CLONE WARS CUSTOM ACTION FIGURE PAGE

The first Star Wars movie I saw in the movie theater was The Clone Wars.  I was four years old and only a few months shy of my fifth birthday.  For the next five years I grew up with the Clone Wars television show.  It was a Saturday morning routine that I shared with Dad every week and we both looked forward to it. I was a kid who grew up in the Clone Wars generation of fans.  I was the first generation of kids to get Star Wars in episodic form on a seasonal basis.  It was absolute heaven.  I loved all the dynamic story lines and broad story arcs.  When Disney announced it was winding down The Clone Wars TV show, here at home we were one of the first people out there to sign the petition to keep the show going and to release all the content that they had completed so far.  Even the show's less critically accepted episodes were still extremely enjoyable.  

Dad admits he enjoyed the show even more than the movies and he envies the amount of Star Wars content I grew up with.  He had to wait three years between each release.  Dad was an Original Trilogy kid who saw Star Wars: A New Hope in the theaters when he was just three.

I bought pretty much every Clone Wars action figure that Hasbro ever put out.  Yet, for all the incredibly awesome figures that I am grateful to them for releasing, sadly there are always more characters from the show that you wish were made into action figure form. My desire to customize has been motivated by me wanting to the fill those holes in my collection.  For the last few years Customs for the Kid has received a lot of help from other Star Wars customizers to do just that.  Here at home, we have been hoping that when Toy Fair rolls around next month that Hasbro will be releasing two Battle Packs of unreleased Clone Wars characters to promote the release of the Clone Wars: Lost Missions bonus content we are all anxiously awaiting. I know long shot!

Anyhow, since I'm such a big fan of The Clone Wars custom action figures, I created a Facebook page to display all the cool Clone Wars custom action figure art that is out there.  If you like what you see, follow the page.  If you made some Clone Wars custom action figures yourself, send us your pics so we can give you, your own photo album.   It's a great page to follow if you loved the show as much as us and if like us you want to see the toys that could have been.

Here's the link:

https://www.facebook.com/CloneWarsCustomActionFigures

The Enloe Trials: Chapter V

Our 666th post here at the blog! And what a fitting post it is.  Chewie's zombie Star Wars tale is not one to be missed.  A new chapter in The Enloe Trials photonovel series is now available over at Yakface.com!  Complete with a Darth Vader lightsaber battle.

Imperial Shipyards - No Paint Kitbash Contest 2014 Entry

Imperial Shipyards announced their first custom challenge for the New Year! The idea is to get everyone thinking about what parts look good together without painting anything. This is open to any toy line and any scale you choose. The best part is that you can enter up to ten figures! The NPKB contest has always had a lot of participants and stands to be one fun event.  Click on through and read the full details and see what fabulous prizes await.  We already entered a figure.  Dad made a quick generic Clone Wars Weequay pirate for Hondo's gang to get things rolling. This one takes only a few seconds to create with a heat gun, I only had to swap out the lower arms and pop him at the waist to add the cumberbun.  I used a scissor to modify the jacket by cutting along the gold line.

CLONE WARS NPKB WEEQUAY PIRATE

created by Darth Daddy

Head, Cummerbun, and Lower Arms - Clone Wars Shahan Alama
Upper Arms, Torso, Gun,  Modified Jacket, and Legs - Clone Wars Hondo Ohnaka

 You could paint it if you want a more unique looking pirate.

 A close up picture of the painted version that we entered into Yakfinities #51.

SKILL LEVEL: INTERMEDIATE

Dad's Weequay Pirate was featured on the front page of Imperial Shipyards.

Our Weequay Pirates were featured on the front page of Imperial Shipyards.

Colin's World Tour

We've introduced you to the work of prolific Star Wars customizer, Colin Hobbs aka Colins Customs, here on the blog before, but we thought it would be really cool to show you how we participated in Colin's World Tour over our holiday season.

Who would like to help Colin travel around the world? Colin's been thinking of doing this for some time! If Colin can't travel the world then maybe his mini Colin can. If you would like to take part then Colin will send the figure to you and you take a pic of him at some great event or landmark.  Just tag Colin in the pic then forward on to the next person. This could be great fun with maybe a 2-year world tour for Colins Customs!

We had Colin over the week of Christmas.  While with us Colin took a trip to the Empire State Building, Grand Central station and Times Square.  When we got back home, we let Colin participate in our Christmas morning traditions, took a few photos of Colin's custom action figure with Rebekkah, the first Star Wars custom action figure that we ever made as well as photos with a few other parts of my collection.  Colin left our house earlier this week and is off to his next destination. We're looking forward to seeing where else Colin visits while on his tour.

 Colin's Visit with Customs for the Kid

Colin's World Tour on Facebook

CUSTOMS FOR THE KID: 2013 VIDEO RECAP

Happy New Year everyone!  Another year behind us.  Well 2013 wasn't the most productive year we've had at Customs for the Kid.  In 2012, we created 2 vehicles and over 70 action figures.  In 2013, we only made 40 Star Wars custom action figures here at home.  Furthermore, we tackled about only half of the projects we had hoped to take on. That said, we definitely don't see our lack of productivity in a negative light.  

Part way through the year, Dad made a decision to stop creating fan fiction characters and wanted to only create Star Wars characters that never made it to plastic.  As a result, Dad's  action figures took longer than one day to create with sculpting factoring into his projects more than before, but he added molding and casting to his toolbox this year so I'm curious to see how that adds to his repertoire.

Customs for the Kid also hosted our first Star Wars custom action figure contest with RebelForce Radio that promoted the Star Wars: Smuggler’s Gambit radio drama.  It was a lot of fun and maybe Customs for the Kid will try and do another custom action figure contest in 2014.  

On Sunday, April 7, 2013, Customs for the Kid brought their traveling museum of Star Wars custom action figures to the Star Wars Spectacular event in Woodbridge, NJ.  It was our first ever Star Wars event.  Attendees were treated to an exhibition of Star Wars custom action figures created by talented customizing artists such as: Stronox, Sillof, Luke Sprywalker, Chewie, Wraithnine, Hangarbay94, Peakob1, SithHappens, Omar Rivera, Incom aka Mr. Black's Customs, Lucasclones, Stocos28, JACKOFTRADZE, Darth Daddy, Elias, and more.  Also on display were video tutorials and slideshow videos that are featured on our blog.  While there we had the opportunity to meet up with Star Wars customizers darthstreams and Dave Castle aka StarWarsGeek. The display table stayed pretty packed throughout the day, and brought attention to the blog's online museum of Star Wars custom action figures and the featured artists we help promote. We were really impressed with the crowd turnout, and loved the reaction of all the attendees to what we had on display.

Customs for the Kid also had an opportunity to see some awesome Star Wars custom action figure art created by one of the most talented customizers out there today, Luke Sprywalker. Some of you may know L.E. Spry aka Luke Sprywalker from the Celebration VI "Star Wars Custom Action Figure Panel" that was held in the summer of 2012.  Luke Sprywalker was a speaker at the panel along with Star Wars customizers Sillof and Sith_fire30.  Dad and I had the opportunity to visit Luke Sprywalker's home, affectionately dubbed Sprywalker Ranch while on a trip through North Carolina on our way to visit family. Getting to hold some of my favorite custom action figure art in my own two hands was a real treat.  I thought the photos of his work were cool, seeing them in hand was just mind blowing.

The highlight of this year for me as an artist was creating seven Cantina aliens for my display. Dad said his highlight was finishing the Clone Wars General Pong Krell custom action figure collaboration with Hyperdrive.  

Definitely a year to be proud of.  Here's to making sure 2014 brings some memorable moments as well.  Hope you all enjoy our video of what was made here at home in 2013.

CUSTOMS FOR THE KID: 2013 RECAP

Star Wars Custom Action Figures created by Elias & Darth Daddy 

Our video was featured on the front page of Imperial Shipyards.