Here at home we are still attached to articulation in our action figures. We enjoy the sculpts for the Rebels figures that can be found hanging on store pegs now, so we have tried to create figures that would look like what Hasbro might have put out if they had the time to give some love to the Rebels line of action figures. Dad tried to do minimum paint application on this figure so it would fit in with the Hasbro figures on my collection shelves. With the amount of work Hasbro has on their hands with the new Trilogy and spin off films on top of that, we don't expect to see well made figures like we used to get ever again. Hasbro is always going to be under the gun with a new Star Wars release every year. I'd imagine going forward, Hasbro is going to need to keep things as simple as possible to maintain future production schedules. If you want some of your favorite characters with more than 5 points of articulation, you may have to make it yourself.
If you are curious about how to make an articulated Hera Syndulla, the recipe is easier than you think. The difficult part is the precise drilling. You definitely need steady hands to make this figure. To create Hera Dad only needed parts from two other action figures. He used the elbow joints of a Clone Wars Padme Amidala action figure to put elbow joints in the Hera figure. We never realized that Padme's elbow had a pin on both sides of the joint before using them for this figure. Elbows from the Clone Wars Cad Bane figure are similar.
Dad articulated the wrists and knees with the forearm joint of a Black Series Snowtrooper Wedge Antilles. He used Wedge's elbow joints for Hera's knees, and the pins at the end of Wedge's forearm to attach Hera's gloves to her wrists so they could swivel. Wedge's gloves weren't going to use those pins anymore anyway.
Dad then bored out the existing arms and legs with assorted tiny drill bits so they would accept pinned joints and the sanded down stubbed forearm appendages. Once all the holes were cleaned out all Dad had to do was assemble her and attach her legs permanently with a little krazy glue. After the build was done, he tried to match the existing paint as best he could.
I really like this new figure. Hera is Dad's favorite character on Rebels. As soon as we got a second Hera action figure I knew Dad was going to customize a version of Hera. I'm happy to say that my Hera now has swivel wrists, ball jointed knees and elbows.
The shoulder joints on the existing figure had a lot of flexibility and had a range of motion almost as good as a ball joint. The joint acted similar to a Clone Wars Genosian Warrior, although if you look at the shoulder peg it is very obvious it wasn't designed to do this at all, the plastic is not shaped to do so, the plastic is just soft enough to give a great deal.
Dad also sanded down the front of Hera's neck to make her jaw more pronounced. We didn't like the neck on the original figure.
STAR WARS REBELS:
"HERA SYNDULLA"
created by Darth Daddy
SKILL LEVEL: INTERMEDIATE
