YAKFINITIES CHALLENGE #62: EXPANDED UNIVERSE

Yakface.com's latest Yakfinities Customizing Challenge delves into the Pre-Disney Expanded Universe days. This theme isn’t a slight toward Disney, but a recognition that there are so many character choices that still deserve to be made in 3.75″ form – so if you’ve got the itch to join in the fun, CLICK HERE!

STAN ADDED TO "CUSTOMS I WISH I OWNED"

Stan has done something that we have been wanting to accomplish for a long time, fill in a Mos Eisley Cantina and Jabba Palace display with many of the unreleased characters that were never turned into action figures. He even took some of the characters that had been released and improved upon them by adding articulation and more screen accuracy.  We have been slowing adding some of these figures to our collection and hope to fill in our shelves as well as Stan has with his collection.

We had the pleasure of becoming friends with this Star Wars custom action figure artist earlier this year and we are really impressed with his creations. Recently, he started making some head casts of some of his original sculpts and sent some samples to some of us in the customizing community.  We were big fans of the Tzizvvt and Atheloe head sculpts that we received, and we highly recommend following this artist's work as he continues to create his noteworthy contributions!

STAN

STAN on Yakface.com

STAN on ImperialShipyards.net

LATEST YAKFINITIES UPDATE

YAKFINITIES #61 HAS BEGUN

One thing Hasbro has grossly neglected time and time again over the years is playsets/dioramas/environments for their action figure lines.

So in that light, our latest Yakfinities Customizing Challenge theme is custom playsets/dioramas/environments! This Yakfinities runs through the end of September, so there’s plenty of time to create and submit an entry.

For all the details, click here!

YAKFINITIES #60

ROUNDUP REPORT

The most recent Yakfinities Customizing Challenge has come to a close, and Yakface.com has the Roundup Report with dozens of “custom creatures” in a forum gallery for your viewing pleasure.

Check out all the customs, and see who is walking away with some random prizes after the jump!

"CUSTOMIZING THE CLONE WARS" - EPISODE 9

Peak-OB1 Custom Creations and Darth Daddy of "Customs for the Kid" discuss "Hidden Enemy" and the Clone Wars custom action figures the episode inspired.

CUSTOMIZING "THE CLONE WARS" - EPISODE 6

Peak-OB1 Custom Creations and Darth Daddy of "Customs for the Kid" discuss "Dooku Captured", "Gungan General" and the customs the two episodes inspired.

Oldboy CTTS Added to "Customs I Wish I Owned"

Oldboy Custom Tattoo Shop are a small pack of Thai tattooists located in Bangkok, Thailand that have followed their interest in action figures and collectibles to create some truly original custom sculpt work with realistic details and paint apps. They started off a few years ago in 2012 collecting 1/6th scale figures. After collecting for a while, they explored different techniques of sculpting and painting figures heads with the objective of trying to achieve the most realistic effects possible. They told us that it took a very long time to refine their techniques, but during that time their interests moved down to the 6" scale due to there being very limited artists/customizers for this scale. They wanted to position themselves as a recognizable and distinctive 6" scale customs maker. For now, their focus is totally on 6" scale headsculpts and soft goods for mainly the Star Wars line (Black Series/Bandai S.H. Figuarts) due to their passion and love for the movie. They also have plans in the future to explore the Marvel line and have speculated moving into the Art/Designer toys industry. 

As for materials and techniques used to achieve their works, Oldboy CTTS sculpting is done with Super Sculpey Firm, along with carving/sculpting tools that are all available online. Their head repaints/paint are done purely with a hand brush using a variety of different paint types (acrylics mostly, and washes/enamels) to achieve different effects desired. 

As for Oldboy CTTS' future work, they will be striving to accomplish the very challenging work of creating characters from the Star Wars universe that have not received the attention that many fans that they talk to really want! Therefore, a few characters shortlisted are Qui-Gon Jinn, variations of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and as for the Marvel line, they really want to have a take on Tony Stark. Also some projects on hand that are really close to going on pre-order within the next few months are their Daniel Craig headsculpt. Last but not least, Oldboy CTTS will be doing a special give-away when their Facebook page reaches the 5k "likes" milestone, which will be their George Lucas headsculpt. This will be a really limited piece ( >10 worldwide). They will be announcing a small activity for all their fans to have a chance to receive it!

Oldboy CTTS

Painted alternate headcasts for The Black Series 6" Kylo Ren.

OLDBOY CTTS on FACEBOOK

Also check out Darth Daddy's feature on Oldboy CTTS over at The Star Wars Underworld  in Darth Daddy's Customizing Corner.

Customs for the Kid presents "Left on the Shelf? Hasbro Star Wars Action Figures from a Customizer's Point of View" with Sith_fire30, Luke Sprywalker & Peak-OB1 Custom Creations

"CUSTOMS FOR THE KID" NOW ON INSTAGRAM

Truth be told, we have been on Instagram for almost a year now.  For some reason, we just never got around to announcing it.  If you are a frequent user of the service, following us there is a great way to stay up to date on the new figures we are posting.  Each photo has a link in its description that will take you to its corresponding blog post.  We are currently experiencing a huge surge in new followers with the release of The Force Awakens, so we figured now was as good a time as any to get the word out about yet another place you can get the "Customs for the Kid" experience.  A permanent link to Instagram can be located in the sidebar of the blog for instant access.  

We highly recommend readers utilize the "Desktop" version of our blog when visiting.  The "Mobile" version of the blog not only has poor image quality, but access to the majority of our content isn't available in the scaled down version.  

Hope you enjoy our latest platform for Star Wars custom action figures!

Click the image above to visit us on Instagram.

"CUSTOMS FOR THE KID" CELEBRATES 5 YEARS OF BLOGGING

Hard to believe it, but Customs for the Kid has been blogging about the Star Wars custom action figure community for 5 years as of today!

All month long, we were trying to come up with an epic custom action figure reveal for this milestone. Then at the last minute, we totally changed course. Instead of focusing on some new action figure that we'll all forget about later in the week, we decided to focus on what is being celebrated today, our best custom of all...this blog.

We never thought that this endeavor would have lasted as long as it has. When Elias decided he wanted to start making his own Star Wars  custom action figures at the early age of six, I thought it was only going to last a few weeks at most.  I still remember sitting at my laptop typing in my newly created moniker, Darth Daddy, as I set up an account to post our first custom action figures over in the Yakface forums, not knowing that one day, this persona would develop into an alter ego that would later receive almost a million views a month on the Darth Daddy Google+ profile.

When we started our journey we were complete amateur custom action figure artists who to our surprise, went on to create one of the most popular resources for Star Wars custom action figure art on the web today!   If someone told me that this little boy's passion and persistence for creating his own toys would have manifested into a blog read in over 120 countries around the world, I wouldn't have believed them.  The blog's success and popularity has been the result of an actively participating community of artists. The people featured on this blog have become some of our closest friends. Customs for the Kid has become a place where artists, collectors, and fans of the artform can find new talent, customizing techniques, action figure parts lists, collector focused fundraising campaigns with unique incentives, video tutorials, photonovels, stop motion videos,  and some your  favorite Star Wars podcasts all in one place.

Customs for the Kid will also take the time to promote issues like the Legion of Leia initiative. Customs for the Kid was championing the demand for an increased female character presence in the Star Wars toy lines that we established on our "Customs for the Fangirls" page. We were really honored when the Fangirls Going Rogue podcast acknowledged our efforts.

Looking at how our blog has grown from its humble beginnings, we are completely amazed by all that we have accomplished since we started on this long adventure. With hundreds of custom action figures created by our own hands, we saw an activity that we engaged in at our kitchen table grow to epic proportions.  All of our dedication paid off earlier this year when our blog caught the attention of Disney and Lucasfilm who featured Customs for the Kid amongst the most talented and respected custom action figure artists in the world today at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim in their Star Wars Custom Action Figure Panel hosted by Sillof.  As customizers it was the highest honor we could have ever hoped to achieve. It was even cooler than when Custom Action Figure News mentioned our "Mother Talzin" custom action figure for "Custom Action Figure of the Year" in 2013, or when we won the "Grand Prize" in Yakfinities #50 in a tie with Star Wars customizer, Sjefke last year. And both of those events were pretty overwhelming in their own right!

featuring the Star Wars custom action figure art of Chewie, Customs for the Kid, PeakOB1, Sillof, and Sith_fire30

Even though being acknowledged for one's efforts can be very rewarding, one of the coolest perks of writing this blog has been the relationships in the community that we've developed. About a month ago we had the opportunity to create some of the promotional art for fanrock band High Adventure's upcoming full-length album release "High Five". We were really grateful for getting the opportunity to take a staff position over at The Star Wars Underworld writing the "Darth Daddy's Customizing Corner" column which finally provided the customizing community with a platform to expand the world of Star Wars customs outside of the web forums and alongside other hot Star Wars topics being floated in the newstream. Customs for the Kid had a blast appearing as guests on The Wolfpack Podcast's Clone Wars tribute episode that is still remembered among Star Wars fans for its legendary length.   We haven't had many custom action figure contests on our blog, but the contests with RebelForce Radio have been loads of fun to promote and we still can't believe the list of cool judges for the events.  Our current "Smuggler's Bounty" contest is running now so be sure to enter!

It can't go without saying that Customs for the Kid wishes to express our sincerest gratitude to all the Star Wars fan sites like Yakface.com, The Star Wars Underworld, Jedi News, Jedi Temple Archives, Imperial Shipyards and Jedi Business for featuring our custom action figures over the years.  We'd also like to thank all the podcasts like RebelForce Radio, The Star Wars Underworld podcast, The Wolfpack Podcast, Custom Action Figure News, The Voice of the Republic podcast, SWAG77, and Expanded Fandomverse, for featuring us on their programming.

Thank you to all our fans who take the time write us letters, leave comments on social media, and send us pictures of your action figures. Your communications are inspiring. We are so thankful to the Star Wars community for helping spread the word about Star Wars custom action figures and the artists that create them.

Most of all, we thank the artists we feature for letting us spread your art to all the corners of the world.  Without your contributions no one who visits this blog would have any reason to come. 

If you are new to our blog, here is a brief sample of what we have to offer:

RebelForce Radio and Customs for the Kid: 

"Star Wars Smuggler's Bounty" Custom Action Figure Contest

Enter our current "Star Wars: Smuggler's Bounty" custom action figure contest that we are holding with RebelForce Radio! After the success of the contest we held for "Star Wars: Smuggler's Gambit", we definitely wanted to continue the fun with Kyle Newman and F.J. DeSanto's latest audio adventure.

THE ACTION FIGURE INDEX

This is where you can find a full picture listing of all the action figures we have made here at home over the years. We tried to organize them in a way that you can locate the custom action figure by their associated film and when the figure is not associated with a film, we grouped them into either Expanded Universe or Fan Fiction.

"CUSTOMIZER SPOTLIGHT" ARCHIVES

featuring "Hondo's Pirate Gang" created by PeakOB1 & Customs for the Kid

This is where you can view pieces from our personal collection of Star Wars custom action figures made by other talented members in the custom action figure community. We also provide links to see more of these artist's work than featured here, and best of all, provide you ways to obtain their artwork if they have any for sale.

"CUSTOMS I WISH I OWNED" VIDEO ARCHIVES 

&

STAR WARS CUSTOMIZER DIRECTORY

featuring "Consequences" by Hemble Creations

For the last several years, Customs for the Kid has been slowly creating an action figure artist directory featuring video slideshows of each artist's work and even more importantly, information about where you can follow or purchase their Star Wars custom action figure art. If anybody were to ask what customizers influence us when we create a new action figure, these artists would be a great start. Most of these pieces are not in our collection. This is a great place to find awesome custom action figure artists that we aren't able to showcase in our Customizer's Spotlight archive, because sadly, their work hasn't found their way into our collection yet. Believe me, it isn't because we wouldn't want these incredible action figures. We provide links to see more of these artist's work here too, and yes, we make sure we provide you with contact information to obtain their customs if they have any for sale.  These are the most talented Star Wars custom artists out there today!

OUR STAR WARS COLLECTION

A few times we have been asked if we were only customizers or were we Star Wars toy collectors too. Here are some of the pictures from the Customs for the Kid collection. Only about a third of the collection is on display so far.  We are always documenting more as we go.

"CUSTOMS FOR THE FANGIRLS"

Wish they made more female Star Wars action figures? We feel you. We know there are a lot of fangirls out there just waiting for a stronger female presence in the Star Wars action figure line. We like a more balanced Star Wars action figure collection in our house. Let's be honest, Star Wars is for everyone. Am I right? Check out these custom Star Wars action figures made with all the Fangirls in mind. Female action figures need equal footing when it comes to the Star Wars toy line. 

Coruscant Customs

Customs for the Kid does what we can to promote the Star Wars customizing community every free moment we get. That's why we are really excited to welcome some new customizers to our community. While still very young, Fangirls Fern and Lida Stuart recently started producing their first Star Wars custom action figures and have been documenting their work on their new blog, Coruscant Customs.  We definitely recommend checking out their artwork and showing your support.  With so few Fangirls out there participating in the customizing community, their presence is surely welcomed.

Elias was really honored when Fern Stuart told us that our blog was their inspiration to get involved in making Star Wars custom action figures.  The link to their blog appears below.

Coruscant Customs:

http://coruscantstarwarscustoms.blogspot.com

"CUSTOMS FOR THE FANGIRLS"

YAKFINITIES #56: ROUNDUP REPORT

Yakface.com's latest Yakfinities Customizing Challenge has just concluded, and with 60 different “Rebel Militia” custom entries, there’s a ton of customizing fun for your viewing pleasure in their Roundup Report.

So kick back, relax, and check out all the entries – and also see which of the participants are walking away with some cool prizes after the jump!

MARK TELFER added to "CUSTOMS I WISH I OWNED"

Mark Telfer, is a 42 year old Star Wars customizer from Edinburgh, Scotland where he lives with his loving wife, and 7 year old daughter who likes to join in his painting activities. Although imaginative as a kid, he never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up, at 42 he can safely say that he still doesn’t. In fact if you could see his Star Wars collection you may argue that he has never really grown up. He originally started towards a career in football with a local Edinburgh club Hibernian, but unfortunately experienced several injuries, which still trouble him today, and had to forgo his dream. He later found himself working in banking, for 20 years now, which was more through necessity rather than by design. Mark hasn’t really complained, while not very satisfying, it afforded him a happy life with his family.

As a kid born in 1972, Mark spent a good portion of his life with Star Wars than without, something that many generations since thankfully also share. He attended each of the 6 films with much anticipation and was lucky enough to attend local 1st day releases for each. The arrival of his early bird mail away figures remains a happy memory. Today, he owns a massive 3 ¾" collection and blossomed into a new hobby… customizing. 

He’s collected 3 ¾” figures since childhood, from Episode IV to date, encompassing Vintage, POTF, Prequels, Clones, Rebels and most likely onwards. He’s managed to hold onto most of his collection, although he sold a near mint Vintage Blue Snaggletooth and carded Lando General when he needed some money. He admits a slight tinge of regret regarding the two figures sold. 

Balancing full-time work, raising a young family and coping with an illness, Mark wanted to find something to distract him that he could be passionate about. With his love for collecting Star Wars figures, Mark decided he could take on customizing action figures as his new past time. So for the past year, Mark has been visiting and reading websites dedicated to customizing. Through the many fantastic sites out there, Mark discovered a thriving community. 

Since then Mark has been gathering fodder, fabrics, epoxy putty, molding kits, paints and tools over the past year. Roughly one year into his new hobby, Mark ventured outside of just repainting figures and has worked his way into part swaps, and hard sculpting. Because Mark just got his start, he doesn't feel particularly good in any one discipline, but continues to persevere. He prefers to work with fodder from damaged figures, since he doesn’t have the heart to dismantle a perfectly good figure. 

He doesn’t plan his figures out too much, he just rakes through his fodder and uses his imagination. He always tries to look out for things around the home which can be re-cycled and repurposed for his new hobby. 

In March this year, Mark was invited along with Rebel Allegiance UK member Keith Armour, designs Clone Trooper armor, to Edinburgh local FM radio ‘CastleFM’ for a show dedicated to Star Wars movies and collecting. He’s currently in discussions to continue this program through podcasts, which should be fun.

Star Wars Custom Action Figures
created by Mark Telfer

Mark's website:
http://aberhibsfc.wix.com/tmark-customistation

Mark Telfer was also featured in this week's Darth Daddy's Customizing Corner over at The Star Wars Underworld.

DARTH DADDY's CUSTOMIZING CORNER: LORD SIXTH CUSTOMS

David Rodriguez, aka Lord Sixth Customs is a Spaniard who has been living in England for almost 4 years now. He has been collecting figures for more than 15 years (mainly Hasbro, Kotobukiya and Sideshow). He always loved people's customs and thought that he would never have the skills to make his own. His first crack at customizing started almost two years ago; as a fan of the Boba Fett from the "Holiday Special", Lord Sixth Customs thought that it would be a cool idea to paint the version from Kotobukiya in tenth scale. The final result was good, but not as good as he had hoped. From that moment, he kept painting different figures, and working with different scales, doing good and bad things, learning from the mistakes, and little by little improving his skills. He's very humble, and he'll still tell you he is a rookie, but anyone who sees his work knows that he has some serious talent. He have been posting my work as "coleccionismosw" on the Sideshowcollectors forums, but it was an improvised name that he never liked, so in order to create something a bit more original he created the "Lord Sixth" moniker with the "Sixth" to represent the scale he works in. Definitely check out the links because this artist has a large body of work to explore.  Most of his customs were still in Spain and he didn't have the ability to photograph them for this feature but plenty more photos exist in the provided links.  Enjoy!

You can see Lord Sixth Customs on display at Sideshowcollectors:

http://www.sideshowcollectors.com/forums/star-wars-custom-figures-and-dioramas/142239-coleccionismosw-1-6-customs.html 

Lord Sixth Customs Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/lordsixthcustoms

Yakface.com prepares for the next Yakfinities Customizing Challenge

Yakface.com's current Yakfinities Customizing Challenge goes through June 30, but it’s time to start thinking about ideas for the next one, which kicks off in July! After over 50 of these customizing events, they could always use some help with some fresh ideas. Be sure to share your suggestions in their comments section or in the forums!

IMPERIAL SHIPYARDS LAUNCHES THEIR LATEST CUSTOM CHALLENGE

This time out you have your choice between two themes: create yourself as a Star Wars Custom Figure or scratch build a Star Wars Vehicle. The particulars you can find here. Special thanks goes to TS Hobbies who has been kind enough to donate the prizes for this one. Get to building!

Yakface.com's Customs & Answers is Back!

We are very pleased to share Yakface.com's a new installment Customs & Answers for all you customizing fans out there!

It had been a while since they had interviewed one of their active forum members like this. It made sense to interview a customizer who keeps the 3.75″ dream alive – PeakOB1. 

Go grab a drink and kick back and enjoy some helpful tips and walkthroughs from one of our favorite customizers in the hobby after the jump!

DARTH DADDY's CUSTOMIZING CORNER: BRANDON JACKSON

Darth Daddy's Customizing Corner featured Star Wars custom action figure artist Brandon Jackson in his latest post over at The Star Wars Underworld.

CLICK HERE TO READ

Although Brandon Jackson will tell you that he still considers himself to be a noob when it comes to customizing, everyone else will tell you that he's way too hard on himself. Truth is Brandon is super talented.  

Brandon Jackson hails from Los Angeles California, and has been serving in the military for 18 and a half years.  He has loved Star Wars as long as he can remember and he has collected Star Wars throughout most of his childhood. Although he stopped collecting for many years, he got back into collecting in 2012. He now has a pretty large Star Wars collection and 1:6 Scale figures are his main focus. At the point when he started customizing he pretty much owned almost every Sideshow Collectible 1:6 scale figure that they made. He got into 1:6 costumizing because there were so many characters from Star Wars he loved, but no company made in 1:6 scale. 

He joined a group on Facebook called One Sixth Republic ran by the creator Mark OSR. There he saw so many people from all over the country, kitbashing and customizing figures, that it made him want to create some of his own figures. He had never done anything artistic before, but Brandon wanted to give it a try. So earlier this year he did his first custom, a 1:6 scale figure he called Agent 47 - Mandalorian Bounty Hunter. He used the Agent 47 headsculpt from the awesome videogame series Hitman and custom painted a 12 inch Hasbro Jango Fett. At the time, he felt like he had no idea what he was doing until he posted it up on Facebook, and everyone loved it. 

Shortly after that he got into painting head sculpts. Brandon uses brushes to paint his figures, but he hopes to start airbrushing in the near future. As far as supplies go, he uses a variety of different paints, mainly acrylic paints, but he stresses the importance of using the right brushes. He'll admit that he was a little cheap when he first started painting, but he later invested in better equipment and supplies. 

He also recommends using a head set magnifier with a light. It really helps when doing the eyes.  Brandon says his two biggest challenges are painting the eyes and sewing. All customizing artists will tell you that the eyes are the most important and also the most challenging. 

When it comes to sewing the soft goods, Brandon's lucky to have a wonderful and supportive wife that not only supports his hobby but she also sews very well and has been showing him how to make some really killer threads for his custom figures.

Brandon Jackson's Custom Action Figures

Brandon Jackson's Collection

Brandon Jackson's Collection Pt.II