My Little Gremlins' Figs n Frames

Beyond music, my other passion has always been that of films and comic books. To speak with me today, I have Chris, a self-developed vendor who runs My Little Gremlins' Figs n Frames. Take a look at our chat below.

How did you come up with the idea for this?

"I love doodling comic characters and Disney stuff, always have, so I've always had a love of animation, arts and crafts and been willing to try new things with it. I started to collect the Marvel Lego Minifigures and ended up with a number of doublers and didn't know what to do with them and then I remembered that a friend of mine had bought me a Back to the Future Lego Minifigure frame for my birthday some time back and I thought, 'What can I do with the figures that I've got?'. I'd been spray painting frames for my nieces bedroom and thought I could try and customise the frames with a theme to go with the figures. The first one that I tried was a galaxy themed frame for Marvel's What If? version of T'challa as Star Lord minifigure and, from there, a US flag theme for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier minifigures. It all kind of escalated from there then as ideas kept rolling for new themes. The finishing touch was finding a name for everything so I wanted to bring my nieces to it all and they literally are the 'My Little Gremlins' that are in the name. Everything that I do is for them so it seemed appropriate."

What challenges did you face when you were developing this and how did you overcome them?

"The biggest challenge that I've faced with all of this is the printing. I was able to find images to use relatively easy, and a good friend of mine taught me how to edit them to size, but I was using my Dad's printer and, whilst I was able to get some good quality on some pictures, alot of images that had alot of black space in them were poor and showing lines. I've been very lucky to have found a local printers who have been very helpful in getting what I needed printed and ready for when I've needed them. Other than that, and pretty much ruining the kitchen floor with spray paint, the rest has been pretty much plain sailing."

I noticed that you were a first time vendor at the SCGC 2022, how did that go?

"Absolutely amazing. I still can't quite believe the weekend to be honest, it was a very humbling experience. At first I was only planning on taking around 20 frames but then I saw that over 1500 tickets had been sold which put me into panic mode. I went into overdrive for a few days to put together as many frames as I could and just took every single thing that I had made with me, just hoping really that there'd be something for someone and that I'd maybe make my money back on the table.

The day before the event I went to take everything that I had to the Arena ready to set up and I literally walked in with bags of frames and a table cloth whilst I looked around me and saw others with free standing displays, backing boards and logos. My initial reaction to that was how on earth will I even attract people to the table and, if I look like amateur hour in comparison to everyone else, why on earth will anyone want anything that I've got to sell?

Matt, another good friend of mine who came to help out on the Saturday, was a fantastic source of common sense to me on the day. I'd say he was the rational one of us on the day as he kept me calm and talked alot of logic when it came to pricing. Once the first person came over to look and pointed to a Spider-Man frame and asked how much, I just blurted out a number and was half expecting some bartering to begin (there wasn't lol). Once that first sale went through, things seemed to just click and roll from there.

To see something that you've put together as a hobby, more than anything, and be bought by someone else who likes what you've done and also compliments you on the work is very...I think I've used this word earlier, but it's true.... humbling and I was grateful to everybody who stopped by and chatted and/or bought something from me."

What kind of reception have you had from friends and family?

"It's been amazing and extremely encouraging. I think my parents (and probably myself too) were worried in the beginning that I would be throwing money down the drain and would end up with about a hundred frames sitting idle in every room in the house but, to be fair to them though, if that's what they did think, they never said it and have always asked how things are going with it or if anyone has been in touch about ordering something. Plenty of friends, yourself included, have asked for something to be put together and I've managed to make something different for everyone. I push as much as I can on social media and you all like and share the posts, for which I am eternally grateful, and every little helps to get things out there more."

Do you have any plans to branch out to other figures beyond lego, such as Funko or Hasbro?

"To be honest, it would depend on what I can do. I'd be open to working with anything if I thought that I can put something great together with it. Working using Funkos would be good and I do have an idea up my sleeve to work with a friend on some photography artwork using the Funko Pops, but that may take some time to get rolling."

What seems to be your most popular sell at the moment?

"Horror themed frames have been a popular request with "It" being a favourite. I've actually really enjoyed making the horror frames as I've got to play around with the spray paint making blood splats and I've even played around with candle wax and sprayed that red to give the dripping blood effect.

Friends, using the 6 lead characters, has been a big request from my own friends and Spider-Man was a big favourite at the Swansea Convention. I actually run out of Spider-Man frames at the Con with people asking if I had anymore.

Star Wars and Harry Potter are fun too as there's so many different combos of characters that can be put together. It all depends what people want and, if I can get the figures, I'm more than happy to make something for someone."

What are your plans for your shop, moving forward?

"At the moment things are quiet as there's no Conventions on, locally, for me to try and get a table at, so I guess it's to keep pushing the social media aspect of things as much as I can and reach out to as many people as possible. Social Media is a bit of a learning curve for me at the moment and I am enjoying trying to see what works and what doesn't when displaying and sharing the frames online. I absolutely loved doing the Swansea Comic and Gaming Convention and, ideally, would love to do alot more of them whether it's Swansea, Cardiff, Newport or even Bristol...why stop at Wales?! Productwise, I think we've already touched on the potential to use other figures for displays but I think that the next thing to develop (pardon the pun) is using figures to create photography art... we'll see how that goes though."

Final word: Chris takes the mic

"You can find us over on Facebook at My Little Gremlins' Figs n Frames and also on Instagram at My Little Gremlins' Figs n Frames. As soon as I get 'down with the kids' and learn and master the arts of Tik Tok (or Tok Tik as I call it), I'm sure we'll be on that too at some point. If anybody wants something, and I can get the stuff to do it, just drop us a message on the social media pages and we'll work with you to put something together. If you mention Stew's podcast in your message, you can get 15% off your first orders with us!"

It was such a pleasure to catch up with Chris, don't forget to check out his figs and frames on social media. Make sure to follow to keep up to date with all the latest news and offers.

Take a look at just some of the products Chris has been working on recently including a Batman one I purchased myself to add to my collection.