MAN-E-FEATURE// Man-Nie, a MOTU tribute from Peter Kato…

Hot off the heels of the Valentines Tetsujin Turtle release, Peter Kato is gearing up for another couple of releases this February in the form of Man-Nie and Fright Bite ‘Jet Black’. Whilst information is still scarce regarding the latest Fright Bite edition, Peter has confirmed that Man-Nie will be going on sale in his shop shortly after Valentines day at $10 each. Revealed at last year’s NYCC, Man-Nie went on to sell out within a matter of moments, so we’re stoked to see him make a return…

(A batch shot of Man-Nies made for NYCC 2011)

Peter has kindly given us a little background on the figure-

As a kid watching He-Man, that episode staring Man-E-Face, I always wondered, “What the heck does he look like under that helmet?” With that inspiration I started sculpting him. I imagined he would need to be represented as a youth before getting all buffed-out( which seemed to be a Eternian requirement), and I imagined him as a country bumpkin , classic farm-boy strong & kind-hearted who had dreams of being a great actor in the ” big city.”  I also thought this was a tough time for him because he seemed so strange with three faces & each face having something to say made him a bit of an indecisive youth.

(Man-Nie Side by side with some M.U.S.C.L.E.S.)

When it came to actually casting out the figures at first I imagined I would hand-paint the details for the whole figure. I started with a fleshy base color since he was mostly naked ( I chose pinky-flesh versus the tan-color skin he has as an adult because I imagined that look came when he started working out & stuff). But as I looked at the fleshy figure I realized it had that perfect M.U.S.C.L.E.S (Kinnikuman) look to it & I decided to keep them as is.

An interesting point in the sculpt : the left hand is an open hand with fingers spread wide. I didn’t think about it at the time that as i made the mold for the finger that that would make the molding process difficult, so as simple as the figure is the left hand makes it a bit of a molding/casting nightmare. But I’m glad I did it because I imagined him to be a lefty, like me.

Early sculpting shots, this must have been around September of 2011. All started with hand sculpted wax/clay mixture. This figure took me about a week & a half to build up & finish. I usually work on two things at once to break up any monotony ( early FrightBite sculpt on the left).