Astra's actionfigures in Action

I'm usually not posting too many fannish news in here, as there are many other places one can get them but this? This is BIG! It's HUGE! And something worth getting excited about.

An official twelve parts DC comic story, written by John and Carole Barrowman, about the past of "Arrow"'s Malcolm Merlyn. First as digital comic once a week, then all parts in a comic book. I can hardly wait to read it.

Here is a link with a wonderful interview and more details, and if you have seen brother and sister in other interviews before, you will read it in their voices: http://www.tvinsider.com/article/63671/arrow-the-dark-archer-malcolm-merlyn-dc-comics-series-john-and-carole-barrowman/

PS: Malcolm has sex ;) I wonder with whom? Moira, probably?

And I thought the highlight of his career had been the official introduction of the new NASA spacecraft "Orion" .

Or when he got the honor of MBE in Buckingham Palace.

Or when he sang at the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony.

But today John Barrowman got interviewed on CNN! I wonder how many saw it at the odd hour between 2 and 3 AM. Anyway, it's a nice little interview. He talks with Rosemary Church about Captain Jack Harkness, Malcolm Merlyn, the MBE and also Dewi, the Welsh boy that needs an operation to be able to walk and John paid for his flight to the USA.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why we are a fan of him.

Official video link: http://edition.cnn.com/videos/entertainment/2015/09/07/barrowman-interview.cnn

Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa13mbjs3IY



Before the official interview apparently also this happened LOL

https://twitter.com/rosemaryCNN/status/640815310891810816?s=04

We aired this in the tease to the @Team_Barrowman interview. John w/sister Carole on the #cnn set pic.twitter.com/N2OB6EeGS8

— Rosemary Church (@rosemaryCNN) September 7, 2015

And a tweet: https://twitter.com/rosemaryCNN/status/640928983698141184?s=04

On his weekly radio show on the UK radio station Magic FM every Sunday at 6 PM UK time (international listeners can listen via an app for international radio) John Barrowman just revealed that he was in a meeting with DC and he and his sister Carole E. Barrowman will write a Malcolm Merlyn comic! Yay! Great news!

He actually said the meeting was very short - he had expected to have to do much more convincing, but all they said was great, we like it, go away and do it! No further info yet on when it will come out, but he promised to tell as soon as he has more news.

John and Carole have written many books together before - two biographies with many funny Barrowman family stories with the titles "Anything goes" and "I am what I am", the children book fantasy series called "Hollow Earth" (three books of seven out so far) about twins who can bring drawings to life or jump into paintings, as well as a Torchwood comic and the Torchwood novel "Exodus Code".

I can't wait for their take on Malcolm Merlyn!

I want to take part in selenic76's Fandom Fest!

So, I basically interviewed myself. This is what happened:

If you don’t mind me asking – how old are you exactly?

I turned 40 last year – why do you ask?

And you are still playing with dolls?!?

Well, yeah. Guess I have kept my inner child, and I love it. I don’t intend to grow up anytime soon, I have way too much fun. And it is action figures, please. There’s a difference. I think my figures might feel offended if you called them dolls!

Tell me more about it. What is so fascinating about them?

They look like the actors! The faces and the clothes are done very well. Well, except that one Captain Jack Harkness figure who comes a bit cross-eyed. And not only mine, everyone was complaining about this. Makes him look a bit daft ;) Setting up scenes with the figures is in a way like fanfiction with pictures. You can make them do pretty much everything you want. Sorry shippers and slashers, taking their clothes off might be a bit difficult, if not impossible, but everything else is fair game. They never complain, they never get tired. They tend to fall over from time to time, which is especially bad if you had put a tea tray into Ianto’s hands and have to pick up the pieces every time...

I also had a few losses already, one Jack O’Neill broke his wrist, and one Jack Harkness has a broken nose from falling down onto the pavement when we were shooting out on location.

What do you mean – one? How many of them do you have?
( Read further under the cut - Here is where it gets interesting... )

This article has also been posted here: http://projecttorchwood.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/the-coffee-shop-my-life-with-action.html

My London photoalbum is finished. This is from 2011, my first trip to London, when I got to see David Tennant in "Much ado about nothing". We also were in the Doctor Who Experience, saw the Torchwood Tower in Canary Wharf, St. James's Park, British Museum, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, Shakespeare Globe, Sherlock Holmes Museum and many more. You can look through the album here:

http://www.pixopolis.de/kundenportal/fotobuch_vorschau/index.php?vorschau=131121-75925

There is also a new version of the album I made with all the John Barrowman vacation pictures from Spain and France a few years ago. I gave one to him and he liked it very much. The old link doesn't work anymore so here's the new one:

http://www.pixopolis.de/kundenportal/fotobuch_vorschau/index.php?vorschau=131121-75924

Hope you like it!

Related Link: The Doctor shows me around London
The Doctor is a lovely travel guide! He showed me all the main London sights.

Today arrived the Crocodile Rock model, made by Paul Watling from the Isle of Cumbrae Tourist office in his spare time and can be purchased here: http://www.astikkos.com/
The real Crocodile Rock is at the coast/beach and looks like this:



We visited the island near Glasgow back in January, because it became quite famous after being used as a location (called "Auchinmurn") for the "Hollow Earth" book series by Carole and John Barrowman. I have posted some pictures of this trip already here and here. There's more to follow.

So of course I had to set up some scenes with my nice tiny Crocodile Rock - they are under the LJ cut:

( read on here: .... many more pictures under the cut )

I'm just back home from a short weekend in London and Bluewater, where I went for the booksigning of "Bone Quill", the second part in the "Hollow Earth" trilogy by John and Carole Barrowman. My mission was to give Carole the figure I had made of her last year, and she was very happy to receive it. She gave a loud squeal and then showed it to John: "Look what I got!" He misinterpreted it as Sarah Jane at first, but Carole and I said at the same time: "No, it's Willow from 'Buffy'!"

For those of you who are new to my friends list, here is the incredible backstory:

At first, I had made an action figure story with the Torchwood team reading "Hollow Earth"

Then Carole tweeted the link around

Then I made a second part, this time with Superman and Mulder and Jack O'Neill and the Doctor reading the book

Because I only had a figure of John at the booksigning back then, Carole tweeted that she needs an action figure

So I thought, why not, and made a figure of her, as well as John in their red pullovers

Then I showed those figures to John at the convention in Peterborough last May and he liked them very much

And a few weeks later John and Carole talked about it at a TV show and a picture got shown This post has the video links

I certainly never had expected any of that. All I want is to bring a smile to the faces of people who love my stories.

I got asked to take a picture of my "vitrine" which in fact is a CD shelf with glass doors. It's where I keep all my customized action figures. In this picture you can see:

JB and his dogs - http://dieastra.livejournal.com/40390.html

2 Hamlets: http://dieastra.livejournal.com/27731.html

John & Carole Barrowman: http://dieastra.livejournal.com/41677.html

David Tennant in Much Ado About Nothing: http://dieastra.livejournal.com/37992.html

The 12" Eleventh and Tenth Doctor I did not make myself, but the Eleventh did cost 150 GBP so he belongs behind glass as well. I so hope they make a Captain Jack Harkness one day!



I'm still trying to select a few pics for the photoframes on the top.

"Exodus Code", the "Torchwood" novel written by Carole and John Barrowman, has finally arrived! It was signed by them three weeks ago at Forbidden Planet in London, and since then I am waiting for it. Tomorrow is my birthday and the timing couldn't be better! Looking forward to read it.

This entry explains why I needed to make a Carole figure and also has a link to the TV show Carole and John talked about me

It all started with the action figures reading the book "Hollow Earth". Unfortunately back then I did not have a Carole Barrowman figure for the Cardiff book signing. Something had to be done about that.

So I had a look around and settled for a Willow figure (from the "Buffy" line) which in my eyes would make a great Carole with a bit of change.



While I was at it, I also made her matching brother:



First I had to cut off a bit of the hair. Thankfully the face underneat was painted, otherwise it would've looked odd:







Then I used Milliput to add her fringe and also reformed the backside of the head:









Forgot to take a picture before painting, but because the original Willow figure had so awful thin arms I also added a bit of meat there with Milliput. Also filled up the waist a bit to make it look more realistic. Sorry Carole! Plus I formed the collar of the pullover:





Painting those thin strains of hair without getting brown paint onto the face wasn't quite easy but I managed. And then I realized something else: Willow has brown eyes while Carole's are blue like her brother's. Luckily I had bought myself the tiniest brush I could find. So I made a tiny blue dot for the eye, an even tinier black dot for the pupil and the tiniest white dot for a bit of reflexion. One eye was perfect on the first try but with the other the white dot wasn't in the right place, so I had to put black over it again to start anew, and then the black became too big, so I had to start with blue again... went through this three times. Here's the result:



Finally the last step, which let me wonder why I didn't go for the simple green shirt instead from that other funny photoshoot (Carole upside down). Wonder if my figures are that flexible? Might try it out one day!

Anyway, too late now, so here I was painting a lot of thin red stripes for the pullover:




For John, first I had to remove Captain Jack's coat:





Then I rounded off the shoulders and cut off the holster and the braces/suspenders.





I also did cut off the shirt collar. This is so hard it cannot be done with a knife, I use a mini saw for it. So I was sawing close to his neck. Sorry Jack ;) Here is a picture of my workplace:



I filled him up with Milliput to form the pullover:






Then it was a simple painting job, with a bit of white underneat for the t-shirt.





If you like to compare, here is the link to the original pictures at from a book signing which inspired me because the colors matched so nicely:

pictures of Carole and John

And here is my version again:



Tweeted at 05.05.2012 https://twitter.com/dieastra/status/198721900896206849

https://twitter.com/dieastra/status/198720442746404865