A Custom A Day.... 365 days of custom figures Day 47 - 12 inch scale Batman '66 Yvonne Craig As Batgirl

2/17/2015

This weekend, February 14-15, 2015 was International Toy Fair at the Jacob Javitz Center in New York City. This is the exhibit where all of the major toy companies present their new items for sale for retailer orders for the first half of the year.

Mattel has the action figure license for the Batman 1966 series. They have produced a dismal and basic assortment of the Dynamic Duo and their four main villians. Yvonne Craig, the actress who portrayed Batgirl in the third and final season of the series signed over her likeness for merchandising several months after the rest of the cast did, delaying Batgirl from being included in the first (and seemingly only) round of merchandise created for the show.

She found her way in to the comic book but nearly a year and a half after the Batman 66 merchandise was released to retail and no merchandise using Yvonne's likeness has been released, well unless you count a 14 inch plush doll. Mattel showed a sample of a three pack of the Bat trio at San Diego Comic Con in the summer of 2014 that has yet to see a release. The same three pack was shown by Mattel at Toy Fair again this past weekend. I'm concerned that Mattel has yet to find a home for these since they did not have packaging developed for the three pack. The prototypes shown this weekend are slightly different from the figures shown at San Diego in that they look more like production versions. The costumes and details were darker.

Boxed action figure items such as vehicles, playsets and multi-figure packs have a harder time finding homes at retail because they tend to take up a lot of room. If Mattel had a home for these I believe we would have seen the packaging at the show, I'm sure if and when they do sell them to a retailer that the packaging will be customized to maximize shelf space because boxed items swallow shelf space on retailer planograms since the majority of action figures hang on peg hooks. I fear that my nearly 40 year desire to own an Yvonne Craig Batgirl may have to rest in the two custom pieces that I own of her.

Today is the first of two custom Yvonne Batgirl figures in my collection. She was purchased on eBay several years ago before 20th CenturyFox & Warner Brothers agreed on how to divy up the orofits from the show. I do not remember that name of the artist that did her. She is a 12 inch figure that unfortunately stands as tall as the Hot Toys Adam West Batman 66 figure where to truly be in scale she should be shorter than Robin, around 9 inches. With the sluggish sales of the Hot Toys Batman & Robin I'm doubting we'll see Yvonne released in the Hot Toys line. This one will have to do. I'm still hopeful that FigureToyCompany will find a way to release Batgirl in their 8 inch Mego style line.

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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 47 - 12 inch scale Batman '66 Yvonne Craig As Batgirl

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A Custom A Day....

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