A Custom A Day.... 365 days of custom figures Day 258 - Marvel Legends Marionette by Bluebery Customs

9/15/2015

I love the costumes of comic book characters in the Bronze Age of comics The most of any era. They are the most iconic looks of all of the characters and received the most merchandising attention of any era to that point. Artists like Geore Perêz, John Byrne, Neal Adams and Dave Cockrum help define the looks of these heroes for my generation and it was magical I gravitate towards strong female super heroes but will be the first to admit I don't care how strong or powerful they are, I like them in barely there, brightly colored spandex.

Marionette wears a costume that I always loved growing up, I think the stripes hypnotized me. She was the super hero version of Farah Fawcett in my mind. When I found Bluebery Customs on eBay I fell in love with his work. I purchased a Disco Dazzler from him and it is easily one of my favorite custom pieces. The detail, the swappable parts and the accessories made her the most complex piece I own. She's beautiful. I shared her on the 25th day of this project. If you haven't seen her use the search option to check her out.

I started following Bluebery on Instagram and started to see custom after custom of perfectly rendered Marvel heroines from the 70's & 80's. I knew that he would nail Marionette and boy was I right. Her hair is a unique sculpt on a casting of a Marvel Legends Gamora head. I liked the angry look of the face. Her body consists of a Hellcat to the knees and a Scarlet Witch from the knees down. She is expertly painted and her lines are sharp and clean. The hair sculpt is incredible, the perfect recreation of her comic book Farah Fawcett look. The flips and layers, the highlights, the flexibility all perfect. Her gun looks like it was made for her. She's one of my favorite custom Marvel Legends.

0 Comments

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 258 - Marvel Legends Marionette by Bluebery Customs

Leave a Reply.

A Custom A Day....

Archives

Categories