Interest Christopher Reeve Superman - 4 inches tall figure *NOW PAINTED* with Kenner / Palitoy style cardbacks and other superheroes!

cking

Sr Member
Hi all,

Some of you may have seen my thread in the General Modeling section for the custom Palitoy inspired cardbacks that I'm producing. Starting off with a 3d printed figure of Christopher Reeve with a Superman The Movie and Superman II cardback.

Just trying to get a feel for whether this is just something I'm into, or whether others would be interested in buying them too. I could offer them as the following options.
  1. For individual cards with bubbles. (Artwork applied to front and back of card). I think I'd be looking at around $15 each.
  2. Full set of 12 with bubbles could be $150.
  3. Chris Reeve Superman 4 inch figure (with Superman The Movie and Superman II cardbacks) and bubbles: Price undetermined as 3d printing and painting costs are currently unknown.
I wanted to clarify that I won't be offering a 3d printed figure for all 12 of these character cardbacks. I just haven't got the funds to do that. However, Chris Reeve Superman is already started, an upgraded head for the Funko Adam West Batman and Burt Ward Robin 3.75 inch figures will be done, as will a Lou Ferrigno Incredible Hulk, Nicholas Hammond Spider-Man and Lynda Carter Wonder Woman. Other characters will rely on figures already produced by other companies and Lex Luthor may remain figure-less.

Here's some photos of how they're looking. Still need to design the cardbacks for Flash, Hulk, Wonder Woman and Spider-Man, but you get the idea of where it's heading. I've tried lots of different techniques and materials for printing the cards and applying the artwork and am very happy with how they're looking - complete with rounded corners and shelf hanger hole punched out, then re-inserted.
 

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Some refinements to the Reeve Superman figure. Tweaked the rib cage and pecs to better match Reeve's physique. Added the slightly wavy hairline at the forehead.
 

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I'm not very hopeful. 178 views and just 1 confirmation of interest. That will teach me for putting a toy interest thread on a replica props forum I guess. LOL



It'll fill up, just give it some time.
 

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Nah, give it time, as there are plenty of toy collectors here. People are viewing but will jump on when you are ready for orders. Once they see your final assembled pieces with the final figures, I am betting you will get orders.

I know I am waiting to see what you finally offer. I know you put up a price for the cards with bubbles, but I wouldn't have any figures for the cards, so I am on the fence about needing cards that will probably sit in a closet, lol. I am waiting to see what the figures come out like and what figures you offer so i can better assess what I will want to order. I am sure a lot of people will be this way.
 
Great. Thanks for your interest.

Here's the Incredible Hulk cardback. Tough to know what to do for that because the TV show didn't really have many characters to use for an action figure line. LOL.

I've just got to do the cardbacks for Spider-Man and Wonder Woman and this really enjoyable project will be finished (at least the card designing part of it).
 

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Your card designs look amazing especially the Batman ones love the back of the card, the only problem I would be concerned with is the quality of the final card so many people have made Star Wars ones but the quality never comes close to the original Kenner or Palitoy cards, but I am interested to see a final piece.
 
Thanks for your comments Black Ninja. Rest assured, I have experimented with every card type and every artwork printout available within reasonable means and am VERY happy with the end result. The reason why the Kenner / Palitoy cards are so good is that they were lithographic printed. This is a very expensive printing process. I contacted several lithographic printing companies and they wouldn't entertain doing it without a minimum order of 500 cards.

However, not wanting to be defeated, I have found a card and printing process that creates a really beautiful result. The paper and printing process creates a perfect semi-gloss finish to the cards and the card itself has just the correct amount of surface texture to subtly show through when held up to the light. The artwork is professionally printed using a very expensive, high quality printer.

I've learned techniques and got the tools to create a very professional looking end result. The edges of the cards have to be cut with a guillotine paper cutter - this is essential to get the slightly "rolled" edges. Using a scalpel makes the edges too "sharp" and doesn't look the same as the original Kenner / Palitoy cards. I've got a high quality corner rounder cutter at the correct radius to match the rounded corners of the Kenner cards. The shelf hanger hole is cut out and then re-inserted and looks like an unpunched card. Take a look at the photos and let me know what you think.

Here's some photos of my test prints. There's a close-up of one of my cards next to an original Kenner Return of the Jedi card. It will never have the exact same surface texture, but I'm sure you will be very satisfied with how it looks. I'm really proud of the end results.
 

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Here's the back of the Spider-Man card. I found a higher quality photo option for the front of the card. Which do you prefer?
Just got Wonder Woman's card to do now.
 

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Here is the finished render of the Chris Reeve Superman figure. This will stand at 10.7cm (4.22 inches) tall when printed. The yellow emblem on the back of the cape will be added as a die-cut sticker. The original cape emblem was sewn on top of the red cape fabric, so there didn't seem to be any point sculpting the emblem into the cape model. I think the die-cut sticker will be a perfect representation of how it looked on the full size costume.
VERY happy with how this looks. I am going to get it printed first to see how it looks. Adding the articulation for the arms, legs and head (basic 5 points of articulation) is going to cost an additional $300, so I want to make sure the model itself looks ok before I pay the extra.
 

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Here's the back of the Spider-Man card. I found a higher quality photo option for the front of the card. Which do you prefer?
Just got Wonder Woman's card to do now.

I'm digging the action shot of him walking. Got his utility belt visible!!!
 
I may not do a complete set of cards for sale as it's just taken me 5 hours to complete a full set for myself. Very tricky to do it properly to a high quality and I wasted a few sheets in the process. I don't really have enough time to spend that long on each set so it will probably just be individual cards for sale to whoever wants them. Not really had any interest for a full set anyway, so that's a bit of a relief.
 
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