A Custom A Day.... 365 days of custom figures Day 35 - Marvel Legends Aurora by Raynir

Aurora is the most recent figure that Raynir has created for me and the first piece of his as part of the A Custom A Day project. The irony of this piece is that although it is the most recent, it is the first piece that introduced me to Raynir's work without me even knowing, his unique photography style later tipped me off to this fact since he tends to post triptych photos of his work on his auctions with a full on front pose and two flanking angular shots next to it.

Aurora and her twin brother Northstar have been depicted a couple of times as ️toys before in their matching black and white costumes in Toy Biz's 5 inch line, Aurora was made in the 4 inch Marvel Universe line in 2014 yet Northstar still awaits release as part of the quickly failing Marvel Infinite line and lastly as fan poll prototypes still awaiting release in the Marvel Legends line back in the early 00's, when Toy Fare magazine was still in print, however this, her second costume has yet to appear in plastic form produced by any toy company.

I stumbled on Raynir's work while searching the net for customs of characters in costumes that I wanted in my collection. I always loved this costume for Aurora, and when I saw it rendered in plastic I HAD TO have it. He nailed it! The only problem was that the auction that she was listed in had ended with a winning bid so she was no longer available. I took a screen cap of the finished piece and held on to it hoping to one day have someone recreate her for me. Several months later I purchased my first piece from Raynir, a custom DC Universe Classics Katana figure. This too was a recreation of an eBay auction. This time I was a part of the bidding but stopped because the winning bid got too rich for my blood. I reached out to him to ask if he would recreate Katana for me for the amount of my losing bid and he agreed, making her the most expensive custom piece in my collection and I own over 5,000 loose action figures and over 350 customs. (Hence the ability to share this project with you.)

Since Katana, Raynir has created a dozen or so other custom characters for me, including almost all of the main female members of the Legion of Super Heroes from the 70's that Mattel failed to produce, but more about the another day. His work has a factory produced quality to his paint jobs. They are clean, smooth and fit in seamlessly with my existing collection.

I knew I wanted him to make me this incarnation of Jean-Marie and he didn't disappoint. Although she uses a Donna Troy body from the DC Universe Classics line as her base she ties in seamlessly with my existing Marvel Legends line. Now I need a Sasquatch to pose her with. Do you see how this hoard thing works? It's a vicious never ending cycle!!!