I want to talk a little bit about action figures once more as I’m an avid collector of them. They’re fun to display, fun to collect, and certainly fun to play with your kids with… unless they’re the $30+ ones with fragile parts… then yeah, just the first two!

But what about characters that don’t have action figures, either because they’re just not popular enough or they’re just starting out… or they’re from a medium that generally doesn’t produce action figures? Or how about the problem I had with the Spider Gwen action figure that I felt was cheaply made?
(Yes, I’m still mad about that.)

Well for those of you who really want something like that… your options are fairly limited. Take me for example…

I have a character that I downloaded for Skyrim, then did a lot of extra modifying to. This character was tough, badass, and someone who literally never left my party. In fact, she was in part, the inspiration of a lot of really fun fan fictions dealing with Skyrim and other universes:

She followed my character on many adventures… and even stole kills from me on a regular basis. She was definitely the most bad ass out of any of the companions I used.

Anyway, I know that Skyrim has action figures, but what are the chances that they’d create a non-canon figure based on a mod? More importantly, this specific mod… the answer is, of course, NONE!

However, I really wanted one of her as she was hands-down one of my favorite characters in any medium. So I started looking into the possibilities of making her. I ruined a few Arwen and Tauriel action figures in the attempt… I’m sorry to say.

At that point, I’d given up. There was no way that this was ever going to happen. It was at this point that I came across an interview  with a toy customizer named John Harmon. I went through his page, checking out the other impressive work he’d done… and come to find out that there is actually a huge community of people that do this kind of work. Like actual message boards, contact pages, etc.

SWEET!!! So with excited fingers, I fired off a message to John as his were the most impressive I’d seen in my search about doing this figure. He replied to me pretty quick saying that he’d be happy to work with me, and asked for images of the character in question. Thankfully, I’d just finished about 10 hours of modding (no, not consecutive, I HAVE A LIFE!!! 😉 ), and so I sent him off some more high definition images:

(Yes, this is what Skyrim CAN look like with the right attention to detail, patience, and the right system)

At that point, we got down to the basics;
What size action figure?
Any weapons?
What the base figure would be?

So basically, he takes an existing action figure, uses as much of it as he can… though usually not very much, and creates a brand new one. He does this using parts of other action figures that look similar or when there isn’t any, he makes the parts custom.

So perfect, now we have a way of getting action figures we otherwise wouldn’t get, right? Eh… two things I need to mention here…

1. This isn’t cheap. Most of the time, if you want a decent action figure, you need a high-quality base action figure. Those can run from $30-$100+ so factor that into the price, plus labor and other parts. Thankfully mine was… somewhat affordable? I have no regrets, being a geek doesn’t usually come cheap when you get down to collectibles.
2. It takes time. A lot of these customizers, John included, do this as a career and usually have a lot of requests. Be prepared to wait 6+ months for your figure. I submitted my request on December 1st, I received my figure in late June, I believe?

Was it worth it? You be the judge:

And again:

So if you have a character you really want to see made into a figure and your geek cache is plentiful, I’d definitely look into it.

Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

You can also add me on Twitter!

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Thanks friends!
Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim