1/6 Boba Fett w/ self-made helmet sculpt (& other custom bounty hunters too)

[ajp4mgs]

The last of the ESB bounty hunter customs: 4-LOM. I ended up modifying a Hasbro C-3PO (Force Awakens version) body instead of working with the older Hasbro 4-LOM body. That allowed me to take advantage of a much better overall sculpt with better articulation. The figure is way too undersized for a 1/6 Threepio, but with some modifications, it ended up being reasonably scaled for the shorter 4-LOM character. The head I went with is a modified Hasbro 4-LOM one. Here's a couple of shots from slightly different angles showing the figure as it looks right now.



When I compare my 4-LOM to the movie shots, I realize that I have to do something about the color of his head. Maybe I'll go with more of a gun metal. I should probably make new eyes too. In retrospect, it would have been better if I had just sculpted a head from scratch (wouldn't have taken that much more time). Oh well. The body is pretty accurate, but I need to tone down some of the orange rust in certain places. The most immediate need I'm noticing, though, is to adjust the wires on the midsection to be more accurate. It never ends.



And here's the original Hasbro parts (on the left), and the air-dry sculpting modifications layered over (top and bottom right).



I'll tweak each of the bounty hunters a bit more, then probably add a few pics of the updated versions. Still haven't decided whether or not to go for a diorama of the Executor bridge to display these guys on.

 

[TaliBane]

Excellent work. What type of sculpting putty air dry stuff did you use?

 

[ajp4mgs]

Excellent work. What type of sculpting putty air dry stuff did you use?

Thanks a lot. I used Apoxie to do the air-dry mods on the Threepio chest and 4-LOM head. Probably going to be using it again over the eyes to puff them out a bit further, and to make the mosaic pieces larger. First, I'm going to give some thought as to how to make the eyes look more like the broken pieces of glass used in the movie costume. Maybe I can use actual broken bits of something similar to the shell of a Christmas ornament and just glue those on instead. Don't know.

For now though, I tweaked the midsection wires, muted some of the rust (have to do more of that), and repainted the head to replace some of the blue/gray with more of a gun-metal. Even though it still doesn't look like a match in the new pic below, I think that has a lot to do with lighting. If I point a bright light at the figure from behind, I think the new color will look right.



I'm digging this one more than I thought I would, so I'll be more willing to put some extra effort into getting it as accurate as possible.

 

[The Beginner basher]

[/QUOTE]
And here's the best movie shot I've got that shows the light intensity of the flashlight.

View attachment 399578[/QUOTE]

I thought that was just a table tennis ball chromed up! Lol.

 

[D.R.37]

Great customs ...and Hasbro? Impressive.

 

[ajp4mgs]

Great customs ...and Hasbro? Impressive.

I appreciate that; thank you! Hasbro 12-inch figures from the 1996-2000 era are pretty useless for customs when it comes to the human characters, but they actually produced some really good sculpts (and even some clothing) for the alien/creature characters. They were just plagued with horrible paint jobs. Take Yoda for example. If you look at the Yoda figure in its original package, it kinda looks like crap. But I don't look at the overall figure; I just concentrate on the sculpt lines and proportionality of the sculpt. Yoda was sculpted very well by Hasbro. So much so that I gave the head sculpt a new paint job, added some hair, and built a neck for him in order to fit the head on the Hot Toys body. You can make a case for the Hasbro sculpt actually being better than the Hot Toys Yoda sculpt.

Below are some comparison pics of my modified Hasbro Yoda head on the Hot Toys body, alongside the stock HT figure and the movie Yoda. If you pay close attention to things like the roundness of the cheeks and the length (and angle) of the chin, you'll see some points in Hasbro's favor.



The HT head is also significantly over-sized for the 1/6 scale. Here's some comparison shots next to a Bespin Luke head. Try to ignore the water bottle caps, I just used those to make sure the Yoda heads would go in the exact same place a bit behind Luke. You can see in the movie image that Yoda's head is more "squished" and substantially smaller than Luke. The HT head is way too close to the same size of a 1/6 human head sculpt.



Hasbro doesn't get enough credit for their alien/creature and droid sculpts. If you have the time and the know-how, there's a lot of money to be saved (without sacrificing much, if any, quality) by using Hasbro figures for customs instead of paying $200 - $250 for HT and SSC figures. But, yeah, their figures of the human characters are useless.

 

[Bikerscout]

I appreciate that; thank you! Hasbro 12-inch figures from the 1996-2000 era are pretty useless for customs when it comes to the human characters, but they actually produced some really good sculpts (and even some clothing) for the alien/creature characters. They were just plagued with horrible paint jobs. Take Yoda for example. If you look at the Yoda figure in its original package, it kinda looks like crap. But I don't look at the overall figure; I just concentrate on the sculpt lines and proportionality of the sculpt. Yoda was sculpted very well by Hasbro. So much so that I gave the head sculpt a new paint job, added some hair, and built a neck for him in order to fit the head on the Hot Toys body. You can make a case for the Hasbro sculpt actually being better than the Hot Toys Yoda sculpt.

Below are some comparison pics of my modified Hasbro Yoda head on the Hot Toys body, alongside the stock HT figure and the movie Yoda. If you pay close attention to things like the roundness of the cheeks and the length (and angle) of the chin, you'll see some points in Hasbro's favor.

View attachment 402410

The HT head is also significantly over-sized for the 1/6 scale. Here's some comparison shots next to a Bespin Luke head. Try to ignore the water bottle caps, I just used those to make sure the Yoda heads would go in the exact same place a bit behind Luke. You can see in the movie image that Yoda's head is more "squished" and substantially smaller than Luke. The HT head is way too close to the same size of a 1/6 human head sculpt.

View attachment 402411

Hasbro doesn't get enough credit for their alien/creature and droid sculpts. If you have the time and the know-how, there's a lot of money to be saved (without sacrificing much, if any, quality) by using Hasbro figures for customs instead of paying $200 - $250 for HT and SSC figures. But, yeah, their figures of the human characters are useless.

Great work! Very impressive.

 

[D.R.37]

Great mod customs all around. Makes your collection stand out and more unique. Then again you’re giving up some secrets some here, including myself, might not figure out Especially since I rarely looked at the 12” line back then.

 

[TaliBane]

Haha, you took the words right out of mouth about some of Hasbro's sculpts. I have a whole bunch of hasbro stuff and I'm always amazed how accurate some of their stuff is, but you have to look past the awful paint, goofy muscle bodies and sometimes cheap plasticky accessories to see it.

I have that Yoda head set aside to do exactly what you've done. I got the HT head for about $35 so its kind of a display placeholder... for an eventual Hasbro repaint.

 

[Bikerscout]

Your work on 4LOM and Yoda are great! Your attention to detail and accuracy is really good.

 

[Guer Toshav]

Great customs and fine demonstration !

 

[Revanist]

Wow, awesome customs a real treat to see! That Yoda HT fathead tho!

 

[ajp4mgs]

Great mod customs all around. Makes your collection stand out and more unique. Then again you’re giving up some secrets some here, including myself, might not figure out Especially since I rarely looked at the 12” line back then.

Thank you! I'm all too glad to reveal the "secrets" of some underappreciated Hasbro sculpts. But, as far as making the collection unique: there will be plenty of original sculpts in it to keep that going anyway.

I have that Yoda head set aside to do exactly what you've done. I got the HT head for about $35 so its kind of a display placeholder... for an eventual Hasbro repaint.

Ah yes, the classic "I got a Hot Toys head until I upgrade to the Hasbro." I love it. Hope your repaint goes well; I'm sure it will. Here's to useful (and cheap) Hasbro options.

Your work on 4LOM and Yoda are great! Your attention to detail and accuracy is really good.

Great customs and fine demonstration !

Wow, awesome customs a real treat to see! That Yoda HT fathead tho!

Thank you to all. It's very gratifying to know that some people are enjoying what I post here; as long as that's the case, I'll keep doing it.

So, with that in mind: I started outlining what a diorama of the Executor bridge might look like, and how much space it would take up. As it turns out, this will be a pretty large space-taker (not really a surprise, but seeing the framework makes it abundantly obvious). I'm going to have to come up with a way to construct this in sections so that I can make it more practical for display while still having the option of putting all of the sections together for taking photos (or somehow acquiring more display space for it).

There's still going to have to be plenty of flooring on the sides and back, of course.



And just for the heck of it: Piett wondering whether or not to make eye contact, then deciding to.



Thanks again to everyone who has posted in this thread.

 

[ajp4mgs]

I've started updating Dengar a bit, and need to give Bossk a drastic overhaul, but my main focus lately has been more on the diorama they'll be posed on. I can't get sharp/clear photos because the lighting is very insufficient, but this blurry shot shows my diorama progress to this point. So much more to do that it's a bit demoralizing, but once I start getting to the light-up features, it'll get more fun and engaging.



And here's a side-by-side to provide a better visual sense of what I'm aiming for. It doesn't seem like it right now, but I think I'll get this to end up matching pretty well.



When I put these images side by side, the first thing that jumped out at me is how enormous the Hot Toys Vader helmet looks (I'm using the ANH Vader as a stand-in for the photo). I'm assuming it's mainly due to positioning and/or camera angle, but I'm not sure how to compensate properly to get it to look less huge.

 

[TaliBane]

Looks great.

And yeah, according to Vader-phile Hurricane, the HT Vader helmet is about 10% oversized - both dome and facemask.

I'm slowly doing a huge overhaul of the Hasbro Bossk too. It's a LOT of work, but I'm pretty happy so far. I'm currently stuck on rebooting the hasbro Zuckuss (with a few SSC parts.)

 

[ajp4mgs]

Looks great.

And yeah, according to Vader-phile Hurricane, the HT Vader helmet is about 10% oversized - both dome and facemask.

I'm slowly doing a huge overhaul of the Hasbro Bossk too. It's a LOT of work, but I'm pretty happy so far. I'm currently stuck on rebooting the hasbro Zuckuss (with a few SSC parts.)

Thanks! As far as the Vader helmet goes, I don't think the 10% oversized issue is solely responsible for how enormous it looks in my photo (looks like much more than a 10% difference). My hope is that when placed and angled differently it will look closer to "only" 10% bigger than it should be. We'll see.

Bossk will take me a while to finish as well. I'll have to add some fabric to the chest area in order to "drop" the rest of the spacesuit down to be more accurate. I'd love to get a SSC head sculpt to replace the oversized Hasbro one, but I don't think that'll happen (or that it'd be worth what it would cost). The jumpsuit alteration is my primary need. Best of luck with the Zuckuss and Bossk mods, TaliBane. Hope to see pics when you're done.

 

[TaliBane]

Thanks! As far as the Vader helmet goes, I don't think the 10% oversized issue is solely responsible for how enormous it looks in my photo (looks like much more than a 10% difference). My hope is that when placed and angled differently it will look closer to "only" 10% bigger than it should be. We'll see.

Bossk will take me a while to finish as well. I'll have to add some fabric to the chest area in order to "drop" the rest of the spacesuit down to be more accurate. I'd love to get a SSC head sculpt to replace the oversized Hasbro one, but I don't think that'll happen (or that it'd be worth what it would cost). The jumpsuit alteration is my primary need. Best of luck with the Zuckuss and Bossk mods, TaliBane. Hope to see pics when you're done.

Ugh - just finished scratch-building the mouth breather unit for Zuckuss. I just really didn't like the headsculpt, armor and the body proportions on the SSC one, so I've resculpted the eyes and made the breather for the Hasbro head, but using the SSC coat and hands. I'm scratch building the rifle now - I missed out on it on Toy Anxiety.

And yeah, I've torn apart the Hasbro Bossk jumpsuit and I'm sewing/gluing it back together to drop it lower. I've also lengthened the fig's arms and legs. It's tough to do without making the seams obvious. I used fabric spray paint to intensify the yellow on the Bossk suit. I want it to look a bit more like the Kenner fig's yellow.

I've rebuilt the Hasbro Bossk head with some major surgery. I was worried about the size too (it IS too big,) but in my test pics its not looking too obvious.

 

[Chakaman]

Awesome build so far. Good stuff.

 

[Guer Toshav]

Brilliant idea ! Final result will blow mind !

 

[Timemeddler]

Some awesome work going on here! Congratulations!

I agree 100% with the Hasbro-Hot Toys Yoda comparison. So much so, that I did the same as you and customised an old Hasbro Yoda figure for my collection. To my eye, he looks so much better than the HT effort, facially at least. I went one step further than you and added real glass dolls eyes to my sculpt, and I think they look great and give him a real sense of personality! I've received a lot of criticism of him from the HT Yoda lovers, so hopefully he will find some appreciation in this more open-minded thread...!!!

The hands and feet have been replaced (with Sideshow parts) and re-painted (as has the sculpt), and I have added the Hot Toys brown "under-garment" and necklace. I'm not so happy with the hair (I used cotton wool!), so I may try and replace this with some Tibetan Yak hair at some point...Let me know what you think!