Wow, SO much to say about this piece & so many pics to show, it's hard to put in a nutshell. I'll try to summarize it best I can, so here goes. 11-months ago in January, I was about halfway-through the VHS-Laserbeak project when a new-friend contacted me after seeing Laserbeak's transformation-demo on Facebook. He pitched 2-concepts: Can you make a striped-eel turn into a hamburger, or a yellow-pufferfish turn into a school-bus? Well it turned-out he's a huge-fan of the "FishCenter: Live" show on the Adult-Swim channel, and these were 2 actual living-fish on the show (Hamburger/striped-eel, and "Mom" the yellow-pufferfish.) He went-on to tell me that the "Fish-Bus" concept was actually based on a parody of the famous magical "Cat-Bus" featured in the 1989 Japanese-anime movie "My Neighbor Totoro." Well I was immediately sold on the crazy-cool-concept of the Fish-Bus with the 4 miniature crew-versions of the guys from the show inside the bus, and we talked, and I got to work. (Hamburger still makes a tiny-cameo on the display-base  )

This venture was totally-new to me in a LOT of ways, as I was working with a new & amazing thermoplastic called "Worbla" that allowed me to make virtually any curve and shape I wanted. After I mastered the working-dynamics of the Worbla, I was able to pull-off all the random-dimensions, natural-curves & contours that come with the body of a fish, or any transforming-animal for that matter, something I've never done before. LOTS of painful trial-and-error along the way, nothing came easy with this one, but I wouldn't settle for anything less than what I had in-mind for the outcome & how I wanted it.

The dimensions of "Mom" are actually pretty close to a real puffer, and she's totally scratch-built out of Worbla, styrene, aluminum flat-bar, brass-angle, rare-earth magnets & wood. The display-base was also totally scratch-built out of pvc-pipe/couplings, wood-plaque & Worbla. The little "Hamburger" eel, seaweed & pink-coral were all hand-sculpted out of Aves-clay, only 3 little bits I bought pre-made were the crawfish, seashell & starfish for embellishment. So in-conclusion, the plan is to send the Fish-Bus to the guys over at the studio, and they're supposed to unbox & play with it on live-tv, then display it there in their studio indefinitely for guests to see & interact-with. Pretty exciting stuff! If you've stuck-around long enough to read all this, thanks for giving it a chance & checking-out all the pics, she's an eyeful! I will try to cram & post the transformation-video down here somewhere in the following-comments. (All W.I.P.-pics from start-to-finish are also included in the video  )
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These are actual-pics of both "Mom" and "Hamburger" from the show. Tragically & strangely-enough, "Mom" the yellow-puffer died suddenly of a suspected fungal-infection about only 3-weeks into this project, so this piece kinda turned into an homage/tributary-piece to immortalize her indefinitely. Since I went with "Mom" on this venture, I still managed to squeeze "Hamburger's" cameo down there on the base.   

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Damn, never saw the show, but this is impressive

 

I've never seen this show, but I HAVE A MIGHTY NEED FOR THIS FISHBUS

 

Wow

 

Incredible job on this, you've done some fantastic scratchbuilding here!

 

That’s some amazing sculpt work all around and excellent painting. Incredibly impressive.

 

You do some really crazy awesome stuff man.

 

Holy smokes! You sir, are amazing! Great work as always! =O

 

The magic pufferbus!

 

Beautiful but unholy at the same time

 

Excellent work!

 

Puffer Bus is too pure for this world. That’s a damn impressive piece of work you’ve done! And I can kind of tell the transformation now but it’s very effective. Congratulations on the opportunity.

 

I don't say this often, but this custom is pure and magical.

 

I love this! Fun. Crazy. Random. And, yet, somehow logical and fitting. This is some next level left field stuff, man. Great job!

 

You did a fab job! I love the realistic colors, the sea themed base, all the little details and the eel!

Sorry to hear about your fish.

 

FishCenter: Live finally receives-delivery and unboxes the magical "Mom-bus" on live-t.v. this week!
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Wow! That's awesome! Amazing work.

 

I’ve never commented but this is incredibly good work.
Job well done

 

kudos on the amazing work! i appreciate how you handled my random pitch with style and grace besides the fishcenter fumbles with turner security (it was refused for some reason and an intern had to pick it up at a fedex office)

P.S. i hope they fixed the eyes over at the studio!