New Custom - Gruk The Gamorrean Rancor Slayer

The new ROTJ wave, in my opinion, is the best wave of SW figures ever! Every single figure in the wave was a home run in terms of detail, articulation and execution. This wave sets the bar without a doubt. (BTW - I just received my case of the AOTC Wave 4 and it also meets that standard, W5 is horrendous.) One of the real standout characters from the ROTJ  wave is the Gamorrean Guard. This figure is absolutely stunning! He is decked out with a lot of weapons, articulation, a soft goods skirt and even a removable helmet. The only flaws that I can find with this figure is that the helmet does not stay on very well and it would have been very easy to add a movable lower jaw. (I expect the latter one day in an updated release!)

I had a few requests to make a custom Gamorrean Gladiator that popped up on the Rebelscum customs forum. It was a simple head slap on a World War Hulk body but it was very clever in concept. There was no paint on it but was an interesting premise nonetheless. I want to give proper credit to XBilly_JackX who came up with the initial idea. I like making my own custom combos but I could not resist making my own rendition of this concept by really going all out on this guy. I repainted the entire figure with a lot of details including glossy clear coat around the snout and mouth to give that gooey look. I also incorporated the soft goods skirt, added spikes/horns to his armor and gave him an axe worthy of a Rancor slayer. Take a look at the final results of my take on this concept Gamorrean:

As always, comments, suggestions and hate mail are welcome here!

New Customs - New versions of Darth Malgus, Shae Vilza, Mark Ragnos & Naga Sadow

Déjà vu? Any time I go back and make a custom I have made before I always strive to improve on the previous version with more details/part formula. I have four "redos" to share today, all four of these characters have been spotlighted on the blog in respective posts. There is no need for a lengthy write ups on each of them, I will let the pictures do the talking. For comparison's sake I have added links to the previous versions so you can see the differences. LMK what you cats think!

Darth Malgus V2 (Click here for the Previous Version)

Shae Vilza V2 (Click here for the Previous Version)

Mark Ragnos V2 (Click here for the Previous Version)

 Naga Sadow V2 (Click here for the Previous Version)

As always your feedback comments and hate mail are welcome!

New Custom - Shadows of the Empire Guri

The 1990's were...extreme... I mean X-TREME!!! Back then everything had to be and was. Ghostbusters, G.I.Joe, Comic Books, Sports and just about everything else that came out of that decade toy wise. If it was to be truly cool it had to have the word attached to it somehow or else it did not have true 90's street cred. Other than being X-Treme!!! the 1990's did not know what it wanted to be, it was like a cross between the 1980's and the 00's. It was a pretty unoriginal decade that featured crappy music that was mostly on the depressive side, does that sound to negative? If there was one positive thing that came out of the 90's toy era it was the return of Star Wars action figures to the toy aisle in 1995.  In an effort to make Star Wars a big deal again the fine folks at Lucasfilm decided to make a big marketing event with the Shadows of the Empire storyline.  If you really think about it SOTE was Star Wars X-Treme!!!

SOTE was the untold story of the events that took place between ESB-ROTJ. It also featured some new characters with 90's flare like the Sonny Crockett/Han Solo-ish Smuggler Dash Rendar. SOTE was really the birth of "Expanded Universe". Some say it was the Splinters of Mind's Eye but SOTE is more regarded as the modern incarnation of EU. Other than the infamous peg warming Xizor (Click Here!), it was successful and really helped solidify nerd interest in the brand again. Worthy of note, SOTE was one of the first and most beloved Nintendo 64 games that helped launch that (At the time) groundbreaking gaming platform. It really was a great game that captured the adventure of Star Wars. I remember that was the first platform with a 360 degree view so when I played the Snowspeeder Hoth level my body would turn with the ship and I would often fall out of my chair.

There was a small offering of SOTE figures from Kenner but some of the most popular characters from the story never got their official release. One of them being Xizor's super sexy droid assassin Guri. To this day fans constantly request a figure of her and in figure request polls she usually ranks in the top 5 along with a resculpt of Dash Rendar. I really would love both of those figures along with Leebo and a new Snoova, so consider me an advocate for all things SOTE. I recently took a shot at making a Guri figure that would look great next to the really well done Xizor figure from 2009. (Like his predecessor the comic pack he came in warmed pegs!) I took the liberty to combines some elements of the different reference material so she does not look too 90's-ish. I am pretty happy with the result but I really want your thoughts. Take a look an LMK what you think :

After making this custom I really would love for Hasbro to revisit the 90's and make some new SOTE figures. Who would not want a new Dash, Guri, Leebo and Snoova? Just stay away from Xizor.

As always, comments and hate mail are welcome!

New Custom - Savage Opress

One of the most hotly anticipated characters appearing in this season of the Clone Wars is Savage Opress. He is supposedly related to Darth Maul, was created/partially trained by the Witches of Dathomir and is a double agent who is being fully trained in the Sith arts by Count Dooku! (Who he will later try to kill for revenge). Sounds pretty interesting and I really cannot wait to see this story unfold. (At this point anything will be better than the extremely boring Senate episodes that revolved around tainted lunches in the Mandalorian public school system that Season 3 has become famous for. I cringe when I see Padme in a teaser trailer as it spells doom for the episode!) Some fans were able to see him in action already in December during charity screenings that took place across the country at selected theaters. Word in the nerd world is that these episodes really delivered on all levels. He is absolutely ruthless, crushes the face of a Jedi Master (in such a brutal way with a very pointy weapon, then kills his young Jedi Padawan, kicks the crap out of our heroes and the third episode of the story arc even gives us a big revelation about the SW universe! It sounds like it really does deliver but until I see these episodes myself I need to go with the "Trust but verify" approach. (The Mandalorian soft drink debacle really put a lot of doubt in me.) Here is a good reference pic of Savage Opress:

I had to take a crack at this guy as he looks pretty bad ass. Despite not have a lot of reference there is more than enough to go by. I am sure an animated figure from Hasbro is not too far behind for release. (When that happens he will surely be a scalpers dream for awhile!)  I wanted to take a realistic approach and this was my first pass at him. LMK what you cats think?

Would you buy realistic styled Clone Wars figures? I know I would, I would happily fork over my hard earned cash for them. Hasbro is losing a lot of loot with me as I do not collect the animated line! (Hint, hint Hasbro!!!)

As always, comments and hate mail are welcome!

New Custom - Warlord Battle Droid TX-197

Happy New Year!!! 

Welcome to 2011 and to my  first Blog post of the year! I have been a little behind with updating the Blog as much as I wanted to in the last two months so my apologies to all who follow. I assure you that I have some very cool customs already on tap including some nifty "Little difference" segments ! One of my New Year resolutions is to at least get in 8-10 posts a month, I am aiming for more. I feel that I have made some of my best customs over the past two months so it's time to get off of my rump and start posting them to share with you! Onto the first custom post of the year...

I do not collect the Marvel Universe line of figures as I think they are sub-par to the current Star Wars line in terms of execution. That said, a few of the recent releases have caught my attention. (It appears they are finally improving that line with better sculpts and articulation.) One of the figures that I purchased is from the Iron Man 2 movie line, it's some sort of evil robot drone. I do not know its name and I really could care less as I instantly envisioned a Battle Droid custom the moment my peepers spotted him. I thought it would be cool to build a EU inspired experimental War Droid that the Clones would actually fear in small numbers. EP1 gave us Battle Droids, Destroyer Droids and crushed expectations. EP2 gave us Super Battle Droids and Super Bad Dialogue. EP3 gave us the Octuptarra Droids, Crabs...I mean Crab Droids and a fun flick.

None of those aforementioned Droid designs looked really menacing to me so I always wanted to see more aggressive models that evolved during the war. What if the Separatists decided to build something meaner than a Super Battle Droid with more firepower than a Destroyer Droid? You get the Warlord Droid "TX-197", at least in my world that's what you would get. Whats the significance of the designation number you ask? Nothing, it means absolutely nothing. I made it up on the spot and has no significance whatsoever, it just sounds "Lucasy". For this custom I used some Battle Droid Binoculars as arm blasters (adding the Destroyer Droid blast effects to them), a BD backpack antenna, BD head/hands and some Grievous Blasters to create this experimental Droid. It's more on the paint change side than the parts change but I think he turned out pretty cool. What do you think?

Should I do more Droid customs in the future or stick with the fleshies? As always, comments and hate mail are welcome!!!

A special message from the Christmas Kubuz...

New Custom - Jabba's Palace Guard Fozec

One of the greatest things about Star Wars is all of the looming loser background characters that populated the films. Some of these D-listers did not even have a full screen shot and some just had a few fleeting seconds of being barley visible (usually behind another D-Listers head)! There are some exceptions to these characters as some are quite interesting and would make great figures! Despite the screen time handicap the fine folks at Lucasfilm (in an effort to mine every dime out of these films) decided to give the some of these scrubs names and stories to make them more marketable. I think the most famous of all of the Star Wars back ground characters is the "Ice Cream Maker Guy" Willrow Hood. Hasbro did the unthinkable by actually producing an official  figure of him after years of fans hounding them and pols requesting him. The biggest thanks goes to Scott over at Jedidefender who spearheaded the cause by creating a website that got other fans on board for Willrow. The figure turned out great and is one of my favorite figures in the line, he is great for customs too! Hasbro earned a lot of Nerd cred with this figure and all they asked was for fans to support him at retail. By supporting him it keeps the door open for other really obscure characters that are such an essential part of this line. Fans did keep their end of the deal by supporting the Willrow figure so he did not peg warm like the very awesome but over produced Yarna.

There are still a lot of great back ground bums and beasts to make. One of those characters that is, in my opinion, worthy of an official figure is named Fozec. Fozec is a human guard who works at Jabba's Palace, he also happened to have decent amount of screen time. If you do not know who Fozec is chances are you probably do, if you saw him:

There were rumors at one point that the actor who played Willrow Hood also played Fozec. It was never confirmed and is pretty irrelevant so there is no need to ponder this niche' theory of geekdom. I thought this would be a great figure to make a custom of given my love for all things Jabba. I came up with the idea after thinking about Willrow and decided to use his head for my second Fozec custom. I also had a spare big Thuggee dude from defunct Indiana Jones line, it was a perfect base to create the mighty Fozec. I added some other parts and sculpted the chest/hood armor. I had a hard time finding reference for him so some costume details are a little off. Here is the final result of my Fozec v2, LMK what you guys think:

 

I think Fozec would make a great figure to add to Jabba's growing modern ranks of goons. It's worth noting that he is on Hasbro's radar screen, they had him scheduled in the basic figure line several times but he kept getting bumped out for more prominent characters. They did confirm in a recent Q&A that he will be released some day in the very near future. 2013 may be a good time as it's the 30th Anniversary of ROTJ. (Hasbro if you read this please release a Sail Barge too in that year, I will buy two! I am good for it, look at my collection!)

As always your feedback comments and hate mail are welcome!

New Customs - "Store Brand" Sith Lords

Have you ever noticed that most Sith Lords have some serious respiratory issues? While the Dark side may be tempting with all of it's enticing power, it really does comes at a high price, to your breathing! Maybe, just maybe, Sith Lords are so angry because they do not get a good nights rest due to not being able to breathe properly. That said, when I make custom Sith Lords I impulsively have to include some kind of breathing apparatus, attached to their face. (It's just a default bad habit rule that I have.)

I really love making generic Sith Lords, with so many Jedi out there it's nice to have a Sith army to combat them! That aspect alone is what makes the KOTOR and Legacy time lines so cool, you actually see large battles with Lightsaber wielding warriors! Over the years I have made a lot of generic Sith Lords, some were better than others but there are the occasional gems that really came together nicely. I think it's time some of those gems get the front page treatment, it also been a long time since I spotlighted a generic character custom on the front page. Lets take a look at a few "Generic Store Brand" Sith Lords that I made:

Sith Death Adder

Can you guess where hise name came from? For some reason I had the old school Sega arcade game Golden Axe on the mind. (For those younglings reading this who have no idea what an Arcade is, look it up on the internet. You missed out on some good time but you saved some money!) Golden Axe had some influence on this custom and his name, on top of that it sounds like a new class of Sith. The Skulls on a Spike armor combined with the TFU Sith Stalker belt really complimented each other me thinks. I also shredded up the cape to finish up his deadly persona.

Sith Night Creeper

Not sure if this guy can "Creep" around too successfully in noisy full plate armor but the name had a nice ring to it. The paint job on the armor is what I thought made him really cool. I used four different colors to achieve the finish but it turned out great, the pics do not do it justice. I used the head from the 25th Mercenary Wraith figure and gave the face a complete new paint job to look ghoulish. The beady eyed helmet that flips up added a nice "Darth Vadery" reveal touch.

Darth Scabboius

This is the quintessential Sith Lord with bad respiratory issues due to the horrific wounds inflicted to his face. He is a deadly foot soldier of the Sith with a thirst for battle (and picking his face scabs)!

So I would love to hear your thoughts and hate mail. Should I continue to spotlight "JACKOFTRADZE Generic Store Brand Characters" or stick to the renditions of real characters?