She vs. He...

A friend of mine is getting a divorce (sad), she had a Divorce Party... I made the cake topper of the two of them out of some Simpons figures... that axe in his head was her idea...

Red Son...Spoiled Nephew

I got my nephew hooked on the Justice League Unlimited figures (he owns well over 150 of them...best uncle EVER). I grabbed a second "grey" Superman (again from Quake) and with some red paint , packing tape and a faily steady hand, turned the "S" on his chest into the hammer and sickle similar to how the costume looked in Mark Millar's Superman Red Son...I don't think my 7 year old nephew can really appreciate it...yet.

Get off my back...

Really basic one here. The creature from an Episode 1 Gungan Wagon/Cart, got for a dollar at Quake (used toy store) added some extra Endor Trooper backpacks and the gear from the Indian Jones motorcycle and I have a pack animal , a nice Mos Espa or Mos Eisley diorama filler.

Head Swap A-Go-Go

One of the easier customs to do is a basic head swap (great for army building) newer figures have heads that pop off a neck post, so a new head just needs to be hollowed out, or the neck post cut to to fit the new noggin'. With the new Death Star (or Squad) Commander that came out a few years ago - making extra soldiers was pretty quick and easy.

The Winston Review

At a holiday party (2003?) at the iO Theater ,my grab bag "gift" was a custom action figure of the winner. An improv couple won - at the time they were doing a two person show called the Winston Review - a lounge singer type act. (very funny) ,Austin Powers figures, Miles O'Brien's head and some sculpey clay and black fabric finished the deal. The microphone is a playmates Star Trek accessory (medical scanner?) Plus a base with images and graphics from their website.

TIE me up TIE me down

See what I did there?... Had an old Kenner TIE that was in bad shape. Printed up new decals (thank you internet) and had some grey and black spray paint laying around in dad's garage. Not movie accurate colors but leaps and bounds from the beat up toy that was sitting on the shelf.

Hey Look at Me...I'm a Buzzboy

My brother has been a pilot in the USAF for many years. This is one of my first "real people"

customs.Using a Kenobi Episode 1 noggin and the body of a Luke in Snowspeeder gear (plus one of the breathing masks from the vintage survival gear mail a way) I created a version of him in his flight suit.

Once, Twice, Three Times a Lady

Over the years I've done updates as either : my skill improves , I see someone else's custom and steal the recipe or new parts become available with a release by Hasbro. Here's Ysanne Isard evolution (older at the bottom)

Surfs Up R2

From time to time, I'll photograph the little folks, not just the customs, but the Hasbro produced ones as well, this is the latter. A hot day , went to the beach, but brought along some toys and the camera.

By Your Command

Just a simple "refurbish" of an old figure bought for a dollar at a local (and awesome) resale store (Quake...check it out) Silver paint, black paint and a little dot of red , brought this vintage beat up Cylon , from Battlestar Galactic back from the dead.

STAR WARS...the musical

Within 3 days of moving to Chicago, I was asked to do props and sets for a Star Wars musical at iO Theater. Song Time Ago ran for 8 weeks, at the end I made custom figures of the cast (and crew) as the characters that they played on stage - Han Solo is wearing a kit bashed Indy hat, Leia is all "sexy" and Chewie's "face" can be seen with his dog nose. A head swap ,with an Episode 1 Kenobi , helped make the Luke figure resemble the actor playing him.

Hey Ladies!

Picked up several Playmates Enterprise Bridge Crew sets, and proceeded to do head swaps from other Playmates Trek lines to create multiple non-specific female crew members, a few needed a coat of a mustard yellow (took a few tries to get the color almost identical)

What I Made...They Made...3

General Rieekan (again Hasbro put him out decades later) is made from a Hoth Han Solo and the head from a Jedi Anakin Skywalker (non-ghost version)

What I Made...They Made...2

Crix Madine ( another Hasbro release...years later) was made from the 1st General Lando and Garindan Legs

What I Made...They Made

Every now and then (more so now lately) Hasbro would put out a figure that I already made some time earlier. Captain Antilles here was made from a Fleet Trooper, Garindan and Ponda Baba. (all Power of the Force Figures I think)

Meow Baby !

Some years ago they released the Star Trek Animated Series on DVD, they were pretty bad... but there was an interesting character introduced in it, a female cat crewman ( Voiced by Nichelle Nichols ) and thanks to an extra Playmates Uhura figure, Dr Crusher head and a tail from a dollar store tiger, I created a fairly decent figure of M'Ress.

The Very First One

Here is a quick paint job on an old R5-D4 from the second wave of Kenner figures (1978?), just some green paint over the red, some silver trim...shamwow...a new droid! Fairly low on the difficulty scale. Had plenty of paint, brushes and supplies in the closet thanks to the many D&D miniatures that I had been painting from the late 70 and beyond.

Customize.....

cus·tom·ize (kst-mz)

tr.v. cus·tom·ized, cus·tom·iz·ing, cus·tom·iz·es

To make or alter to individual or personal specifications:

Back in the day the folks at Kenner kit-bashed a bunch plastic folks to create several hard copies to show the company what their Star Wars line may look like. Years later, after I collected most of the figures that were released up to that point , began to customize figures to fill in the gaps....