7/24/99: Ron Meloni's Groovy Sticker Sheets

Matt Alt on Ron Meloni's Sticker Sheets "I'm kind of in the dark as to what our Taiwanese bootlegging friends had in mind when they made their knock-off Daitestujin 17 Jumbo (did they somehow think that applying 'my little pony'-looking decals would obscure their blatant copyright infringement?) But all is forgiven: check out this unbeliveably cool 'reconditioned' version! "It's amazing what a few stickers can do. When I first recieved the Taiwanese Daitetsujin 17 I was less than thrilled. As enjoyable as the 'last days of disco'-style stickers were, they just didn't do much for the robot. PET plastic looks cheap as hell to begin with; putting a bunch of cheezy, neon-colored stickers atop it doesn't really help. "Enter Ron Meloni. You've read about Ron in the Ramble before; he's the guy who's been producing high-quality sets of repro decals for the Jumbo Mattel Shogun Warriors. And right on schedule, he's produced a set of decals for D-17. "The only problem? The Taiwanese D-17's polyethylene plastic is so cheap 'n sleazy that the usual sticker-adhesive won't work: you've got to use a can of spray-adhesive, available at any art supply store, to mount the suckers. But it's well worth the effort: a knock-off wearing a set of Ron's repro decals is nearly indistinguishable from the original Popy version! (Watch out for those neon-green wings, though. "How DOES he do it? Listen to the man himself:" 'I first scan each, original sticker at 100% so as to get accurate dimensions and colors. Once scanned, I then recreate the pieces in a graphic illustration program called Adobe Illustrator. Black and white prints are first made for a first fitting to see if there are any adjustments to be made. If everything fits correctly, I have high-end, CORRECTECH color laser outputs made for each character set. Once printed, they are given a gloss finish of CRYSTAL CLEAR spray coating, a strong adhesive laminate is applied, then each sticker is hand trimmed (this part REALLY sucks). I have even gone as far as to create packaging for sets for convenience.' -- Ron "In the case of D-17, Ron had to actually RE-CREATE THE ENTIRE SET BY HAND based on the photos in Saito's Jumbo Encyclopedia. Talk about fan service! Ron's the first and only guy who's managed to pull this off, and he's created packaged, self-adhesive repro sticker sets for all of the US-released Mattel Shoguns, the Goldorak, and the Popy Getta One. He's still experimenting with adhesives for the Daitetsujin sticker-set and will have them available shortly, and is planning on bringing out repro sets for the LJN Jumbo Voltron and the Popy Godsigma Jumbo in the near future. "Interested? Drop him a line at meloni@idworld.net!" -- Matt

Latest Werkshop | Libary Index