Chris Seekell from The Star Wars Underworld Visits "Customs for the Kid"

Earlier this week, Chris Seekell from The Star Wars Underworld came to our home to see the "Customs for the Kid" collection first hand.  While he was here, he filmed the part of our collection that was on display and had a chance to interview Elias and me. The interview covered our origins as a customizing team and we shared information about our Customizer Directory page as well as where you can find information about custom action figures in our personal collection made by artists from all around the world.  Chris Seekell's mini-documentary should be released in a few weeks, so keep your eyes open for a future post on our blog that documents his visit.

photo by Chris Seekell

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