Super-Accessorized "Kylo Ren" created by Darth Daddy

Nothing too intensive needed to create this custom action figure.  In fact, you can probably make this figure in less than a minute.  All you need is the new Black Series Kylo Ren figure that is exclusive to Wal-mart and the head and plastic cloak from the Armor-Up Kylo Ren action figure. With a few seconds of drilling to expand the hole on the Armor-Up head, you can do the head swap needed to make this figure. The last head we added was from the Unmasked Kylo Ren action figure. I'm sure a lot of people will be doing this quick modification if they haven't already.  The cost for the parts can be a little pricey, but the results are too good to not give it a go!

We personally feel that the Armor-Up parts and unmasked Kylo Ren head that we used for this figure should have already been included with this particular Black Series action figure.  When one considers the steep price tag, $15.83 on this so-called "collector's series" action figure, it's easy to call poor form on Hasbro's part for not following proper etiquette when not including all the proper accessories for a figure. Even more so when the parts were already manufactured.  We never collected their 6" Black Series line for this very reason.  Hasbro is a company cutting corners where they shouldn't. Collectors are frustrated. Consumers who used to spend thousands of dollars a year are walking away in droves.  

Super-Accessorized

"Kylo Ren" 

created by Darth Daddy

SKILL LEVEL: BEGINNER

 

Customizer Spotlight #43: Parintachin73

Parintachin73, aka Blaise Bear, hails from Kingston, NY where his time is divided between working full-time, being a parent to a beautiful little girl, freelance graphic designing, and cramming in as many hours at his customs workspace as possible. He has been doing custom figures for about 7-8 years now with an emphasis on Star Wars figures. Although he has been known to delve into the world of superheroes from time to time, his primary goal these days is to expand his skill set and take on new challenges. 

Parintachin73 is a veteran with powerhouse skills. We added this particular figure to our collection over a year ago, but we weren't able to post the Jedi Temple Guard on the blog until now. Hasbro has only released a version of this character with five points of articulation, so having Parintachin73's super-articulated version is a real treat.  We love the soft goods he added to the figure.  The handmade keys positioned along the waistline is probably the coolest detail on this figure.

We really love his paint work. His colors are so rich and warm. Very nice on the eyes!

"Jedi Temple Guard"

created by Parintachin73

Link for his work on rebelscum.com:

Parintachin73's customs thread

For commissions please contact:

blaisebear@yahoo.com

"JAXXON" created by Darth Daddy

This is a character I always thought about making, but kept putting off to do later so I could create a character that I had wanted to make more.  I actually planned on making him in a completely different way than what I did here. This version was just the result of making what the commission required. This figure was born from the need to make a Jaxxon for High Adventure's "High Five" album cover that recreated the look of the cover of the Marvel edition of Star Wars #8: Eight for Aduba-3. 

I'm glad I got to make this figure the same year that Marvel took back the Star Wars comic line after years of Star Wars being handled by Dark Horse.

Jaxxon was a quick-witted Lepi smuggler from Coachelle Prime. The most rambunctious of his family's thirteen children, he left his homeworld at an early age, after stealing an unprotected freighter. He made his way to Nar Shaddaa, where he began to perform odd jobs, quickly becoming familiar with the important elements of fringe culture. After a short stint as a mercenary, he decided to try his hand at smuggling, and he bought a WUD-500 star yacht, christening it the Rabbit's Foot. However, the starship was fraught with mechanical problems and he was forced to land at the shady spaceport of Aduba-3. Needing to acquire funds in order to make repairs, he accepted a job from Han Solo, and became part of the Star-Hoppers of Aduba-3, a mercenary force tasked with defending the small village of Onacra. After protecting the community from Cloud-Riders, the group was forced to fight off the Behemoth from the World Below. Due to Solo's efforts, the giant monster was killed, and Jaxxon was able to get the money needed to repair his ship.

"JAXXON" 

created by Darth Daddy

"Hedji" created by Darth Daddy

Working on High Adventure's "High Five" album cover gave me the opportunity to work on some Star Wars characters that I only recently learned of. Prior to starting the project, I knew only of Jaxxon the giant green rabbit.  Hedji was an all new character for me.  The pictures I was able to find of the character were incredibly diverse.  It would have been difficult to make the character if I didn't have to stick to his look on the Marvel comic cover.  Lots of sculpting on this one, but for the look of the face I went off of his look as he appears on the comic cover mashed up with the picture of him located below.  This Star Wars character definitely has that early Marvel comic look.

"Hedji"

created by Darth Daddy

Hedji was a member of the near-extinct Spiner species who found work as a mercenary during the Imperial Period. In 0 ABY, Hedji joined the Star-Hoppers of Aduba-3, a ragtag team of warriors formed by Captain Han Solo to defend the Aduban village of Onacra from the Cloud-Riders, a gang of marauders under the command of Serji-X Arrogantus. Stoic and humorless, Hedji stipulated to Solo that his reasons for joining the team would remain unquestioned—in truth, the Spiner held to a rigid moral code.

Hedji journeyed with Solo and the rest of the Star-Hoppers to Onacra, where they did battle with the Cloud-Riders. Hedji put his naturally grown quills to good use, using them to kill the opponents. Although Arrogantus was overcome during the engagement, a giant monster—the Behemoth from Below—emerged and wreaked havoc. When one Star-Hopper, faux-Jedi Knight Don-Wan Kihotay, attempted to confront the monster by himself, Hedji rushed to his aid. The Spiner was consequently killed by a lightning blast from the creature.

SKILL LEVEL: ADVANCED

HIGH ADVENTURE "HIGH FIVE" ALBUM COVER

High Adventure is a Fan-Rock band, based out of Connecticut. Since 2008, these musicians have gathered a worldwide following of fanboys and fangirls with their passionate music about comic books, movies, video games, loving life and the fandom experience. The band has already been featured on NPR, "The Force-Cast," "RebelForce Radio," "The Indy-Cast," and "TechnoRetro Dads". They have played high profile shows like New York Comic Con, Star Wars Celebration, ComiCONN, Rhode Island Comic Con and Boston Super Mega Fest!  High Adventure's music was also featured in the soundtrack of the Star Wars documentary "The Force Within Us".

High Adventure have recently finished their PledgeMusic campaign, and wrapped up the finishing touches to their fifth album entitled “High Five”. It is the first album to feature the entire 8-piece band together in the studio. All 14 songs are mastered, the digital files have been released, and the album art has now been submitted for publishing for the official upcoming CD release. High Adventure can’t wait to share their new music with all their fans! 

Customs for the Kid was really honored to have been asked to contribute to the album art for their "Eight Against A World!" inspired cover. Lead singer Glen Nelson just told me what he was looking for and I set to work. It took a few months to bang it all out, but with some careful planning and hard work, I finished the project just as the album was being mastered.

It was an extremely tight time frame, so we outsourced the head sculpts for the band to the web based company thatsmyface.com. From one (to two) photos of yourself, ThatsMyFace, will utilize patent-pending 3-D modeling techniques previously reserved to film studios and professional 3-D designers, to reconstruct your face in 3-D. Then using cutting-edge manufacturing technologies pioneered by the car prototyping industry, ThatsMyFace lets you either choose to order your head only and fit it onto your existing action figure bodies, or buy their complete action-figures pre-fitted and fully clothed. Your lifelike action-figure head is created out of a hard resin composite in full 24-bit color. For our project, we only needed the heads produced.  Creating eight one-of-a-kind head sculpts for each of the band members would have taken me a year to complete with all my additional duties maintaining the Customs for the Kid blog.

With all the sculpt-work I already had to do on the bodies of these characters, shortcuts needed to be applied wherever possible. Already I had to sculpt three unique head sculpts for Jaxxon, Hedji, and Chewbacca.  Even though the three heads would only be held under the action figures arms, or in their hands, it was important to communicate to the viewer that the High Adventure band members were just getting out of their costumes after completing their comic book cover shoot for Marvel. I even went as far as creating wigs out of cotton for the Amaiza Foxtrain and Don-Wan Kihotay figures.  Every last detail was considered as I made these figures to recreate the look of the cover of the Marvel edition of Star Wars #8: Eight for Aduba-3.  It was lots of fun bringing these misfit spacers to life as I mashed them up with the band members of High Adventure.

It was really cool that High Adventure gave a nod to the niche artwork of the Star Wars custom action figure community.  It's an aspect of fandom that is often overlooked, but offers plenty of thrills once discovered. The artform has really received some positive press these last few years on Star Wars fan sites around the web.  Panels featuring Star Wars custom action figures and the work of a few number of select artists were showcased at the last two Star Wars Celebrations.  It's really cool when fans from different sides of the Star Wars community can collaborate to make something truly special.

Album cover photographer Andrew Kraemer photographing Darth Daddy's diorama.

Click image above to read feature on Darth Daddy. 

High Adventure gave "Customs for the Kid" a signed copy from the band of the Marvel edition of Star Wars #8: Eight for Aduba-3.