"CUSTOMS FOR THE KID" 2019 - YEAR IN REVIEW

Another year goes flying by, and wow was it an exciting one! First off, we want to thank everyone for still coming to the blog to see the action figures that we create. We made 24 action figures this year which isn't bad considering how busy our lives have been as of late. We were really excited about the pieces we put together too. We covered a lot of Star Wars content this year from classic OT films like "A New Hope" and "Return of the Jedi" to animated characters from "The Clone Wars" and "Star Wars Rebels". We even featured customs from the new Disney content such as "Rogue One", "The Mandalorian", "The Force Awakens" and "The Last Jedi". Most of the pieces involved a great deal of sculpting, so they took a bit longer to produce than your average custom. When we did the Younglings from "The Clone Wars" we even had to make their lightsabers.

If you are a fan of listening to podcasts, we made a few appearances on some cool platforms that you may want to check out. Back in March, we were guests on Jedi Business Talk where we got chat with Criz Bee about Hasbro's new Jabba's Khetanna Sail Barge and discussed an audio modification that we made. In July, we had a blast chatting with Savanna and Brian of The Dorky Diva Show concerning our Star Wars customizing adventure thus far.

We also did two video interviews of our own on YouTube with Star Wars customizers Empire Toy Works and Bad Batch Customs. 

One of the biggest milestones this year was seeing the "Customizing The Clone Wars" YouTube show that we did with Peak-OB1 Custom Creations finally come to a conclusion. After many years of doing the show we wrapped up The Clone Wars: The Lost Missions and completed our goal of showing fans how to make Clone Wars custom action figures from each and every episode of the show.

Speaking of YouTube, this year Dad got to see his Weequay pirate headsculpt make an appearance in Nivrerex's "Star Wars: BOUNTY HUNTERS" stop motion animation. Originally, he had asked us to make some custom action figures for the video, but due to time constraints Dad was only able to send some of the unique headcasts he made of an existing head from my collection. It was really cool to see one of our creations literally brought to life.

By far the most exciting thing to happen this year was seeing Elias win "2018 Action Figure Customizer of the Year" from Toy News International's Toy Awards held at New York Toy Fair!

 

"I have to say, the competition was fierce, and the battle was intense, but thanks to all of you, I was able to walk away with a different view of myself than I had before the competition.  I have been customizing for over eight years now, since I was just a little boy, and this unexpected recognition is a true testament to all the effort I put in to become the artist that I am today. When I first was nominated for the award, I thought to myself how could I possibly win against all these talented artists?  Now, having won, I realized I had everything I needed.  If it hadn't been for the extremely talented artists who have passed down their knowledge, encouragement, and support over the course of my training, I wouldn't be where I am today.  Because I was one of the youngest artists in the community, I always wanted to be just as good as the ones I considered "The Masters".  While everybody knows no one's journey is ever complete, I am certainly more confident in my skills now because of all your support.  I have read all of your comments across social media boards and forums, and I found them all very moving.  Especially, those of you who took the time to vote."  - Elias

All in all, it was a really rewarding year. We added some really cool new action figures to the collection, and had a lot of fun doing it. We just want to thank all the websites who featured our work throughout the year. Especially, JediInsider.com and Yakface.com for awarding many of the customs we made this year with a "Custom of the Week" feature or a "Customizer Spotlight". A big shout out to Imperial Shipyards for featuring us on the front page as many times as you do. To have sixteen of the twenty-four customs we made this year get some notoriety felt wonderful! Thank you all so much for spreading the word about our artwork!

And like every year prior, we even took the time to feature some of our fellow artists. This year we featured Jaeger45 and sterlistr in our own "Customizer Spotlight" when they both added some figures to the "Customs for the Kid" personal collection. Other artists featured for their talents were Sillof, Bad Batch Customs, thewriteguy, localgotal, Hole In The Ground Productions, Asis Film Models and Watto's Scrapyard.

"Glaucus, Lark & Jonk" by Sterlistr

"Rennek & Pucimir Thryss" created by Jaeger45

We hope everyone has a Happy New Year, and we look forward to 2020 when "Customs for the Kid" will be celebrating a decade of promoting Star Wars custom action figure art! Hopefully, we can show off some new customs that we made with our new 3D resin printer.

"JV-P12" from "Solo: A Star Wars Story"

First print with the new machine. Painted by Darth Daddy

"WED-9-M1" created by Elias

Hole In The Ground Productions has a new droid kit available on their web store full of great resin cast pieces made to enhance your dioramas and display shelves.  Their latest WED-9 is a fun day project that only requires some paint, sandpaper and krazy glue. I first sanded down any small imperfections in the cast, then primed the figure in black paint before I dry brushed in some color. After, I applied multiple washes to give the droid the "used" look.

When everything was completely painted, I glued on the head and arms to finish up the figure.  He looks great on display along with the other figures found in our Mos Eisley street display.

WED-9-M1, also known as a bantha droid, was a WED Treadwell droid seen around Mos Eisley. Built out of spare parts by Jawas, it was owned by Ohwun and Chachi De Maal.

"WED-9-M1"

created by Elias

SKILL LEVEL: BEGINNER

Hole in the Ground Productions 

Very cool cast store for Star Wars fans! Cast diorama pieces for 3 3/4" and 6" scale figures.

http://www.holeinthegroundpro.com/dioramas.html

"HOTH REBEL TROOP TRANSPORT" created by Customs for the Kid

It's been a while since we created a custom vehicle, but when Hole in the Ground Productions released casts of their "Troop Transport" we knew it would be a great addition to our Star Wars collection.  First we weathered up the cast pieces.  Then, we used some decals that we purchased on eBay to accompany the stickers that were included with our original purchase to really personalize our vehicle once it was assembled.  One decal set we bought had some beautiful designs that were created by the talented graphic designer Viper Aviator.  We also used some reproduction decals that were from the Vintage Rebel Transport to give it the finishing touches we desired. We really love the way it turned out.  It looks awesome on Elias' Hoth display shelf!

"HOTH REBEL TROOP TRANSPORT"

created by Customs for the Kid

Aurebesh translation on Orange Sticker: "Caution, Dangerous Magnetic Field, Keep Away"

 Movie still from "Empire Strikes Back".

Aurebesh translation: "Wampa Squadron"

Aurebesh translation on Rebel Symbol: "Echo Base"

Aurebesh translation on blue designation sticker: "Wampa Squadron Transport 0079"

SKILL LEVEL: INTERMEDIATE

Hole in the Ground Productions 

http://www.holeinthegroundpro.com/dioramas.html

Decals designed by Viper Aviator:

http://viperaviator.deviantart.com/gallery/26112649/Star-Wars?offset=48

Additional stickers that were added were Vintage "Rebel Transport" vehicle replacement decals purchased from jabbas_vintagetoy_hutt:

http://www.ebay.com/usr/jabbas_vintagetoy_hutt?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

Nothing cooler than your latest custom getting favorited on Twitter by NECA, one of the coolest toy manufacturers in the business today.  We were really flattered when they became one of our followers.

 Our "Hoth Rebel Troop Transport" was featured on Imperial Shipyards front page.

 Our "Hoth Rebel Troop Transport" was featured on ISY's Facebook page.