CLONE WARS "DARTH SIDIOUS" created by Darth Daddy

This is a custom Clone Wars action figure that was inspired by TheRealMarch4th.  A few months ago I sent him a Clone Wars headcast of Palpatine that I produced and we were really floored by how he decided to use it.  He took the Darth Sidious from the Yoda 2-pack, replaced the face of the figure  with my headcast and then sculpted the hood down over the eyes.  He then took a soft goods skirt to cover those ugly Hasbro legs to finish the figure.  What an awesome idea!

On my custom figure I took what TheRealMarch4th did one step further. I borrowed elements from his recipe, and just added more articulation to the figure.  I cut everything off below his black frock (the legs and forearms) and added in articulated replacement parts. I borrowed the legs and upper torso from a Clone Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi that I bought in bulk on eBay, and swiped the forearms and brown skirt of the Vintage Darth Sidious figure for my new incarnation of Sidious. By adding these new elements, the figure now would sport ball jointed elbows, swivel wrists, a swivel waist, swivel hips, and ball jointed knees. Before completely assembling the figure, I dyed the skirt from the Vintage figure and used some black soft goods from a Darth Maul figure to create the two layers of fabric in his skirt. Yesterday, I told TheRealMarch4th about the improvements that I made to my Sidious, and he liked them so much he made the same adjustments to his own figure after we spoke.

Any Star Wars fan who watched The Clone Wars episode "Lawless" knows that this version of Darth Sidious needed to be made!

CLONE WARS 

"DARTH SIDIOUS" 

created by Darth Daddy

 SKILL LEVEL: ADVANCED

Inspired by "Darth Sidious" created by TheRealMarch4th

Base figure used for Darth Sidious.

SUPER-ARTICULATED "CLONE WARS DARTH SIDIOUS" created by DARTH DADDY

After I finished making my two custom "Clone Wars Chancellor Palpatine" figures, I found that I now had two "Clone Wars Darth Sidious" action figures in the house and I only needed one.  I had a collectible that was displayed on a shelf in Elias' room, and I also had one that I bought to create head casts of so I could create new figures. I recently bought the second one, so I didn't have to rip the hood off of the head of my collectible.  He's a super rare action figure and I didn't want to damage my only one, just so I could create a mold of what was underneath. Once I made a mold of the head underneath the hood, I was able to cast new heads for my customs and I was really thrilled with the results.  

It all worked out great, but unfortunately, now the resale value of the figure I used to make my customs wasn't as good as my collectible because I hacked the neck off of the figure right at the shoulders so I could mold it at the same time as the head to speed along my customizing process.  After the mold was made, I re-glued the neck back onto the figure, and reattached the hood and the head. Luckily, the cut in the neck wasn't visible, because the hood and soft goods hid all the damage I did to the figure.  

So now what to do with it?   

I knew I couldn't get the money I invested on the second one back now that I cut the neck off, and then glued it back on.  No one would pay a premium price for that. While the figure later did pay itself off through other means, I still had an extra figure I didn't need, and I had to decide what to do with it.  

I figured why not make a super-articulated version of Darth Sidious, giving the action figure both ball-jointed hips and knees.  Originally, Hasbro's version had only a swivel waist and his legs were just one solid piece of plastic with no articulation anywhere at all.  I decided to give the second figure more range of motion.  First, I cut the knees out of the legs and replaced them with two Revoltech joints we had in fodder. I then cut the legs off where they attached at the groin.  Afterwards, I created two ball sockets inside the groin with my Dremel and then made another recessed set of sockets at the top of the thigh to accommodate the the ball joints I stole from the elbows of the first Clone Wars Cad Bane action figure which proved Sidious the joints needed for his ball-jointed hips.  

I stole the hands of the second figure earlier to make one of my customs so I replaced them with two Palpatine hands that I found in the leftover parts I used to make my Clone Wars Palpatine figures.  

I finished the figure off by adding a floor length soft goods skirt from a Vintage Barriss Offee action figure to give him a more screen accurate look.  I will most likely give the figure new feet with ball-jointed ankles once I find something appropriate to use.

SUPER-ARTICULATED 

"CLONE WARS DARTH SIDIOUS"

created by Darth Daddy

Hidden under the skirt is all the articulation you would desire.

SKILL LEVEL: INTERMEDIATE

CLICK THE PHOTOS BELOW TO SEE "THE CLONE WARS - CHANCELLOR PALPATINE" CUSTOM ACTION FIGURES IN GREATER DETAIL:

My super-articulated custom Darth Sidious action figure was featured on the front page of Imperial Shipyards.

"CLONE WARS CHANCELLOR PALPATINE" created by Darth Daddy & Elias

To commemorate the release of "The Clone Wars - The Lost Missions" on Netflix, Dad wanted to do something special for all the fans that fought so hard for us to see these last remaining episodes of "The Clone Wars" TV series with our "Save the Clone Wars" campaign.  Dad thought it would be fun to make an action figure of the architect of the Clone Wars.  The master puppeteer himself, Chancellor Palpatine.  Unfortunately, this action figure was never made.  Probably because there were some serious fears of peg warming, but hardcore Clone Wars fans all wanted to add this figure to their collections.

To create the action figure, Dad committed a little Star Wars collector sacrilege.  He defaced one of the rarest and most sought after Clone Wars action figures ever made.....that's right, Darth Sidious.  For a few years now, Dad and Star Wars customizer, Peakob1, have been wondering just what was under that plastic hood of Darth Sidious, but both of them had no interest in taking a chance at ruining the rarest action figure in their Clone Wars collection.  Instead they just twisted the action figure at numerous different angles trying to see just how much of Palpatine's headsculpt was hidden under there.  

That was, until last week, when Dad was able to acquire a second Darth Sidious action figure.  He called Peakob1 on the phone, immediately took out his heat gun, pointed it at the head of the Darth Sidious action figure, waited for the glue holding the head to the hood to soften, and when it released, Dad found a near perfect headsculpt of Palpatine under the hood minus Palpatine's hair. 

Dad knew that he wanted to make more than one version of Palpatine, but with just one head, he had to do some molding and casting to get the job done.   This is where things got dicey.  Using the head to make the mold was easy.  The hard part was having a neck post to use with the head if he wanted that head on another body.   Out came the X-acto knife and off came the neck post.  Dad molded the head and the neck post, and fortunately all the casts came out extremely well.

Last, Dad sculpted the hair onto the Palpatine head casts with Aves Fixit, accounting for the variations in the hairstyles for Palpatine along the Clone Wars timeline.  Modified the arms on the ROTS Palpatine body with the red clothing, and finally painted the head casts to complete the figures.  

The best part is, now we have an unlimited supply of Clone Wars Palpatine heads.  Before anyone goes damaging any more Clone Wars Darth Sidious action figures trying to recreate what we've done here, send me a message at customsforthekid@gmail.com.  We have a mold for this head.

I even made one of my own version of Chancellor Palpatine after Dad finished.  Dad says mine has the best paint applications.  Even better than his,

Hope you all enjoy "The Clone Wars - The Lost Missions" if you're watching today!

"CLONE WARS

CHANCELLOR PALPATINE"

created by Darth Daddy

Dad was able to keep the action feature on the figure.

PURCHASE HEAD HERE

SKILL LEVEL: ADVANCED

"CLONE WARS

CHANCELLOR PALPATINE"

created by Elias

PURCHASE HEAD HERE

SKILL LEVEL: ADVANCED

"CLONE WARS

CHANCELLOR PALPATINE"

created by Darth Daddy

PURCHASE THE HEAD HERE

SKILL LEVEL: ADVANCED

My custom Clone Wars Chancellor Palpatine was featured in Yakface.com's "Customizer Mega Spotlight!" I was super excited.  This was the biggest honor I ever could have received as a customizer!

Dad's Clone Wars Chancellor Palpatine was featured on the front page of Imperial Shipyards.