Reaper Racers

For our May Order of Obscuria rewards (Mystery of the Month and up) we made a bunch of cool stuff, including these Reaper Racers toys.

As usual, the photos are courtesy of Tim Schuessler, of TimmyShoes Photography. (Thank you, Tim!)

THE CONCEPT

I knew that I wanted to do some kind of Monster Rangers corruption of an old time pull-toy. But what? I wasn’t entirely sure, but I knew that I wanted to tie it into the greater story of the Monster Rangers.

As this came together, the aesthetic quickly congealed around a carnival game reward… maybe from an imagined 1935 racetrack midway.

The craftsmanship is intended to be imperfect… there’s overspray here and there, and some even have a red overspray, from the first attempt at the stencil. But you know, I LIKE IT this way.

Overall, I was pretty happy with how it all turned out.

It was a TON of work hand sanding every element, trying to age each one uniquely, but do it just right. The stencils were also hand made, to give each of the 19 racers their own number.

Number 16 was never finished, which means that while there are 20 numbered Reaper Racers, there are really only 19 of them that are complete.

THE STORY

The SKULL RANGERS are a lonely bunch. They sit around, sometimes for years, haunting graveyards and making friends with Haunts, Skeletons, and other spooky spirits.

One day, one of them made a pull-toy for a Haunt, which was drug all around the ‘yard, in delight. So, he made more. Then they began to race them.

Word spread, and eventually, the REAPER RACES were performed at graves all across Obscuria. In time, the tradition was picked up by the rest of the Monster Rangers, and the DOOMWOOD DERBY was born. (More on that, later.)

THOSE DAMN WINGS

Everything was cut out in a real rush, as we’d just gotten back from Denver Pop Culture con, and were already late from doing two back-to-back shows. Turns out, my decorative wing cut-outs were way, WAY too delicate. I broke a couple in sanding, and so I added some ugly glue to each wing hole, to try to strengthen them.

In the future editions, there will be no wing cut-outs.

BADGE OF THE MONTH

We consider “GHOSTSMILE” a fun, summer Spirit Badge. He’s happy, fun, and colored brightly. His nickname around here is “the Summer Spirit”; I of course never remember his official name, as I have to name a lot of things.

Dawna did a great job on packing everything this month, including doing a bunch of friendly Haunt drawings and more SPELL TREES:

VALUE

The retail value of the Reaper Racer alone is $150.

So, the VALUE of the $75 MYSTERY OF THE MONTH – which includes the $25 BADGE OF THE MONTH was very high this time.

Consider that you’re getting a ton of great stuff at the MYSTERY level, well worth the $75.