"Kong/Skull Island Simulation: Ideas?" Topic

This might be fun to consider what with the Jackson remake coming out soon and thus getting juices flowing: How would you set up a Kong/Skull Island simulation?

Murch has a film crew set, though the director is not Carl Denham, so what figure should be used for him?

Ann Darrow?

Sailors from the Wanderer? Murch figures or something else?

The inhabitants of Skull Island? Foundry set (if so, which one?)or something else? (Also, is there anything out there like the awesome gorilla dancers? (In the 1933 film they wore arm and shoulder fur. In the 1976 film, about the only neat thing in that film, the gorilla dancer also had a pretty savage wooden gorilla mask besides the arm and shoulder fur. (If you have seen this clunker recently but missed this detail, you can not be blamed as DeLaurentis had the gorilla dancer shake his groin more than a Chippendale's dancer with a flea infestation.))

Is there anything out there better for Kong than the Kong toys that are being released? Upon purchase I personally found the Kong figure truly awkward and unfortunate looking unless posed with the accompanying Baby T-Rex (which is pretty well done)in the exact pose it comes in as found in the packaging. Also, anyone want to take on the idea that Kong was a hostile Gigantopithecus rather than a giant gorilla? IMO, height, bipedalism, and geographic location seem to jive more that way, especially with the other Lost World aspects of Skull Island.

To expand beyond the King Kong films a bit (by ignoring Son of Kong, which takes Skull Island off the map), PJ Farmer's story "After King Kong Fell" has the British laying claim to Skull Island, so Brits coming into things for a little late Empire action? BTW, when reading that part of the story, it did not make too much sense as the island was supposed to be in what is now Indonesia, so should not the Dutch have been claiming it? (Not driven out until the Japanese in the Second World War, right?) So the Dutch instead of or fighting against the British? (And what were the Dutch like at this time anyway)? Japanese soldiers/spies (Mr. Moto?) scouting out spots for future empire? Maybe the nice US Marine figures from Murch or Brigade Games Banana Wars to "by order of the President" clean out the island of dangerous life? Or as hinted at in the Farmer story with his cameo, Doc Savage and crew (Murch's Doc Thompson figures) getting involved in the Kong storyline. Maybe returning with Denham for some weird science expedition (like Professor Challenger on Pulp steriods)?

Thoughts? Other ideas?

First I'd do in 15mm. I already have the Skull rock (Geo-Hex). PP has a camera crew in the AK-47 lines and the natives could be modified Zulus. Creatures are easier in 15mm and look a bit scarier.

Ral Partha had set 09-004, Krogar the Gorillaman with Damsel. The Damsel has long hair and a ripped-up dress. She'd make a great Ann Darrow. She's true 25mm, though, so might seem slight beside 28mms. (Which isn't a bad thing for a damsel, right?) Here's a website with a so-so photo:

link

There are two sets currently on Ebay (US).

Here is a description of a game I will run soon
Return to Skull Island (25mm miniatures Pulp Fiction game)
US film crew, German Aryan artifact hunters, Japanese base seekers, Chinese warlord blown off course, who knows what else, all converge on Skull Island which is in the middle of the "Burmuda Triangle" of the Pacific and they all get involved with natives,giant apes, prehistoric animals, and all sorts of other past civilizations washed up on the shores.

background
Perhaps there is some sort of spatial-temporal vortex in the center that spits out various historical entities. That's how the dinosaurs got there when there is not really enough to feed them. People from other eras of the past and places on the earth (and elsewhere) can arrive too. Moreover, various expeditions can arrive and interact. A group of Germans from Himmler's Aryan Research Institute can come looking for original aryans. Chinese warlord contingent heard of diamonds while an English group looking for oil can land. Japanese marines scouting a base. US Marines part of Erhart search group. You can come up with all sorts of variations!

My cat would get onto my board game. Talk about chaos from a beastie. Actually a friend of mine bought a bunch of Godzilla figures from Japan, built his own rules, and runs Godzilla games at cons. He actually went to Japan to find what he wanted. He's got cities now. The victory conditions go to the individual who sustains the most damage. My Godzilla got wiped out, regenerated atomically, came back and won the game for absorbing massive damage. (Takes a licking and keeps on ticking.) So…this sort of thing can be done. But, ah yes, how does one introduce pathos to the wiring? Mighty Kong. Sad Kong. With the females in his world so tiny, not to mention, the wrong species, Kong has to wonder why God made him. The big monkey ain't a match for merciless biplanes. Who is? You know he's not going to be happy in the big city. His only choice is the play the rage card and go down swinging. The message is clear here: watch out for blondes and stick with the code of the west.

This is a topic near and dear to my heart, and so has inspired my first posting. I've been planning on doing a King Kong convention game for several years, so I guess great minds do think alike. I've even gone so far as to sculpt my own version of Kong (scaled to shake screaming 28-mm figures off of the log) out of Sculpey, basing the face on photos from the Willis O'Brien model since most gorilla figures available look like, well, gorillas, and Kong is uniquely Kong. My trouble has been finding sailors. I've been thinking of perhaps adapting some sailors from the Old Glory Boxer Rebellion range. Of course, Pulp Figures and Copplestone make some suitable boss and hero types, but it's hard to find civilian sailors/merchant marines in 28 mm. I was going to use Old Glory cannibals from their Pirates range for the natives, mixing in a few wooden mask African tribesmen. Fay Wray would be played by a cavewoman conversion. As for rules, I'm still puzzling those out, although Wargames Illustrated has published several sets of big game hunting rules over the last few years, so I might want to adapt one of those. "Airplanes? No. It was beauty and a bad die roll that killed the beast."

Mulligan: Would you be willing to post a picture of your sculpture of Kong? I for one would love to see it as I agree that the Obie model was unique. I went to Toys R Us today to see if any of the other Kong figures were better than the one I bought off Amazon but found them of all the same quality. There used to be knockoffs of the old Aurora models, but the one of Kong don't seem to be available anymore.

I looked again at Murch's sailors in his American series and while they are not civilian sailors they are pretty nice and I think would do well. ( link ) I own some of his other miniatures and they are simply awesome. As a while back, I bought most of his Yangzee Gangs series, I am sure that there is one in there I could use for the Chinese cook who takes a shine to Darrow.

JPattern2: Thanks for the Ral Partha figure set information. I may just have to look into picking up the set.

For Kong himself, I'd recommend the Giant Gor miniature from 100 Kingdoms: link

It's almost to scale with 28 mm — at least in comparing a Murch or Copplestone miniature to the size of the Giant Gor's hand.

For civilian sailors, several of Murch's navy sailors — especially those carrying cargo and supplies — can be painted up to look like civilians with ease.

As for Kong's origins and Skull Island, I always preferred the implications suggested in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, that Kong and all the creatures on Skull Island are actually creations of the mad Dr. Totenkopf. If nothing else, the movie allows for the possibility that the Venture attempted a return voyage to Skull Island.

Take care,
Aaron Malchow

Aaron:

The link does not seem to work all that well. Do you have a picture you could post of the miniature you referenced?

Peachy,

Yeah, I tried the link again, and found it to be rather slow loading. My apologies.

Apparently, there are images on TMP at TMP link , which is part six of a nifty tutorial on how to assemble and paint the Giant Gor.

Hope this helps,
Aaron Malchow

Peachy:
I'm afraid I don't have a digital camera yet. Other people in my gaming group do, so the next time I'm involved in running a game, I'll see if I can get somebody to take a mug shot of my crude version of Kong looming over some Pulp Figures sailors. I didn't mean to imply that Kong was battle ready yet. He's still a work in progress, although the main model has been baked. In baking him (the largest thing I've ever made out of Sculpey), one of his legs cracked where it joined the hip. I suspect it's because the armature (wire, tape, and bamboo skewers) I made for the arms and legs heated at a different temperature from the non-armatured parts of the Sculpey. I've repaired him, but it involved some very strange veterinary surgery. I also didn't texture the fur when I was sculpting him. I'm still trying to decide whether I want to try to score some fur texture into the baked model (steel wool, perhaps) or actually find some kind of fake fur to apply. However, I am quite pleased with the way the face, hands, and feet turned out. I still need to make some sort of base for him too. By the way, Pulp Figures' Bob Murch and I have been corresponding for several years now. His figures are truly wonderful. (Dr. Katana was a character I used in a series of mock pulp chapters I occasionally send to him as a way of opening my e-mails.) I just sent him a 1930's movie serial robot I made out of Sculpey, so perhaps some time he'll post that on his gallery. Best of luck with your own Kong project.

Civilian sailors:
link

Aaron: Thanks for the heads up on Sky Captian and the World of Tomorrow. I watched it again tonight. I had not caught the Kong reference when seeing it back in the theatre. Also interesting is that for whatever reason the Lovelace official novelization of the Cooper script changed the name of the ship. "Venture" in the film but "Wanderer" in the novel.

Matakishi: Nice find on the civilian sailors.

Check out Amazing Figure Modeler #34, currently on the stands. An entire issue devoted to KONG, The 8th Wonder!

Funny that models came up. I ordered myself the King Kong kit with resin true Kong Face from CultTVMan, which can be seen on the other topic that started up. Looks like it will be fun to build even if it will not eventually end up with miniatures as seems all out of scale.

In case anyone is still interested in this thread, I did get my game to go. Lots of figures and photos here
link

Wow old thread revived, good looking game Bobgnar, we did our version of Skull Island last year…

Teaser & Background posts…
link
link
link
The AAR Post…
link