Not only do I like to play with Star Wars toys, but I love to draw Star Wars characters and scenes as well. I even create my own Jedi Knights and put them in my drawings.
When I asked my dad to make two characters that I invented into action figures, the first thing he said was, "Help me Obi-wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."
Before he had made Vixey and Rebekkah, he had only painted Star Wars figures to customize them. Never before had he made characters completely from scratch. The idea of making a Twi'lek with hair had him thinking he was in over his head this time.
REBEKKAH
One of my favorite creations is a Jedi Knight named Rebekkah who was a Twi'lek with long dark hair. Yep, my Twi'lek had hair. She had a Wroonian as one of her ancestors so that's where her hair came from.
One of my 1st drawings of Rebekkah (bottom right) as she is being killed during Order 66 by a clone trooper with Maris Brood in mid-air.
Dad worked on Rebekkah first. He had an extra Cesi "Doc" Eirriss laying around the house and an extra Dark Woman too. He used the head of Cesi "Doc" Eirriss as Rebekkah's head and gave it one of his customized paint jobs. He used the body of Dark Woman for the rest. His biggest challenge was how to do the hair. Fortunately, Cesi Eirriss wore flight suit headgear that covered most of her head, so Dad didn't have to figure out how the hair would attach around Rebbekah's lekku. To his relief, he only had to figure out how to attach the hair where it would come out of her hat. For her hair he bought a GI Joe Baroness action figure, ripped off the hair, cut it into three pieces and glued it to three different places around her head. My dad is more in touch with the force than he realizes.
VIXEY
My other favorite Jedi Knight is named Vixey who is a Vulftes, a rarely seen alien species that I created who is based on a fox.
This is Vixey (left) and Aayla Secura on Felucia.
Vixey was an even bigger challenge. There were no Star Wars characters in existence with a head like a fox that Dad could use, but he remembered seeing small plastic animals in the toy section of Target on a few occasions. The next time he went to Target, he kept his eyes peeled to see if he could locate a fox to get the job done. While there were no foxes available, he did see a gray wolf. He bought the wolf, took it home, and got to work. First he used the saw on his Gerber to take off the tail and head off the figurine. Next he went to work on the head. He used the knife of his Gerber tool to shave away the plastic and give it the shape that he needed. Because he didn't have a drill, he had to use a screw and screwdriver to bore a hole in the bottom of her head to attach to a spare Obi-Wan Kenobi body he had laying around. Guess Obi-Wan answered his call. Again Dad gave her one of his custom paint jobs and then clipped off two dog paws that he glued to where Obi-wan's feet once rested. Vixey was born. When Dad finished, he said he was officially retired from customizing.
"NEW" VIXEY
The foot attachments made great telescoping eyeballs.
My first attempt at painting was these purple stripes on their backs.
The smiles were the hardest.
Here JACKOFTRADZE demonstrated how by switching and using parts of figures you have laying around the house, you can create a brand new figure that looks better than most figures you can find at your local store.
One of my 1st drawings of Rebekkah (bottom right) as she is being killed during Order 66 by a clone trooper with Maris Brood in mid-air.
This is Vixey (left) and Aayla Secura on Felucia.
