucks straws together with super glue, added the flag & superglued a green marble on the top.
& Voila!
Now I just worry about if I am going to "have" to build a huge staircase leading up to it.
Anyway, thanks for checking out my display. I'll be uploading more photos & editing this original post as the display evolves. I've got some coins from a K'Nex display, as well as a Yoshi Egg & Mushroom from the Jakks figures. I've also got a fire flower of the same size (not sure where it came from, possibly K'Nex) but i am waiting to attach all of these last as i may need to attach some of them to the backdrop. I like the idea of all the towers (and possibly pipes) not being attached to the display, they can be moved and changed as i want to move & change each scene.
***12/30/14***
i began creating the castle at the end of SMB1 levels... to place my awesome Starbucks Straw flagpole next to. Plus, i bought alot of new figures since the last update: banpresto baby mario figure, luigi's mansion 2 figure, a couple unlicensed colored toads and the unlicensed Koopaling figures (which i think they would look awesome around the castle - maybe even on different levels of it.) Some of the Koopaling figures came on stands (Larry, Iggy & Lemmy [with ball]), however - once recieved i saw they were not "removable" from the stands like legit mario figures are. on top of that, they seemed to be attached with regular household super glue. i easily peeled them off of the stands using a letter opener. the stands were pretty useless as both Iggy and Lemmy (and his ball) don't need them to stand. Larry's legs are a little iffy, so i had to find a way to prop him up where it doesnt look so obvious. it works.... for now also, the Blue Toad's quality was pretty decent, despite being a bootleg. now... the Yellow Toad, i was completely unhappy with. his arms were ape-ish and incredibly long. to the point where i can only put him in some position where he is.. let's say... peeking around a pipe or something of that nature. having his arms fully extended doesnt truly show how long and ridiculous his arms actually look. i'm glad to see we are getting an official 4" Blue Toad next year. once i buy that, i'll have this bootleg customized into a Toadbert. still no clue what i'll be doing with this ridiculous Yellow Toad. i almost feel like tossing it in the garbage. (oh yeah... and you may notice i still havent painted the pipes i have. i'll be getting more soon and want to paint them all at the same time).
yeah... so... it's a pretty crappy photo, but here you can see all of my figures how they are currently displayed. sorry for the quality of today's update photos.
anywho... back to the castle...
when i got home from work, i searched around my house for some appropriate sized boxes and luckily, being that xmas just passed, i was able to find them relatively quickly.
i printed more things off of ms paint to wrap each box.
i started by wrapping the middle layer..
the layers of the castle are all separate, that way i can choose to make the display look like the end of 1-1, 1-2 or 1-3 (etc.).
i then wrapped the smallest layer of the castle. & attempted to make the "roof" area of the middle layer.
i did a little more work to the "roof" area, which is incredibly hard and i am not really happy with how the roof is coming out. this part really has me perplexed on how to improve on the look i want. im pretty positive i am going to trash this roof idea to see if i can come up with something else. I've yet to make the doors/windows of the SMB1 castle... but i imagine they should be no issue at all.
i'll take more photos tomorrow morning to see with the contrast of the figures.
oh yeah... i FINALLY began making the second "stage" area. now that my figure collection is much larger, i almost had to.
***12/31/14***
I took some advice from a friend & I have to say, the castle looks much better. I added a small black border around the "roof" area... it is still not perfect, but will def do for now. I may need to get a brown sharpie, hope its the same or similar color, and fix up a few spots. but I like how it looks with the whole collection.
as you can see, at this point it is still incomplete.
it's currently only in it's two-tier stage. And the "roof" has not been added to the bottom (middle) tier. 
in this photo, you can see I added the door to the bottom (middle) level and the windows to the top level. however, I think I may have made a mistake on the top level. I believe that the windows I made may be a tad too large. I don't believe it is fully noticeable when looking at the whole display. and possibly when I add the roof to the middle section, it may be a little less noticeable, as the roof extends up, over the bottom of the windows.
but I also think I made them a little too thick. it may also look better when I create the third tier.
i go back & forth on if i think it looks good or not. i don't know if the Toadsworth is knocking the perception of the windows off or not. the door, on the bottom level looks fine to me.
I came back from my lunch hour after working on the castle more, and i'll say, the Roof area of the castle really makes a difference.
I really like how this particular part of the project turned out.
I've come to the conclusion that I am going to leave this as a two-tier castle for now. the third box I was going to utilize for the bottom of the castle, despite it being pretty decent size, was still too small. I had to look at the doorway I made and the bottom tier has 5 of them in the game.
now, because i am married with kids- i don't really do much for new year's eve, so i may just stay up and work on the second "staging" area.
***1/22/15 ***
I built the second "stage" area. It now looks more like a real "world". Still a lot of figures for such a small place that I feel it may be over bearing. I am thinking of getting rid of the Donkey Kong. He technically wouldn't be in this world. And although he is a great figure (one of the best painted Popco/Goldie figures), he is taking up valuable real-estate.
I have yet to make the water hazard between the two stages and I am still trying to find some decent sized Cheep Cheeps to occupy that area. Really, this area won't look "right" (imo) until i get the background finished. I am thinking of having somebody skilled at Photoshop make me a background. I want to incorporate multiple Mario games (including having some Mario Galaxy planets in the hazy sky. I imagine it would be beautiful. & i know... I [i]STILL[/i] haven't painted the pipes. (SMDH) - I am still looking for different sized pipes but i think I've decided i'll be painting them green, yellow & red. I've since switched the ape-ish arms of the yellow toad with the blue toad. So now the yellow one looks real nice. & since we will be getting an official blue toad in 2015, I figured while I am getting the bootleg blue altered into Toadbert, I might as well have them fix the arms too.
***1/30/15***
So, I took another trip to Home Depot this week. Each trip dwindling my manhood more and more. I see dudes who look and talk like me, but they are building houses, doing construction, refinishing their floor boards… what am I doing?
PLAYING WITH TOYS!
HAHA! Anyway, I bought some materials for the display.
I originally was using only the two pvc pipe couplings but I grabbed two more for a total of four. I also bought a nice extender piece here (the white portion) to bring a difference of size to the pipes on display.
I easily super glued them (I use Scotch No Run Gel) to fully extend the pipe.
I also grabbed a nifty little 90° piece as I think it would look pretty awesome coming out of little tower or something.
also… I don’t know if anybody had noticed but I like to use the yellow coins that comes from the K’Nex sets (seen here).
I feel they are a really good size for the display. I know, I know… they have little prongs on the back…..
but once I create a background for the display, these prongs will be used to attach them to the background. The “yellow-ness” of them bothered me a bit. As we all know, coins are GOOOLLLDD!
So, while at “the place where real men shop” (Home Depot), I decided to pick up some paints.
I originally talked about painted the pipes different colors but the more I thought about it… I decided to go with classic green. The ground is already the “New Super Mario” vibe, so I decided to not go with the New SMB color scheme on the pipes. The particular green paint I got works well with plastic. I decided to get some metallic gold for the coins but it didn’t work with the plastic material so I had to buy some plastic-primer.
Now, I’m not the best when it comes to spray paint (my brother is a master at the spray can as he used to do graffiti pieces in the 90s), but I decided to do this myself. My brother offered, but he wouldn’t be able to come over until this weekend and I sided with “impatience” when weighing it against time+quality.
I started with some primer on the yellow coins, turning them matte white.
after they dried, I did the back. And after that dried, I decided to try to metallic gold.
where I was painting these, It was a little dark, and I really couldn’t tell how well they came out until they dried and I brought them into work with the display.
and it came out FRICKEN AWESOME!!!!!!!! I don’t know if the photos do them justice on how nice they look.
here’s a side by side comparison to how they started and how they look now.
they are now one of my favorite elements of the display. They are super metallic and shine as you pass them by. They look great. (If anybody has these K’Nex coins and would like to get rid of them, PM me plz!)
With such a beautiful treasure luring Wario away from battle, I decided I needed somebody to guard the coinage!
Let’s welcome the SMB2 Phanto masks!
These are 3D sprites, similar to the SMB3 sun so they will stick out from the background.
the photo above doesn’t do it justice, due to the flash – so here is a photo with no flash, you can see the shadows behind them.
(I soooo need a background in place. This weird baige color ain’t workin)
so… While the Phantos were making sure Wario wasn’t laughing all the way to the bank, I started painting the pipes. The first coat was incredibly thick and was not coming out as nice as the coins did.
I wiped up as much paint as I could and started over. Throughout the night, I would periodically go out the my dark little laundry room and give them a nice thin coat until they came out looking great!!!
I really tried my hardest to fill in the seam in the photo below, between the extension pipe and the coupling. It didn’t come out perfect, but came out pretty damn good. (for now)
this last pipe is NOT attached yet (I would center it on the little cliff more). I have the Mansion Luigi laying down to the left of it. His weight is holding up the pipe for this image. When it’s attached, it will look great.
my only regret is not waiting for my brother to do the pipes. The amount of people that have made “green thumb” jokes due to paint on my finger has gotten really annoying.
***2/4/15***
I've been pretty sick the last few days but I got some new figures.
Here, Baby Daisy has moseyed off with Baby Mario, right into Bowser's path.
I also attached the 90° pipe pretty well (dripping super glue on my favorite pair of work pants). You'll notice the addition of King Boo from Luigi's Mansion, popping up to get him some Yoshis. And in the background, it looks like a Piranha Plant has begun to grow!
***2/10/15***
Small update here... Seems Bowser let loose one of his Chain Chomps on the Mushroom Kingdom.
Came from a K'Nex set... I used a Dremel tool to grind off the top peg to a nice smooth surface.
I attached a K'Nex chain to the Chain Chomp, and attached the chain to a papercraft block.
I poked two small holes into the papercraft block with a safety pin, broke a piece of a paperclip off and super glued the paperclip piece to the K'Nex chain.
I think it adds a whole other element to the display (the same way the Piranha Plant did)
***2/12/15***
I was kinda bored at work today and surfing the web for Mario merchandise when I came across some Super Mario World items. got a quick little idea.
Now, I haven't been able to locate a Monty Mole figure that would be to-scale, but I found a way to incorporate his essence by making some more little sprites (in MS Paint, again).
***2/20/15***
I have a custom-made Whomp figure being made, but its taking some time as I keep sending the sculptor back to make changes. I wanted to have him make a Thwomp figure too, but kept thinking about all the revisions being made to the Whomp figure, so I thought about just having it 3D Printed & painted. I knew it was expensive, but not as expensive as I was quoted! A friend gave me the idea of doing more papercraft. at first I was against it, thinking a paper figure would look strange but I figured the Thwomp was mostly square and sharp edges, so I gave it a shot.
it seemed like a realitivly easy project so I didn't break out the Exacto Knife or razor, but chose my regularly-accessable pair of trusty scissors.
it was a good choice and I think it came out looking wonderful! it really worked out great for me!
Not so great for Mario...
I think it's a keeper!!!
you cant really tell due to the flash on my phone, but the face sticks out from the rest of the figure, to really give it a nice "manufactured" look.
IMO, you can't really tell it's made of regular ol' printer paper when comparing it to figures.
***2/24/15***
I am waiting for some new figures to come (custom made Whomp and Dry-Bones.... and BOWSER JR!)
I've been trying to find this particular Bowser Jr. figure for months, and i've seen it for sale for over $85 on ebay. a friend located it for me and i purchased for only 800¥ (approx. $8)!
However, I knew Bowser Jr. would be coming to the Mushroom Kingdom soon as I caught something from the corner of my eye, glimmering in the "SUNSHINE" (hope you get the reference!) lol.
Don't see what i'm talking about???
This is on the side of Bowser's Castle. a tiny little detail to make reference to yet another Mario game. it doesn't pop out and scream "HELLO!" that's kinda the purpose... I am going to start adding little details like this to give more references to the games. I'm not sure if this is going to be the only Mario Sunshine paint piece... I've been thinking about tossing some more around (maybe 3 total)... one on a pipe... and maybe one on the block to Chain Chomp or something... not sure.
***3/20/15***
I haven't had much to update in the last few weeks... I am still waiting for custom figures to be delivered. The guy who began making my whomp has almost fallen off the face of the planet... so I don't know what the deal is with that.
However, my Dry Bones is coming out beautiful!!!
I ended up getting a legit Green Koopa Troopa (waiting for delivery), and sending the bootleg I got from eBay to get modified.
Here are some pics of the Dry Bones, directly from my customizer.
when I first saw this picture, I was like: SHE CHOPPED HALF OF HIS DAMN FACE OFF!
you can see some of her other works-in-progress here too (all Amiibos)
still a rough sculpt, but his face is starting to look really really good!!!
I am also thinking about having another piece commissioned by her... but don't want to speak too soon on that yet.
I also made a cool little PIXL from Super Paper Mario... this is "3D" similar to the SMB2 sun and the SMB3 masks...
Looks pretty nifty. nothing too fancy.
***4/8/15***
not really any merch updates today except maybe the little 1up item.
I am waiting for some packages to arrive any day.
but this is more to show how the display looks as of now.
still no background but I am getting other portions of the display ready.
(sorry for the quality of photos. its with my phone. I really should get a nice camera in here to get something clearer).
I've now added QuestionMark blocks, Brick blocks and Used blocks.
here's the 1UP I was talking about...
Here is another section of the display. you may notice that the fire flower is upside down right now. I haven't attached them right side up yet. I am wanting to grab a background and permanently attach the blocks first. oh... and also, there is a MusicNote block above Fire Luigi. again, these all may change locations as there are not permanently attached.
the blocks are currently just taped up... similar to the Sun, Masks & Pixl. But they will all be permanently attached at a later date.
***4/9/15***
Here are some new "In-Process" photos of yet another custom figure... POKEY
he's not done yet but i think this & the dry bones customs are such a cool addition.
anyway, that's it for today.
i'll update this as changes occur (as long as it's cool with the mods).
If you have any ideas on how to improve my display... or any questions or thoughts, please let me know. I don't have any friends that are into SMB like i am so i don't have a lot of support with this in real life. Most people (in the real world) say its "really cool" but i know they don't give two damns about actually giving honest feedback.
Thanks Again!!!
***2/10/15***
Small update here... Seems Bowser let loose one of his Chain Chomps on the Mushroom Kingdom.
Came from a K'Nex set... I used a Dremel tool to grind off the top peg to a nice smooth surface.
I attached a K'Nex chain to the Chain Chomp, and attached the chain to a papercraft block.
I poked two small holes into the papercraft block with a safety pin, broke a piece of a paperclip off and super glued the paperclip piece to the K'Nex chain.
I think it adds a whole other element to the display (the same way the Piranha Plant did)
If you have any ideas on how to improve my display... or any questions or thoughts, please let me know. I don't have any friends that are into SMB like i am so i don't have a lot of support with this in real life. Most people (in the real world) say its "really cool" but i know they don't give two damns about actually giving honest feedback.
Thanks Again!!!
