A Custom A Day.... 365 days of custom figures Day 12 - DC Universe Classics Speedy by 37 Customs

1/13/2015

Today is more Titans love. This project is going to be very X-Men and Teen Titans heavy with a few other random pieces thrown in so you've been warned. Speedy is a recent custom done by 37 Customs. I held out in having a custom made of this incarnation of Roy since Mattel promised a teen sidekick in Club Infinite Earths if the 2014 subscription went through. I figured it would be him or Aqualad but we may never know.

Roy was the last of the Pérez Titans that I needed to complete the core team. Although he was only recurring, he was integral to the stories and a necessary addition to the team. Speedy uses a DC Direct a robin head with a sculpted cap and a DC Universe Classics teen body. When he was first completed he had two fists and could not hold his bow. 37 Customs was quick to chop off his right hand, add a couple of magnets giving him the option of two fists and the ability to hold his bow.

37 Customs does a fantastic job with lining his work. I own several pieces from him and he uses some type of thin black "tape" to accentuate the folds and edges of the costumes he does. The yellow arrow on his chest is also a sticker. They are all perfectly cut and precisely laid on each of his pieces. It's a nice signature to his work. Yellow is notoriously the hardest color to paint on an action figure, most of the pieces he's done for me have a fair amount of yellow on them. The paint work is very smooth and clean. I'm proud to have a few of his pieces in my collection.

1 Comment

A Custom A Day....

Since I began toy collecting as a hobby back in 1990 I have always had a need for custom figures. Toy companies begin action figure lines, begin to release individual characters to create teams and, more often than not leave them incomplete. Many collectors find that custom figures pollute their collection's authenticity by not being mass produced creations from the toy companies that created the preexisting toy lines. I disagree. I feel a quality custom action figure enhances a collection and help create a complete picture.

When characters are chosen for a toy line several factors come in to play. The character's current media relevance (if any), their most iconic look (they may have had multiple costumes through their sometimes vast histories) and gender. Female action figures tend to not sell to parents of the boys who are playing with them so a great many of the female characters are never rendered in plastic in the way the male characters are leaving holes in the collections.

I am a fan of the female heroes primarily so I have purchased and made quite a few "customs" throughout my years as a collector. I find it challenging (ok impossible) to get a smooth, quality finish to my sculpt work, downgrading the quality of my figure's appearance that I create so my custom work tend to be of a Frankenstein type nature where I use different parts such as a torso and arms from one figure attached to the hips and legs of another, and a different head with a full cost of paint to create my pieces. I also struggle with painting facial details on figures. The small areas, the eyes in particular give me the biggest issues. I prefer to reuse another head from a different character that will allow me to not have to paint the facial details since I am heavy handed and tend to paint in clumps rather than smooth, factory produced finishes that many of the customizers I work with can achieve.

Most of the figures that I have in my collection that have intricate sculpting and paint details have been created by other artists from around the world. The UK, The Philippines, Australia, Hong Kong, Canada and from several states throughout the US through personal communication or via eBay, which can be an outstanding resource for quality custom work. I've had the pleasure of meeting some incredibly talented artists through websites & social media. Over the past two years seeking out quality custom figures has become the main focus of my collection. Which is at over 5,000 loose pieces. As you will see over the course of this year this does not just affect super hero toy lines. I collect different toy lines spanning the 1960's through today covering cartoons, movies and television in addition to comic books. Some of the custom pieces I have had done wouldn't have been made as toys because of lack of consumer interest or based on licensing issues simply cannot be made in to toys. I haven't let that stop me from using several different toy lines to amass a complete plastic collection of all of the media I have enjoyed throughout my life.

I have decided to begin a project called A Custom A Day.... to showcase my custom pieces one a day, every day throughout 2015. If you follow me on social media or on this site you may have seen many of them before but with this project I will give a little background of each figure and its relevance to my collection. So check back daily!!!

A CUSTOM A DAY.... 365 Days of custom figures

A Custom A Day.... 365 days of custom figures Day 12 - DC Universe Classics Speedy by 37 Customs

Leave a Reply.

A Custom A Day....

Archives

Categories