March 19 - The Thing

We're gonna draw a little bit of everyone's blood, 'cause we're gonna find out who's the Thing. Watching Norris in there gave me the idea that every little part of him was a whole. Every little piece was an individual animal with a built-in desire to protect its own life. You see, when a man bleeds, it's just tissue. But blood from one of you Things won't obey when it's attacked. It'll try and survive. Crawl away from a hot needle, say.

~ MacReady The Thing (1982)

I had the pleasure this weekend of hanging out with some of my best friends and watching the original The Thing.  It's been 20+ years since I've seen this movie, and it still holds up.

The movie tanked pretty hard at the box office, competing with a few other science fiction and fantasy films at the time - people were enjoying the fun fantasy of E.T. and weren't thrilled by the nihilistic tone and hopelessness here.

Also, Wilford Brimley without a mustache? (!!!!)  Seriously weird stuff. 

---

Other Dorb balloon designs:

Show All Buster

March 18 - The Pale Man

A long time ago, in the underground realm, where there are no lies or pain, there lived a Princess who dreamed of the human world. She dreamed of blue skies, soft breeze, and sunshine. One day, eluding her keepers, the Princess escaped. Once outside, the brightness blinded her and erased every trace of the past from her memory. She forgot who she was and where she came from.
Her body suffered cold, sickness, and pain. Eventually, she died. However, her father, the King, always knew that the Princess' soul would return, perhaps in another body, in another place, at another time. And he would wait for her, until he drew his last breath, until the world stopped turning . . .

~ Pan's Labyrinth Intro

The Pale Man is one of the more frightening monsters in the movie Pan's Labyrinth.  This is one of those creature images that really stick with you and I've been wanting to build him for a while.

The Pale Man sleeps at an overflowing banquet table and wakes if someone tries to eat from it.  Presumably bait because the the room has painted frescoes of him eating children and a pile of shoes is in the corner.

Guillermo del Toro posted early last year on his twitter (Feb 2, 2017 - link):

‏The Pale Man represents all institutional evil feeding on the helpless. It's not accidental that he is a) Pale b) a Man. He's thriving now.

March 17 - Leprechaun

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I made this balloon a little late in the day to bring to a friends house, but figured it was better to post now rather than tomorrow.  So here it is, quick like!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

March 15 - Pinhead

The box. You opened it. We came. Now you must come with us, taste our pleasures.

~ Pinhead Hellraiser I

I am very selective with the horror movies I watch.  I like a good monster but I really can't stand watching anything rooted in some sort of feasible reality.  I don't like a human villain.

I'd say it's mainly because I don't have firm control of my imagination, I don't have nightmares - I have day-mares, and I can't stop myself from thinking about how horrible the situation was, or what I would do to escape, or worse.

Hellraiser is one of the good ones and I thought it might be amusing to build Pinhead. 

I didn't get the face as angry as I wanted, I was trying to get a bit of a snarl - it looks a little like a zombie instead of the Leader of the Cenobites.

March 14 - What It Is

I would do anything anything
Not to bring who I am to meet me
This useless suffering
Ugly part of me is screwing me
As it feeds me

But it is what it is
You don't know how to live with what it is
But it is what it is
It may seem impossible
But I will embrace who I really am
If it's a son of a bitch or a terrified kid
Then that's what it is

~ Jonathan Davis What It Is (video link) 

Jonathan Davis is the lead singer of Korn and has released a video of a song called "What It Is" from his upcoming solo album.

I drew inspiration from this idea of a man finally confronting who he truly is inside.  It brought to mind an image of someone in a straitjacket thrashing about facing his inner demons.

March 12 - Giant Space Tardigrade

“Since, in the long run, every planetary civilization will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring--not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive... If our long-term survival is at stake, we have a basic responsibility to our species to venture to other worlds.”

~ Carl Sagan

Candice Westberg posted a picture of her tardigrade creation last week, which was the inspiration for me thinking that as fascinating and virtually indestructible as these creatures are, it's a good thing they are both microscopic and harmless to us!

Hmmm ... but what if ... ?

Giant Space Tardigrade is often referred to as the Great Devourer to those civilizations aware of it's existence.   Though it does no harm to animal life, the wake of it's appetite leaves a husk of a planet unable to sustain life.  One displaced race that simply refers to themselves as "The Heralds" has appointed themselves vanguard to the beast - but not every civilization is prepared to accept the cost of their alliance.

March 11 - Vengeance of Daedalus

His eyes are ablaze,
See the madman in his gaze.
Fly, on your way, like an eagle,
Fly as high as the sun,
On your way, like an eagle,
Fly and touch the sun.

~ Iron Maiden Flight of Icarus

No father should ever experience the anguish that Daedalus felt when Icarus fell into the ocean, so great was his grief that the goddess Athena took pity and granted him the wings of a god.

The Chronicle of Orphestus contains one of the few records of what happened next:

Lo, Daedalus did take to the skies with fist and fury of vengeance.  Past Great Olympus and soaring to heights unforeseen, for great and ferocious was his resentment of that celestial oppressor.  God wings do not burn and to this day the sun is forced to flee to the west every day to escape a father's wrath.

The idea for this balloon occurred when I was listening to the song Flight of Icarus and imagining how grief stricken Daedalus would be.