DAD'S CUSTOM UNHOODED JAWA & VADER'S CLONE WERE POSTED ON THE FRONT PAGE OF IMPERIAL SHIPYARDS ON THE SAME DAY

Dad's WIP Darth Vader Clone and Unhooded Jawa both got the front page treatment on Imperial Shipyards today. Go Dad!!

THE UNHOODED JAWA

When Dad saw this image of the unhooded Jawa, he knew he wanted to add one to my collection.



THE UNHOODED JAWA
created by Darth Daddy

Work In Progress

Dad's unhooded Jawa custom action figure was made from the POTF Jawa so Dad could still keep the yellow glow of the eyes in his action figure and sculpted the face around the eyes by hand with a thumbtack using Apoxie Sculpt from Aves.



To order Apoxie Sculpt, go here:

http://www.avesstudio.com/index.php?page=shop.browse&category_id=7&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1
(They ship to every country via USPS)

Custom Con XXVIII

CustomCon 28

What is CustomCon, you ask? CustomCon is a special semi-annual presentation of new custom toy creations by customizers around the globe. A decade in the running, it's still going strong. Inspired by the presentations of new product by legitimate manufacturers at Toy Fair and other trade shows, CustomCon is a "fake" convention, whereby customizers present their latest creations and recipes as if unveiling a new line of real toys to retailers. It's always a lot of fun, for both the viewers and the participants.

If this is your first exposure to a CustomCon, click here to see what's been offered over the past 27 CustomCons.

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EVENT DATES:

CustomCon 28 will run from April 4 to 8, 2011.

ENTRY DEADLINE:

The deadline will be Monday, March 7, 2011. No entries will be accepted after this date.

ENTRY GUIDELINES:

So how can you participate? Well, the key is to make several custom action figures that would be in the same toy line, and send in photos of them. You could make your own new wave of DC Direct figures (a current series), a new wave of Star Trek figures (a previous series). You can also make a line of Super-Duper Creep Busting figures! (That would be your own unique line.) You could make figures based on characters from Comics, Movies, TV Shows, Books, Sports, Sci-Fi... The sky's the limit!

1. Just make sure each group of figures shares a common theme. You should come up with a name for your line of figures if it's an original line, and give some sort of description of the action figure line.

2. Custom packaging is, of course, an option, but it is certainly not required.

3. If possible, we would ask that you photograph the figures so that it looks like they are on display at a convention. If you have custom packaging, it's best to have pictures both loose and in the packages.

4. There's no limit on how few customs you have to submit for a line. 4 or more would be appreciated, but any number is fine. So, YES if you only have 1 or 2 good figures, send them in!

5. The whole point of CustomCon is to show off your NEW custom creations, so please, no entries of pieces previously seen on websites, forums or in any sort of public gallery.

Ready to Submit your ENTRY?

Send your submissions to casimir@toymania.com. Please e-mail the following:

- Your first and last name, or just the nickname you go by online. Your preference.
- Your email address.
- Your custom figure website address, if you have one.
- The name of your figure line.
- Any custom logos you wish to use for your toyline. (OPTIONAL)
- E-mail me pictures of your figures. JPGs are preferred, scaled for screen. (7 inches high at 72 dpi is a good standard, or around 100 kb). Please make sure your images are ATTACHED to the email, NOT embedded. Remember to name your image files appropriately. You may know every X-Man ever created by sight, but we might not.
- A description of what they were made from (your toy recipe). Describe what figures you used to make your custom. Please type, or "copy & paste" this into an e-mail.
- A Description of the action figure line (convention write-up report).
- Write up your own "Press release" or "Toy Show Commentary" to describe your toyline. Please type, or "copy & paste" this into an e-mail.

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We appreciate you helping to spread the word about CustomCon. Would you like to link to CustomCon 28 on your web site?

Here is a logo you can use. (For bandwidth reasons, images hosted on our server won't show up on any web site other than RTM. Please "right click" on the image and then choose from the menu to save the image to your hard drive and then upload it to your site's server.)

http://www.toymania.com/customcorner/cc28/

CUSTOMIZER SPOTLIGHT #13: PARASITE COLLECTIBLES

We saw the "Mandalorian Renegade Traveler" created by Parasite Collectibles on Ebay recently and we really liked the paint scheme and parts mix. Once we saw the opening helmet and the blue sunken eyes underneath, we knew we wanted to bid on him. Thankfully, we were also the winning bidders on the item and this figure now rests among my other cool custom action figures.

Wayne J. Bunce Jr. (a.k.a. Parasite Collectibles) has unique designs, mixing parts from different toy lines to create his custom action figures. Wayne says he prefers making Mandalorians over Jedi or any other Star Wars character and says he is constantly striving to improve his skills so he can sell a better product.

Mandalorian Renegade Traveler

PARASITE COLLECTIBLES custom action figures can be viewed at:
http://www.starwarsspace.com/madalorianoutpost.mysite.com


You can email PARASITE COLLECTIBLES at:
convoysreturn @yahoo.com

Or just visit his ebay page at:
http://myworld.ebay.com/parasitecollectibles/

MY CUSTOM KEL DOR JEDI MADE THE FRONT PAGE OF IMPERIAL SHIPYARDS!!

I just want to say thank you to IMPERIAL SHIPYARDS for putting the first custom action figure that I ever posted at their site onto their front page today. I think I jumped up and down for a few minutes straight after seeing it. I saw Dad make it a few times and making it onto the front page never felt so good!!

My Kit Bash a Figure Contest Submission

Dad showed me Luke Sprywalker's Kit Bash a Figure Contest and I decided it was time I submitted a custom action figure to the contest. For my submission, I entered a fan fiction custom action figure of a female Kel Dor Jedi that was from Luke's New Jedi Order. To make her, I used the hands of a CW Plo Koon, the head of a Legacy collection Plo Koon, and the body of a Vintage Hoth Princess Leia. If we were allowed to paint, I probably would have painted her clothing a light brown similar to the way the Vintage Luke Skywalker in Bespin fatigues was painted.

Female Kel Dor Jedi

REVISITING OLD CUSTOM ACTION FIGURES: PART TWO

Another action figure Dad was dying to revisit was the Vixey action figure that he had created for me. When Dad first made me a Vixey action figure it was only the third custom action figure he ever made. At the time, he thought it would be his last because he didn't foresee any other custom action figures in his future.

If he only knew.

Now that he has made as many custom action figures as he has, he has further developed his knowledge and skill set when making me new toys. For instance, he now started to use Apoxie Sculpt made by Aves.

Apoxie Sculpt is a 2-part product that has a putty-like, smooth consistency, and it's easy to mix & use. It is safe and also waterproof with 0% shrinkage/cracking! Working time is 2-3 hrs and it cures hard in 24 hrs. with a semi-gloss finish. It adheres to plastic, resin kits, wood, metal, ceramic, glass, polymers, foam, fiberglass, & more! It can be seamlessly feathered before set-up, or sanded, tapped, drilled, carved, lathed, or otherwise tooled after set-up, without chipping, cracking or flaking!

Dad knew this was just the thing he would need to improve Vixey for me. When he first made her she was lacking many features that would show people that she was a female. She also lost some of the texture in her hair during the reshaping process Dad had to do to make her fit the body. Dad still thinks the head is too large, but only slightly.

MY VIXEY DRAWING

Vixey was a fan fiction character that I created and she is one of my favorites, so Dad spent last weekend bringing his action figure closer to what I had envisioned her to be. For starters, I wanted Vixey to have boobs. Dad kept telling me that foxes don't have boobs, but I said Vixey did and I wanted them on my figure. I also always drew Vixey with a long braid. So Dad has used the Apoxie Sculpt to add boobs, a braid and texture back to her hair with Apoxie Sculpt.

So here she is the new Vixey!

VIXEY


























To see Dad's original Vixey you can go to the old post located here:

http://customsforthekid.blogspot.com/2010/08/designed-by-me.html


To order Apoxie Sculpt, go here:

http://www.avesstudio.com/index.php?page=shop.browse&category_id=7&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

REVISITING OLD CUSTOM ACTION FIGURES: PART ONE

Lately, Dad has wanted to revisit a few of the older action figures that he created and give them an updated look. The first custom he revisited was the Bothan Jedi. He made the Bothan Jedi action figure back in August, but he didn't like the body he had available to him at the time. He loved the way he painted the face so he wanted to give it a deserving body. When he had an extra body for Nicanas Tassu in the fodder box, he knew he finally had the body he needed to complete the Bothan Jedi and make him into a fully articulated action figure.

BOTHAN JEDI



















You can see the original post here:
http://customsforthekid.blogspot.com/2010/08/bothan-jedi.html

CloneSniper78 HAS BEEN ADDED TO "CUSTOMS I WISH I OWNED"

32 year old Tom Christensen is a Star Wars and G.I. Joe customizer from Phoenix, Arizona (USA). He is better known as CloneSniper78 on the Imperialshipyards.net website, and as AZMarineSniper on youtube.com. He has been a Star Wars fan since the early 1980's when he was a young boy.

CloneSniper78

You can visit his Youtube link here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/AZMarineSniper?feature=mhum


You can read his Imperial Shipyard posts here:
http://www.imperialshipyards.net/SMF/index.php?topic=3548.0

DAD's TODO-360 with WHEEL MODIFICATION

As promised, here's Dad's TODO-360 with wheel. All you need is a sharp knife and some krazy glue and you can make him too. I don't remember seeing this droid with wheels in any of the recent Clone Wars episodes, but when Dad saw the picture below, he wanted to take a crack at it. He used an Exacto knife to cut TODO-360 at the hips and at the feet. He glued the two feet together to get the wheel and then glued the legs to the center of the wheels. He finished the action figure by gluing the top of the legs back to the hips on an angle.

Image Dad found on the internet that inspired the custom action figure.

"TODO-360
with WHEEL MODIFICATION"
created by Darth Daddy

Dad glued the wheel to the lid of the food container that held our Wonton Soup and then trimmed the lid into a small circle so TODO-360 could stand.



SKILL LEVEL: BEGINNER

Hangarbay94 aka julianmaurice ADDED TO "CUSTOMS I WISH I OWNED"

Julian AKA Hangarbay94 is an avid Star Wars fan who has made a name for himself by customising vehicles and creating photo novels.

His work is featured on Yakface and Imperial Shipyards where he is also one of the moderators. His latest project a graphic novelization of the classic PC game X-Wing Alliance features a mixture of his custom figures, dioramas and vehicles as well as creative artwork produced using Adobe Photoshop. Julian is self taught and admits to being heavily influenced by Yak Chewie and other contemporary photo novelists.

Amongst his more notable custom projects Julian specialises in making flat pack and easy to store dioramas, including a large scale (fold away), LED lit Endor Landing Platform a huge flat pack Death Star Hangar and a Calamari Cruiser Hangar bay.

Julian has also produced a movie novel called Darkchild, which he admits to being a little more than he could chew and sadly the project remains unfinished at chapter 3.

Every time I see his work, Dad and I just sit there and wonder how he finds time to do it all and to the levels that he accomplishes. He's just phenomenal and raises the bar for the whole customizing community. You just have to watch this video.

Hangarbay94

NEW SOUNDTRACK ADDED BY HANGARBAY94

You'll find Julian's X-Wing graphic novel at www.xwa-webcomic.com and his Darkchild series on his Youtube Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/hangarbay94?feature=mhum

"NEW" IMPERIAL SHIPYARDS CUSTOM CONTEST

Once again, courtesy of Luke Sprywalker and IMPERIAL SHIPYARDS is a great project to start while you are waiting for new skippy from Toy Fair. Hot off the Press, we announce the Kit Bash a Figure Contest. Take any figure, from any line, tear it apart and put it back together how you see fit. Feel free to see the full rules and the prize awarded by hitting the Contest Link above.

DAD's AURRA SING MAKES THE FRONT PAGE of IMPERIAL SHIPYARDS

AURRA SING "ASSASSIN" EPISODE OUTFIT

I asked Dad to make me an Aurra Sing in the outfit that she wore in the "Assassin" episode from Season 3 of Clone Wars. The action figure is only a simple repaint that anyone could do with the Clone Wars Aurra Sing action figure found in stores now. He also trimmed down the antenna on the figure to make it look closer to what it would really look like.

AURRA SING
"ASSASSIN" OUTFIT
by DARTH DADDY

SKILL LEVEL: BEGINNER