Joe Amaro

So my Gerard Butler story...several years back at New York Toy Fair I went to dinner with a bunch of friends. We went to this cool restaurant called Craft Bar www.craftrestaurant.com/. There was a bunch of us just hanging out having fun. Then someone at our table mentioned that across the restaurant was Gerard Butler http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0124930/

We thought it was cool and started talking about his movies. My bestest friend Xavier Marrero then drew an awesome stylized/urban vinyl Spartan. For the rest of the night we debated giving him the drawing, finally we decided to give it a cute waitress so she could to take over to his table. He got it and laughed out loud then he yelled over to us:
"Is that what I look like?!" ...We all laughed and said: "NO!!!"

He came over to our table with his group and we all hung out the rest of the night. He asked what we all did and we said we all worked in the toy industry. They all thought it was super cool, then he asked me:
"So you could make this for me?"...and I said "YES I can!"

 We talked about it and exchanged information. When we got back home X did some turn around drawings for me and we went to work! I kept Gerry (yeah we are buddies now) in the loop and sent him work in progress pictures. Finally the sculpt was done and I hand painted it for him. I sent it to him and the last I heard it was on the mantle in his apartment! Here are some pics...