Those that have been following ToyBozo know that I have in the past been solidly behind customizing action figures. Very few of us will ever have the privelege of, and even fewer will have the skill to, design and sculpt action figures of any kind for an official toy producer or company. I'm sure since the beginning of toys existing, people have chosen to take matters into their own hands and modified figures and dolls to their liking. I've seen ancient Mego toys, action figures, Barbies, all sorts of toys worked on. Anything people can tweak or customize, they more than likely will. I think it's partially human nature and I know for me, at least, it can sometimes be a lack of satisfaction. But does that make it right? Obviously, no one can stop someone from customizing something. I've had a few conversations with a couple different toy designers telling me not only that they haven't had an issue with customization, but that they've been impressed by how cool some of them can be. These were very laid back guys, though, and even though they're rad enough to give me advice on taking apart toys, I'm not sure they speak for everyone. Unfortunately, as with anything on the internet, people bitch and moan and the very definition of what constitutes a "custom" is constantly debated. In my eyes, anything that takes you more than a half an hour to do (takes time and patience) is a custom, no matter how little the work seems to amount to. This includes re-paints or what people call "fix-ups." If you put enough time into it, I don't care if you're detailing the eyes of a GI Joe, it's customized. Anyway, long winded explanation aside, there is a point. I've done a few customs, one of which I
mentioned on this site years ago, now with a sweet
youtube video for work. Jakks Pacific wrestling action figures have always been easily modifiable and after seeing people partake so heavily, I had to give it a shot. I didn't think much of it at the time, and I still don't. Simple custom. I carved the shit out of things, glued shirts together, did repaints, used decals, and sliced my finger open. The work put into it has made it a custom action figure set.
I feel that one turned out good with no regrets. Everything about wrestling toys can be fun, especially modifying them, but something about Jakks made that even easier to jump into. I never felt any strange guilt that I was destroying someone's work or bastardizing a creation of any kind. It wasn't until a painting project I started that guilt began to eat me inside. For what reason I'm not sure, so for now I will ponder that, you ponder this and customizing in general and I'll move on to what did it to me shortly.
I feel that one turned out good with no regrets. Everything about wrestling toys can be fun, especially modifying them, but something about Jakks made that even easier to jump into. I never felt any strange guilt that I was destroying someone's work or bastardizing a creation of any kind. It wasn't until a painting project I started that guilt began to eat me inside. For what reason I'm not sure, so for now I will ponder that, you ponder this and customizing in general and I'll move on to what did it to me shortly.
