New Custom - Holiday Special Attichitcuk the Wookie ("Itchy")

I am a huge fan of the utterly atrocious 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special. I love how it's the one piece of Star Wars history that George Lucas does not want to acknowledge. He even went as far as saying that he wished he could buy every copy out there and have them destroyed. Think about it, it's so terrible that even Lucasfilm does not want to squeeze a buck out of it, they just want to deny it's existence. Despite that major handicap for merchandise potential we actually have received two official Hasbro figures from this special,  Zutton and the Animated Boba Fett. I really would love to see more figures from this craptacular CBS special get made into plastic. There were some interesting aliens in the Cantina sequence as well as a funky family of Wookies. Of all of the characters that appeared in the show I would prefer that they make Ackmena at some point.  I made an Ackmena custom awhile back you can check her out here. Next in line that I would want made would be Chewbaccas father "Itchy". (EU gave him the name Attichitcuk, Itchy was a nickname given to him by humans.) It's worth noting that Kenner actually made prototypes of Chewbacca's family, they actually considered adding them into the vintage line. That would have been pretty cool but I think even back in 1978 they realized how bad it was a decided to forget this debacle ever transpired. Here is a glimpse of the actual Kenner prototypes:

I recently found my DVD copy of this special when I was cleaning my desk. I thought about how bad it was and despite my better judgment I decided to watch it again. I forgot how hilarious Chewbacca's father Itchy really was. From his Muppety flapping lower lip to his addiction to questionable holo table channels (borderline galactic porn) this character really needs a figure. He is just too awesome, look at him:

I wanted to make another Holiday Special custom and Itchy was the perfect candidate. I used a Saga Legends Chewbacca and sculpted the brow, face and lower lip to achieve the look. Overall I think he turned out good but I should have built up the lower lip more to capture the likeness better. It should have had a more overlapping appearance. I plan on taking another stab at him to improve on my first pass at him but I still think he is worth showcasing.  Take a look and let me know what you guys think:

I think this figure would have a lot of appeal and would look great with all of the great Wookie figures we have received. They only have to tool up a few parts to build off of the Chewbacca body so it would not be a risky investment. C'mon Hasbro, consider this aged Wookie for the Vintage line. He would make a great exclusive!

As always your feedback comments and hate mail are welcome!

New Custom - The Toxic Avenger! (Version 2)

It's always interesting seeing things come full circle in life, even when it comes to custom figures. This is my second attempt at making a Toxic Avenger custom 1/18th scale figure. The first one I made was back in May of 2009, it was also the first custom I showcased on my Blog! I always wanted to go back to do another one improving on my first creation. I recently had the perfect excuse to go back and make a superior Toxic Avenger custom when my good friend Eric over at Insidious_Customs asked me to join him in a custom contest over at www.customfigurewars.com. The contest had an aspect where you could team up with two other customizers to submit your entries together. To complete our team we recruited my other good friend and fellow customizer, stocos28. Our theme was B-Grade Buddies, Toxie was the perfect candidate for this. I kept my original formula in tact but improved on the sculpting and the overall  paint scheme. Take a look at the final result:

The contest ended last night (11/16) and all of the entries are currently being judged by the owners of the site. As I mentioned, Toxie is teaming up with other B-grade characters. stocos28 made In Living Color's "Handi-Man" and Insidious_Customs (Snakeeyes0217) made "Ash" from Evil dead 2. They teamed up to stop a Evil Time-Travelling Tomato! (Does it get more craptacular than that!) Here is a preview pic of our customs together:

In order to view the entire photo comic that Insidious_Customs wrote and created, head on over to www.customfigurewars.com here. There are 3 parts to the comic, so be sure to check them out in order to read the entire adventure! If you like Toxie and the team please vote for us! I will keep you all posted to see how we place. Stay tuned!

New Customs - He-Man & Beastman SW Crossovers!

Back in June I made my Darth Skeletorious v2 custom figure, I like him so much he is still in my Blog header! He went over very well and the very nice buyer who purchased him really liked him a lot. No surprise, he is a huge Star Wars and MOTU fan so this custom was right up his alley! After receiving the figure he really wanted to add to accompany him with more SW/MOTU crossover figures. I admitted on my Blog that I am not a huge fan of figure commissions, they feel too much like work. I do truly appreciate the requests and confidence but I live a pretty busy life. Adding more "to do's" to my list is something I am less inclined to be open to. That said, this buyer is such a great guy I did not want to say no. I procrastinated but he was very persistent which I truly respect. He was so persistent that after three months of asking I had to make them on principle!

He requested He-Man and Beastman, I wanted to keep the overall Barbarian look for He-Man. I approached this figure like he was as a primitive Warrior who is strong in the Force and gets trained on a remote planet with a stranded Jedi. (I also paid a little homage to the 1987 Dolph Lundgren movie with the cape) For Beastman I used my previous Whipid design but added more of the classic Beastman flare with the Lightwhip from Luminiya. Here are the results, LMK what you think:

Thank you pennyquaz, these were a lot of fun to make!!!

New page added + updates to the Jabba Palace Display Page!

After a very long hiatus I have finally got off my rump and completed some more details in my Jabba Palace display. It's one of the most popular page sections on my Blog. I have not updated in a very long time, so I do apologize for the neglect. I focused more on custom figures, but given the traffic for that page I promise to give it a lot more attention in the coming months. I am very motivated to finish this display now and I want to move onto the next diorama. (Stay tuned for that!)

Here is a preview of some recent updates that you will find on the page:

New Customs - Nightsisters of Dathomir

The Nightsisters are a group of Dathomiri Witches who can wield the dark side of the Force. While that may not seem like a big deal, they are quite different from your run of the mill Sith Lord.

This causes a great deal of confusion among the Jedi scholars and even some fans. (There is also confusion among the more casual fan as they think that they are just the stereotypical Hot Topic patron transported into the Star Wars universe.)

The Nightsisters are also more in tune with nature and animals, much like the Druid class of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition. (How is that for some nerd street cred? Long live the Thac0 system!!!) The Nightsisters can also tame beasts like the Rancor and Wampa using them as mounted guardians to wreck havoc on the innocent of the Galaxy.  Any way you cut it, these Nightsisters are very interesting characters, they also seem to be growing in popularity among SW fans because of their proficiency in the Force and their unique looks. It's worth noting that there is an upcoming episode of the Clone Wars that will feature the Nightsisters bringing forth (Jump the shark alert!) Darth Maul's baby brother to kill the Jedi...

After doing a little "Wookiepedia" research on them I thought it would be fun to make some Nightsister customs. I was getting a bit bored of making Mumm-Ra looking Sith Lords. I had some leftover EU Shaak Ti bodies and thought they would make a great base to turn into Nightsisters. Here are the two recent Nightsisters customs:

As always your feedback comments and hate mail are welcome!