I've got an idea to take some well-known delicious fresh fruits with all of their happy vibrant colours and pizazz ...

and combine the good feelings they envoke with the grim colourless aura of classic movie monsters ...

which were originally created to make viewers feel terrified - monstly bleak.

I think it's a fun juxtaposition because fruit (and veg) are yummy and nutritious - full of life and good health. Classic movie monsters though were often times pitied and always condemned to a life of misery, lonelines, and death.

I'm thinking that to make this toy impactual, I'd need to make sure that the colours are bright and vibrant (with exclusive classic movie monster b/w colourways of course!) but give them the tone and overall feeling of classic horror films. I've tried a few different times to achieve this without previal. My latest attempt is seen below ...

He's cute to be sure, but I feel that he's just missing that grim feeling that the gritty old Universal monster movies had. Or perhaps that's ok? Maybe these would work well as mostly fun and fruity with just a hint of monster movie magic? Not sure. I'd love to hear what you think!

The guy above is known as the Werekiwi. Other ideas in this series are ...

• Dr. Lemon and Mr. Lime
• Frankenstein's Pear
• The Invisible Orange
• Invasion of the Saucer Tomato
• Banana Kong
• Count Blood Orange
• The Pruney's Curse
• Night of the Living Peach
• Akebizilla
• The Apple of the Opera
• Melon from the Black Lagoon
• The Jam (the Blob)
• Pineapple of Frankenstein
• One-Eyed One-Horned Flying Purple Grape (TBD)

So as you can see, I've already given a bit of thought to these characters and I've come up with initial concept sketches for a few, but I feel like they're really lacking the punch of today's designer vinyl toys. So I'm REALLY looking forward to hearing from everyone! I think this idea has a lot of potential. Please feel free to let me know what you think!

---

UPDATE:

I think it might be beneficial to define some character/personality traits about each fruit monster to help better define who they are and what they're about. So for the Werekiwi (my current fave) he's a lot like early Stitch (from Lilo & Stitch) in that he's got a misappropriated sense of family ... he's a bit destructive and doesn't quite belong.

Hopefully defining his personality will help me to better define him aesthetically so his complex background shines through in a single pose/design.

Also, here are some previous Werekiwi designs so you can see other things I've tried in the past and how he's evolved over time:

---

UPDATE:

 Thanks everyone for the feedback so far! it's much appreciated. =)

So I went ahead and laid out a few different colour options as a lot of you suggested ...

... I was also struck with a pretty cool idea - eager to hear what others think. What if the entire series had interchangeable parts? (think Power Lords / Glyos) So in addition to articulating each figure (most likely 4 points) each piece would be compatible with the other 14 figures in the series providing folks the opportunity to create their own epic monster fruits! =)

So it seems like a colourful head with monochromatic body would better lend itself to something like that so the mix-and-match monsters would still look somewhat cohesive.

Anyway - it's just a cool idea I had. Perhaps I'll move on to designing Frankenstein's Pear or one of the others and play with the compatibility factor before pressing forward.

---

UPDATE:

 So I went ahead and designed Frankenstein's Pear to see what the two would look like together and what they would look like if parts were swapped.

The outcome? Hilarious.

I'm now more excited than ever to get all of these guys designed! They're just so fun to make! But I'm looking forward to what you think. Perhaps I'm the only one who gets a kick out of this? And that's just fine with me, but hopefully others find this fun and interesting as well. =)

Please keep the feedback coming! It's always helpful and much appreciated. Thanks!

OH! And the inspiration for the personality for Frankenstein's Pear is:

---

UPDATE:

 I've coloured up Frankenstein's Pear and I think he looks pretty good next to the Werekiwi. =)

The fruits aren't to scale with one another, but that was a conscious decision and I don't think it's too bad. Any thoughts? Think I'll move on to Dr. Lemon and Mr. Lime next. Debating whether to make them split down the middle in front view or have the front be Dr. Lemon and the back Mr. Lime ...

---

UPDATE:

 Since so many of you commenters are mentioning how fun it is to see the Werekiwi's progress over the years, here's one just for you!

This is from back in 2010 when I originally had this idea. It's come quite a long way, eh? =) Well - back to it! I'll be updating again later tonight with my progress for Dr. Lemon and Mr. Lime - a super fun one!

And thanks to everyone who's given feedback and encouraging comments. You guys are awesome! I'm going to try and dedicated a chunk of time every night to go through all of your designs as well! =)

--

UPDATE:

Took me a little while but I've come up with a concept for Dr. Lemon and Mr. Lime. Decided to go with the Two Face style split down the front.

Also wondering what you think about the fruit juice blood splatters. Too much? And hey! This guy's got a rad skull cane accessory. Hooray accessories! =)

Here's the updated lineup so far. Next on deck is The Invisible Orange. Stoked about that one. Going to be pretty awesome!

--

UPDATE:

Here's the Invisible Orange! So swanky. =)

I think it would be pretty cool to have some clear plastic for his wrists so it would look like his hands were floating ... you could also use a clear plastic sphere for his head if there were technical issues I suppose. I could see something like this getting pretty complicated in the molding process maybe.

Updated lineup:

--

UPDATE:

So I know I haven't updated in a while, but hopefully this update is exciting enough to be worth the wait...

I've been working on a preliminary sculpt of the Werekiwi to see what works, what doesn't work, and making sure I have a strong foothold on the orthos when I make them. As you can see there's still a bit of work to do on his collar and you can't tell here but his pants have a bit of a diaper-butt ... but the arms turned out nicely. Please also keep in mind that I have VERY LITTLE sculpting experience so this is a bit of a slow process - but a necessary one that will help me better understand the ins and outs of each of his pieces. =)

I've also done some research and purchased some magnets for the articulation on these bad boys. More fun to come!