I can’t agree more. They had a chance to do something SPECTACULAR! Everything was so boring, except for Anthony and Eric. Those glow-in-the-dark fingernails were amazing, and should have been used by more people. The color-differing paints should have been used to create some fantastic designs, using all their creativity. I was REALLY disappointed with their lack of effort.
So they were challenged to do any hybrid creature from any landscape, however they were shown a seascape so most went with the sea inspiration. So it was interesting that Anthony went with the forest creature.
The winner was obvious and dramatically outstanding. Anthony was the only completed one, and the one with the best use of the fluorescent paint, and the overall look in normal light was good work, too. And I’m happy to see him back on top.
Wayne had a great sculpt, and he had some good work with the fluorescent accents on the appendages, but the striking appearance to me was unpainted. The torso looked unpainted, both normal and fluorescent. That difference from Anthony was significant.
For once I really disagree with the judges. Both on their eliminations and on who they didn’t eliminate.
I thought they should have come down a lot harder on Eric F. While he had a good concept with the jellyfish look and the glowing insides and transluscent outside, his execution was aweful. While the glow paint mostly worked, his face sculpt was dreadful and had no pigment at all in normal light. And the plastic sheeting? WTF? Once again he bit off way more than the time allowed and he didn’t get completed and the results were bad because of it. I think they should have burned him a lot harder for not listening to their repeated instructions to dial it down and complete the work. I would have put him in bottom looks.
On the flipside, I liked Eric Z’s sculpt, it looked like a rock inspired theme to me. Not the granite cliff kind, but a sandstony kind. I thought there were some interesting shapes there. Now the paint was dull, and he was atrocious with his fluorescents, so he deserved a ding on that, but they truly hated his sculpt and I liked it.
Similarly, I didn’t hate Megan’s sculpt. Now she didn’t have a fully thought out concept and the flytrap thing didn’t work, but I was seeing an undersea rock beast with barnacles on it. Yes, she was hampered by illness, and probably should have focused her efforts on one piece that was well done rather than trying more and doing it half-assed. I’m not surprised she was sent home because of her overall record. She has three other Lows, the worst record of the remaining people. So that’s a fair call. But I didn’t hate the sculpt the way the judges seemed to.
Whereas House’s texture was bad, his gills and fins died in the mold, and frankly there was nothing beautiful about the face. And his fluorescent paint was bad.
And I wasn’t ecstatic about Kris’s green thing. While the face was broken up to not look like a typical human, and the torso shaping was unique, I thought the paint and texture in normal light was off - the face looked like plastic - and the fluorscent paint looked like one big glow instead of contrasting shades to bring out definition. And the hair - meh.
Also, I think I noticed a pattern. It appears that when they do the Top Looks rundown, the winner gets listed first.
Did Anthony never see anything related to Stargate?
Last night’s episode was pretty good. We’re finally down to the contestants that have talent. This was a complex challenge.
First, it’s Egyptian Gods. But then there’s an Evil Dead tie in, so they want the God’s to be mummied decaying Gods.
A lot of work for this one, a lot of work done individually.
As for results - the winner was fairly obvious both from the overall looks, and then from the comments the judges started making. They raved on Kris (tie guy), so I knew he was winner. Plus, my pattern held up - in the final segment when listing the two top looks leading into the dramatic pause, commercial break, announce winner, they listed Kris first.
Still can’t keep them straight.
Kris’s was excellent work. His goat was very detailed and different. The overall effect was awesome.
Wayne had a very good outcome, both with his sculpt and the detail work, and with his this time pulling off most of the paint job. Except I sense a little duplicity at work. The eyes on his crocodile were green and not painted. He claimed it was intentional because they would have rotted away, but he didn’t do anything to make them look rotted, and the green background says “unfinished”. Couple that with the fact that he once again went to last looks without his paint being underweigh, and I think that was a crafty explanation to cover for incomplete work.
The color difference of the head to body didn’t really stand out in the first reveal, but when he was doing the individual questioning, standing closer to the judges, then it popped out better. I’m noticing that effect fairly often. The colors on the stage don’t get quite the contrast. Something about the lighting is off. Anyway, I’m not sure how he could have done the transition differently.
Eric F managed to complete his this time. He finally didn’t go too big. But I’m kinda with Glenn about his aesthetic. Something more realistic would be nice. Given that he has that specific instruction, let’s see how next week comes out.
The two bottom looks were House and Anthony. We’re all surprised to see Anthony in the bottom. I wonder how much is an overexpectation created by his early wins. When he is on, he does superb work, but he’s had some errors.
This week the errors outdid the successes for him. I agree with everything Glenn said about the paint/gauze hiding the sculpt, the angularity to the face being odd, and the headdress being vastly undersized. Total oops moment there. Hasn’t he ever seen an Egyptian sculpture? Those headdresses are huge.
House had some good ideas in the sculpt. I liked the bandages across the face. But his overall texture was bad, which is fairly consistent for him. So I am not surprised and glad it was him that was booted. I would have been sad to lose Anthony this week, even if his work was not up to snuff.
Next week is down to 4. We will see who makes the finals and who doesn’t. Can Anthony return to form or will his blunders reign? Is Eric able to pull of realistic, or will he bite off too much? Will Wayne once again fail to finish the painting, or can he get something done early this time? Is Kris really the frontrunner at this stage? Is that good or bad?
Find out next week!
I was sorry to see House eliminated. He’s been very professional throughout the show.
We’re getting down to the picking of nits now.
~VOW
I really liked Eric’s mummy/God thing. The only problem with it was the mouth-permanently-open part, which really did hinder the actor actually acting. But it looked cool!
Didn’t they show that Eric’s kids are like 3 and 1 years old, and their favorite movie is ‘Evil Dead’? Did that strike anyone else as… odd?
It’s nice watching this show when I genuinely like all the contestants and not one of them is making me burn with righteous indignation.
I thought Wayne’s god came out slightly better than Kris’s, which I thought was good but I couldn’t quite get what exactly the judges were raving about (I am chalking this up to technical outcomes that I don’t have the knowledge to judge).
I’m always of two minds about Eric F. (I think the other contestants now call him just “Fox” which I think would have been a better way for the show to go, rather than two Erics for so long) – I get what the judges are saying about how he often brings a similar “look and feel” to his designs … but they are usually consistently very good. And artists and creative professionals are often known for a general “look,” right? I think this would bother me a lot more if he wasn’t good at what he does.
I didn’t hate House’s god as much as the judges seemed to. All along, I have felt that House almost always has the most interesting ideas … he seems to quickly do some “world-building” in his head, and come up with concepts that feel very complete, like these characters have a history and a future in whatever fictional world they are in. The downside is that his technical execution never really works, so I understand why he left the show last night. I think he would be terrific in a collaborative studio where he was doing concept and design and someone else was doing execution.
I really thought Anthony’s was the worst look of last night’s show. It felt very thrown together to me. At this point in the season, though, where the judges know more about the contestants’ abilities and talents, it might be inevitable if the assessments incorporate a little bit of the overall picture and not SOLELY the work onstage.
(although it occurs to me to ask, how long is the competition in real time?)
Yeah, I was torn on this one. Anthony’s look was worst, but House has had some supreme failures before. Anthony probably should have left, but I think he has more promise than House.
This is my favorite cast so far. Sad to see House leave.
I don’t know what the deal is with Anthony. Last week he wins and this week he’s in the bottom. His work varies so much week to week. I still think he could win but it’s not certain. I guess it depends on how inspired he is by the challenge.
Tonight’s episode was very good. The challenge was pretty wild - take two of the different alien types from the new SyFy show Defiance and show what a hybrid offspring would look like.
The competitors also got to fly out to Toronto and tour the set and see the makeup being applied there.
This week time management really showed. They each had a huge sculpt with lots of parts to accomplish. Anthony was the one who most successfully got his sculpt and molding done in time by the end of day 2, which put him ahead of the others on application day. The other three were still running molds in polyfoam that morning while Anthony was already prepainting and applying. And it paid off big time.
Anthony was the clear winner this time. The extra time he had on application showed. His sculpt was the most cohesive blend and his detail touches were remarked by the judges.
That left 3 competitors and 2 slots. Any way we sliced it, a good competitor was going home tonight. Nevertheless, I am a bit surprised that it was Eric (Fox) that got sent home. Especially since there didn’t seem to be a clear reason. I guess it was the lack of integration of the two types into a blend.
Wayne (spikey hair) had some good sculpting going on, but once again didn’t get any paint on until last looks, and had to rush the paint. And the judges noticed. What also didn’t get commented on was the stupid tights and the padding used to bulk up the legs - it looked exactly like that, padding, not musculature. Yeah, the face had character and the shoulders were blended well, but the bulge on the back of the head wasn’t from either of the alien forms, the painting was weak, and the aforementioned padding in the legs was bad. I probably would have picked him for those reasons as the one to leave.
Kris had a blend of a Mutant and a Bioman. He did some wild, extensive body sculpting that was strikingly creative, and the face was scary. But for me the paint job killed it and there were some seams visible. He had troubles with his polyfoam molding and ripped suit, so he struggled with that. I didn’t see any effort to get the iconic blue tone of the skin of the Bioman in this blend. He had the right torso shape and shoulders, and the sculpt was creative, and he gave a nod with the glowing green teeth and eyes, but the color was off to me. I could have sent him home over this job, even though he’s won the last couple spotlight challenges.
Eric pulled a 99er and a Sloth thingy. It is a pudgy apelike being merged with a robotic form. I don’t know what I would have done with that thing, either, and he admitted he didn’t like the choice. The one he wanted was the Mutant, but those were picked, and he really didn’t want a furry one, which he got. It affected his conceptualization, and probably played a role in his inability to blend the two concepts. His looked more like pieces of the two stuck together, like a sloth thingy with robotic parts attached.
I think maybe what did him in was the hair - Ve really ragged on that. Still, disappointing.
But the three remaining are Anthony, Wayne, and Kris. They all are good competitors and have impressed the judges. I’m not sure if there’s a favorite at this point. Anthony has been high and low, Kris has won a couple of recent ones, and Wayne has gotten some good comments of late.
So, who is coming back for the teams? Clearly Fox and House will be key picks. I expect Autumn to be avoided.
(Good summary!)
I disagree with Eric getting voted off. He’s never had a crappy look, and Wayne has been in the bottom a lot of times. I would rather have seen Eric get into the finale over either Wayne or Kris.
Both Eric and Kris has some pretty serious blowouts on the frames.
You could see seaming in all of the polyfoam appliances.
I think Eric was the least successful in merging the two - it was noted a few times that every one else created hybrids while he mishmashed bits and pieces of both characters.
Don’t get me wrong - I had started to warm up to him the last few episodes, but yeah, his was the least cohesive in terms of what the challenge was. I’m sorry to see him go.
I don’t buy into the “Fox didn’t make a hybrid of the two” argument, simply because there’s no way to say for sure that he didn’t. We have no idea what a 99er actually looks like! He really had some terrible choices to work with there…
Checking their records on wiki, that isn’t correct. Their records are all decent.
Anthony has had 5 Wins, 1 High, and won a Foundation Challenge, against 3 Lows.
Kris has had 4 Wins and 1 High, but his High was paired on the Winning team. And he hasn’t had any Lows.
Wayne has had 0 Wins, but he has had 6 Highs, one of which was paired to the Winning team, and he has only had 1 Low. He hasn’t been in the bottom a lot, just once, but he hasn’t been fully successful. His best shot at a Win didn’t win on a technicality - he forgot a piece in the shop and couldn’t install at last looks. Time management has been his bugbear - he struggles to get his painting completed.
Eric F. only has 1 Win, but has 3 Highs and won a Foundation Challenge. Against 1 Low, so he has had a crappy look.
On record, it’s hard to stack them. I’d say Kris has the slight edge on consistency, but when Anthony gets it right he nails everything better. Wayne and Eric both have good skills, but both struggle a touch, Wayne with time management and painting, Eric with overdesigning and racing to keep up with his ideas.
Hal, I agree it is hard to assess what a 99er is from that picture. It looked to me like a mechanoid. So I’m confused how a mechanoid would biologically combine with a biological critter.
But then there’s no reason to think any of these aliens should be biologically compatible that way, either. It’s a silly sci fi premise.
So is a 99er like a Borg, with integrated biological and mechanoids? And it is an original Borg (they assimilate technology, but they are one race of aliens) or a later Borg (they assimilate beings while assimilating technology)? Or is it like a Terminator, a machine with some sythflesh slapped on?
I think Fox could have picked better, but he wasn’t happy with the furry options left. He kinda hamstrung himself with his choice, because his interest hampered his creativity.
I agree that all the seam lines on the polyfoam were visible, probably because they ran them that morning and were rushing. Given another hour they might could have smoothed those lines better.
I wasn’t wild about this challenge in general, nothing about the original alien designs really grabbed me, so why should I care how they would look as hybrids?
I was also disappointed that most of the combos were so … I’m not sure how to describe it, but it was like they all went for “guy picks” – the most bad ass looking ones, without really thinking about what could be cool potentials for combining them. This also seemed to be what Eric was whining about, all the " good" ones being taken.
I’m glad Ve pointed out that the choice of the mutant was a bit of an easy out, and for that reason, I thought Kris’s was the least creative of the bunch. The judges seemed to have reservations about his design as well, he would have been my pick to go home. Glenn said that there were problems, but that " something about it worked anyway." It wasn’t working for me at all.
It’s not really related to the point of the show, but I thought it was odd how they explained that Eric wasn’t going to Toronto. It seemed so cagey, for the rest of the episode I was speculating about what kind of legal issues he might have related to being unable to cross the border. (Family issues struck me as a weird explanation.)
You mean other than that time he was visiting on a camping trip, got lost in the woods, and had to resort to cannibalism to survive? I mean, he survived - the three people he offed didn’t take it so well.
My first thought - inability to get a passport. There’s many reasons why a person can’t get obtain/renew them, some related to family matters.
Like what would be a family reason that he couldn’t get a passport?
My husband thought it might have to do with him formerly having been in prison? I dunno, but if so, that was about as classy a way to handle it as they could have.
As for the elimination, I teared up at the end because Eric was so obviously upset. I really thought Wayne, who I like as well, would’ve been the one sent home. His hybrid did nothing for me and I’m sure the judges are just as tired of his poor time management skills as I am. Get yer painting done promptly, buddy! I’m still bummed. 
At least we know who to root for in Face Off Redemption.