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Working For Peanuts

Kenton Anderson - 2 Comments

Disney Series 2 is just around the corner, which means two of my favorite childhood Disney characters are in stores soon! I grew up watching old Chip & Dale cartoons and have many memories of them pestering Donald Duck! I also was a big fan of Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers. Naturally then, I was delighted when Stuck In Plastic and LEGO sent me these two new minifigures to review.

Chip comes with a little acorn made of two small pieces. It looks great.
Dale comes with a small sack to hold all the nuts he finds.

One episode I always loved of Chip and Dale was “Working for Peanuts.” At one point in the episode they get painted white and trick Donald Duck into thinking they are rare albino chipmunks and that they should only be fed the best grade “A” quality peanuts. It’s hilarious, and so I decided to get some fun Chip and Dale working for peanuts shots.

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Litra vs. Lumecube | A Toy Photographers Guide

Kenton Anderson - 6 Comments

Recently I was sent some small LED lights from both Litra and Lumecube. I decided that the most beneficial thing to Stuck In Plastic readers would be to compare the two. So I reviewed both specifically for toy photography to let you know which light might be right for you.

Litra and Lumecube

For those of you who have never heard of either of these companies, let me give a little background. Both of them have come on the scene in recent years offering “action” LED lights. “Action” as lights that are great for action sports or active lifestyles. The lights are fully waterproof and come in tough casings that can survive a drop or getting tossed around a little.

They are typically made for filming video or documentaries, or when you only can take the most minimal of gear. They are also great for strapping to a drone, surfboard, or kayak so you can see more at night. Just take a look at the Lumecube and Litra Instagram pages. You’ll see that toy photography is not the main application by design, and so I was interested to put them to the test.

Litra and Lumecube in toy photography

However, toy photographers have been discovering these lights. They have become instrumental in getting some amazing lighting setups that before were much harder to obtain. In fact, Jonny Wu a.k.a. @sgtbananas has recently done a series of videos on Adam Savage’s Tested YouTube channel. He shows a variety of scenarios and effects all lit by Lumecube lights.

Many photographers in the toy photography community also love Litra gear. For example, @joecow who shows his setup with the lights here.

Seeing all of this content recently made me wonder what all the fuss was about. It also had me wondering which of the lights, if any, were right for me? Below I will break down some key things I was looking for in a lighting setup. Then I will declare the winner of each category.

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Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Kenton Anderson - 3 Comments

This blog post is part of a series about the new LEGO Movie 2 Collectible Minifigures Series. Thanks to the folks from LEGO for providing us a box of Minifigures that we sent to 9 creative toy photographers to review for the blog.

I was so happy when I found out that I would get to review some of the minifigures from the new LEGO Movie 2 Collectible Minifigure Series! I was secretly hoping that I would be able to get the tin man, but to my surprise not only was I sent the tin man, I was sent all four of the Wizard of Oz minifigures.

I remember as a kid being petrified watching the Wizard of Oz. That wicked witch really got to me! However, as an adult, I have really grown to enjoy the movie. I marvel at the effects that they use in it. They had no computers. No green screens. No Industrial Light and Magic. Yet they executed some amazing things given the time period. Then I think of today and how much technology we have literally at our fingertips. We have smartphones and apps that can do amazing things.

A couple apps that I have been incorporating into my toy photography lately are Werble and Pixeloop. With a few taps you can create some really fun affects like this.

The tin man is feeling a little congested :)

I’ll touch on these apps and how to create these fun effects at the bottom of this post, but for now, let’s get into my review of the minifigures. I love what I have seen so far of this new wave of collectible minifigures, but I think these Wizard of Oz characters might be my favorite.

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Go. Brick. Me!

Kenton Anderson - 2 Comments

My family and I were lucky enough to get a Go Brick Me set sent to us from the good folks here at SiP to make a review. Not one of those signed boxes you can win in the contest but still a cool box shipped by the LEGO store here in the US.

My kids and I  have been looking forward to building some custom Brickheadz but hadn’t had the opportunity to get this set until now. Continue reading “Go. Brick. Me!”

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Bringing back the Magic of Harry Potter

Kenton Anderson - 2 Comments

This article is part of our series of reviews related to the Harry Potter and the Wizarding World Minifigures. Thanks to the LEGO Group for providing the Minifigures.

Bringing back the Magic

Seeing all the new Harry Potter minifigures and sets coming out right now and in the near future has taken me back to my youth when I first started reading the Harry Potter books. I remember getting so caught up in the first book and even as a kid I could not put it down. It was so magical!

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Anton Among The Waves

Kenton Anderson - 4 Comments

An Awesome Lake

My original idea for the Where is Anton contest was to go to the mountains and find an awesome lake. Maybe even take the lakeside lodge set I recently built and work that into the picture.  However, because of the crazy weather lately and the limited time, I instead resorted to something I could capture at home. Continue reading “Anton Among The Waves”