My Life in Rewind
Well, it happened (again) I let my LJ writing fall to the gutter. Who didn’t see that coming? Anyhoo the past year has been a weird. One of settling into old habits and rediscovering a lost passion.
Two words can pretty much sum up what I’ve been getting myself into: Comics and Dolls.
For those who are curious AND have a lot of time on their hands...
Comics have always been my first passion and they will probably be with me till I depart this earthly plain, but I discovered a re-newed passion for something which was pretty much killed when I was growing up, my love for dolls. Now, I realize this is a hobby that most adults (especially adult males in their 30s) can’t seem to grasp or understand, but then again the same thing can be said about adults reading comics (don’t get me started…!) But growing up I’ve always had a love for dolls, especially Barbie (at the begginning it always starts with Barbie), which was discouraged as being to “girly” or “sissy-like” especially for a young burgeoning male. So my dreams of playing with doll were swiftly crushed by mine parents. I would ask for a Barbie for christmas, instead I get a set of Testor’s modeling paints (mind you I was not into modelling or painting so I had no use for them whatsoever, what were my parents thinking?), which I couldn’t even use to paint on paper.
At some point I “realized” that boys shouldn’t play with dolls and I abandoned my dreams of ever owning Barbie and her dream-house. Instead I focused more on “action figures”. Which, c’mon, lets face facts are just really dolls with a different name.
So, my “action figure” collection continued to grow, without my parents ever batting an eye. In my collecting I was able to marry both my love of comics and dolls, and I thought this was enough for me. But I always wanted more realism in my figures, Cyclops would ALWAYS be Cyclops and he could never be Scott Summers. He could never change out of his costume and dress in his civilian clothes like he does in the comics and cartoon shows, and although he had great movements (I don’t think we ever called them “articulation”) he was kinda small. For me, Barbie had it made, she could change outfits, had her own car and house, she was more “real” to me than my action figures. But Barbie wasn’t a superhero and didn’t have a cool costume to change into. Wouldn’t it be cool to combine the two? When I first saw my first “Barbie as a superhero” years later I was floored! Here was what I always wanted! But in my eyes it was never “perfect” something was always wrong or different. I got the 12-inch Rogue and Storm that Toybiz put out years ago, and although they were cool with their changing costumes and clothes they just never seemed right. They didn’t have the articulation that my action figures had, and they were very static. I thought to myself “Even I could do better than this”. But was content in the fact that I had a toy that I always wanted. Almost.
Fast forward a few years, and I’m still collecting comics and action figures, until one day while perusing through ebay I find these OOAK (one of a kind) custom dolls of some of my favorite Superheroes. While some were just cheap knock offs some were actually pretty excellent! So I thought. “If these guys can do it, then so can I!”
So I set out on my mission to make action figures/dolls that I would want and that I envisioned.
He's my first ever attempt, I took a Barbie and made her into Dazzler, I took out the original hair and "re-rooted" a color more close to her look, took off all the factory paint on her face and repainted it, and hand-sewed the costume. I gave her to
mikhalmc as a gift.
For some reason, Barbie wasn't cutting it for me.
So I did more research and it brought me into the weird and fantastic world of dolls. I never realized how many kinds of dolls are out there! And just how well made they are! Eventually I settled on 2 types of dolls. The 12 inch Cy Girls/Cool Girls by a company called Blue Box Inc. and the 16-inch dolls by the Tonner Doll company. Why these 2 dolls?
Well, the former, has produced a body which definitely apeals to the fanboy in all of us (male or female, gay or straight), she’s got multiple points of articulations (about 20 to 30) and her accessories are kick-ass! Unfortantely is seems this company is no longer producing this doll, but thankfully there are other companies like Triad Toys and ZC girl who have picked up the ball and started producing some strides in figure making. Although I haven’t worked much with this doll she’s still on my desk as a source of inspiration.
This is my version of the White Queen. I "kit-bashed" her. That's toy lingo for "I didn't make most of the costume but I bought stuff and put it together myself", here I re-rooted the hair, re-painted the face and made the cape. the I already have the Black Queen but plan on making a “Ladies of Hellfire” series.
The Tonner Doll. This doll has really captured my attention (and my heart…sigh…) Not only do they produce the DC stars line, which serves as the greatest inspiration for me in combining dolls and action figures but also his fashion doll lines has got my attention (Barbie who?)! The company has many popular licenses now, such as Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean and Twilight to name a few. He’s even successfully merged the action figure/doll terminology calling them “Tonner character figures” which are really just dolls dressed up as action figures! I never thought I’d find myself so deeply engrained in such a hobby (almost even more than comics!), but this is where a lot of my time is going, customizing dolls that I personally would like to see, so basically its taking my 2D drawings into a 3D space. Which I am having so much fun with!
What really got my attention with these type of dolls was the artists who take a regular doll and repaint them to look astonishingly realistic! I first found Laurie Leigh on the web and she has been a source of great inspiration! She specializes in celebrity repaints.
Here's an example of what she does:
Before:
and After:
Another well known artist I love is Lisa Gates. Her shading looks airbrushed (but its all just a regular paint-brush!)
Before:
And After:
There are also others but I won’t mention them all here!
I’ve decided that since most companies don’t make the figures I want (or how I want them to look) I would make them myself. But why be selfish? I know that if I want a specific figure or want a figure to look a specific way, there’s got to be one or two other people who agree with me, right? So I make my customs to sell. So when I do a custom figure I like to work everything from scratch, head to toe as much as I can. I’ve done research in taking out a dolls original hair and rooting in all new hair (which is helpful for comic characters like Storm or Psylocke), repainting the face, and making the costume.
And I know my repainting isn’t up to par with the great repaint artists but I gotta start somewhere right?
What my main goal is to make a custom which I would want to keep myself, but work hard on it enough that whoever gets it, gets their money’s worth. And if they don’t sell? Well, then its stays with me to enjoy for myself!
Here’s my first full on Tonner custom, I started with my favorite comic character:Storm! I decided to use her black costume version as designed by Jim Lee as was popularized in the 90’s.
Here's the drawing that goes with the doll:
I love little details and tried to incorporate as much versatility and accessories that I thought would be appropriate. I included things like a full cape with wiring to enhance posing, and many different artists interpreted her costume a number of way, so I made it so you had the option of taking of her “shoulder pads” and she had removable “X’s” she could place on her costume at several different points. I made the costume mostly by hand (the sewing machine scares me!). In keeping with the comic theme, each custom I make comes with a signed art print of the figure. She sold on ebay for $300.00
My next was a Ms. Marvel. I took a blonde doll (her name is “Kit”) and since Ms. Marvel is already blonde I didn’t need to change the hair (phew!) I just restyled it. Again I repainted the face (looking back I really could have made it better), but everything is a learning process, and this was my second Tonner repaint, but a first one with eyes (I kinda cheated with Storm!), and again I made the costume mostly by hand (still scary!) She sold on ebay for $175.00. I heard comments on her saying she was poorly made, which I believe everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but what matters is the person who bought her was very pleased and that’s all I can hope for.
Here she's posing with a regular 6-inch Marvel Legends action figure for a size comparison. Tonner dolls are HUGE.
Eventually I hope to start commissions, and I do hope by doing more of them I will get better, and as much fun (and stressful) as it is to make them I hope to put a smile on someone’s face and have them say, “Damn, I just dropped 300 dollars on a doll! But damn it was worth it!”
Two words can pretty much sum up what I’ve been getting myself into: Comics and Dolls.
For those who are curious AND have a lot of time on their hands...
Comics have always been my first passion and they will probably be with me till I depart this earthly plain, but I discovered a re-newed passion for something which was pretty much killed when I was growing up, my love for dolls. Now, I realize this is a hobby that most adults (especially adult males in their 30s) can’t seem to grasp or understand, but then again the same thing can be said about adults reading comics (don’t get me started…!) But growing up I’ve always had a love for dolls, especially Barbie (at the begginning it always starts with Barbie), which was discouraged as being to “girly” or “sissy-like” especially for a young burgeoning male. So my dreams of playing with doll were swiftly crushed by mine parents. I would ask for a Barbie for christmas, instead I get a set of Testor’s modeling paints (mind you I was not into modelling or painting so I had no use for them whatsoever, what were my parents thinking?), which I couldn’t even use to paint on paper.
At some point I “realized” that boys shouldn’t play with dolls and I abandoned my dreams of ever owning Barbie and her dream-house. Instead I focused more on “action figures”. Which, c’mon, lets face facts are just really dolls with a different name.
So, my “action figure” collection continued to grow, without my parents ever batting an eye. In my collecting I was able to marry both my love of comics and dolls, and I thought this was enough for me. But I always wanted more realism in my figures, Cyclops would ALWAYS be Cyclops and he could never be Scott Summers. He could never change out of his costume and dress in his civilian clothes like he does in the comics and cartoon shows, and although he had great movements (I don’t think we ever called them “articulation”) he was kinda small. For me, Barbie had it made, she could change outfits, had her own car and house, she was more “real” to me than my action figures. But Barbie wasn’t a superhero and didn’t have a cool costume to change into. Wouldn’t it be cool to combine the two? When I first saw my first “Barbie as a superhero” years later I was floored! Here was what I always wanted! But in my eyes it was never “perfect” something was always wrong or different. I got the 12-inch Rogue and Storm that Toybiz put out years ago, and although they were cool with their changing costumes and clothes they just never seemed right. They didn’t have the articulation that my action figures had, and they were very static. I thought to myself “Even I could do better than this”. But was content in the fact that I had a toy that I always wanted. Almost.
Fast forward a few years, and I’m still collecting comics and action figures, until one day while perusing through ebay I find these OOAK (one of a kind) custom dolls of some of my favorite Superheroes. While some were just cheap knock offs some were actually pretty excellent! So I thought. “If these guys can do it, then so can I!”
So I set out on my mission to make action figures/dolls that I would want and that I envisioned.
He's my first ever attempt, I took a Barbie and made her into Dazzler, I took out the original hair and "re-rooted" a color more close to her look, took off all the factory paint on her face and repainted it, and hand-sewed the costume. I gave her to
mikhalmc as a gift.
For some reason, Barbie wasn't cutting it for me.
So I did more research and it brought me into the weird and fantastic world of dolls. I never realized how many kinds of dolls are out there! And just how well made they are! Eventually I settled on 2 types of dolls. The 12 inch Cy Girls/Cool Girls by a company called Blue Box Inc. and the 16-inch dolls by the Tonner Doll company. Why these 2 dolls?
Well, the former, has produced a body which definitely apeals to the fanboy in all of us (male or female, gay or straight), she’s got multiple points of articulations (about 20 to 30) and her accessories are kick-ass! Unfortantely is seems this company is no longer producing this doll, but thankfully there are other companies like Triad Toys and ZC girl who have picked up the ball and started producing some strides in figure making. Although I haven’t worked much with this doll she’s still on my desk as a source of inspiration.
This is my version of the White Queen. I "kit-bashed" her. That's toy lingo for "I didn't make most of the costume but I bought stuff and put it together myself", here I re-rooted the hair, re-painted the face and made the cape. the I already have the Black Queen but plan on making a “Ladies of Hellfire” series.
The Tonner Doll. This doll has really captured my attention (and my heart…sigh…) Not only do they produce the DC stars line, which serves as the greatest inspiration for me in combining dolls and action figures but also his fashion doll lines has got my attention (Barbie who?)! The company has many popular licenses now, such as Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean and Twilight to name a few. He’s even successfully merged the action figure/doll terminology calling them “Tonner character figures” which are really just dolls dressed up as action figures! I never thought I’d find myself so deeply engrained in such a hobby (almost even more than comics!), but this is where a lot of my time is going, customizing dolls that I personally would like to see, so basically its taking my 2D drawings into a 3D space. Which I am having so much fun with!
What really got my attention with these type of dolls was the artists who take a regular doll and repaint them to look astonishingly realistic! I first found Laurie Leigh on the web and she has been a source of great inspiration! She specializes in celebrity repaints.
Here's an example of what she does:
Before:
and After:
Another well known artist I love is Lisa Gates. Her shading looks airbrushed (but its all just a regular paint-brush!)
Before:
And After:
There are also others but I won’t mention them all here!
I’ve decided that since most companies don’t make the figures I want (or how I want them to look) I would make them myself. But why be selfish? I know that if I want a specific figure or want a figure to look a specific way, there’s got to be one or two other people who agree with me, right? So I make my customs to sell. So when I do a custom figure I like to work everything from scratch, head to toe as much as I can. I’ve done research in taking out a dolls original hair and rooting in all new hair (which is helpful for comic characters like Storm or Psylocke), repainting the face, and making the costume.
And I know my repainting isn’t up to par with the great repaint artists but I gotta start somewhere right?
What my main goal is to make a custom which I would want to keep myself, but work hard on it enough that whoever gets it, gets their money’s worth. And if they don’t sell? Well, then its stays with me to enjoy for myself!
Here’s my first full on Tonner custom, I started with my favorite comic character:Storm! I decided to use her black costume version as designed by Jim Lee as was popularized in the 90’s.
Here's the drawing that goes with the doll:
I love little details and tried to incorporate as much versatility and accessories that I thought would be appropriate. I included things like a full cape with wiring to enhance posing, and many different artists interpreted her costume a number of way, so I made it so you had the option of taking of her “shoulder pads” and she had removable “X’s” she could place on her costume at several different points. I made the costume mostly by hand (the sewing machine scares me!). In keeping with the comic theme, each custom I make comes with a signed art print of the figure. She sold on ebay for $300.00
My next was a Ms. Marvel. I took a blonde doll (her name is “Kit”) and since Ms. Marvel is already blonde I didn’t need to change the hair (phew!) I just restyled it. Again I repainted the face (looking back I really could have made it better), but everything is a learning process, and this was my second Tonner repaint, but a first one with eyes (I kinda cheated with Storm!), and again I made the costume mostly by hand (still scary!) She sold on ebay for $175.00. I heard comments on her saying she was poorly made, which I believe everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but what matters is the person who bought her was very pleased and that’s all I can hope for.
Here she's posing with a regular 6-inch Marvel Legends action figure for a size comparison. Tonner dolls are HUGE.
Eventually I hope to start commissions, and I do hope by doing more of them I will get better, and as much fun (and stressful) as it is to make them I hope to put a smile on someone’s face and have them say, “Damn, I just dropped 300 dollars on a doll! But damn it was worth it!”