CyberClaus

Thinking back to the cartoons & toys from when I was a nipper I thought it would be fun to have a go at making my own, complete with 80s animation, toy figures and cheesy advert. Feeling the festive spirit I decided I'd combine the two and make it a toy advert for a Christmas themed cartoon.

I watched a load of 80s cartoons, Masters of the Universe, Thundercats, M.A.S.K, Transformers, BraveStarr, Centurions and tried to combine all of my favourite bits. I decided on a cyborg Father Christmas with a transforming gun arm and laser eyeball, and why not eh. Just like He-Man had Battle Cat and Bravestarr had Thirty/Thirty I thought I'd give CyberClaus (that's his name by the way) an animal sidekick. Obviously this had to be a reindeer, a cyborg reindeer who could also turn into a motorbike type thing, ReinDroid. I came up with a bit of backstory about them having a terrible sleigh crash and being rebuilt by elves, just like a festive Robocop. Of course every hero needs baddies to fight, so CyberClaus would be squaring up against the evil Frost Lords (I'd starting losing interest by this point).

I hacked up some generic soldier figures and a reindeer toy, drilled, glued and bodged them together, sculpted beards, bellies, and icicle arms with Milliput and then finished them off with enamel paints. I made a North Pole set on a glass table using some sheets of polystyrene and lit it from beneath with strips of blue LEDs. I covered the table in lots and lots and lots of table salt and rock salt and then placed large chunks of ice throughout. I roped in the help of my friend's little lad, stuck a green screen behind him and got as much footage of him playing with the toys and bashing them together as I could before he lost interest / started to question what on earth he was doing.