TVC "CARSON TEVA" custom action figure by Elias of "Customs for the Kid"

We'd love to say that we had been preparing for quite some time to come up with a cool way to celebrate the blog's 13th anniversary, but truth be told we have been so busy that we had to come up with a spontaneous plan for a custom post. We looked at what we had that would be quick and capable of helping us reach such a short deadline. In the end, we narrowed our choices down to an animated Hunter from The Bad Batch, a TVC Praetorian Guard from The Mandalorian Season 3, and a TVC Carson Teva from Season 2 of The Mandalorian.

Initially, I started painting the Carson Teva head that we purchased from Watto's Scrapyard because even 13 years into the blog, we are still going out of our way to promote other artists in the community. I placed the head onto a very expensive super-articulated version of Jek Porkins. I was going to use the helmet of the figure as well, but quickly realized it was a bit too snug and would cause some serious paint rub. Dad did some test fitting with the diverse number of X-wing and Rebel Snowspeeder helmets represented in our collection and found that the POTF Jek Porkins helmet to be the best fit for the Carson Teva 3D resin print. Once we had the build we wanted I quickly painted the rest of the head and the helmet then sealed the paintjob with some Dulcote spray from Testor's.

Carson Teva was a human male captain who served in the Rebel Alliance and later within the Adelphi Rangers of the New Republic Starfighter Corps flying a T-65B X-wing starfighter. While patrolling in the Outer Rim in 9 ABY, he and fellow New Republic pilot Trapper Wolf approached the gunship Razor Crest, questioning why the starship's transponder was not emitting. The Crest's pilot, the Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin, explained that the vessel was pre-Galactic Empire and promised to fix his issue. Teva then requested a ping from Djarin, which the Mandalorian eventually transmitted reluctantly. Wolf then connected the Razor Crest to a breakout on a New Republic Correctional Transport and Djarin attempted to flee.

Teva and Wolf pursued the Razor Crest through the atmosphere of the planet Maldo Kreis but eventually lost visual of the starship. Running tabs on the gunship after, the pair learned of some selfless actions Djarin made on the correctional transport. They found the Crest after and rescued it from a swarm of knobby white ice spiders. Teva explained to Djarin what he and Wolf had learned about the Mandalorian and let the bounty hunter walk free, departing on their X-wing starfighters.

Teva and a wingmate later went to the planet Nevarro and the captain questioned Magistrate Greef Karga about the destruction of a base and a possible detection of the Razor Crest. Karga answered Teva's inquiries, and promised to contact the captain if there was any anything to add. Teva then talked with the ex-rebel Cara Dune, offering her a chance to help the New Republic quash the Imperial presence in the Outer Rim, which she silently refused.

While patrolling above the planet Tatooine, Teva and Lieutenant Reed encountered Djarin again. While Reed wanted to use further force with the Mandalorian and his fighter, the captain chose to let the bounty hunter off, attempting to bargain for answers regarding the prior incident on Nevarro.

TVC "CARSON TEVA" 

custom action figure

created by Elias of "Customs for the Kid"

"THE CLONE WARS" GAMORREAN GUARD painted by Darth Daddy

We received three prints of this Gamorrean Guard from Star Wars customizer, Daniel Trujillo Jr. The prints all varied in size. They were originally produced for him by Moff Glidden's Customs. Daniel said the medium size print was the action figure that was most to scale. When Dad attempted to assemble the print, he broke one of the hip joints on the most to scale figure. Thankfully, it was clean break and we were able to krazy glue it back together. We then molded the leg, and then made a cast of the leg to salvage the project. In the end, it actually made for a stronger joint that will not be breaking anytime soon.

Once the figure was fully assembled, Dad felt the head was a bit oversized for the body based on the original Clone Wars design of the character, so Dad filled the neck hole on the torso with a little bit of glue from our glue gun, and quickly inserted the head from the smallest print of the figure to see if the smaller head would scale better. After careful inspection, he noticed this made the figure somewhat shorter, but the head size was more in line with the animated show's design. Dad then grabbed the largest print and again repeated the same trick with the smallest head to match it with the largest body. Immediately, he noticed that the silhouette was more in line with what we saw on screen. 

At that point, he decided this was how he would proceed with the build. Dad felt super lucky that he had the option of even having the prints of varying size to experiment with. Dad felt a little bad manipulating the original design by swapping the proportions, but also wanted to personalize the project just a little. He momentarily considered doing his own original head sculpt, but didn't want to defile the artist's sculpt more than he already had. 

We're not really sure who the original designer was for this print. Moff Glidden's Customs is a printing service and doesn't actually do any of the designing. He subscribes to other artists' Patreon accounts and pays the higher subscription fee to allow him to print their designs. Therefore, we don't know the original artist to credit them for the sculpt. Keep in mind that the proportions shown here will be much different than the product you would be purchasing.

It was very cool of Daniel Trujillo Jr. to send these out to us! Adding to The Clone Wars line is always a special treat!

"THE CLONE WARS"

GAMORREAN GUARD

created by Darth Daddy

Marrok - Embo's Anooba

Latts Razzi

Darth Daddy Paints PeakOB1 Custom Creations Prints Pt. 1

Last week, Dad received a message from our good friend, PeakOB1 Custom Creations who accidentally customized his only TCW El Les action figure and was in need of a replacement. Since most customizers hoard action figure fodder, he reached out to us to see if we had an extra El Les figure we would send his way. As soon as Dad got home from work that night he was able to find a complete El Les action figure sitting in a Ziploc bag and mailed it out the very next morning. As a thank you, PeakOB1 sent us some of the coolest resin prints that he had designed with ZBrush on his home computer.

The box arrived this past Saturday and Darth Daddy spent his Father's Day painting up two of the prints.

The first one Dad worked on was a "Return of the Jedi" Wam Lufba action figure. This was a character we had waited a longtime to add to our collection. The sculpt was beautiful and took Dad only about 4 hours to paint. While Wam "Bam' Lufba was one of the more Muppet-looking characters created for the film, Dad did a nice job giving him a gritty paintjob that helped him fit alongside Jabba's other denizens.

Dad also added an elastic fabric strap to the gun to complete the look.

After Dad completed the first figure, Dad then took another hour to paint up one of the four Loth-Cats that came in the package. Dad made the white Loth-Cat from "Star Wars Rebels" admiring all the articulation that was packed into the design.

We were really excited to add these two new pieces to our collection displays and we are looking forward to showing you all some of the other cool pieces that PeakOB1 sent our way. Keep an eye out for Pt. 2!

"RETURN OF THE JEDI"

WAM "BAM" LUFBA

sculpt by Peak-OB1 Custom Creations

painted by Darth Daddy

"STAR WARS REBELS"

WHITE LOTH-CAT

sculpt by Peak-OB1 Custom Creations

painted by Darth Daddy

Ezra Bridger custom action figure created by SWK Kustoms.

https://www.facebook.com/peakob1

https://www.instagram.com/peakob1customfigures

"STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED" SHAAK TI created by Elias of "Customs for the Kid"

This version of Shaak Ti is from the once popular video game "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed". Shaak Ti served as a Jedi General during the Clone Wars. She fought in many battles, even a fight against the deadly General Grievous. Later when Darth Vader attacked the Jedi Temple, she managed to escape and fled from planet to planet until she finally landed on Felucia.

Exile on Felucia

The Jedi Master struggled to survive Felucia's harsh environment and eventually made contact with the native population living amid the dense fungi jungles. She established a rapport with the Force-sensitive Felucians and began training their shamans in specific powers to help them oppose Imperial troops and minions of Vader who were hunting down the Jedi and seeking to eradicate the native Force users on the planet. While wandering the galaxy in search of other Jedi, Shaak Ti discovered the scared and confused Zabrak Padawan, Maris Brood. Master Ti was initially reluctant to take Maris as her apprentice; she had already trained two padawans in her career, only to see both of them killed by criminals shortly after their graduation to knighthood. However, Shaak Ti sensed that Maris was tormented by her hatred for Vader and spirited her away to the lush fungus planet Felucia. Shaak Ti later became a respected Felucian Chieftain, commanding tribes of Force sensitive natives, teaching them to control their abilities, hoping they could defend Maris, should Darth Vader find her, and thus also prevent the barbaric warriors from slipping to the influence of the Dark Side.

Duel with Starkiller

Vader instructed Starkiller to prove himself by killing Shaak Ti. Starkiller was sent to Felucia, in order to find her. This was Starkiller's final test, before he and Darth Vader, would attempt to overthrow Palpatine. By fighting Shaak Ti, Starkiller would face his greatest challenge. The Rogue Shadow was spotted as it reached Felucia's surface, and Shaak Ti mobilized the Felucian forces and sent Maris Brood to hide at the Rancor Graveyard. After killing his way through Felucians and rancors, Starkiller finally encountered the Jedi Master at the Ancient Abyss; a place of sacrifice for the Felucians, in reality the only known Mega Sarlacc pit.

Starkiller eventually found Shaak Ti, who was meditating and waiting patiently. She welcomed Vader's assassin and informed him of the Ancient Abyss and its nature. As she said this, the two Force users entered into a deadly duel.

The battle began with Starkiller trying to throw objects at the Jedi Master, but Shaak Ti easily blocked his attack, and lunged at the young Sith apprentice. She summoned numerous Felucian warriors to attack Starkiller, whom he was able to defeat. Starkiller and Shaak Ti were both surprised and impressed by the other's powers and skills. The fight progressed around the sarlacc's center rings, where blow met counter blow. Starkiller barely blocked Shaak Ti's rapid strikes.

Their duel moved onto the moving tentacles of the sarlacc. Shaak Ti launched a final attack consisted of three blows, that partially found their mark. The third blow would have skewered his right eye had he not held Shaak Ti back at the last minute with a desperate telekinetic block that stopped her lightsaber. However, the Jedi Master's final attack failed and Starkiller sent her flying back into the sarlacc's tendrils. Once there, Starkiller used Force lightning to attack both the creature and Shaak Ti together. Shaak Ti fell to the ground, mortally wounded.

Dying, Shaak Ti told Starkiller that he was a slave to Vader, and that his power was wasted on him. Starkiller refused to believe her words and said that she would never turn him against his master. A pitiful look fell upon Shaak Ti, and, dying, she uttered a fateful prophecy, and told the young man that the Sith always betrayed one another, and that only Starkiller could choose his path. She then purposely fell into the pit and conceded her defeat. Just as she began her plummet, Starkiller, for reasons unknown even to himself, extended his arm to catch her. Starkiller hastily reached for her, but she was already gone. At the second of her death, some form of blue light and sound similar to that of Palpatine's first death occurred. With her death, the world of Felucia fell into darkness.

This action figure is 100% sculpted and even has handcrafted soft goods. The head I sculpted on my laptop, printed it and then hand painted my design. For the body, I took a 3.75" Black Series Jyn Erso that I completely sanded down with a Dremel. I extended the lower legs to give the figure a little more height. Once I took away all the unwanted plastic and she was sanded smooth, I then sculpted in all the anatomical forms, jewelry, clothing, accessories, and bandaging. The fabric below the waist of the figure was hand cut, stained and painted.

"STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED"

SHAAK TI

created by Elias of "Customs for the Kid"

Word is these two Jedi's deaths were retconned in the comic "Doctor Aphra #32". We won't know for sure until next issue though.

Hasbro version vs. "Customs for the Kid" version