Fizz Man Industries

Can’t Stop Eating

Ben Howard — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 02:41:27 +0000

Hi! Do you love blogs that start with the phrase, “I know it’s been a long time since I last posted…” because that’s the way I think I am about this blog!

So I went to Las Vegas and got married, and then came back to Cleveland to have a party with the family folks and friends. This is my excuse for being off and about for like two months. Super busy with party stuff, and not to mention me and Anne are moving back to JAPAN in two days (!) so not as much time to work on the sculptures.

That ain’t to say I was sitting on my thumbs, sir! No, I made my thumbs work the hardest in fact- get ahold of a load of this cake topper I made for the top of the cake that my mom made for our wedding reception!

I didn’t get any shots of the cake myself, so this one comes courtesy of Erin Seagraves. Thanks Erin! If any other shots of the full cake trickle down, I’ll toss those up, too. Sorry to everyone who has sent commission requests in the past few weeks, I’ve just kinda clammed up and haven’t replied. You can expect a response soon– unfortunately the answer’ll be no for awhile, since I’m moving. Rest assured though, I’ll be sculpting overseas with Monster Clay. Unfortunately that means no final products, just goofaround projects. Gotta keep sharp, though!

There’s a new Hedgehog-themed Character in Town

Ben Howard — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 13:33:25 +0000

I had a bit of time to work on a sculpture for Aaron Riddle, a wedding photographer from Virginia. He learned about my stuff I do from Curtiss who works on my site and keeps it so sheeny/shiny. Getting closer to getting married, though, is keeping me a little busy so I don’t know what my sculpting schedule will look like in the next few weeks. There are a few more pieces that gotta get put up and I’ll just be here gabbing about my fractured take on politics and civil discourse on Three and a Half Men’s best season.

It’s the FIFTH and disagreeers get rolled the hell DOWN

Abandon All Hope

Ben Howard — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 20:04:21 +0000

It’s been awhile, folks! Some of you may have even noticed that I went back in time a bit and removed a Zoidberg statue post from the site. Where’d he go? Scuttled off, I guess!

Kat from Kat’s Anime Hats met up with me at the Philadelphia Too Many Games convention (which was more fun than Chuck E. Cheese’s on free token day) and she sent me photos of some sculptures she has that I did- the virus trio from Dr. Mario, which she positioned around her downstairs bathroom.

Isn’t that awesome? Makes me wanna wash my hands more than I already do, and I even bought that keyboard that washes your hands AS you type. If anybody else out there has photos of my statues adorning their house or otherwise, please send them to me and I’ll put them up on the site!

Angles n’ Mangles

Ben Howard — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:44:35 +0000

The new project is for Amber at Monster Makers, who saw the first Pyramid Head that I did and wanted me to make another one. I said “okay.” So I got to working on it lickety split. She didn’t say it out loud but I knew she wanted to say, “could you make this next one WAAAAY better?” and I said “yes.”

Though she hadn’t asked me anything. Made it weird to say okay, then pause, then “yes.” She didn’t say it out loud or anything, but I knew she wanted to say, “hey that was weird.”

Now I’m a bit of a ways through Pyramid Head version 2 out of Monster Clay and I’m liking what I see so far. The head’s pretty much done but the body has only been worked in once and his arms need… A little something more, I can’t quite figure out what, though.

Armless but not harmless

Toy Store! Toy Store! Toy Store!

Ben Howard — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 02:43:37 +0000

Tomorrow’s almost here, and when it is, I’ll be rolling up to the Grand Opening of Lakewood’s newest vinyl toy shop

Sleepy Robot 13

Come on down after 11 AM on 4/21 to get first dibs on all the brilliant blind boxes, exclusives and limited runs! AND the best selection of Sleepy Robots in one place by Lisastarchild Pinkston (the owner of the shop). Not to mention a spot with some of my resin pieces for sale (Shy Guys and HAUNTS) and also a bunch of choice custom vinyls by Rick Sans.

While I’m there me and Rick are gonna work on a GIANT MUNNY together– there’s also going to be home-cooked refreshments, one thing of which is Anne’s famous dessert sushi, which is rice krispie snacks + swedish fish rolled up in Fruit by the Roll-Ups! Now I think about it, this is like 8 DAYS of fun things in all one day, so 1. show up and 2. BE READY

LOOK AT ME

Ben Howard — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:59:11 +0000

Days’re getting warmer, and my docket’s getting fuller of things to work on- I need to get started working on some real crowd-stompers for the rapidly upcoming Too Many Games convention, plus there’s another Zelda Set to do and some other projects. Working up at Monster Makers has given me pause, though, because there are two incredibly good sculptors who work there and their skill and knowledge is simultaneously spurring and daunting. I’m lucky to be working with them because I get to steal their secrets, slowly/surely. I got a bunch of work done today which is awesome and I also realized, hey! Website’s got some dust on it! Blow it off, Ben! Here’s a guy I’m sure… Somebody will recognize! There’s not an abundance of pictures of this latest sculpture because they were lost in the Great Laptop Fry-Up of Early March.

“I own a Soulsweeper, it’s okay”

Guitar Solo

Ben Howard — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 22:20:05 +0000

While the days may be fewer where I’ll sit down for 10 hours and sculpt/cast/paint, I can still manage to crank some things out! Today I’ll show you this one I made- it’s from the Video Game “Mega Man X” and it took me a little bit of time! That might be why I haven’t said anything for a couple of weeks, but it’s also because I’ve been busy up at The Monster Makers, and there were a couple of other commissions that I was tying up. I’d show off some pictures from those, but that brings up the other thing that made it so I didn’t post aything– the hard drive fried. Fried right on up. Or toasted. What it actually did I can’t say, because even technical professionals will use those euphamisms for it.

“Well, I’m sorry to tell you this, sir, but it looks like your hard drive is fried.”

“Oh. So– what does that mean?”

“Well, at some point, it could have been while you weren’t at home, but the computer probably jumped up and swirled around in the frying pan. there’s not much we can do.”

In any case I lost a few photo sets of most recent sculptures, but I may yet be able to get some shots of them. Stay up late at night and see if I post them!

and look out behind you!

Make Mine Monster

Ben Howard — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:53:08 +0000

Though I have no end of sculpting work in front of me with the impending shop showing up on ScrewAttack’s site and the list of commissions I still have to get to, I thought it’d be a good idea to suck up even more of my time by taking a position at The Monster Makers. It’s a company that deals in big barrels of chemicals and jugs of brown stuff, all of which can be mixed together to make masks, prosthetics and movie-grade makeup. It has been awesome being there and picking the brains of the dudes who work there because they’re all into it and are supremely good sculptors. It’s also great ’cause that’s where I pick up my resin and silicone, so it’s like I’m working for material! (But I’m actually working for money, because the gross income box on tax forms don’t let you put “a couple buckets of brown stuff” in)

Don’t forget about me, Ben. I got my eye on you.

Come to the Dark Side, Valentine

Ben Howard — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:40:18 +0000

I’m a little behind in posting up all the new sculptures I’ve done in the past couple weeks; I have wanted to stagger them so it doesn’t seem like I’m pumping them out one after the other in a mad fever. That IS what I’m doing, but I don’t want it to seem like that. This one I completed last week, on Friday I think, and it almost already seems like years ago that I made him. He’s a version of Magus from Chrono Trigger that I guess shows up before you realize he’s a bad guy? I don’t know, I never played it. That fact feeds itself into the mysteriousness of the character’s pose here. Can you see/feel it?

Feel my mystery

Not everything groundhogs say is true

Ben Howard — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:08:08 +0000

Now my time is split precariously between catching up on commissions /working on projects and proving that I’m still alive (h’lo folks!) all the while trying to maintain my slow progress in Skyrim. I’ll be working on a sculpture or casting a bunch of stuff and then feel a pang of guilt because I left an NPC hanging when I told her I’d deliver a letter for her or I still have to retrieve some dead jerk’s horn for a bunch of crusty guys on top of a mountain. Why won’t they LET ME LIVE?!

I did manage to get this done in the betweentime.

There’s a new bot in town

Ben Howard — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:39:11 +0000

Do you ever plan to eat a candy bar? I do. I think about it like a day ahead and go, “Twix’d be good right around now… Tomorrow.” Twix is especially a good choice because it knocks me out on the first one, then I have to put the second bit in a drawer. If I’m lucky I forget all about it until the next day when I find it and decide probably it’s still good. (Hint: most stores sell these bad boys for a buck and a half, but the GOOD stores do a 3 for 2 dollars thing? (Hint: just buy one, there’s no way you could eat 3 Twixes and then leave the other bit in a drawer before one goes probably bad))

On a related note– The word’s got to get out, I’ve released several items directly for sale on etsy and in the shop section, so check out those outlets for your Fizz Man Industries needs.

S’wiggitywiggitywiggityWACK

Slackin’ Around Again

Ben Howard — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:02:49 +0000

I woke up and felt a strange sensation that I was forgetting something today. I went downstairs and into the kitchen and forgot why I went in there, so I went out and went back in but couldn’t get a handle on it. Then I went back up the stairs, but miscalculated the number of steps so I did that thing where you feel like you know you can fly but have forgotten how to. THEN I REMEMBERED: I need to build a new stair-step.

THEN I REMEMBERED: That wasn’t what I forgot to do. ScrewAttack reminded me though, that I said on camera that if you go to my site there would be a Flash Man sculpture ready for viewing. Well, I rushed back downstairs to where my computer used to be, but I forgot that I sold it for a novelty corncob cellphone. So now I’m at the library and feverishly posting this so that I’m not made out to be a liar! So, check it out, ScrewAttackers!

Or are ScrewAttack patrons ScrewVictims?

493 in 2012

Ben Howard — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:13:56 +0000

I spent most of yesterday organizing my pictures, which is the computer equivalent of alphabetizing my CD collection (or the Jon Arbuckle equivalent of categorizing my sock drawer) and realized there are a lot of sculptures I never put up on the site– not because I’m lazy but because they are from years ago and they are a little rough around the edges. I reserve the right to hide my early work and just show off the stuff I like. Maybe in the future I’ll publish a book of things I’m not proud of, with a big picture of me on the front with a chunk of egg salad stuck in my hair.

Anyway, I got this number: 493. I’ve made a lot of copies of bob-ombs and Shy Guys (but I didn’t count resin casts) and each individual chess piece that I hand-sculpted, of which I’ve done seven now. I was amazed when I was counting ‘em up, because the number was getting up there and I still had folders to root through. All I need is 7 more and I get a FREE SUB*!

*free sub with purchase of any sub of equal or lesser value

Post-MAG reality check

Ben Howard — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 02:54:55 +0000

‘Nother MAGFest done and dusted, and my shelf’s looking like it’s gotta get filled with funny sculptures again. Already I’ll be hitting the sculpting table with commissions for round ten of my life as a full-time artist. Now that the big milestone’s over, I have to start thinking: is this a job, or an activity that is merely staving off the moment until I have to GET a job? Oddly enough, that sentiment makes me want to sculpt RIGHT NOW

One of the things I want to do more is write more this year. That last sentence could be rewritten, “I would like to write more more”. This is a good reason for me to be in the practice of writing! I’ll be talking more about what I’m doing in the life of me as well as the obvious art stuff that just bogs this site down, really.

Also you may notice that the pictures have been retaken for Mega Man Chess. This is because Rachel Peterson came and took far better pictures than I ever could with her space camera from the future. I’ll be putting new sculptures up daily from all the pieces that were unveiled at MAGFest– there’s quite a few, so keep up!

MAGFest Eve

Ben Howard — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 04:43:24 +0000

A few months and constant punishment to my back and fingers has yielded a trove of new sculptures for my favorite gathering of video-game folks! This is the first year I ever dabbled in silicone molds so I was able to crank out some of the lesser characters and do a SHY GUY RAINBOW. Seriously, they look like candy.

I’m gonna participate in the MAGHunt, a sort of Alternate Reality game they’re trying to put together. I’d like to be a person people have to go to for a puzzle, but I’m not sure if I cleared that with the coordinator. I do know that one of the Shy Guys’ll be put up as a prize, so look out for the fabled Black Shy Guy on the MAGHunt prize table. Legend has, it carries a terrible curse. Only seek to win it if your life is otherwise uninteresting and you could do well with some cursey stuff happening to you.

Stay tuned after the show, I always wait to unveil a lot of new sculptures at the convention so they’re a complete surprise! Besides Mega Man chess, there are a BUNCH of new pieces that I’m real excited about.

Big MAGFest Project Announcement!

Ben Howard — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 04:56:39 +0000

The time has come to drop the biggest project I’ve been working on for MAGFest 10: Mega Man Chess!

I said I’d announce this by Friday night, so I gotta dash this off in the next couple minutes or I’m OUT OF BOUNDS. This new set is gonna be shown off for the first time at MAGFest 10, so make sure you get yourself to National Harbor next weekend! I promise this set is the best Mega Man Chess set that you can find. On Google images. Thus far. Here are some more shots:

More shots of individual pieces to come. Also, I’ll eventually get a more dazzling board but for now we’re on the vinyl placemat. LOOK AT THOSE PIECES!!!! (not the board!)

Candy Cat Calmly Washes Its Face.

Ben Howard — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:48:58 +0000

OH BOY… MAGFest is a mere 7 days away and I’m feverishly finishing up as many projects as possible. Sorry to those who tried to get in some last-minute Christmas gifts from me, I want to make sure I’ve got enough of a table to WOW the gawkers and lookers-on this year at my table!

I did, however, get a call from Tim Ekkebus of X-Strike Studios who wanted a Candy Cat from the Dragon Quest Series. Since I can’t say no to Tim (because I’m very, very scared of him) I got down to business on his project straight away! Don’t let the date of this post fool you, though– I did it like three weeks ago but didn’t say anything about it until now because he wanted it to be a Christmas secret. Now I’m pretty sure Christmas is over, but these days you never can tell the way televesion never shuts up about it. Is it over?

I keep saying I’ll unveil the big project before MAG on the site, so I will. Tomorrow night I’ll put up the gallery of my latest invention! Be there!

And go to Candy Cat Land!

If you can believe it, I made a sculpture

Ben Howard — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 23:10:24 +0000

Gotta keep moving after Los Angeles and the Proximity Show. I got a call to put together this tidy little character– can you guess what he is or is doing? I can’t. But I will lay my life down for his right to be it! (and do it!)

Beyond these projects, I’m getting my next big release ready. With the Zelda set behind me (and the press of it being well and truly milked) it’s time to get the next set out. Though I don’t want to be considered a one-trick pony, I don’t much care– the subject matter of this next chess set is something a lot closer to my heart than Zelda, for sure. I won’t say just yet what it is (and some of you already know) but I promise it’ll be 1) better than that other one and 2) playable with standard chess rules. LET THE RUMOR MILL BEGIN!

Community Chest

Ben Howard — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 13:04:19 +0000

I saw that somebody’s comment said something about how they had to check out the site from seeing my work in Nintendo Power– I knew I was gonna have a story in there, but I didn’t know which one. So Anne and I dashed off to the Magazinery and picked up a copy. Lo (and behold) there was this in the “Community” section of the newest issue!

I’m pretty excited about it. So excited that I won’t think about it from here on in because I gotta keep working on the next thing that’ll find its way into these publications. In the meantime, there are some new pieces in the WIP Lounge, old and new. You’ll can’t wait to see them finished!

DesignerCon and a New Dude!

Ben Howard — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 12:12:30 +0000

I’ve been bad at posting lately because I’ve been slammed with getting ready for the big DesignerCon in Pasadena this weekend. I’m trying to get together as many figures as possible and the process is daunting! I’ve never been so daunted!

Here’s a shot of the table with most of the pieces I’ve turned out. I’m successfully getting resin casts of Haunts made, and now I’m under the thunder trying to get the little twerps painted.

While I’ve been working on these the Proximity Show has been up and torn down, with some tidy sales from that! Amid the fervor to get all these ghosts taken care of I managed to work up a Spyro the Dragon for someone who took a liking to my stuff at the gallery.

Tonight’s Halloween! All year I was ready to get messed up as Beetlejuice (particularly the version where he is dressed as Alec Baldwin in the graveyard) but I’ve been, as previously stated, daunted. Now the plan is to dress up as 1) a burrito for a free chipotle burrito 2) a can of paint for a free can of paint 3) a book for a free library book. Really I’m just going to dress up as the errands I have to do today.

Six Matters

Ben Howard — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:18:25 +0000

Tonight’s the night– the night I’ve all been waiting for! We’re putting on an art show at Proximity Gallery called EXTRA LIVES. In the past couple days I’ve put up some images of things that are gonna be shown there. For those of you who won’t be able to make it, check those galleries out! For those of you who are gonna be there, DON’T look at them! It’ll be way better to be surprised! I know I will, I forgot what it was that I did!

Speaking of things that’ll be there, I’m unveiling a line of figures called HAUNTS at the gallery– they’re limbless floating curiosities. There’s a gallery for each one.

See you tonight! There’ll be Jolly Ranchers!

The Gruesome Twosome Plus Onesome

Ben Howard — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:07:23 +0000

Just another day before it’s a couple hours before it’s time to start up the Extra Lives show at Proximity! I want to thanks all the dudes who helped out with this show and took their time to generate a bunch of excellent material to show off with me. Sergio, Seth, Alex, Rick– thanks a ton, I will buy a drink for you to drink! Except for Seth, I will buy you a drink for me to drink!

The Dr. Mario viruses are “at it again” here with new uglified concept designs. I’ll be showing them at this here gallery. Better believe it! Here are the less exciting digital photo galleries, which are all well and good but not better than being nose-to nose:

Fever

Chill

Weird

Hey Dudes, Check it Out! We’re in “Shogun”!

Ben Howard — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 01:39:25 +0000

It’s been a minute since I brought something new to the site, and it ain’t because I’m sitting back with frilled drinks, twiddling my fingers and sipping on the drinks alternately. NO– it’s more because I’ve been incredibly busy putting together my collection of pieces for the upcoming EXTRA LIVES show at PROXIMITY GALLERY.

The show will feature the works of such Cleveland talents as Seth Bittner, Alex Cantrell, Rick Sans, and Sergio Andujar II. And me. Opening night is just a week away on Friday October 7th. It’s short notice but if you can read this, you can’t back down now! Get to Cleveland and feast your eyes on THIS PRIZE: Mario vs. Bowser in Feudal Japan. I had the idea about a month ago and the translation from my head to reality is pretty exciting.

These pictures are all well and good but I can make one promise: if you see it in person at Proximity next week, the real deal will blow whatever mind you decide to bring with you. Bring a spare.

Look-see at the full gallery by clicking this little guy.

Countdown to Party-Time

Ben Howard — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:06:24 +0000

There’ll be something to talk about in a few weeks, and it’ll be all about the EXTRA LIVES show at Proximity Gallery on October 7th, 2011. I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns into a national holiday after this year, and every subsequent 10/7 will have remembrances and expensive dinners, as the custom goes. Tradition is important to uphold.

I’ve got some tubular artists with me to fill out the room with pop-culture and video game related art pieces, including Sans Oceana of course, Alex Cantrell and Seth Bittner, who are both 2-D artists with a lot of good pieces to show off. If you’re in the Cleveland area that weekend, definitely come on down on Friday for a kickoff hootenanny. It will be tasteful. In a few days I’ll put up some shots of projects me and the guys are gonna bring with us!

Go over to the Facebook Page to claim your being-going-there. I have it on good authority that Yum-Yum the Clown* will be selling hot balloon-doggies out front!

*Unless it conflicts with his daughter’s wedding that weekend.

They’s in Your Blood =)

Ben Howard — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 17:42:07 +0000

The bad boys will be giving you the eyeball at Proximity Gallery on September 30th. I’ve got 20 more days to put together some dynamite stuff for this show! Would I even be able to make dynamite by then, should everything go horribly wrong? NO TIME!

I set up the old Zelda Chess WIP Gallery to be the new Works in Progress Lounge. It’s as comfortable as a group of gray/ shiny gray sculptures can feel, all together. I’m going out on a limb if people even want to see half-finished stuff. If they’re anything like me, at this point of the process, they’re sick and tired of looking at them!