Thanks!
I'm trying to decide what to paint next, and I'm thinking about one of the big giants (as redundant as that sounds.) I pulled out the one from Ultraforge, but noticed some annoying things about the casting...

There are gates/vents right along some of the detail. These are the two most annoying ones -- right on the chin and the details on the necklaces. That means both of these areas will have to be cut away, filed down and re-sculpted. The one on top of the neck isn't bad. The best spot really would have been on a flat spot on the back/shoulder and maybe the top of the head -- areas with the least detail and least amount of re-sculpting required.
So now I'm debating about whether to do this one or something else. I should probably just make up my mind on what to do for the Pleasant Surprises and work on that!
Great stuff! One of my colleagues is into the custom toy scene, it's a really interesting art form which overlaps with our miniatures hobby. The main differences seem to be down to the much larger size of the toys and the large smooth areas to paint on. And as you say the freedom from making your art compatible with a game.
Really impressed with your work there. The fact that GamesPoet isn't sure if the detail is painted or sculpted (it's mostly painted in my experience) shows just how good your painting is. 
As far as the designer & vinyl toys, I do a lot of sculpting, but the details are really a mix of sculpting and painting. The sculpted details are generally not as small as miniatures. I should take a pic of a toy next to a Warhammer miniature later to compare. There's really a lot of variety in what people do in terms of style, technique, subject matter, etc. That's another part of what I enjoy about it.
People I've met come from a big variety of backgrounds. I have come across a few other people from a miniatures/Warhammer background. But even among those who aren't, even the tools are shared. Like a lot of people who have never touched a miniature use GW, Vallejo, etc. paints, for example. It's also interesting seeing how people's backgrounds influence what they do -- and being able to pick out some of the miniatures influence.
I've personally had a lot of crossover of ideas. After taking a bit of a break from miniatures, I've now been thinking about all the new ideas & techniques I'd like to work with, and just having a fresh perspective has lit a bit of a fire for miniatures again. This is sort of like some advice one of my teachers gave me in architecture school. I spent most of my time working on school projects, and was getting frustrated/blocked on one. He told me to go out, have a few drinks, do something else, and forget about architecture for a bit.
At any rate, I've been playing around outside of the usual "designer" toys, and recently pulled out one of my own vintage toys. I had originally repainted this for use in 40k, but it was a poor paint job and the SM army that it went with is looooong gone (original plastic beekee marines!) One day, on my long commute home from a museum I work for the idea popped in my head. A couple days later I was working on this bit of blasphemy...

It's an old 1988 plastic toy from Kenner.
