"Customs for the Kid" 2015 - Year In Review

A less productive year for "Customs for the Kid" than in previous years,  2015 was a challenging year for both me and Dad. Outside of our responsibilities to keep the the blog going, we spent a big portion of the year house hunting and making a big move in the middle of the year. 

Well, while the blog certainly suffered for it, Elias and Darth Daddy were still able to crank out 36 Star Wars custom action figures regardless of all the big changes. As you know the output is a lot less than what was accomplished in the past, but it was still quite the achievement under the circumstances.  

Now, we made a lot of customs for beginners, where a quick kitbash was all that was needed to get the job done, but we made sure to include plenty of intermediate and advanced custom pieces peppered throughout to keep the more seasoned customizers intrigued.  From head swaps to 100% sculpted figures, we made sure we had something for everyone.

A lot of exciting things happened in 2015 for the blog.  Earlier in the year, we had our action figures featured in Star Wars Celebration's "Star Wars Custom Action Figure" Panel which was the biggest honor a Star Wars customizer could ever receive. 

Big thanks to swnut77.com for posting this video.  It's the first one we found so far.

We also held our second ever custom action figure contest again teaming up with RebelForce Radio to promote the Star Wars radio drama "Smuggler's Bounty" created by Kyle Newman and F.J. DeSanto.

Once summer hit, Dad was asked to create High Adventure's album cover for their latest "High Five" release. 

Thankfully, the end of the year winded down at a quiet pace as we eagerly anticipated the mid-season finale for Star Wars Rebels and the big release of "The Force Awakens".  Here's looking to 2016! Hope you enjoy the video below of our action figures created in 2015.

"Customs for the Kid" 

2015 - Year In Review

Yakface.com's Secret Santa 2015

Every year we participate in Yakface.com's Secret Santa event.  This year was no different.  We saw our package was delivered on Christmas Eve so we figured we'd post what we sent as our gift. This year Star Wars customizer JediStyle was the recipient of this year's custom action figure from Customs for the Kid. Two years ago, we did a figure swap with JediStyle for the holiday outside of Yakface.com. so when we found out he was who we were assigned to, we tried to create a companion figure for the first one we sent him.  

Since the last figure we created for JediStyle had a Steampunk feel, we tried to add a little of that flavor here as well.  We decided on a fan fiction figure because we know this artist has created a plethora of his own Star Wars fan fiction figures over the years. We also wanted to maintain the desert vibe from the last figure so the new gift would look good posed with the older one. We really wanted to create a diorama stand that would have housed both figures, but the album cover for High Adventure's "High Five" release cut too deep into the time we had to devote to this project.  

When making this figure we imagined him to be an individual on the run. Hiding on the fringes of the desert, behind a mask, rounding up criminals trying to disappear on the fringes of civilization. This was the first time we attempted doing wig work for an action figure.  Adding in the thread was also daring to venture outside our normal process.  

We included some pictures below of the previous Secret Santa action figure from 2 years ago that we mailed to JediStyle.

"Twi'lek Bounty Hunter"

created by Darth Daddy

  

FEMME MANDO

created by Darth Daddy

Chris Seekell from The Star Wars Underworld Visits "Customs for the Kid"

Earlier this week, Chris Seekell from The Star Wars Underworld came to our home to see the "Customs for the Kid" collection first hand.  While he was here, he filmed the part of our collection that was on display and had a chance to interview Elias and me. The interview covered our origins as a customizing team and we shared information about our Customizer Directory page as well as where you can find information about custom action figures in our personal collection made by artists from all around the world.  Chris Seekell's mini-documentary should be released in a few weeks, so keep your eyes open for a future post on our blog that documents his visit.

photo by Chris Seekell

Super-Accessorized "Kylo Ren" created by Darth Daddy

Nothing too intensive needed to create this custom action figure.  In fact, you can probably make this figure in less than a minute.  All you need is the new Black Series Kylo Ren figure that is exclusive to Wal-mart and the head and plastic cloak from the Armor-Up Kylo Ren action figure. With a few seconds of drilling to expand the hole on the Armor-Up head, you can do the head swap needed to make this figure. The last head we added was from the Unmasked Kylo Ren action figure. I'm sure a lot of people will be doing this quick modification if they haven't already.  The cost for the parts can be a little pricey, but the results are too good to not give it a go!

We personally feel that the Armor-Up parts and unmasked Kylo Ren head that we used for this figure should have already been included with this particular Black Series action figure.  When one considers the steep price tag, $15.83 on this so-called "collector's series" action figure, it's easy to call poor form on Hasbro's part for not following proper etiquette when not including all the proper accessories for a figure. Even more so when the parts were already manufactured.  We never collected their 6" Black Series line for this very reason.  Hasbro is a company cutting corners where they shouldn't. Collectors are frustrated. Consumers who used to spend thousands of dollars a year are walking away in droves.  

Super-Accessorized

"Kylo Ren" 

created by Darth Daddy

SKILL LEVEL: BEGINNER