"Customs for the Kid" - Year in Review 2016

So, no huge stories this year.  Only another solid year of customizing.  We kept up with our usual fare of Star Wars custom action figures ranging from figures that a beginner could tackle, to fully sculpted figures for the more advanced artists.  A good portion of the figures we produced were from the Original Trilogy or the animated TV shows, but we took the time to sprinkle a Prequel character here and there as well. It was a nice way to round out our 6th year at the blog.

It was a great year for exposure! The "Customs for the Kid" Google+ page cleared 1 million views and Darth Daddy's Google+ page cleared 10.5 million. The blog's numbers have been surging too. We started strong at the beginning of the year with 21,603 views in the month of January, and closed out New Year's Eve, breaking a blog record with over a 1,000 views a day for December with 32,508 total views.

A good portion of the year was dedicated to kicking off the new YouTube show that put together with Star Wars custom action figure artist, Chad Peak aka Peak-OB1 Custom Creations called Customizing The Clone Wars. The show has been doing well so far, and we have been able to maintain a steady audience of Clone Wars  fans who check in every week to see their favorite Clone Wars characters made into action figures that were never available in stores.  We just wrapped up Season Two of the show, and we will be kicking off 2017 covering Season 3 of the beloved TV series in a few weeks.

Outside of that, it has been business as usual.  Other than a really cool podcast appearance that Dad did on Toy Run: The Star Wars Action Figure Cast, it has been a quiet, but otherwise productive year. As a special treat, check out the video below to see all the custom figures we produced in 2016.   Have a Happy New Year everyone, and we can't thank you all enough for all of your patronage!

Customs for the Kid - 2016

TO SEE THESE FIGURES IN GREATER DETAIL 
VISIT OUR ACTION FIGURE INDEX
BY CLICKING THE IMAGE BELOW:

Star Wars Rebels "Governor Arihnda Pryce" created by Customs for the Kid

This was an action figure of one of the newest villains featured on the Star Wars Rebels animated TV series. She was created using the upper torso of the Force Unleashed Juno Eclipse action figure, the arms from a Clone Wars Admiral Yularen,  the legs of an Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Irina Spalko action figure and a 3d printed headcast created by Watto's Scrapyard.

Dad parted her out and did the engineering. After he painted the majority of the figure. I only had to paint the arms and face.

Once we saw her square off against Sabine in the episode Antilles Extraction, we knew we wanted to add her to the Rebels collection.

Arihnda Pryce was a female human who served as governor of the Lothal sector fourteen years after the rise of the Galactic Empire. She was, at times, absent from Lothal, and Minister Maketh Tua would directly govern in her absence.

"Governor Pryce"

created by Customs for the Kid

FIRST VERSION

First version used Juno Eclipse arms and had an original headsculpt.

SKILL LEVEL:ADVANCED

"Customs for the Kid" Christmas Haul 2016

"Shaeeah Lawquane"
created by Peak-OB1 Custom Creations

One of the coolest surprise gifts came form Star Wars customizer Peak-OB1 who sent me a Shaeeah Lawquane custom action figure to complete the Lawquane family for my Clone Wars collection.


"Cad Bane"
created by Peak-OB1 Custom Creations

Peakob1 on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Peakob1

"Death Star Playset"

created by thecardboardgalaxy

thecardboardgalaxy

clubobiwan added to "CUSTOMS I WISH I OWNED"

Jason Peterson aka clubobiwan doesn't like to recreate what we've all seen on screen before. He more or less explores the gaps between the stories, and even creates his own with original characters. He started off displaying his builds in the art cabinet at his local toy store. He received lots of favorable feedback from the store employees about patrons reactions to his work, but always seemed to miss them viewing his builds.

In the summer of 2016, Jason Peterson started an Instagram account called clubobiwan as a reference to Indiana Jones and Star Wars. clubobiwan has become very important to Jason. Although he only recently started using the persona on Instagram, before that he used the moniker for over 10 years as the name he used with online gaming. He says that the account provides him with an amazing amount of inspiration from all of his feedback from fans. He said that his relationships there have really helped him hone his skills. 

Jason said his older brother pressed him to start the Instagram account.  Both of them have had a passion for Star Wars long before it was cool. He hesitated to post on Instagram at first, because he felt the builds didn't display as nicely when they were photographed. It was the desire for feedback that made him take the plunge.   

His process typically starts with finding as many G.I. Joe base figures and accessories that can be converted from their military usage to the Star Wars galaxy. Converting G.I. Joes is important to him because for nearly 30 years he's always loved the articulation of G.I. Joes, but not so much the characters or the universe itself. Now his figures receive all the best Star Wars accessories from his 5poa Star Wars figs and became something entirely different in the end.

We're a big fan of Jason's creative builds and the noticeable Ralph McQuarrie influence on his work. We wish we had his photography skills too.  The way he incorporates nature into the photos of his custom figures is just gorgeous!

Be sure to visit the link to his Instagram account below!

clubobiwan

https://www.instagram.com/clubobiwan

This article is also featured at "Darth Daddy's Customizing Corner" at The Star Wars Underworld.

"SABINE WREN - IMPERIAL PROPAGANDA/ REBEL GRAFFITI" DIORAMA created by Darth Daddy

So, we never made a diorama before, but we figured there is no better time than the present.  We received some styrofoam sheets as packing material from some recently shipped Christmas gifts and with a little bit of plaster, toothpicks, paint and some duplicate stickers we got from some packs of Star Wars Rebels Topps trading cards, we made a fun diorama that we really love!

We used some glue to attach the styrofoam sheets and reinforced the connection by pushing toothpicks vertically into the wall from underneath the floor. When the glue set, we coated the walls and the floor with a thin coat of plaster.  After we painted what we had beige and did a light wash of brown, we then measured the diorama for the preferred sticker placement. Once the stickers were applied, we painted in the remaining graffiti onto the walls from where they were cut off from the sticker. To make the Rebel symbol match the symbols in the sticker carry onto the wall, we did a color photocopy of the original sticker and cut out the symbol we needed and then glued it into place to finish the piece.

We really like the design because by placing the wall in the center of the floor, you get two dioramas in one; almost a before and after display.

"SABINE WREN - IMPERIAL PROPAGANDA" DIORAMA

created by Darth Daddy

Time to hang some Imperial posters.

Sabine gives the posters her own personal touch.

SKILL LEVEL: ADVANCED

"CUSTOMIZING THE CLONE WARS" - EPISODE 33

Celebration Anaheim featured Clone Wars custom action figure artists, Peak-OB1 Custom Creations & Darth Daddy of "Customs for the Kid" finish breaking down Season 2 of The Clone Wars TV series as they showcase custom action figures from the season finale "Lethal Trackdown".

MAKING "ZIRO THE HUTT" TUTORIAL with DARTH DADDY of "CUSTOMS FOR THE KID"

Darth Daddy of "Customs for the Kid" was commissioned by Jimmy Mac of Rebel Force Radio to create a Clone Wars "Ziro the Hutt" action figure. Darth Daddy created this short step-by-step tutorial of the "Ziro the Hutt" build to assist you in making your own version of the character.

We tried to keep the video short to make it more digestible, but if you have any questions, just put them in the comments section and we'll do our best to answer them.

MAKING "ZIRO THE HUTT" TUTORIAL

CLONE WARS

"ZIRO THE HUTT"

(Jimmy Mac Commission)

created by Darth Daddy

"So many times, people come to my house and they look at my collection and they say, "What's your favorite thing in here?' I'm never really sure what to answer that question with.  Now...I have a solid go to answer every time.  Ziro arrived today and he is magnificent.  Such amazing work.  Hasbro could not do any better. It's great and I love it.  I'm going to make a big deal about it on RFR so I hope you don't mind." - Jimmy Mac

SKILL LEVEL: ADVANCED