UPDATED! reprolabels.com now accepting fan designs for trial wave --

[lastmaximal]

just a thought, since i've been itching to try out decal-making but i'm constantly afraid of screwing it up.

it seems to me that reprolabels.com, a well-known and reliable decal/sticker sheet website, does custom requests [and some of these fan designs find their way into standard-available sticker sheets orderable from the site]... has anyone [particularly our more skilled decal-designers] considered teaming up with them to make well-done and well-designed custom decals available to the masses? would you go for something of this sort?

EDIT: big update below!

[TBT!]

Interesting, the 'building blocks' section is probably the closest to the sort of thing you could do with minimates.

The first thing that jumps out is that they are stickers rather than decals.

I'm not sure we could touch licensed characters but if we did generic figures like terrorist or special ops/swat guys then It could work. I guess It's a case of seeing if there's a market for it and what do people want?

I know there are a bunch of other guys here who do their own decals and I'm sure will chip in with their thoughts...

T.

[karamazov80]

Well, I can at least vouch for Reprolabels producing amazing stickers for Transformers. They are very high quality and look great on my Alts. Regarding labels for Minimates, they have created reproduction labels for Battlebeasts (fairly obscure), and even some stuff for Lego army builders, so they may be willing to at least try something out. The question would then be, what types of Minimate decals could they produce that would sell to a relatively wide audience of Minimate collectors who could make cool custom Minimates with a minimum of hassle (i.e. just put the labels on an existing figure and you have a custom)? Regarding the licensed characters, they produce copy-righted images with no apparent approval from Hasbro et al., so I'm not sure if that would be an issue for them or not (they are probably left alone since they are such a small business, and one that only enhances, rather than competes with, existing toys).

[THE_CRIPPLER]

We need ninjas, lots and lots of ninjas. Some in red, black, and white would be cool. The red ones would be cool to use as The Hand ninjas. Maybe I'll just create some decals myself. They gotta be pretty easy to do.

Edit: well, I went and made some ninja decals. Unfortunately my camera is lent out so I can't post pics. I'll try to get them up in the next few days.

[jimgb]

Just off the cuff here, but here's a CHEAP way to do it.

NOTE: i have not done this, i dont even own a Minimate YET... I'm TRYING to get some !!!

Stickers...... Places like STAPLES (Business Depot) has 8.5X11inch Sheet packs (like 10-20 sheets) of CLEAR Sticker Sheets (same stuff decals are made from) cost about $20 i think.

Local Libraries have both inkjet and Color Laser Printers....25 cents a copy.

You can literally just find any face, any decal you want, copy them all into like a WORD file and print off to the laser !!!

if needed you could always clear-coat it after applied.

What's everyone think?

jim

We need ninjas, lots and lots of ninjas. Some in red, black, and white would be cool. The red ones would be cool to use as The Hand ninjas. Maybe I'll just create some decals myself. They gotta be pretty easy to do.

Edit: well, I went and made some ninja decals. Unfortunately my camera is lent out so I can't post pics. I'll try to get them up in the next few days.

[TBT!]

Just off the cuff here, but here's a CHEAP way to do it.

NOTE: i have not done this, i dont even own a Minimate YET... I'm TRYING to get some !!!

Stickers...... Places like STAPLES (Business Depot) has 8.5X11inch Sheet packs (like 10-20 sheets) of CLEAR Sticker Sheets (same stuff decals are made from) cost about $20 i think.

Local Libraries have both inkjet and Color Laser Printers....25 cents a copy.

You can literally just find any face, any decal you want, copy them all into like a WORD file and print off to the laser !!!

if needed you could always clear-coat it after applied.

What's everyone think?

jim

I think the quality of labels we're talking about from repro is far superior to something thrown together on a laser printer.

Heck there are more than a few of us do pretty much what you describe above with decals already.

T.

[lastmaximal]

UPDATE: Delta Star of reprolabels.com is now has expressed a good deal of interest in testing the waters with a nice, safe "generics" set first -- civilian, terrorist, special ops/SWAT/army/other, zombie, vampire, ninja, what have you -- with the possibility of more conventional [ie superhero-based/etc] label submissions to follow. so if you've got some decal designs you wouldn't mind seeing mass produced for turning spare 'mates bodies into army- or world-building characters, post away and let me/us know!

[boonimusprime]

UPDATE: Delta Star of reprolabels.com is now has expressed a good deal of interest in testing the waters with a nice, safe "generics" set first --

This is awesome! Awhile ago, I emailed reprolabels about this. I am not a very good artist, but I would like to see some generic faces, because faces are the hardest thing to "bring to life." Another good thing would be clear labels outlining male and female chest details, as those are rather hard to do.

I am not much of an artist, but I would love to help in any way I can to get this project off the ground!

[Kirby]

Here's one I whipped up a while ago that should work out slick:

It's just a pair of ninja eyes peeking through a mask, but it could be anything. I like the idea of being able to just put this decal on a blank head and then go to town accessorising. This is a low-res image, just 96dpi, but I can put it into more printable formats.

[winkerbean]

I do something similar to this already, I’ll take you though a quick tutorial

You need photoshop, a4 clear inkjet labels, some paint (for touch ups) and a printer

You also need the minimate blanks template which is on this site somewhere, its already in scale when you open it in photoshop and as your cutting and pasting the bits you need they should all stay in the same scale ready for printing

But if your unsure TEST FIRST!!

Ok so here’s how I create decal’s on clear printable labels

1: I use this template

But I only need 4 things, the head and these 3 body templates

The heads I put my own design’s on to just remember to get rid of the black lines down the side of the template

These are the one's i use the most, the main blank one can be used for your own design’s , then there’s the generic man and women design’s

As long as your not putting it on black torso it comes out looking like this

But if say you want to do a FBI (yellow writing on a black jacket) you come up with a problem because the yellow won’t show up on the black so you need to make the area around the yellow FBI wording black

Now get the thing you want to put the sticker on, in this case a 24 season 2 Jack coat with bullet proof vest

and paint the area your putting the sticker on white

Cut out your sticker and apply….

you can use this process on other colours too IE white writing on a red torso you'd paint part of the torse white then try to match up the coloured bit around the writing you want on your mate in photoshop as close to the red on the torso.....

But as long as your putting stickers on skin tone's or light colours you fine

cap for president

make mine mini-marvel

and god knows what i was doing here!!!

Heres one of my sheats that I’m using at the moment

Theres skrull heads, they work well on spare she-hulk heads, shirt’s, DC logo’s, male and female heads, bloodied up heads

& torso’s.... even a hello kitty

i hope this has made a little sense to you guys!!

If anyone want some sample’s just shoot me a pm

[God Magnus]

Wow, that is an amazing reference and tutorial. Thanks, winkerbean!

and god knows what i was doing here!!!

That head could make for a wonderfull "blown-up" Jason Todd!

[winkerbean]

Since some people have asked i've knocked this up for people to save off

it should print out perfectly to scale (i've tried it on my canon ip4000 it worked fine)

normally i just print straight from photoshop, so fingers crossed

the make of labels i use is "AVERY A4 J8567" clear inkjet labels

good luck

[luke314pi]

Thanks winkerbean! I will have to check if they make decal paper for laser printers.

[winkerbean]

Thanks winkerbean! I will have to check if they make decal paper for laser printers.

http://www.avery.com/us/Main?action=produc...talogcode=WEB01

i'm sure you can get these in the US aswell

[luke314pi]

Awesome, thanks!

[minijeff]

hey thanks!! I could use some of those hello kitty ones for my wife and daughters customs...if you dont mind sharing them too

Jeff of the Miniacs

[Lobsterman]

Also, if you have a well-stocked hobby store nearby, you may be able to find laser- and inkjet-printable decal paper -- I've had a lot of success with this stuff. If you're familiar with decals from modeling, they go on almost microscopically thin, and don't have that slight haze the Avery labels do. Then, you use a decal sealant, and the substrate actually dissolves, leaving only the toner or ink bonded to the surface.

[murderofcrows]

Also, if you have a well-stocked hobby store nearby, you may be able to find laser- and inkjet-printable decal paper -- I've had a lot of success with this stuff. If you're familiar with decals from modeling, they go on almost microscopically thin, and don't have that slight haze the Avery labels do. Then, you use a decal sealant, and the substrate actually dissolves, leaving only the toner or ink bonded to the surface.

Can you show some examples you have succesfully used on minimates?

[Lobsterman]

The yeti I did for the Monstermates project and the Gundam mate I did for Reideen are two examples that came out particularly well.

[murderofcrows]

The yeti I did for the Monstermates project and the Gundam mate I did for Reideen are two examples that came out particularly well.

Pretty Well Indeed

Is it cool if I pm you with some more questions regarding decals?

[TM2 Dinobot]

I really need to think about trying this.

[Trekker 42]

Here's one I whipped up a while ago that should work out slick:

It's just a pair of ninja eyes peeking through a mask, but it could be anything. I like the idea of being able to just put this decal on a blank head and then go to town accessorising. This is a low-res image, just 96dpi, but I can put it into more printable formats.

Put this on a doctor andwe'd have DR MCNINJA which is the greatest webcomic ever IMO:

Link to Pure AWESOME!