Stanley Opiel II was an incredibly gifted, prolific Star Wars custom action figure artist who breathed so much life into the Star Wars customizing community. His steadfast determination to bring the definitive versions of all the unreleased characters to fruition was admirable. He will be forever missed by his friends and Stan will always stand as an inspiration to us all. He was the heart of our customizing community.
Star Wars Modern Vintage Customs Facebook Group
Another year behind us, but not just any year...it was our blog's ten year anniversary in 2020 and we were sure to celebrate it with some of our friends. We kept busy as usual and we even announced some big changes like Darth Daddy reducing his role a bit going forward.
Dad started the year off by breaking in our new 3-D printer utilizing some cool free droid files with characters from Solo: A Star Wars Story that we found on the Rebelscum forums. Dad even painted up some cool 3-D prints from Star Wars Rebels like Morai, HURID-327 from Force Awakens, and CB-23 from Resistance. Based on the results so far, the 3-D printing trend will continue to play a big role here on the blog for years to come.
While Darth Daddy was tackling droids Elias made a bunch of Clone Wars custom action figures for the "Kessel Run Transmissions" videocast who also had Customs for the Kid participate in some of their roundtables for the last season of The Clone Wars and the second season of The Mandalorian.
Customs for the Kid also did our part to promote the "Back TVC" movement this year and continues to offer our support to expand and grow the 3.75" line.
One of the most exciting endeavors we got to be a part of was the big return of Wookielover1138's "Kessel Run Review" show after her long 7-year hiatus. She was a big part of this blog when we started and we loved seeing her return. We've always been huge fans of the way she promotes the Star Wars custom action figure community and we will be sure to post more of her videos as they get released.
Venturing into new territory, Elias made his first stop motion film, thanks to a school assignment he had late in the year. He incorporated some of our old Rogue One customs, an old Rebels diorama, his Hasbro toys and a green screen to bring the 15-second video to life.
Elias also did his first action figure tutorial for our YouTube channel showing our audience how he brought a Star Wars Rebels Gregor to life. The tutorial video covers materials needed, safety tips, Dremel use, sculpting techniques, articulating 5poa figures, molding and casting, as well as paint application. We plan on doing a lot more of these in 2021.
So this is the final custom of the year. It is also the second time this year I made an animated Ahsoka Tano from the Siege of Mandalore arc in the 3.75" scale. The first time was a dry run that we had made for Corey Van Dyke of Kessel Run Transmissions before the episodes even aired on Disney+. On this figure, I had the episodes to refer to, and much more time to study the details of the design, which lent to a more screen accurate representation of the character.
Knowing that Ahsoka was different than I had anticipated when referring to only a trailer, I realized I had to change my recipe, and her face sculpt. The head is a Scuba Ahsoka which I lengthened in the Montrals and Lekku. I also re-sculpted her jaw to make her appear more mature than she did in the Season 4 version. Her torso is from the Star Wars Rebels Ahsoka Tano action figure, which I modified heavily with a Dremel and some serious sculpting. The thighs and feet are from the early 2008 Clone Wars Ahsoka Tano action figure. The shoulder joints are from a Clone Wars Adventure Padmé Amidala action figure. The elbows and the lower legs are from a 3.75" Black Series Ahsoka Tano.
