about selph's teddy trooper pinhead & walker custom for occupied territories
Occupied Territories - currently on display @ Bodhi Gallery, London = *coolness*
TOYSREVIL: what was the genesis of the custom, Selph?
SELPH: I have been a major fan of Pinhead since he first entered my nightmares after watching Hellraiser at the age of 8. I was an only child that was allowed to watch anything I wanted so I would push my mind to the limits by watching 18+ horror/slasher movies and scare myself silly.
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TOYSREVIL: horror-overdose turned custom-steampunk'd-nirvana = *cool* ... how you describe what both the Pinhead Teddy and Walker's "relationship" is?
SELPH: In the Hellraiser movies, there always seemed to be a dark relationship between the demons and the use of some form of machinery that would terrorise and torture poor humans with. It seemed natural that if a Teddy Troop was possessed by the devil, he would need a machine/walker to appear taller and scarier than other bears. The walker also contains a removable nail that can impale "pure" bears with as well as capture their souls using the special 666 camera mounted onto the front of the walker.
TOYSREVIL: daymn! lurve a dark custom with a dark-story! the visual imagery and concept is exceptional, with a heavy steampunk-influence and a tinge of anime-mechalogy - what process did you undertake for the creation of your customs?
SELPH: The Teddy Troop was kindly given to me by Sichi (Adfunture UK) and the walker was made using an old security camera from work. I broke it open and used the circuit boards for the "dashboard" details and made a small platform out of matchsticks for the Teddy Troop to stand on inside the walker.
SELPH: The turret can rotate really smoothly thanks to the focus lens of the camera and the bottom half comes from a blank Ci-Boys Ranger. Unfortunately, the whole machine is quite heavy and the legs had to be superglued in place otherwise the walker would collapse!
TOYSREVIL: i've said it and i'll say it again: "astounding". especially moreso as the teddy-trooper is only 3"-ers tall, IMHO ... what is their status now? are they available for sale?
SELPH: The Teddy Troop custom was made for the Occupied Territories show in the Adfunture UK store in Brick Lane, London. I think the other customs are for sale but mine has already been reserved by someone. Sorry....
TOYSREVIL: sad news for your fans, im sure (:p) ... cheers for your time and trouble, Selph! in closing, please share with us, Who Is SELPH and what you're currently up to :)My name is Selph and I have been a member of the ESPVisuals crew since it's creation in 1998. Our crew spans the globe from UK to Hong Kong to Australia. I originally started off doing graffiti with the crew but we soon realised that we had more talents in other facets of creativity like moving visuals, journalism (espvisuals.blogspot.com) and (www.ukadapta.com), graphic design, toy customs and organising live art shows. I still bomb hard around the East End of London but don't venture out too far from there! I am an avid mecha-fan and toy collector and have a huge collection of Spawn toys as well as hundreds of vinyl toys too.
