Moebius Mars Attacks! Martian Warrior

I was in love with this kit since before it came out… way before it came out! So when my sister got it for me for my birthday this year I was ready to scrap everything on my workbench (I didn’t) and get right to this one. I know you guys know that feeling, you got a closet full of unopen beauties that you’ve been stockpiling every time one comes down in price finally, but then there is some just released gem that just begs you to be worked on immediately. Also, you might know that this gets you in some trouble with the Misses because, “You’ve got a whole closetful—AND some I found under the bed—of unopened models, and you had to order ANOTHER one? And you’re working on that one—what, now? What about all these others???” Well… yeah! What about those? Those are all—oh fine! I don’t have a good reason, I just LOVE… I love all of them so much *single tear rolls down face*.

And it’s true, you do love ALL of your models, well, except maybe those couple ones you got when you first started snatching up anything and everything that was available before your tastes had refined a little bit, but you still just can’t get rid of ’em because… what if someday it’s the only one left in existence? What if there’s suddenly a run on old ERTL (that word makes me wanna ERTL myself…) monster truck… something—LOOK I don’t know! All I know, is that this Martian was SCREAMING to be worked on!!!

And it was definitely one of the most fun builds I’ver had in a long time! Now Moebius (sometimes Aurora, sometimes Polar Lights, and sometimes Monarch (I still haven’t figured out why certain products go to certain companies, but they are all one and the same now, maybe they weren’t always?) but these kits do not always have the greatest molding, or the best fits, and usually never come with some of the finer accoutrements that have distinguished a lot of other companies these days; such as photo-etch (not much need when most of your product is figures) and other things of that ilk, but the Mars Attacks! kit comes with a nice solid chunk of aluminum to make up the pole of the lamppost, which is at least ONE seam that doesn’t have to be worked out!

I mean, this is definitely Moebius trying to raise the bar on their products. What with the aluminum, and mostly tight fitting joints and seams, they’ve really outdone themselves from everything they’ve made in the past, so I certainly hope that this is the direction the company is headed especially since they are sorta the last bastion of geeky Sci-Fi/Horror/Schlock kinda stuff, not to mention of course their retention of all the rights to the classic Universal Monsters which I can NEVER get enough of…

So, with all that said, there were a few difficult seam lines, like, you know the legs and arms are going to be a bit of a sticky situation when you have to fight the vertical seam lines with all of those horizontal lines already molded into the suit. But, just know that going into it and take your time (duh, you ARE a modeler after all) and you’ll knock these out and be proud of yourself for doing so!

And definitely, definitely one of my absolute favorite things about this kit was the sheer importance of attention to texture as such an integral part of making this kit look really rad. I tried to go super-matte on the Martians main body suit, and then go for a more plastic-y feel on his gloves and shoes. I also wanted a nice wet texture on his brain just to give it some over-the-top ickyness, and Mars Attacks! if it is anything it is over-the-top!

Another texture I enjoyed playing around with was the blood, which, I know, you may be saying, “That’s a bit of overkill there, Justin, what’s the deal?” And if you think it’s overkill than you must not be familiar with the original series of trading cards that this whole franchise is based on. Mars Attacks! was originally released by the Topps baseball card company in 1962, much to the horror of… well, everybody! Kids were having nightmares, parents were throwing fits about the gratuitous gore, and all in all, it was just made to be legendary, along with being made almost purposefully to be pulled from the shelves within a moment’s notice. And of course they were pulled from the shelves and now they of course reach the highest amount of money for any non-sports related subject ever put into the trading card format… so, enough with the history lesson already and BACK TO THE BLOOD!

So, one of the areas I really had some of the most fun was making the texture of the blood on the sidewalk still wet and sticky looking, all the while making the blood soaking into the jacket another nice kinda semi-semi-gloss texture if you will.

Then there are the minute details of a kit like this, such as making the concrete seem worn but not too filthy, and then the gutter which was just a great touch to break up the monotony of the concrete. OH, and then there’s the lamp, which was another great thing to play around with where texture and wear are concerned. And the great juxtaposition of trying to get a realistic looking background into this hyper-violent, hyper-cartoony world to offset each other nicely.

If you are at all interested or have been mulling over getting this kit, this one is a sure fire pleaser… just maybe not for the wee ones. Ya know, don’t make the same mistakes that got this series pulled off the shelves 50 years ago and go buying this for your four-year-old, they don’t need to see intestines, do they?

OHALSO!!! I will be selling this figure on eBay where a portion of the proceeds go to one of my favorite organizations Unwanted NYC Pets! They save animals from high kill shelters in the NYC area, most of which have been abused by disgusting people, and they provide these animals with veterinary care, foster homes, and ultimately a forever home after poring over tons of adoption applications. They are really wonderful folks and please feel free to check them out. My eBay handle is justinbelmondo2 and look for this figure and know that some of the proceeds from this (and all of my sales) go to this amazing organization :]