#112 SCALE STAR WARS SCENERY HOW TO#
#112 SCALE STAR WARS SCENERY SERIES#
#112 SCALE STAR WARS SCENERY TV#

I had one photo with a Hot Toys shoretrooper on a beach and I’m not tooting my own horn but it looks real. “One thing is those are easy to make look like they’re really people. “I’ll do a lot of closeups of their faces,” Wu says. The former are best for battle sequences, their poseable limbs giving them flexibility akin to a real soldier in combat, although he prefers the latter, immaculately painted with precision down to the tiniest freckle, for quieter moments and the end of a zoom lens.

#112 SCALE STAR WARS SCENERY SERIES#

It was like the two things clicked like a perfect storm.”Īlthough he has a collection including vintage figures from the Power of the Force era, Wu primarily shoots the multi-jointed six-inch-tall figures from the newer Black Series line or the incredibly detailed sixth scale versions from Hot Toys. “It’s like a loophole to playing with toys even though you’re an adult,” he says.

#112 SCALE STAR WARS SCENERY HOW TO#

It wasn’t long before Wu’s girlfriend, Crystal Nuccio, handed him a higher-powered Canon camera and taught him how to use it, spurring his new hobby. He set up a cardboard box as a mini-studio space, then propped a few Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures inside - haphazardly taping a Mondo Gecko figure into place doing a skateboarding move while other characters cheered - and took a few shots with his iPhone.

#112 SCALE STAR WARS SCENERY TV#

Just three years ago, after rediscovering collecting characters from his favorite films and TV shows, Wu had an idea. “Growing up, I’ve always been fascinated by toys, action figures. Wu, 31, has had a lifelong love of action figures, although he admits there was a point in his young adult years that he thought he’d outgrown the children’s toys. I want to go to space and I want to hang out with these people.” “Even as nerdy and dorky as it might sound to some people.I wish I could go to Tatooine,” Wu says. That tangibility adds to the feeling that the toys are real people in real situations.

“Everything else that you see in the photo is actually happening through the camera,” he says. “A lot of toy collectors.once they read that that’s not Photoshop and that those figures are actually getting water on them? And flour? And now they’re going to hear about the fireworks? They’re going to cringe.'oh no, I could never do that with my figure!'”īut in the style of the model makers who first brought Star Wars to the screen, Wu prefers practical effects over CGI with minimal touch-ups to add the glow of a lightsaber to his images or omit a wire that needed to be in place to keep a figure in mid-air during the hours-long photo shoot. He recognizes not every collector would be comfortable with his approach. With ingenious hacks - like subbing in flour for freshly fallen snow - and utilizing the natural elements near his northern California home, like a young Jyn Erso sending Stormy on adventures through Lah’mu, Wu crafts creative storylines, battle sequences, and epic quests for his menagerie of plastic soldiers.

It would be very, very hard to recreate that in Photoshop,” Wu says. “The realness, the rawness of that actual explosion. The battle scars are all for the love of art, as Wu captures hyper-realistic Star Wars scenes for his Instagram followers or promotional images for the likes of Hasbro and Sideshow. This is part of the rigorous practical effects that have accidentally customized some figures by fire or resulted in other lost limbs as the toy photographer manically snapped away with his digital camera. His collection hierarchy is broken down by which figures he doesn’t mind melting as he sets off small explosives and fireworks nearby. on Instagram - is decidedly more Tarkin-esque. While some collectors labor over whether or not to remove an action figure from its pristine packaging, the approach of Johnny Wu - a.k.a. If there’s a fearless and inventive fan out there, we’ll highlight them here. Most Impressive Fans is a feature highlighting the amazing creativity of Star Wars devotees, from cosplay to props. Making action-figure art with a camera, some toys, and lots of flour.

112 scale star wars scenery