CINDEL TOWANI & NOA BRIQUALON created by Customs for the Kid

For my 4 year old cousin's last birthday, we gave him the entire Star Wars video library complete with all the films, the Clone Wars TV episodes, and the old Ewok movies that were made for television when my Dad was a little kid.  When my cousin began to watch some of the content that we gave him, he started with the "The Battle for Endor" movie.  He loved the movie so much that he watched it 3-4 times a day for weeks on end. 

When we visited his house this summer, we brought him the new Wicket action figure from the Vintage collection and the Ewok Battle Pack that was exclusive to Toys R' Us.  While we were visiting for the week, my cousin saw Dad make custom action figures for the blog and was really impressed with our ability to make our own toys.  So much so, that he asked if we could make him a Noa and a Cindel for Christmas.  Before we left that week, Dad ordered a Teek action figure to be mailed to his house, and told him to keep an eye on the mailbox around Christmas time.  When we returned home, Dad started to acquire the fodder we needed to complete his request.  When Dad started to obtain the fodder, he bought double of everything so that he could make me a set too.

Since time was limited, we only had the chance to make this first set for my cousin, but once the New Year rolls around, we'll most likely make the second set for my collection as well.  This project was a lot of  fun because it was a real team effort between me and Dad.  To create the action figures, we modified an Anakin Skywalker from Episode I to create the Cindel Towani, and we used a Willrow Hood body and a Henry Jones head from the "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" toy line to make the Noa Briqualon action figure.  Dad worked on the head sculpts and the soft goods, while I worked on creating Noa's staff and painting the figures.  I really liked the way that they both came out and I can't wait to add these two characters to my own collection now that I know what needs to be done.  My favorite part of this project was using the Dremel for the first time to sand a wooden chopstick into Noa's staff.  It was my first time working with the tool and it was a lot of fun to use.

I hope my little cousin enjoys the new toys that we made for him and even more importantly that his dog doesn't eat them.  Let us know what you think.

NOA BRIQUALON & CINDEL TOWANI

created by Customs for the Kid

 
Our Noa and Cindel were featured on the front page of Imperial Shipyards.

The Classic Star Wars Facebook group also featured our Noa and Cindel in their feed.

Evilivo Added to "Customs I Wish I Owned"

This holiday, Customs for the Kid can't express how thankful we are that we can keep adding to our archival list of super talented Star Wars custom action figure artists, month after month.  Customizing Star Wars action figures is an art form that continues to grow more and more popular with each coming year.  Every time we start to fear we'll eventually run out of new artists to introduce you all to, ten more artists pop up that show us how silly our worries were.  More and more artists are continuously springing up all over the world.   Our latest customizer hails from Eastern Europe.  Featuring some of the most impressive paint applications in the community today, Evilivo is shaping up to be one of our favorite Star Wars customizers!

Evilivo (Ivo Domozetov from Bulgaria) was introduced to Star Wars at age 5, and immediately fell in love with the movies and the toys. He's been doing fixes to his action figures since his early years with the Vintage Kenner toy line and now later with Hasbro's revived line. Over the years customizing action figures replaced playing with the figures. Evilivo works as professional sculptor and jeweler and the attention to detail that his job requires definitely spills over into his artistic creations as well. He usually just alters and improves existing figures, since securing multiples of some figures is much harder to do in his part of the world, but don't let that diminish your curiosity.  His work is just beautiful and he has the ability to make the paint applications on his figures "pop" like no other artists out there.  The internet gave Star Wars customizer Evilivo the opportunity to discover the customizing forums at different Star Wars sites where he said he has found his "new family".  We love having him as a part of it.  His work continues to inspire.  Take a look.

Evilivo

Here is the link to Evilivo's thread in Yakface forums:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=7321

 

And this is Evilivo's Star Wars Customs album in Photobucket:
http://s1180.photobucket.com/user/domoz ... t=4&page=1

His e-mail address is domozetov@yahoo.com and he would like to try his hand at commission work, so reach out and contact him if you are as impressed with his work as we are.

Wonderful Figure Painting Tutorial

A few customizers posted this YouTube video on Facebook of Marion Ball demonstrating how to best paint your action figures.  I have to say, even as a seasoned customizer, I learned a LOT from this video.  I definitely recommend that you all give it a view.  It was well worth the time invested to watch it.

Have you read Hangarbay94's Homeworld: Return to Hiigara yet? CHAPTER SIX OUT NOW!

If not, I highly recommend you hit this link right now and go enjoy yourself for a few minutes this morning. The story-line and graphics are just off the charts folks. I also wanted to take this opportunity to publicly thank Hangarbay94 for putting in so much work in on this just for the fans. Anything this particular artist puts his name on is going to have a quality unsurpassed in the world wide web!

Kualan gives us a new chapter of his photonovel Tales From The Clone Wars!

There's all kinds of action in this installment. Kualan illuminates us with the desert suns of Tatooine and then jumps to the deep underbelly of Coruscant in this chapter. Issue Thirteen of Volume Three. Please enjoy Justice, Part Two! Please leave Kualan a few comments about what you read as well.

CAFN #62: THE SPECTRE

CAFN #62: THE SPECTRE

CAFN was joined by The Spectre, Dan Kosa, to talk about a small fraction of his great custom work. Hit that play button and listen in as he describes how he turns trash items to custom treasure, the construction of some of his awesome dioramas, his best custom figure recipes, and painting techniques. Don't forget to go to the CAFN Archive Page for all the download links and to go back and listen to your favorite episodes.

If you haven't seen the brand new and improved CAFN Page yet, be sure to give it a look.

Go here to listen to the Custom Action
Figure News podcast:

http://www.imperialshipyards.net/CAFN/index.html

If there is anything you would like them to feature on a future podcast be sure to let them know at:

chad.cafnpodcast@yahoo.com

tamer@imperialshipyards.net

CUSTOMIZER SPOTLIGHT UPDATE: Peakob1

So this month we don't have a "new" artist to showcase for our Customizer Spotlight.   Maybe by the end of the month, but don't hold your breath.  I can't believe that we have been able to keep the feature going so long considering the blog has been around for almost four years now.  Having to come up with a new artist isn't always easy since this feature is about custom action figures that are in my personal collection.  While I have a multitude of action figures that you might not have seen yet, both "figures made by artist's we have already featured", and also "figures that we're not sure who they were crafted by".  One day we'll have to do a feature showcasing custom action figures "made by artists unknown to us", but that is for another day.

Today, we will still provide you with some Star Wars custom action figures that are in my collection, it will just be from an artist that has already been featured in our Customizer Spotlight...an update to their feature.  And what an update it is.  

One of the most upsetting changes to the Star Wars toy line was the discontinuation of the Clone Wars toy line.  I always felt Hasbro really took a lazy approach toward the end of the line in 2012.  Even though the show continued on in to 2013, once 2012 hit, we only got repacks.  Europe was fortunate enough to get a limited run of figures, but no new characters were released there other than the 501st Clone Trooper.  All new characters that were introduced in Seasons 4 or 5 never made it to plastic.  Here at home we are still working on making a few of those characters in plastic and one of our customizing friends has been helping us get the job done.  Peakob1 has already added so many wonderful action figures to my collection and believe me there are still more to come.  The latest custom action figure is an updated look for a character as he appeared later in Season 5.

While Hasbro does have plans to release a version of this Sith character, they plan on releasing him in a realistic sculpt featuring only 5 points of articulation figure that upon viewing the prototype we just weren't very impressed with.  Compared to Peakob1's version, it doesn't hold up.  Peakob1's creation is a version of Darth Maul that I wish everyone had a chance to obtain and I couldn't be happier to be the one to have this figure in my collection.  It is the epitome of a missed opportunity by Hasbro.  This figure is fully articulated with even ball-jointed hips!  His lightsaber hilts even attach to his belt.  He even comes with the Darksaber hilt as well that attaches to his belt at the rear.

"CLONE WARS DARTH MAUL"

created by Peak-OB1 Custom Creations

Peakob1 on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Peakob1

Peakob1 on Yakface.com:
http://www.yakfaceforums.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5631

Peakob1 on Droids & Ewoks:
http://droidsandewoks.forumotion.com/customs-and-art-f13/

Peakob1 on Jedi Defender:
http://www.jedidefender.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=20796.0

To go to the ebay page of Peakob1 click below:
http://myworld.ebay.com/peakob1/?_trksid=p4340.l2559

"Custom Build A Droid C-3PO" created by Elias

This was a very easy custom action figure to make.  All I had to do was repaint a Build A Droid U-3PO with some gold paint and then apply a brown wash.  Hasbro still hasn't made a Build A Droid C-3PO so I figured that I'd beat them to it.  I love the articulation this repaint offers.  This C-3PO has swivel shoulders, wrists, hips and neck.  He also sports ball jointed elbows, knees, ankles and waist. The best part about this action figure is that he disassembles at the neck shoulders and hips so he can fit into the pouch on Chewbacca's back.  Hope you all like my results.

"Build A Droid C-3PO"

created by Elias

SKILL LEVEL: BEGINNER

Hasbro's Build A Droid U-3PO

My C-3PO was featured on Yakface.com's Facebook page.

 
My C-3PO was featured on the front page of Imperial Shipyards.

My C-3PO was featured on the Facebook page of Imperial Shipyards.