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Raving Toy Maniac Presents

Amy's Customs

 

Amy can be contacted at [email protected]

 

Hobbes

 

For anyone who doesn't know, this is the tiger from the great comic strip, "Calvin and Hobbes," NOT Tony the Tiger:)  I am also working on a Calvin figure, but I'm having trouble getting the facial features just right.  This figure embodies what I love most about customizing.  With a little creativity and the right tools, anything is possible.  This guy started out as a Star Trek T'Pol figure from Art Asylum.  Most of the body was covered with rubbery "clothes," so I had to cut those off and expose the "skeleton" underneath.  The arms were way too long, so I cut them off at the elbow.  I added sculpted paws and the elbows became wrists.  Likewise, I cut off the legs at about mid-thigh and sculpted feet at the bottom.  The rest of the detail had to be dremmeled off and resculpted.  The tail is just some cord I found lying around.

Bizarro Lois

 

This was the first custom I ever made.  I had just finished reading a collection of "Tales from the Bizarro World" and became fascinated with Bizarro Superman.  Since my Bizarro figure is the recent purple one from DC Direct, she doesn't really match him, but I still think she's pretty good for my first try.  She is made from an X-Men Classics Rogue.  I sliced at the features until they had the "blocky" look, dremmeled  the hair off and made the new hairdo out of Sculpey.  The decal was printed from a computer art program.

 

Wonder Girl

 

The Wonder Girl from the Silver Age two-pack didn't look quite right with the rest of the Teen Titans, so I made this one in her original costume.  I'm actually pretty proud of her.  She looks pretty good next to the other DC Direct sidekicks from the two-packs (Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash and Speedy).  Her head, arms, and torso are basically a repainted April O'Neal from the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line, and her legs are from a Power Rangers Heroes figure.  I had to shave bits of plastic off and reshape them a little until they fit.  Then I just added a ponytail from Sculpey.

 

 

Pennywise the Dancing Clown (I)

 

This is the first time I tried to create the scariest clown ever, from Stephen King's "IT".  When I first finished this one, I thought it looked pretty good.  Then I noticed a lot of things I didn't like about it.  This one is made from a DC Direct Cassidy, from the Preacher series.  I dremmeled off the sunglasses and flat-top haircut, then resculpted most of the head.  The clothing and big shoes are also sculpted on, with painted fabric ruffles and pom poms glued on. The balloons are painted styrofoam balls with wire stuck in them. The bulky clothing caused a lot of problems with the articulation.  Watch for the second (and much improved) attempt later on.

Pennywise(II)

 

 Looks much better than the first one, doesn't he?  I am extremely proud of how this figure turned out.  The base figure didn't have many joints, so it made the baggy costume much easier to create.  Although I lost some articulation(only the head, shoulders, and wrists are movable), I think it was worthwhile.  A DC Direct Elijah Snow (Planetary) gave his life for this figure.  I dremeled off the hair and made the clown wig out of clay(I usually use Premo).  I removed some of the facial details and resculpted them, particularly the mouth -- Pennywise needs an open mouth, while the base figure had it closed.  For the clothing, I used the dremel to remove the details, such as collars, lapels, and pant cuffs and sculpted right over them with LOTS of yellow clay.  I also added the big clown shoes.  I drilled a hole in his fist to allow him to hold a bunch of painted styrofoam "balloons" with floral wire "string."  The ruffles around the neck, arms, and ankels are painted bias tape, sewn on and glued in place.  For a finishing touch, I glued on orange pompoms and purple trim around the edges of the jacket. 

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