My name is Steve Varner
I grew up in Minnesota in a small town which suited me very well, being an extremely hyperactive child. I was able walk to the end of my street to a lake and go fishing, play in the woods and build Tree houses and forts.
When I wasn’t outside playing, my parents provided me with plenty of art supplies so I spent my indoor time drawing, painting and sculpting. There wasn’t much for someone like myself to do there using my art skills once I got older, and I wasn’t interested in anything else. So when I was 21, I bought a one way plane ticket to Los Angeles.
I got a job making props for TV shows and commercials using my artistic abilities. I eventually got into the motion picture industry as a union sculptor but it wasn’t quite what I expected.
There were some aspects of it that didn’t suit me too well so I left and got a job as a sculptor at Mattel Toys where I learned the ins and outs of the Toy industry.
During the 3 years I was at Mattel, I had a lot of free time, unlike the movie industry, so on nights and weekends I sculpted a series of bronze sculptures and found an agent that helped me get my sculptures into galleries.
After I quit Mattel, I wanted to continue sculpting bronzes and selling to galleries, as well as freelance toy sculpture on the side. However, I landed a series of Star Trek sculpts for Mego right out the door. My freelance work then just escalated keeping me so busy that I didn’t have time to create more bronzes.
I then had to hire and train helpers to complete all my work. I was sculpting Action figures and dolls for all the larger and even smaller toy companies and became well known in the Toy Industry.
At the end of 1986, Playmates Toys had just gotten the license for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures. They contacted me and explained that they loved the storyline but wanted me to give the 2d comic book Turtle figures a more current look in 3d form.
In the beginning, I just sculpted a static clay sketch of one of the Turtles wielding a Bo. The Ninja Turtles creators and the people at Playmates Toys loved the 3d version that I had created. We were running out of time to get prototypes to the 1987 Toy Fair, so we molded them up, painted four of them and sent them to to the show where the whole line went over big!
We’ve been sculpting the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures ever since, along with many other toy lines such as Star Trek, Earthworm Jim and many of the McDonald’s toys just to mention a few.
In the meantime, I have been lucky enough to have a daughter who is an excellent Artist/Sculptor and is taking over much of my toy sculpture work leaving me more free time for my Fine Art pursuits.
I am also looking to soon enter the world of NFTs, so please follow my blog to keep up with what I am working on. Thanks to @afturner and @nuthman for the invite to Hive! Also feel free to check out my website at varnerstudios.com.
Fantastic, Steve! So glad you made it. You will be an amazing asset to the Hive community. I can't wait read some of your amazing insider stories and see more of your iconic artwork published here. I wish you much success on the platform.
@afturner and @steve.varner at Varner Studios booth. New York Toy Fair, 2007
Thanks Rick
Welcome to HIVE! Just for your information... you added a lot of joy to my childhood with some of your creations. The TMNT figures in particular. I thought you name sounded familiar! Your sculpting is exceptional and i look forward to seeing more of your content here.
NFT Showroom is an NFT marketplace built on Hive with little to no gas fees. If you haven't visited the site yet check it out here: https://nftshowroom.com/
Here is an invitation link to the discord group where you can ask questions and get some help getting started! I think it would be awesome to have you on board with us there!
Click the invite link here to join the NFT Showroom discord
Thanks, I'm excited to get familier with the site my friend Rick is very familiar with Hive and Crypto in general.Unfortunatly we're both pretty busy so we don't get to talk as much as we'd like to.Plus it takes me a while to internalize new things.
It's nice to here from people that grew up with the toys I've created.I'm usually just in my studio (which is just a bunch of computers at this point) by myself.I do ComicCon every year and it's nice to hear from people that grew up with my toys.
One of my fondest childhood memories was when i was sick with chicken pox. I had a bad case of it and was home sick for quite a while. My dad came home from work one day with all four Ninja Turtle toys. I couldn't believe it. I was so happy i forgot i was sick at all.
I thought i recognized your name and was excited to see you here on the platform. There is a lot of bells and whistles and moving parts. It takes some time to learn the ropes but overall ... the time and attention invested here can be well worth it! Hopefully, you and Rick can get some time to wrap your minds around this blockchain and it's applications. I know it can be difficult to get vested timewise into new things like this in all it's complexities when you are busy.
I would suggest just chipping away at it and post along the way. I am sure you have a plethora of content to be shared. Your intro post was pretty savvy. So, just put effort into your posts and share awesome content and you may be surprised at the reception.
That NFT Showroom i mentioned is a HIVE-based art platform where you can mint (or turn your art into a token) and sell it. The provenance is digitally verifiable and the art becomes unable to be counterfeited. It would be awesome to have an artist of your caliber onboard that platform.
Thanks again for giving your awesome art to the world and in my case enriching it and making it better! If you ever need any help feel free to reach out anytime! Have a great rest of your weekend!
Awesome intro. It is great to see more talented people joining the blockchain.
Thanks,I'm very interested to learn more about Hive.
Welcome Steve! You're one hell of a talent. Well done on turning the TMNT characters 3D. It never occurred to me what a challenge that was, because you did it so well it's just seamless. I had an action figure or two based on your sculpting.
Thanks,glad you like them at the time I was creating the first TMNT figures I never knew what it would turn out to be.
Wow, that is a nice story. Welcome to Hive Steve!
I have been on the platform for quite a while and just recently have started a new NFT project with Alex Gallego
We are releasing The Grim Folks, a collection of characters Alex has created, we are using WAX blockchain which has a similar architecture as Hive.
You can take a look at the webpage which we are still setting up.
Alex has created 3d minifigures of some of his characters and I am interested in that space as we plan to produce and sell the 3D versions of the characters if the collection succeeds. You can take a look at this review of some of them from a collector
Thanks, Cool work I think it can have legs it's being kept humours and kind of gross which is a great combination.
I had a company called Begoths for about 8 years which was my son Stefan's Idea and it went really well at first but Goths kept going from really in to really out. Plus I just put too much money into it. It was a lot of fun though. Best to keep these ventures very low budget especially in the begining.
Thank you, @steve.varner
Today we launched our NFT collection in WAX blockchain (very similar architecture as Hive)
You can see the pack sale at this link
I have published some posts about it in my account in the event you want to take a look and see all the collection links.
Welcome to Hive! Lovely work!
Thanks, it will take me a while to find my way around.
Wow your sculptures are amazing, welcome to HIVE! If you are interested in making NFTs with your digital work we have a platform called @nftshowroom, I am one of the creators so if you have any questions let me know :)
Thanks,I'll try and get the lay of the land but I'm sure it will take me a while.
I am interested in NFT's but I think it will take me a while for the conceptand the details to sink in. I'll definatly check out nftshowroom.
Welcome to hive!
Great to have you here and what an interesting line of work! I am in the film industry myself, so I can relate that you wanted to split. And a good decision seems to me:)
I had a few of those Teenage mutant Ninjaturtles
Nice to know the artist behind them :)
Thanks, Yeah I struggled to get into the union for a few years which if your a sculptor it's the Plasters Union. I did have a lot of fun in the beginning when everyone was happy and busy and you could do what ever yo liked. Go to the Mill and use the tools sweep up your own mess which there's a lot of when your a sculptor especially carving Foam. But once the production was winding down all of a sudden the tempature changed and you couldn't sweep up your own mess or cut a piece of wood by yourself and people that were freindly got more testy. I took a big pay cut going to Mattel but I think it was for the best.
seeing this, being a makeup artist and engraver myself, just makes me very happy.. although I've never done a full sculptor (only in stone) I know how detailed it is and how much it work goes in there! Lovely to see! thanks for sharing
I've had a few good friends that are sculptors/Prosthetic makeup artists and it's a real skill. I almost was concidering that direction but decides I'd try the Toy thing instead. I'm sure I'll be talking to you more later.
You should apply as an artist at @nftshowroom you would be great addition and a someone who could push the whole community forward.
Happy to see you over there: https://nftshowroom.com/?r=solymi
I'll definatly look into nftshowroom. I want to learn more about NFT's I get the concept but the details allude me.
So Cool man! I'm an aspiring 3d artist learning blender. I'll definitely be following to pick up some of that wisdom =)
Any time. Have you tried Zbrush if not I think you'd love it.
I've looked at videos of people using it, it looks beautiful for sculpting, Once I'm able to upgrade my hardware I might think about trying out some other software but right now the price of Blender just fits perfectly into my budget ;) This bullrun will hopefully change that though.
Hello and welcome. Great to have more sculptors in the community. Fantastic work and looking forward to seeing more.
Thanks, I look forward th sharing more once I learn to navigate the site.
Very nice read and always cool to see some sculping!
Thanks,I'll share more I have plenty sculpts.
Dude you make fun stuff and will find your area to work in here.
Check out mister @blewitt maybe because he has a store in action figures/cards etc
A warm welcome!
Thanks,I hope so it's a bit forign to me at this point but I just started.
Hello @steve.varner! This is @traciyork from the @ocd (Original Content Decentralized) curation team. We noticed you shared your first post here on Hive and introduced yourself to the community - congratulations and welcome!
Speaking of community, we have many different ones here on the blockchain, devoted to all kinds of interests. Here's a link so you can check them all out - Hive Communities
Also, I'm totally blown away by all the awesomeness you've shared in your intro! Amazing body of work so far, and extra coolness points for the TMNT sculptures - I'm from New Hampshire, a few towns over from where those pizza loving dudes were hatched!
I'm sure @nuthman & @afturner can help you get situated, but iIf you have questions, please feel free to hop into the OCD Discord server and we'll do our best to answer them, and again welcome to Hive!
Thanks,This may take me a while to navigate Rick is always a big help when I get a chance to talk to him.
You've given me a lot to look into.I appreciate it.
You're very welcome (and yes it's still me - just switched to my personal account 😂), And no worries - I've been here close to 4 years now, and I still feel a bit lost at times. This is definitely not a plug-and-play platform, but I think that's part of the beauty of it - so many moving parts also means so much potential!
Feel free to tag me here, or shout out to me on Discord (traciyork#4860) or Twitter if you have any questions and Rick isn't around. 😊
Welcome to Hive! 😊
Thanks, this is a bit intimidatingly but I'm sure I'll get it eventually.
Awesome Steve! I hope to see more posts soon. Give Rick @nuthman a call if you are having trouble logging in, it can be a bit confusing to use for new people.
I'll be working on more posts. I kind of use writing these posts as away of remembering thing I hadn't thought of in a while. I like it.
Rick is always a big help.
Welcome steve.varner!
Ecency is fastest website, mobile and desktop application that improves your experience on Hive.
Use Ecency daily to boost your growth on platform!
Support Ecency
Vote for Proposal
Delegate HP and earn more
Thanks, I tool a quick look around however I don't understand any of it yet.
Welcome steve.varner!
Ecency is fastest website, mobile and desktop application that improves your experience on Hive.
Use Ecency daily to boost your growth on platform!
Support Ecency
Vote for Proposal
Delegate HP and earn more
Congratulations @steve.varner! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Your next target is to reach 50 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPSupport the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!
Thanks, will check it out
This is amazing, I am fascinated with your art. I'm sure many others will be fascinated as well. Welcome to Hive
Thanks, will post more and see how it goes.
Super!!! Welcome on board, Steve!!! ^_^
Thanks for your support
So coolll
Thank you