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.
