*ADULT SUPERVISION & PROPER SAFETY EQUIPMENT ARE REQUIRED WHEN UTILIZING THE TOOLS, PRODUCTS & TECHNIQUES DESCRIBED HERE ON OUR BLOG TO CREATE STAR WARS CUSTOMS.
I made this version of this character back in 2021, and at customs for the kid I prefer not to tread the same ground twice, but work is work!
The base for this figure was a Clone Wars Commander Ponds. I used a Dremel to subtract from the shoulder pads, Breastplate, and Dorsal plate in preparation for the sculpting that was needed. I also cut the left arm below the elbow, where I then attached the slicing plugin sculpted by Aude's Workshop. The head was also sculpted by Aude's Workshop, but I modified it so the visor could lift, revealing Echo's face inside. I sculpted using Green Stuff, but the arms and legs I was able to leave mostly unchanged.
Just like the first time, color picking for this figure was a challenge. His pallet is made up of many different shades of grey, and it's important for each color to be distinct from the others. With a careful eye and thoughtful paint mixing, this figure really came to life!
Doing Echo again for this commission has given me an interesting look into my own development as an artist over the years, and I'm very happy with how this came out! If I have to make him again in the future, I'm curious as to how my skills will improve.
While we prefer our animated characters to keep their animated likenesses when made into action figures, we certainly won't turn down a realistic release if it provides a base for an animated upgrade. Especially if all that is needed is an animated headcast to replace the Hasbro head.
We purchased this particular headcast printed by Syndicate Customs out of Australia and designed by MJB_Customs. All we needed to do was to fill the ball socket with a little dab of hot glue from our glue gun to form a tight seal around the neck peg. Then I just did a quick headpaint and sealed the head with Testor's Dulcote when I was finished to complete the figure.
We'd love to say that we had been preparing for quite some time to come up with a cool way to celebrate the blog's 13th anniversary, but truth be told we have been so busy that we had to come up with a spontaneous plan for a custom post. We looked at what we had that would be quick and capable of helping us reach such a short deadline. In the end, we narrowed our choices down to an animated Hunter from The Bad Batch, a TVC Praetorian Guard from The Mandalorian Season 3, and a TVC Carson Teva from Season 2 of The Mandalorian.
Initially, I started painting the Carson Teva head that we purchased from Watto's Scrapyard because even 13 years into the blog, we are still going out of our way to promote other artists in the community. I placed the head onto a very expensive super-articulated version of Jek Porkins. I was going to use the helmet of the figure as well, but quickly realized it was a bit too snug and would cause some serious paint rub. Dad did some test fitting with the diverse number of X-wing and Rebel Snowspeeder helmets represented in our collection and found that the POTF Jek Porkins helmet to be the best fit for the Carson Teva 3D resin print. Once we had the build we wanted I quickly painted the rest of the head and the helmet then sealed the paintjob with some Dulcote spray from Testor's.
Teva and Wolf pursued the Razor Crest through the atmosphere of the planetMaldo Kreis but eventually lost visual of the starship. Running tabs on the gunship after, the pair learned of some selfless actions Djarin made on the correctionaltransport. They found the Crest after and rescued it from a swarm of knobby white ice spiders. Teva explained to Djarin what he and Wolf had learned about the Mandalorian and let the bountyhunter walk free, departing on their X-wing starfighters.
Teva and a wingmate later went to the planet Nevarro and the captain questioned MagistrateGreef Karga about the destruction of a base and a possible detection of the Razor Crest. Karga answered Teva's inquiries, and promised to contact the captain if there was any anything to add. Teva then talked with the ex-rebel Cara Dune, offering her a chance to help the New Republic quash the Imperial presence in the Outer Rim, which she silently refused.
While patrolling above the planet Tatooine, Teva and LieutenantReed encountered Djarin again. While Reed wanted to use further force with the Mandalorian and his fighter, the captain chose to let the bounty hunter off, attempting to bargain for answers regarding the prior incident on Nevarro.
After viewing Caleb Dume and Depa Billaba's appearance in the premiere of "Star Wars: The Bad Batch", Dad and I agreed that they would both look great as action figures. So when a client approached me with this project, I just couldn't resist.
The base figure I used to make Depa Billaba was a Clone Wars Shaak Ti action figure. My client provided me with a 3-D printed headsculpt made by Watto's Scrapyard. The braids at the back of the headcast were badly damaged when we received it in the mail so I completely resculpted what was missing. Once I had the head taken care of, I completely resculpted the Shaak Ti body with ProCreate to make the appropriate Jedi robes.
To make Caleb, I sculpted the Jedi garb onto a Clone Wars Boba Fett body as my base figure and the headsculpt on this figure was also one of Watto's. I made the headcast a new Padawan braid out of Procreate sculpting putty so it would have more durability than the original 3D printed resin.
It'll be a bummer to see them leave the home considering we've wanted them for our own collection, but at the end of the day, I'm more than happy to bring joy to my clients as well!
"THE BAD BATCH"
DEPA BILLABA & CALEB DUME
created by Elias of "Customs for the Kid"
Clone Commander Grey and Depa Billaba's Second Batallion created by Elias of "Customs for the Kid"
Clone Commander Grey by Elias of "Customs for the Kid"
Another year goes flying by, and wow was it an exciting one! First off, we want to thank everyone for still coming to the blog to see the action figures that we create. We made 24 action figures this year which isn't bad considering how busy our lives have been as of late. We were really excited about the pieces we put together too. We covered a lot of Star Wars content this year from classic OT films like "A New Hope" and "Return of the Jedi" to animated characters from "The Clone Wars" and "Star Wars Rebels". We even featured customs from the new Disney content such as "Rogue One", "The Mandalorian", "The Force Awakens" and "The Last Jedi". Most of the pieces involved a great deal of sculpting, so they took a bit longer to produce than your average custom. When we did the Younglings from "The Clone Wars" we even had to make their lightsabers.
If you are a fan of listening to podcasts, we made a few appearances on some cool platforms that you may want to check out. Back in March, we were guests on Jedi Business Talk where we got chat with Criz Bee about Hasbro's new Jabba's Khetanna Sail Barge and discussed an audio modification that we made. In July, we had a blast chatting with Savanna and Brian of The Dorky Diva Showconcerning our Star Wars customizing adventure thus far.
We also did two video interviews of our own on YouTube with Star Wars customizers Empire Toy Works and Bad Batch Customs.
One of the biggest milestones this year was seeing the "Customizing The Clone Wars" YouTube show that we did with Peak-OB1 Custom Creationsfinally come to a conclusion. After many years of doing the show we wrapped up The Clone Wars: The Lost Missions and completed our goal of showing fans how to make Clone Wars custom action figures from each and every episode of the show.
Speaking of YouTube, this year Dad got to see his Weequay pirate headsculpt make an appearance in Nivrerex's "Star Wars: BOUNTY HUNTERS" stop motion animation. Originally, he had asked us to make some custom action figures for the video, but due to time constraints Dad was only able to send some of the unique headcasts he made of an existing head from my collection. It was really cool to see one of our creations literally brought to life.
By far the most exciting thing to happen this year was seeing Elias win "2018 Action Figure Customizer of the Year" from Toy News International's Toy Awards held at New York Toy Fair!
"I have to say, the competition was fierce, and the battle was intense, but thanks to all of you, I was able to walk away with a different view of myself than I had before the competition. I have been customizing for over eight years now, since I was just a little boy, and this unexpected recognition is a true testament to all the effort I put in to become the artist that I am today. When I first was nominated for the award, I thought to myself how could I possibly win against all these talented artists?Now, having won, I realized I had everything I needed. If it hadn't been for the extremely talented artists who have passed down their knowledge, encouragement, and support over the course of my training, I wouldn't be where I am today. Because I was one of the youngest artists in the community, I always wanted to be just as good as the ones I considered "The Masters". While everybody knows no one's journey is ever complete, I am certainly more confident in my skills now because of all your support. I have read all of your comments across social media boards and forums, and I found them all very moving. Especially, those of you who took the time to vote." - Elias
All in all, it was a really rewarding year. We added some really cool new action figures to the collection, and had a lot of fun doing it. We just want to thank all the websites who featured our work throughout the year. Especially, JediInsider.com and Yakface.com for awarding many of the customs we made this year with a "Custom of the Week" feature or a "Customizer Spotlight". A big shout out to Imperial Shipyards for featuring us on the front page as many times as you do. To have sixteen of the twenty-four customs we made this year get some notoriety felt wonderful! Thank you all so much for spreading the word about our artwork!
We hope everyone has a Happy New Year, and we look forward to 2020 when "Customs for the Kid" will be celebrating a decade of promoting Star Wars custom action figure art! Hopefully, we can show off some new customs that we made with our new 3D resin printer.
"JV-P12" from "Solo: A Star Wars Story"
First print with the new machine. Painted by Darth Daddy
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