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  • A Custom A Day.... 2015 365 days of custom figures
  • Arthur Adams’ Art
  • Pop Up Paint Night Parties
  • Murals
  • The Artwork
  • The Toy Collection
  • Contact
  • Colorin'
  • A Custom A Day.... 2015 365 days of custom figures
  • Arthur Adams’ Art

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

A Custom A Day.... 365 days of custom figures Day 242 - Muir Island X-Men Polaris by 4:F

8/30/2015

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I stole the idea for this team from Marvelous Minimates over on Instagram. The versatility of Minimates lends themselves to a ton of quick customs that simply require part swapping to create entirely new characters. I love Minimates most for this reason. Polaris uses a She Hulk hairpiece with a Polaris head. The bodies are from the New Mutants. I want to build a comprehensive X-Men team with custom Marvel Legends but I think Minimates is definitely the more cost effective way to make that happen.

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A Custom A Day.... 365 days of custom figures Day 241 - Dark Phoenix Minimate by 4:F

8/29/2015

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Dark Phoenix is similar to the Phoenix custom, I hated her hair. The paint effect on her face gives her an evil enough look, she didn't need exorcist hair so I gave her a new X-Men Jean Grey hair and a Rachel Phoenix base to make her look more comic accurate.

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A Custom A Day.... 365 days of custom figures Day 240 - Phoenix Minimate by 4:F

8/28/2015

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Phoenix was released before Diamond Select Toys started going accessory crazy. Over the past 5 years they've really packed in the accessories to increase the display possiblities of each mate. Phoenix was released with one of my least favorite female hairpieces. It didn't make her hair appear long enough so I switched it out with the New X-Men Jean a grey hair piece. It's the original hairpiece that all of the first released females in the line used but really gives her a classic look, in my opinion. I used a variant Rachel Summers Phoenix for the Phoenix Fire base to complete the look. I'd prefer the yellow version over the gold accents but this was the first release and it's not worth the extra money for the upgrade.

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A Custom A Day.... 365 days of custom figures Day 239 - BAMF effect by 4:F

8/27/2015

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Face Customs' 1st appearance Psylocke started me on a mission to have a representation of all of the incarnations of the X-Men from the Cockrum era thru the Jim Lee era. Nightcrawler is a character who's costume has remained the same throughout the years. He has moved from team to team a couple of times through the years. I want to represent him with the Cockrum team since that is where he first appeared, but he is a founding member of Excalibur as well. Since his figure is too expensive to just run to eBay and pick up another I decided to use a laminated print out of his BAMF effect to represent him in multiple displays. This is not a figure technically but it gives the appearance that one was in the display until he teleported away so we're going with it. What I like about the effect is that it works with Minimates, Super Hero Squad, Marvel Universe, Marvel Legends & Toy Biz 5 inch scales without looking out of place. I don't have the Marvel Select Nightcrawler although I'm sure it would work with him as well. Even when I don't need a stand in Nightcrawler, I wrap his tail around the effect to display it with him as though he just teleported in.

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A Custom A Day.... 365 days of custom figures Day 238 DC Universe Classics Lynda Carter Wetsuit Wonder Woman by TitanTrap Customs

8/27/2015

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This figure is one that I admired by the great TitanTrap Customs for a while. He recently posted a new one for sale and I jumped on it. After Yvonne Craig, a Lynda Carter action figure was high on my wish list. Although the likeness isn't too close, the costume makes this figure instantly identifiable. I would love to find a motorcycle helmet for her to easily create the motorcycle look. She fits in well with my Batman 66 collection.

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A Custom A Day.... 365 days of custom figures Day 237 - 80's Rachel Summers Minimate by 4:F

8/25/2015

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Rachel is another quick custom, she uses Nova's chest and crotch. She needs a Phoenix on her chest to be accurate but I'm terrible with graphic design so she stays like this.

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A Custom A Day.... 365 days of custom figures Day 236 - Toy Biz 5 inch Phoenix by 4:F

8/24/2015

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I was so excited when Toy Biz announced Phoenix for the 5 inch Marvel line. That excitement died when she was released. They decided her power feature should be a light up forehead with translucent hair and eyes. That didn't do so I repainted her to make her accurate.

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A Custom A Day.... 365 days of custom figures Day 235 - Toy Biz 5 inch Outback Dazzler by 4:F

8/23/2015

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Dazzler was an easy repaint for Toy Biz to do but never did. She was released in her Disco Dazzler outfit in the Puzzle Zoo She Force line but never in her current for the time blue unitard. The Strike Force Jean Grey figure is the base a great many customizers have used before me that inspired this one.

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A Custom A Day.... 365 days of custom figures Day 234 Toy Biz 5 inch She Force Disco Dazzler by 4:F

8/22/2015

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Disco Dazzler. I was nearly killed over this custom I added glitter to her boots and wrists, I also added her necklace. . An old friend gave me her rolling skating Smurfette from her childhood collection and I cut the skates off the make this figure. She wanted my head for it.

But they fit so perfectly and completed the figure better than this ridiculous Jubilee roller blades.

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A Custom A Day.... 365 days of custom figures Day 233 - Toy Biz 5 inch Armored Outback Psylocke by 4:F

8/21/2015

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Outback Psylocke, the incarnation that made me fall in love with the character. The Outback X-Men is my favorite era of the team and she is my favorite Marvel character. I've had this custom sitting unfinished for decades. I can sculpt a suitable hood and anything I've found just floats on her head and looks odd. I'm very happy with every other aspect of the figure. The metallic finish really makes her. Just have to get the right hood. I've tried dozens, this is the best of the worst.

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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!!!

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