With it being October and all of course we are seeing a bunch of horror themed stuff. I love the Halloween season I go on horror movie binges, go to all kinds of haunted houses, and go trick or treating with my kids of course, but hey this gives me an excuse to pig out on candy and be a kid again myself so I love it lol! I have been following this artist for a little while now and his work is remarkable! I find myself often staring in awe at his custom Pop! Vinyl pieces. He recently did a run of horror themed customs. The set included characters from icon horror movies such as Nightmare on Elm St, Friday the 13th, Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. My favorites out of the set are Leatherface and Freddy. His take on Zombie Batman will leave you speechless at least I was when I saw it. I took a min to ask him few questions about how he came up with these awesome customs.
So what inspired you to come up with the idea for these ghoulishly, creepy pieces?
The inspiration I got for my horror pop line is pretty easy. I’m a huge horror movie fan. While I was in the wild hunting for pops I came across a few horror ones and automatically my mind went off the charts with ideas to do things that haven’t been seen. Lately I’ve really wanted to test my level of skill and these horror pops were right up my alley.
I’m a huge horror fan myself, which is what made me go gaga over these. So what materials did you use to create these customs?
Materials, I keep it basic. I use off brand acrylic that I mix myself from a powder base. Polymer clay is also used to help form my designs to my clients specs. It’s my job to make my clients dreams become reality. I will use anything at my disposal to make sure the job is beyond their expectations.
The detail you put into these customs is amazing! I love the blood and scar effects on them and exposing the bones and flesh was a real nice touch. I really liked the bucket of body parts that come with Leatherface and the souls on Fred Kruger’s chest. How long did it take you to complete it?
Each pop roughly takes around 2-3 days from start to finish. It can vary between 20 and 40 hours worth of time to complete these.
Do you have any plans for future customs?
I never really have a plan on what I’m going to do next. I love spontaneity, keep things fresh and above all try and give that “wow” factor. I’m not a “trendy” artist, I create things that I myself would love to have. I feel blessed that my clients give me the freedom to create something from their vision.
You have some epic work, what made you start commissioning customs?
About 4 or 5 months ago I bought my first pop. Personally I’m an OOB collector because I love the art aspect to things. Upon most that I was pulling out, some paint flaws just started driving me crazy. So I started repainting figures to help color match the characters clothing color, or shade of skin. I posted a few paint jobs and was blown away with the response from this great community. The rest as they say…is history.
That’s awesome! I am an out of box collector myself. I use to collect in box, but after opening my first one and realizing they were even more beautiful out of their shell I had to “Set the Pops Free!” Is there anywhere our readers can see your future work?
I let my followers get an inside look at my current projects on my page at www.facebook.com/shultiscustoms I’m also on Instagram @chromelotusfineart with the same handle for Twitter.
Thanks Tom for your time and letting me cover these sweet customs. You guys check out the pictures in the gallery and make sure to follow Tom on hos social network pages. Until next time “Keep It Poppin!”
Matt Norris