New and Updated Customs

Here is my dilemma for this week. I had planned for a review of one of the Jabba's Denizens pack figures when I hit a snag at work. Long story short, I had no time to take photos. Since my local NFL game is the Saints vs Panthers, I am taking pictures then. I'd rather watch paint dry then watch that battle for the top pick of next April's NFL Draft. Also, I didn't want to cover a certain figure that makes me happy this week, so I went one (actually several) better, and opted to show off some customs I've recently worked on but haven't shown off. I'll explain how I made them, plus which one I need to work on a bit. Plus, I've updated a previous custom and may show off one I've done a long time ago but never photographed. And congrats to Arliel Schous for winning Last Figure Standing! 

1. Post Endor Inquisitors/Emperor's Hands

My main loose figure collection consists of figures from the ROTJ/New Republic Era in both Legends and Disney Canon. I've found enough Grand Inquisitor and Reva figures to make some customs, and I'm showing them off here. The bucks I've used from left to right are the Grand Inquisitor, Kylo Ren, and Reva. I've even  named a couple of these figures, and I'll share a little about that as I give you the recipes. 

The Grand Inquisitor buck, I removed the head and painted the neck in flat black acrylic paint. I had a spare Antares Draco Imperial Knight head that loosely fits on the ball joint/neck post. I had previously used that head on another custom at one time so I just did a simple swap. I may add some two-sided tape to the joint, but I had a problem with another figure doing that so I held off. It fits well, I just can't move his head or it will obviously be too loose. But he does a good job keeping still. I haven't named this particular Inquisitor/Emperor's Hand. Currently I'm scouring the Legends Emperor's Hands to find one suitable. Right now I'm leaning towards Maarek Stele or Voss Kego. 

For my middle figure, I took a 3.75 Black Series Kylo Ren and cut off the cloth skirt while keeping the plastic one intact. But there's a problem doing that: the figure's upper body droops down. To solve that I used the plastic that was tied onto a Clonetrooper's hand to hold the blaster in it and tied it around the waist. Problem solved! I took the head of the ROTS VC Anakin/Darth Vader and painted it black. It actually fits on the neck joint quite well. In the second photo I took the spare Samurai style Vader helmet from my McQuarrie Vader, and it is a good, not great fit, but looked good on the photo. I didn't add a cape but I use the one that came with Biggs Darklighter when I do give him the cape. This figure is my version of Irek Ismaren, who you may remember in Children of the Jedi was a teenager, but in the New Jedi Order he literally had lightsabers all over his body as Lord Nyax. He was rumored to be Palpy's son, but that wasn't the case. I liked the name so I kept it here, and like Legends he may or may not be Palpy's kiddo, but he is the one in charge. 

For the Reva buck, I removed her head and painted the neck area flat black acrylic paint. I took a spare Deena Shan (or is it from Juno Eclipse? Honestly they do look alike) head (the one with her in the Imperial Officer outfit) and using two-sided tape placed the head down, and I have a new figure! I named this figure Sariss, whose father was Cronal. I will spare you her Legends background, but will only say it's very disturbing. She encountered Kyle Katarn in one of his video games. I liked the character name  and for my display purposes she is Cronal's daughter, and without all that sick backstory Sariss had in Legends.  But like Sariss in Legends, she was at Mos Eisley when the Sandtroopers went after Ben Kenobi and Luke Skywalker. She's the lady who steps back and let's them pass on the street as they charge forward. 

2. Cronal

The Zartan figure from the 2nd live action GI Joe movie Retaliation is easily one of my favorite figures, because it makes for great custom fodder. I have used the Snake Eyes & Storm Shadow heads for customs on other figures. Plus his figure buck makes for a great custom as well, the only problem is a lack of a belt. Fortunately I have a decent imagination. The head from another live action GI Joe movie character was used for Cronal, and it's from the Dr Rex Lewis action figure. The second photo above shows him with the hair, and his "mask". The hair doesn't fit well unless he wears the mask, but his head can turn with the mask on. I don't lose any articulation on this figure, which is a major plus! 

I painted his body using flat black acrylic paint, as most of his body was painted maroon with some areas in black. Originally I intended for this figure to be Snoke before he got all scarred up, but while this figure is taller than a normal 3.75 inch figure, he's still not as tall as the VC Snoke figure. So I had to make this figure someone else. So he became Cronal. If you read the Legends novel Luke Skywalker & The Shadows of Mindor, Cronal is the main antagonist. He was also the agent known as Blackhole (who only appeared via hologram) that Luke encountered in the Russ Manning comic strips. Those comics also introduced the black armored Stormtroopers which were called Shadowtroopers, and they got a VC figure back in 2019, VC 163 Shadow Stormtrooper. Cronal in Legends could see the future, which he called The Dark, and he was mentally imbalanced, but always had a method to his madness. He was an expert in lightsaber combat, and even trained Irek Ismaren before his transformation into Lord Nyax. My version of Cronal is that he's a powerful Force user, but has his own agenda, one for his master to come back and take over the galaxy. Admittedly, my Snoke Theory was that Snoke was either Cronal, or Atha Prime, part of Atha's backstory got retconned into Cronal. But hey, all of my Snoke Theories turned out wrong. Who got theirs right?! 

3. Jedi Temple Luke Skywalker 

I've posted this before, but now I added more silver acrylic paint to his "buckle". I attempted to add something to his left hip where he could clip his lightsaber, but the object I wanted to use was too thick to fit in his belt. I used gloss black acrylic paint on Luke's belt, and on his boots. I clipped off the belt sash so he'd look more like he did in the scene where he presents Grogu with Yoda's lightsaber. Until Hasbro gives a ROTJ Luke or Mandalorian Luke with barbell hips, this is my go to Luke Skywalker for post ROTJ adventures. But I'd still love to swap his gloved hand for a bare hand. I have a couple extra BOBF Luke's so I may experiment with some more custom ideas in the future. With this figure I'm done, but I may attempt one more using a one of my other Luke's if I feel inspired. 

4. Master Sol Lightsaber Fix

If you remember my blog post a few weeks ago  I lamented about Sol's inability to properly hold the lightsaber he came with. I theorized that a POTF2 Era lightsaber would fit into his hand. And I was right! I had a spare lightsaber from The Phantom Menace Tattoine accessory pack, and it's basically Qui-Gon Jinn's lightsaber but the hilt is all black. Not once in my photos did Sol's new lightsaber fall out, even in the top photo. So the problem is solved! YES!!!! Now I can finally sleep a little better. And yes, this was true. I literally lost sleep about this. Laugh if you want to. 

Thanks for reading! A special thanks to Chris and Nomad at BanthaSkull for allowing me to post this link in the comments section. Please share this link on your social media accounts so I can get more readers! I took all the photos in this post.