Vint Motorvehicle: Rocky Roads and Shell Stations

 Where I live in Florida (Venice), I've noticed that a lot of people here collect vintage cars.  And also motorcycles.  And I also live very close to a small airport and I see a lot of old airplanes.  This led me to create the world of Vint Motorvehicle.  These characters were created using materials I found on the beaches (shells, rocks, and shark teeth) plus glue and paint.

Vint "HotRod" Motorvehicle is the leader of this retro crew.  Vint is short for "Vintage."

I think I love old cars so much because they remind me of amusement park ride vehicles (like the Antique Car ride at Six Flags, or Lightning Rod at Dollywood).  

Damian Cruiser is a hellion on wheels.  He's up to no good, and that is OK.

With his red hot color and fins, the name Damian was definitely inspired by the character in the film The Omen.

Baron Thundercloud is a dashing adventurer airplane.

Baron Thundercloud is a bit of a show-off.

Razorback Chopper is one bad motorcycle.

Razorback is the definition of a road hog.  Vint better stay out of his way!

The Infinite Pools of Johnny Chlorine

 

Sometimes I will come up with a character that is based on someone I meet.  Such is the case with Johnny Chlorine, who is based on my friend John (himself a pool guy).  I ended up making a diorama of the world of Johnny Chlorine out of painted sea shells and sharks teeth found near my home in Venice, Florida.

Another big inspiration for Johnny Chlorine is video games from the 1980s (ones I grew up with) featuring characters that had to do their jobs and fight off obstacles (Dig Dug, Burger Time, and Paperboy to name a few). 

Being in Florida, a big obstacle for Johnny Chlorine is alligators and frogs (adorable frogs)

In the tradition of Donkey Kong, Johnny Chlorine has a son named Johnny Chlorine Junior.

Johnny Chlorine Junior helps fight of bloodthirsty Mosquitoes.  Junior gets help from friendly Dragonflies.

Menacing Trees are also a big pain in the neck for Johnny Chlorine.

Shaken tree limbs unleash swirling, mischief-making Leaves.

Murders of crows wreak havoc on Johnny Chlorine's pools, as do pesky Water Beetles.

Johnny Chlorine's biggest helper is Stormy Daniel, a rain cloud with lightning who fills up pools for Johnny Chlorine and gives him a day off once in a while.

Mitch Weaver: Spiny Orb Spider

 

Sometimes I come up with characters based on things I encounter in real life.  Such is the case with Mitch Weaver.  Years ago, when I was living in Alabama, I discovered a spider in the front yard.  To me, it looked like its abdomen was a smiling skull with horns.  It turned out to be a Spiny Orb Weaver.  I happen to have grown up with someone named Mitch Weaver.  So I decided that could be a fun character.  I created sculptures of Mitch Weaver and his Fly friend using Sculpey clay and paint.  Mitch Weaver and the fly were created to look reminiscent of members of a biker gang.

I ultimately moved to Florida and discovered that there was a Spiny Orb Weaver spider in the backyard here, too.  I also started (trying) to keep carnivorous plants in the backyard.  I got a Venus Flytrap and a Tropical Pitcher Plant.  The Tropical Pitcher Plant in particular looks like a grotesque creature, and along with the Venus Flytraps, are perfect antagonists to a spider and insects.

Carnivorous plants are famous for feeding on flies, but they indeed also eat spiders (and really anything else that may wander into their trap).  They lure in their prey with nectar.  Because of this, Mitch Weaver as a concept is an allegory for substance addiction.

Six Flags Over Texas Spee-Lunker's Cave Crafts: Stalactite Statues

 

From 1964 to 1991, Six Flags Over Texas had a unique boat ride called The Cave.  This attraction featured a society of small, fantasy creatures called The Spee-Lunkers.  The Spee-Lunkers are very unique characters, which remind me a bit of elves, but also seahorses.  I decided to make some Spee-Lunkers using shells, shark teeth, and other materials I found on the beach in Venice, Florida.  I painted the characters to mimic the black light effect that was used in the ride.

When the Spee-Lunkers were evicted from The Cave, the ride gained a Looney Tunes theme and became Yosemite Sam's and the Gold River Adventure.  This was a wild west boat ride with animated Warner Brothers figures.  The Yosemite Sam ride closed in 2018 due to damage from a storm.

The Spee-Lunkers (or "Spees" as they are also called) may be gone, but they are not forgotten.  A number of Spees managed to leave the ride and find themselves in the homes of caring Texans, who sometimes include them in their Christmas displays.

Curiously, in 2019, Dollywood in Tennessee presented a number of proposed concepts for a dark ride as part of the new Wildwood Grove section.  One of the concepts was a "Spelunking in the Smokies" interactive dark ride.

Will the Spee-Lunkers ever return to Six Flags Over Texas?  In the age of the reboot, it seems anything is possible.

UPDATE AUGUST 5, 2021:  Six Flags Over Texas has announced the return of the Spees in 2022 with a new, updated attraction, Pirates of Speelunker Cave.  In addition to the Spees, this ride appears to pay homage to the old Skull Island that once existed at the park.

The Mind Bender Man From Six Flags Over Georgia

 

Back when I was building characters for the Six Flags Over Georgia Monster Plantation/Monster Mansion out of sea shells, I was posting pictures of them to a Six Flags Over Georgia Facebook page.  As a result of this, I got a special request to make a replica of a statue of a character that used to be found in front of the Mind Bender roller coaster.  Mind Bender is a famous looping steel roller coaster that opened at Six Flags in 1978.  Part of the decor for the entrance to Mind Bender included a sculpture of a trippy, mind-bending man.  Back at this time, Six Flags did not have the rights to any DC Comics characters.  But when Batman finally rolled into Six Flags in the 1990s, the villainous Riddler clamed the Mind Bender roller coaster for his own.

This Mind Bender is made from a variety of shells that I found on beaches in Venice, Florida (and a bit of paint and glue).

Goof Troop 1955

 

With reboots all the rage, I had an idea for Goof Troop 1955.  The 1992 Disney animated TV series Goof Troop was itself something of a reboot.  I decided to make sculptures of retro versions of Goofy Junior and Pete Junior, characters that got their start in Disney theatrical shorts when Walt Disney was alive.

Cartoons featuring Goofy and his (offscreen) wife and son, Junior, were released in the fifties and sixties (such as 1951's Fathers are People).

Red-headed Goofy Junior was an antagonist in these cartoons, and not necessarily beloved by audiences.  The same can be said for Pete Junior, who was a nasty brat in the 1942 Donald Duck cartoon, Bellboy Donald.

A lot of my inspiration for Goof Troop 1955 was a home movie I recently watched of my Mom and her siblings as kids in 1955.  My Uncle Jack, with his red hair, freckle face, and Superman T-Shirt, reminded me of Goofy Junior in the fifties.

Pete Junior's rebellious look was inspired by the 1953 Marlon Brando movie, The Wild One.

Muncey the dog was Pete's dog in the 1953 Donald Duck short, The New Neighbor (which also inspired Pete's look here).

Milton the cat was featured in a number of Disney shorts, including the 1951 Pluto cartoon, Plutopia.

Goofy's look here is a mix of his design in the Fifties and Disney comics from 1969 up to the early 1980s.  That's because in these comics, Goofy had a love interest named Glory Bee.  Glory Bee is a poodle-type character that really has a Pink Ladies look that fits in nicely in the fifties.