clubobiwan added to "CUSTOMS I WISH I OWNED"

Jason Peterson aka clubobiwan doesn't like to recreate what we've all seen on screen before. He more or less explores the gaps between the stories, and even creates his own with original characters. He started off displaying his builds in the art cabinet at his local toy store. He received lots of favorable feedback from the store employees about patrons reactions to his work, but always seemed to miss them viewing his builds.

In the summer of 2016, Jason Peterson started an Instagram account called clubobiwan as a reference to Indiana Jones and Star Wars. clubobiwan has become very important to Jason. Although he only recently started using the persona on Instagram, before that he used the moniker for over 10 years as the name he used with online gaming. He says that the account provides him with an amazing amount of inspiration from all of his feedback from fans. He said that his relationships there have really helped him hone his skills. 

Jason said his older brother pressed him to start the Instagram account.  Both of them have had a passion for Star Wars long before it was cool. He hesitated to post on Instagram at first, because he felt the builds didn't display as nicely when they were photographed. It was the desire for feedback that made him take the plunge.   

His process typically starts with finding as many G.I. Joe base figures and accessories that can be converted from their military usage to the Star Wars galaxy. Converting G.I. Joes is important to him because for nearly 30 years he's always loved the articulation of G.I. Joes, but not so much the characters or the universe itself. Now his figures receive all the best Star Wars accessories from his 5poa Star Wars figs and became something entirely different in the end.

We're a big fan of Jason's creative builds and the noticeable Ralph McQuarrie influence on his work. We wish we had his photography skills too.  The way he incorporates nature into the photos of his custom figures is just gorgeous!

Be sure to visit the link to his Instagram account below!

clubobiwan

https://www.instagram.com/clubobiwan

This article is also featured at "Darth Daddy's Customizing Corner" at The Star Wars Underworld.

TheRealMarch4th Added to "Customs I Wish I Owned"

TheRealMarch4th has been customizing for 2 years now.  His work immediately caught our eye because he was one of the few artists out there making Clone Wars custom action figures. He paints, he kitbashes, and he sculpts too.  The entire customizing package. He loves customizing figures from the Star Wars animated TV shows and making Mandalorians.  The scope of his work even dives into the Expanded Universe/Legends.  His early work like most customizers focused on making Jedi action figures, but once his skill set expanded so did his character choices from which he drew his inspiration.  He is hoping to create more figures from Star Wars Rebels, Clone Wars and even the old Droids series in the upcoming months.  We talk to this customizer frequently and his enthusiasm for the hobby is infectious.

TheRealMarch4th

To see more of his work visit his Instagram page:

https://www.instagram.com/therealmarch4th/

TheRealMarch4th was also featured in Darth Daddy's Customizing Corner over at The Star Wars Underworld.

Oldboy CTTS Added to "Customs I Wish I Owned"

Oldboy Custom Tattoo Shop are a small pack of Thai tattooists located in Bangkok, Thailand that have followed their interest in action figures and collectibles to create some truly original custom sculpt work with realistic details and paint apps. They started off a few years ago in 2012 collecting 1/6th scale figures. After collecting for a while, they explored different techniques of sculpting and painting figures heads with the objective of trying to achieve the most realistic effects possible. They told us that it took a very long time to refine their techniques, but during that time their interests moved down to the 6" scale due to there being very limited artists/customizers for this scale. They wanted to position themselves as a recognizable and distinctive 6" scale customs maker. For now, their focus is totally on 6" scale headsculpts and soft goods for mainly the Star Wars line (Black Series/Bandai S.H. Figuarts) due to their passion and love for the movie. They also have plans in the future to explore the Marvel line and have speculated moving into the Art/Designer toys industry. 

As for materials and techniques used to achieve their works, Oldboy CTTS sculpting is done with Super Sculpey Firm, along with carving/sculpting tools that are all available online. Their head repaints/paint are done purely with a hand brush using a variety of different paint types (acrylics mostly, and washes/enamels) to achieve different effects desired. 

As for Oldboy CTTS' future work, they will be striving to accomplish the very challenging work of creating characters from the Star Wars universe that have not received the attention that many fans that they talk to really want! Therefore, a few characters shortlisted are Qui-Gon Jinn, variations of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and as for the Marvel line, they really want to have a take on Tony Stark. Also some projects on hand that are really close to going on pre-order within the next few months are their Daniel Craig headsculpt. Last but not least, Oldboy CTTS will be doing a special give-away when their Facebook page reaches the 5k "likes" milestone, which will be their George Lucas headsculpt. This will be a really limited piece ( >10 worldwide). They will be announcing a small activity for all their fans to have a chance to receive it!

Oldboy CTTS

Painted alternate headcasts for The Black Series 6" Kylo Ren.

OLDBOY CTTS on FACEBOOK

Also check out Darth Daddy's feature on Oldboy CTTS over at The Star Wars Underworld  in Darth Daddy's Customizing Corner.

"CUSTOMS FOR THE KID" CELEBRATES 5 YEARS OF BLOGGING

Hard to believe it, but Customs for the Kid has been blogging about the Star Wars custom action figure community for 5 years as of today!

All month long, we were trying to come up with an epic custom action figure reveal for this milestone. Then at the last minute, we totally changed course. Instead of focusing on some new action figure that we'll all forget about later in the week, we decided to focus on what is being celebrated today, our best custom of all...this blog.

We never thought that this endeavor would have lasted as long as it has. When Elias decided he wanted to start making his own Star Wars  custom action figures at the early age of six, I thought it was only going to last a few weeks at most.  I still remember sitting at my laptop typing in my newly created moniker, Darth Daddy, as I set up an account to post our first custom action figures over in the Yakface forums, not knowing that one day, this persona would develop into an alter ego that would later receive almost a million views a month on the Darth Daddy Google+ profile.

When we started our journey we were complete amateur custom action figure artists who to our surprise, went on to create one of the most popular resources for Star Wars custom action figure art on the web today!   If someone told me that this little boy's passion and persistence for creating his own toys would have manifested into a blog read in over 120 countries around the world, I wouldn't have believed them.  The blog's success and popularity has been the result of an actively participating community of artists. The people featured on this blog have become some of our closest friends. Customs for the Kid has become a place where artists, collectors, and fans of the artform can find new talent, customizing techniques, action figure parts lists, collector focused fundraising campaigns with unique incentives, video tutorials, photonovels, stop motion videos,  and some your  favorite Star Wars podcasts all in one place.

Customs for the Kid will also take the time to promote issues like the Legion of Leia initiative. Customs for the Kid was championing the demand for an increased female character presence in the Star Wars toy lines that we established on our "Customs for the Fangirls" page. We were really honored when the Fangirls Going Rogue podcast acknowledged our efforts.

Looking at how our blog has grown from its humble beginnings, we are completely amazed by all that we have accomplished since we started on this long adventure. With hundreds of custom action figures created by our own hands, we saw an activity that we engaged in at our kitchen table grow to epic proportions.  All of our dedication paid off earlier this year when our blog caught the attention of Disney and Lucasfilm who featured Customs for the Kid amongst the most talented and respected custom action figure artists in the world today at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim in their Star Wars Custom Action Figure Panel hosted by Sillof.  As customizers it was the highest honor we could have ever hoped to achieve. It was even cooler than when Custom Action Figure News mentioned our "Mother Talzin" custom action figure for "Custom Action Figure of the Year" in 2013, or when we won the "Grand Prize" in Yakfinities #50 in a tie with Star Wars customizer, Sjefke last year. And both of those events were pretty overwhelming in their own right!

featuring the Star Wars custom action figure art of Chewie, Customs for the Kid, PeakOB1, Sillof, and Sith_fire30

Even though being acknowledged for one's efforts can be very rewarding, one of the coolest perks of writing this blog has been the relationships in the community that we've developed. About a month ago we had the opportunity to create some of the promotional art for fanrock band High Adventure's upcoming full-length album release "High Five". We were really grateful for getting the opportunity to take a staff position over at The Star Wars Underworld writing the "Darth Daddy's Customizing Corner" column which finally provided the customizing community with a platform to expand the world of Star Wars customs outside of the web forums and alongside other hot Star Wars topics being floated in the newstream. Customs for the Kid had a blast appearing as guests on The Wolfpack Podcast's Clone Wars tribute episode that is still remembered among Star Wars fans for its legendary length.   We haven't had many custom action figure contests on our blog, but the contests with RebelForce Radio have been loads of fun to promote and we still can't believe the list of cool judges for the events.  Our current "Smuggler's Bounty" contest is running now so be sure to enter!

It can't go without saying that Customs for the Kid wishes to express our sincerest gratitude to all the Star Wars fan sites like Yakface.com, The Star Wars Underworld, Jedi News, Jedi Temple Archives, Imperial Shipyards and Jedi Business for featuring our custom action figures over the years.  We'd also like to thank all the podcasts like RebelForce Radio, The Star Wars Underworld podcast, The Wolfpack Podcast, Custom Action Figure News, The Voice of the Republic podcast, SWAG77, and Expanded Fandomverse, for featuring us on their programming.

Thank you to all our fans who take the time write us letters, leave comments on social media, and send us pictures of your action figures. Your communications are inspiring. We are so thankful to the Star Wars community for helping spread the word about Star Wars custom action figures and the artists that create them.

Most of all, we thank the artists we feature for letting us spread your art to all the corners of the world.  Without your contributions no one who visits this blog would have any reason to come. 

If you are new to our blog, here is a brief sample of what we have to offer:

RebelForce Radio and Customs for the Kid: 

"Star Wars Smuggler's Bounty" Custom Action Figure Contest

Enter our current "Star Wars: Smuggler's Bounty" custom action figure contest that we are holding with RebelForce Radio! After the success of the contest we held for "Star Wars: Smuggler's Gambit", we definitely wanted to continue the fun with Kyle Newman and F.J. DeSanto's latest audio adventure.

THE ACTION FIGURE INDEX

This is where you can find a full picture listing of all the action figures we have made here at home over the years. We tried to organize them in a way that you can locate the custom action figure by their associated film and when the figure is not associated with a film, we grouped them into either Expanded Universe or Fan Fiction.

"CUSTOMIZER SPOTLIGHT" ARCHIVES

featuring "Hondo's Pirate Gang" created by PeakOB1 & Customs for the Kid

This is where you can view pieces from our personal collection of Star Wars custom action figures made by other talented members in the custom action figure community. We also provide links to see more of these artist's work than featured here, and best of all, provide you ways to obtain their artwork if they have any for sale.

"CUSTOMS I WISH I OWNED" VIDEO ARCHIVES 

&

STAR WARS CUSTOMIZER DIRECTORY

featuring "Consequences" by Hemble Creations

For the last several years, Customs for the Kid has been slowly creating an action figure artist directory featuring video slideshows of each artist's work and even more importantly, information about where you can follow or purchase their Star Wars custom action figure art. If anybody were to ask what customizers influence us when we create a new action figure, these artists would be a great start. Most of these pieces are not in our collection. This is a great place to find awesome custom action figure artists that we aren't able to showcase in our Customizer's Spotlight archive, because sadly, their work hasn't found their way into our collection yet. Believe me, it isn't because we wouldn't want these incredible action figures. We provide links to see more of these artist's work here too, and yes, we make sure we provide you with contact information to obtain their customs if they have any for sale.  These are the most talented Star Wars custom artists out there today!

OUR STAR WARS COLLECTION

A few times we have been asked if we were only customizers or were we Star Wars toy collectors too. Here are some of the pictures from the Customs for the Kid collection. Only about a third of the collection is on display so far.  We are always documenting more as we go.

"CUSTOMS FOR THE FANGIRLS"

Wish they made more female Star Wars action figures? We feel you. We know there are a lot of fangirls out there just waiting for a stronger female presence in the Star Wars action figure line. We like a more balanced Star Wars action figure collection in our house. Let's be honest, Star Wars is for everyone. Am I right? Check out these custom Star Wars action figures made with all the Fangirls in mind. Female action figures need equal footing when it comes to the Star Wars toy line. 

"CUSTOMS FOR THE KID" and "DARTH DADDY's CUSTOMIZING CORNER" now both featured on NOTEY

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NOTEY

MARK TELFER added to "CUSTOMS I WISH I OWNED"

Mark Telfer, is a 42 year old Star Wars customizer from Edinburgh, Scotland where he lives with his loving wife, and 7 year old daughter who likes to join in his painting activities. Although imaginative as a kid, he never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up, at 42 he can safely say that he still doesn’t. In fact if you could see his Star Wars collection you may argue that he has never really grown up. He originally started towards a career in football with a local Edinburgh club Hibernian, but unfortunately experienced several injuries, which still trouble him today, and had to forgo his dream. He later found himself working in banking, for 20 years now, which was more through necessity rather than by design. Mark hasn’t really complained, while not very satisfying, it afforded him a happy life with his family.

As a kid born in 1972, Mark spent a good portion of his life with Star Wars than without, something that many generations since thankfully also share. He attended each of the 6 films with much anticipation and was lucky enough to attend local 1st day releases for each. The arrival of his early bird mail away figures remains a happy memory. Today, he owns a massive 3 ¾" collection and blossomed into a new hobby… customizing. 

He’s collected 3 ¾” figures since childhood, from Episode IV to date, encompassing Vintage, POTF, Prequels, Clones, Rebels and most likely onwards. He’s managed to hold onto most of his collection, although he sold a near mint Vintage Blue Snaggletooth and carded Lando General when he needed some money. He admits a slight tinge of regret regarding the two figures sold. 

Balancing full-time work, raising a young family and coping with an illness, Mark wanted to find something to distract him that he could be passionate about. With his love for collecting Star Wars figures, Mark decided he could take on customizing action figures as his new past time. So for the past year, Mark has been visiting and reading websites dedicated to customizing. Through the many fantastic sites out there, Mark discovered a thriving community. 

Since then Mark has been gathering fodder, fabrics, epoxy putty, molding kits, paints and tools over the past year. Roughly one year into his new hobby, Mark ventured outside of just repainting figures and has worked his way into part swaps, and hard sculpting. Because Mark just got his start, he doesn't feel particularly good in any one discipline, but continues to persevere. He prefers to work with fodder from damaged figures, since he doesn’t have the heart to dismantle a perfectly good figure. 

He doesn’t plan his figures out too much, he just rakes through his fodder and uses his imagination. He always tries to look out for things around the home which can be re-cycled and repurposed for his new hobby. 

In March this year, Mark was invited along with Rebel Allegiance UK member Keith Armour, designs Clone Trooper armor, to Edinburgh local FM radio ‘CastleFM’ for a show dedicated to Star Wars movies and collecting. He’s currently in discussions to continue this program through podcasts, which should be fun.

Star Wars Custom Action Figures
created by Mark Telfer

Mark's website:
http://aberhibsfc.wix.com/tmark-customistation

Mark Telfer was also featured in this week's Darth Daddy's Customizing Corner over at The Star Wars Underworld.

DARTH DADDY's CUSTOMIZING CORNER: LORD SIXTH CUSTOMS

David Rodriguez, aka Lord Sixth Customs is a Spaniard who has been living in England for almost 4 years now. He has been collecting figures for more than 15 years (mainly Hasbro, Kotobukiya and Sideshow). He always loved people's customs and thought that he would never have the skills to make his own. His first crack at customizing started almost two years ago; as a fan of the Boba Fett from the "Holiday Special", Lord Sixth Customs thought that it would be a cool idea to paint the version from Kotobukiya in tenth scale. The final result was good, but not as good as he had hoped. From that moment, he kept painting different figures, and working with different scales, doing good and bad things, learning from the mistakes, and little by little improving his skills. He's very humble, and he'll still tell you he is a rookie, but anyone who sees his work knows that he has some serious talent. He have been posting my work as "coleccionismosw" on the Sideshowcollectors forums, but it was an improvised name that he never liked, so in order to create something a bit more original he created the "Lord Sixth" moniker with the "Sixth" to represent the scale he works in. Definitely check out the links because this artist has a large body of work to explore.  Most of his customs were still in Spain and he didn't have the ability to photograph them for this feature but plenty more photos exist in the provided links.  Enjoy!

You can see Lord Sixth Customs on display at Sideshowcollectors:

http://www.sideshowcollectors.com/forums/star-wars-custom-figures-and-dioramas/142239-coleccionismosw-1-6-customs.html 

Lord Sixth Customs Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/lordsixthcustoms

Celebration Anaheim - Diorama Workshop Giveaway Raffle Today!

Mirko Martinovic's Sabine Wren painted Tie Fighter is the exclusive giveaway that I would want most at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim.  This custom Star Wars vehicle is just gorgeous.  We can all hope that Hasbro releases a version of this vehicle from the season finale of Star Wars Rebels "Fire Across the Galaxy" in the near future.  Until any announcements are made, this is the only way to acquire this iconic vehicle.  I spoke with Mirko, and this custom took him 3 whole weeks to complete.  A true labor of love.  The raffle happens at 2pm on Sunday April 19th at the Diorama Workshop at the Hasbro booth at the convention center.  The raffle is for kids 16 and under!

This story also appears in Darth Daddy's Customizing Corner over at 

The Star Wars Underworld.

DARTH DADDY's CUSTOMIZING CORNER: CELEBRATION ANAHEIM - ACTION FIGURE CUSTOMIZING PANEL

So if you all have been wondering why I haven't posted in a while, it is because I have been working on developing content for the upcoming Action Figure Customizing Panel being held at Celebration Anaheim. It is only the second time ever that this panel is being presented at a Star Wars Celebration. The first time was at Celebration VI. Jamie Follis aka Sillof will be hosting the event once more on Friday, April 17th from 12:00pm to 1:00pm on the Collector's Stage 210AB.

Sillof will provide the audience with an introduction to the hobby, and explain the different types of customs that exist. He'll even give a brief overview of how custom action figures are made, how to disassemble and reassemble action figures, sculpting help, paint tips, as well as information on molding and casting.  Other topics covered will be 3-D printing, as well as the supplies and resources that Star Wars custom action figure artists utilize in their step-by-step process.

There will also be a customizer showcase featuring some of the most talented Star Wars customizers in the hobby today.  The five artists being featured are: PeakOB1, Sillof, Sith_fire30, Chewie, and me, Darth Daddy. It's a huge honor for me to be one of the featured artists at this year's panel. Unfortunately, I will not be attending Celebration, but I'm glad I will still have some kind of presence at the event.  The Panel will also have the best Celebration exclusives available, random giveaways of Star Wars custom action figures created by the featured artists.  This is one panel you don't want to miss.

The event will be sponsored by Aves and Sculpey. Also be on the lookout for Sillof at the Diorama Workshop located at the Hasbro booth where he will be teaching classes on how to build Star Wars custom action figures.  Class participation is limited so be sure to sign up as soon as you get to Celebration so you don't miss your chance to be taught by one of the masters.

by Darth Daddy

by PeakOB1

by Sillof

by Sith_fire30

by Chewie

If you were bummed that Hasbro had no 3 3/4" exclusive for Star Wars Celebration Anaheim 2015, fear not.  The artists that are being showcased at the Action Figure Customizing Panel have provided some of the coolest Celebration exclusives ever available at a Star Wars Celebration event.  Artists like Chewie, PeakOB1, Sith_fire30, and Elias of Customs for the Kid have all provided unique action figure art that will be given away to lucky attendees at the Panel.  

Last Celebration more than half of the people who were waiting on line for the Action Figure Customizing Panel had to be turned away once the room filled to capacity. so if you want to get one of these exclusive items, you better get on line for the panel early.  It's a must see event!  Be there on Friday, April 17, 2015 from 12:00pm to 1:00pm at the Collector's Stage 210AB.

 "Commander Faie, Commander Cody & Admiral Screed" created by Sith_fire30

 "Imperial Troop Transport Pilot" by Elias

 Vehicle and additional figures not included.

"The Force Awakens" Han Solo created by Chewie

"Star Wars: Rebels" Lando Calrissian created by PeakOB1.

This video was put together by Darth Daddy of "Customs for the Kid".  It was created to play during the Q&A of the Action Figure Customizing Panel at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim this past Friday.  The video features almost all of the Star Wars custom action figure artist's work Customs for the Kid have archived here on our blog. We hope it's a nice surprise for the artists whose work appears in the video to know that their work was planning on being displayed in front of the Celebration audience this year.  

http://www.sillof.com/C7-Custom_Figure_Panel.htm