CUSTOMIZER SPOTLIGHT UPDATE: PeakOB1

So Wednesday was my birthday.  I didn't get to celebrate it with my dad until last night, but the delay was worth the wait.  Keeping with a birthday tradition, Dad bought me some beautiful custom action figures that were created by the super talented Star Wars customizer PeakOB1.  I'm a huge fan of this customizer, with almost 40 action figures by the artist featured in my collection.  Most of the custom figures that I own from him are from The Clone Wars and my latest additions are awesome out of this world!  I was blown away when I opened my present and found two of my favorite female characters from the show.  These will be great additions to our Customs for the Fangirls page!

The first action figure I pulled out of the box was an Assaj Ventess in her Bounty Hunter outfit.  The paint application is just gorgeous.  The pin-striping is so precise and well applied. Her helmet was made to be removable and she even came with an articulated Tooka! 

The second figure I pulled out of the package was a Duchess Satine Kryze, an action figure that I think just about every Clone Wars fan had hoped Hasbro would have released.  Now Obi-Wan doesn't have to be so lonely.  Because she is in her adventure gear, her and Padme can tackle the perils of Mandalore.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THESE FIGURES!

"ASSAJ VENTRESS - 
BOUNTY HUNTER"
created by PeakOB1

PeakOB1's "Assaj Ventress" was featured in Yakface.com's "Customizer Spotlight".

PeakOB1's "Assaj Ventress" was featured on the front page of Imperial Shipyards.

"DUCHESS SATINE KRYZE"
created by PeakOB1

PeakOB1's "Duchess Satine" was featured in Yakface.com's "Customizer Spotlight".

PeakOB1's "Duchess Satine" was featured on the front age of Imperial Shipyards.

PeakOB1 on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Peakob1

PeakOB1 on Yakface.com:
http://www.yakfaceforums.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5631PeakOB1 on Droids & Ewoks:
http://droidsandewoks.forumotion.com/customs-and-art-f13/PeakOB1 on Jedi Defender:
http://www.jedidefender.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=20796.0

To go to the ebay page of PeakOB1 click below:
http://myworld.ebay.com/peakob1/?_trksid=p4340.l2559

The two new figures look so good posed with the favorite pieces of my Clone Wars collection.

See more female Clone Wars customs from PeakOB1 on our Customs for the Fangirls page!

Custom Action Figure News #76: SJEFKE

Iron-Cow Productions Added to "Customs I Wish I Owned"

Matt ‘Iron-Cow’ Cauley’s background lies in the visual arts. Born in Dallas in the fall of 1973, he eventually relocated to New York to attend Parsons School of Design. Shortly after obtaining his degree in Illustration, he began working for Bloomberg LP as a Broadcast Designer while further developing his illustration and toy design work.

In 1999, Matt formed Iron-Cow Productions, LLC to better serve his illustration, animation, design, and toy production clients.  Matt's work is regularly published and exhibited worldwide. He gained further exposure in the toy design world as a featured contributer to ToyFare Magazine. There are over 50 ICP-designed action figures that have hit the shelves since that time.

Matt eventually relocated the Iron-Cow Studios from New Jersey to New York in February 2013. During this upheaval, Matt decided to take on some small action figure customizing projects here and there until his studio was fully up and running. To keep things simple, he began experimenting with some Vintage Star Wars projects. These were never meant to be anything too complicated: simple headswaps and repaints were all he wanted to do. As luck would have it, nostalgia, combined with fun quickly blossomed into a massive 28 figure endeavor. 

This was just the beginning. Matt had such a fun experience with the retro figures that he quickly began work on his next wave of Vintage Star Wars. There are currently over 60 new figure projects in the works that will be unveiled early next year.

IRON-COW PRODUCTIONS

You can see the first wave of Vintage Star Wars custom action figures here:
http://www.ironcowprod.com/plastic/odds-ends/

Matt’s illustration, broadcast, fine art, and toy design portfolios can be seen at the official Iron-Cow Prod. website at:

 http://www.ironcowprod.com

Darth Daddy's Customizing Corner also featured  Iron-Cow Productions in his latest post over at The Star Wars Underworld.

CLICK HERE TO READ

CLONE WARS LEGACY: "UTAPAU ARC" ANAKIN SKYWALKER by Darth Daddy

Being huge fans of "The Clone Wars" television series, we were thrilled last week when StarWars.com announced the continuation of The Clone Wars Legacy through a diverse selection of platforms which included: a novel, a Darth Maul comic book series, and the release of a complete story arc of unfinished animation featuring Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker in four, 20 minute episodes accompanied by the voice acting talents of James Arnold Taylor and Matt Lanter.  The four new episodes featured a new character model for Anakin Skywalker with longer hair similar to the length of his hair in Revenge of the Sith.  

Since the Five Below store down the street from us had a few of the older Clone Wars Anakin Skywalker action figures, Dad figured he'd try and make the latest version of Anakin that would've graced our television screens had the show continued production.  He just sculpted some new hair on the older figure and painted the hair so it was the same color as the older figure.

CLONE WARS LEGACY:

"UTAPAU ARC" ANAKIN SKYWALKER

created by Darth Daddy

SKILL LEVEL: ADVANCED

Check out StarWars.com's video:

Check out the unfinished Utapau story arc here!

DARTH DADDY's CUSTOMIZING CORNER: SILLOF

Darth Daddy's Customizing Corner featured Star Wars customizer Sillof in his latest post over at The Star Wars Underworld.

CLICK HERE TO READ

Sillof is pronouced "Si" (like Psi or Sci-fi ) and "llof" (like cough or pilaf) and no it is not his real name. He's a high school history and film teacher. Sillof has no formal art training, other then a few art classes in middle school. If something turns out good, he says it is just from years of practice, or luck. Personally, I think it comes more from an extraordinary amount of talent and has little to do with luck. He started building custom figures and dioramas when he was just a kid. He opened a website in 1999. It was then called "The Wookie's Workshop" and "The Wook's Workshop". before he had his current website www.Sillof.com.

His work has been featured online on blogs, websites, and online news services, newspapers at the local, national and international levels, in books and magazines nationally and world wide. His customs have even been featured on television in local news, national news, cable, and overseas, in independent films as props, costumes, and set designs. His action figures have been publicly displayed at contests, fairs, & conventions including four of the six Star Wars Celebrations. Most recently his work has been seen in Toyfare and Star Wars Insider Magazines.

Sillof, is a seasoned builder in the Diorama Workshop, who recently organized the Star Wars Custom Action Figure Panel at Star Wars Celebration VI. It was really nice to see his customs on display. Sillof's customs are really unique within the community and stand out in a signature way. Yes, he only makes the same core characters over and over again, but don't let him fool you...his interpretations of these characters are out of this world! Unlike most custom action figure artists who work in the 3 3/4" scale, Sillof works in a 6" scale. In his art, he reinterprets our favorite Original Trilogy characters in various different ways. Unlike other customizers, Sillof has gotten away from faithfully creating characters and has begun to redesign these figures in various time periods or aesthetics. Sillof has reinvented Star Wars in his own image ranging from themes such as "Steam Punk" Star Wars to "Western", or Star Wars as what it might look like if it occurred in 1942. My personal favorites of Sillof's is where he envisions our favorite Star Wars characters as samurai warriors and his recent Mad Max - Star Wars mash ups. I'm definitely a big fan of this artist and his work has even found its way into my own custom collection. His Toy Wars stop motion film and his recent Noir Wars film are worth a look too. True labors of love.

He starts with a general concept or direction (samurai for example) Then he brainstorms what he wants. This is mostly done in his brain. Then he makes a list of adjectives and descriptions of the character, maybe a little back story and the physical elements he wants to include in the figure. He then begins the actual construction. He usually works on all of them at once. So while the glue or paint is drying on one he works on another. Some parts of the figures are recycled from existing toys. They are cut off and glued together. Sometimes he sculpts over the old toy parts. Sometimes he dremels down the part using it more as an armature and sculpts over it. Often times, he will sculpt an entire new piece. Some of the figures are completely built from scratch. It really just depends on what he wants, needs, and what he has on hand in his various drawers of parts.

He sculpts using a 2 part epoxy polymer sculpting compound called Apoxie Sculpt by Aves Studios. You mix 2 parts together and then in few hours it is hard a rock. It is not as easy to work with as sculpey but more then makes up for it with it's durability. Sillof says it gets easier to work with practice.

Prepare to be blown away!

You can see more custom action figures created by Sillof here:
http://www.sillof.com/


We also recommend checking out his "Toy Wars" film series where he brings his action figures and dioramas to life at this link here:
http://www.sillof.com/Toywars.htm