3.75" Professionally Made Kenner Style Customs & Repros Discussion

[New_Bornalex]

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I find this picture perfect in its representation of youthful imagination and reminiscence.
The melding of non-SW figures seamlessly into a vintage Kenner set, combined with modern retro boutique figures, just makes me happy.

Great job Alex!

I've actually written professionally about how various toy lines intermingled with Star Wars when we were kids. The four-armed insectoid Ovion from Battlestar Galactica was a frequent visitor to the Cantina for me, after I won the figure in an art contest at school in the third or fourth grade.

I've had at least two Ovions through the decades. The first lost his delicate gold mesh cape before the 80s were out, so I eventually bought a pristine one at a convention.

I know I still have at least that one, because I photographed him eight years ago for that same essay, but I have no clue where I put those BSG figures when I was done taking these pics, so his current location is a frustrating mystery.



Who can forget the Woman's Day Space Station with the Micronauts figures helping it to look more populated?

As a kid I only bought one figure from Buck Rogers, but Twiki just had to go on Star Wars adventures.

So this is all just a continuation of that.

And there's even a nod to 'found object' playtime.

That glass on the bar in front of Hammerhead in the pic on the previous page of this thread is not made by a toy company. That's the leak preventer for the brand of caramel sauce we use at work.

***

Plus here's a great example from more recently.

When my SS Tonnika twins arrived, I wanted to photograph them for my YouTube album before I left for work, but I couldn't get to my various Cantina denizens quickly. I had a Hammerhead that I'd bought shortly before at an antique store, but otherwise the scene was going to be very sparse.

However, I had also scored a Fisher-Price Adventure People 'Brainoid' figure around that same time, for a fantastic price, so I pressed him into foreground service.



Here's a pic of him to show him off better.



*****

On to new pics!

I took these tonight.

Comparison of the Scanning Crew guys by TN17 (right) to the pair on the left that I made last year to replicate the non-permanent customs I made back in the 90s while shooting a toy-video recreating the first film.

In the video, the guys on the left were shown in the Palitoy Death Star, so I deliberately took this pic on that set as well.



More TN17 Imperials on the Palitoy Death Star. (I used to always stress that mine was technically an Australian TolToys Death Star, but the TolToys sticker flaked off the bottom a couple of years ago, revealing the name Palitoy underneath, so apparently it always was manufactured by Palitoy, and I needn't have been so pedantic all this time.)



I wanted to show off Hermi Odle in situ as well, so I grabbed Jabba down off the top shelf he occupies. Then I realized I had a LOT of boutique figures that could go in this scene. (Forgive me for putting Leia and Oola in the same scene. I know they never appear on screen together, but I wanted a group shot with all my Jabba's Palace StanSolo figures included.)



Hermi and the slugs are all by TN17. Jabba, Salacious, and Artoo (everyone ON the dais) are real Kenner items.

All the rest are customs/reproductions by StanSolo, including Artoo's drink-dispensing apparatus. Of the SS figures seen here, EV-9D9 and Barada were the most recent acquisitions, from an Etsy seller who miraculously had them listed at their inaugural prices.

I have StanSolo's Amaulaman, but I am kicking myself for not getting their straight-repro Amanaman when it was still the original price. If anyone has one they'd be willing to rehome for a low price, please let me know.

***

Fun fact, I dropped one of those tiny slugs when I was taking them out of their baggie to pose the photo. It fell into the floor at my feet and I could not spot it. I figured it was under one of the storage bins, but the irony was, this entire scene was set up on the topmost storage bin, so I couldn't move the base of the stack without all these figures falling over.

I snapped the pic with only one of the small slugs in place, knowing I could simply digitally clone it for the final pic.

After the pic was done, and I put all the toys away, I was able to move the storage bins around until I found the littlest slug hiding in the carpet.

Best of all, I also found a small ziploc bag containing three Stan Solo accessories that I had just been wondering where they were. It too had fallen and was obscured behind some Vader cases.

Alex

 

[M13]

*
Alex

Everything you've brought to your cantina and this thread is amazing.

 

[New_Bornalex]

Everything you've brought to your cantina and this thread is amazing.

I have brought peace, freedom, justice and security to my cantina.

Alex

 

[MosEisleyDroid]

I have a Gorn in the backroom of my cantina!

 

[yodashizzle]

I have a Gorn in the backroom of my cantina! View attachment 521777

Look at Blue Snags.....He's thinking. "If only I had some sulfer, charcoal, loose diamonds for projectiles and a piece of bamboo, I could create a sort of primitive "gun" and shoot this Gorn character..."

 

[Lobotscomb]

Look at Blue Snags.....He's thinking. "If only I had some sulfer, charcoal, loose diamonds for projectiles and a piece of bamboo, I could create a sort of primitive "gun" and shoot this Gorn character..."

A veritable fortune in diamonds and jewels yet I’d gladly trade them all for a blaster or a good solid vibro axe.

 

[yodashizzle]

A veritable fortune in diamonds and jewels yet I’d gladly trade them all for a blaster or a good solid vibro axe.

 

[TheNext17]

I was looking for several things I needed for photo purposes yesterday, and turned out they were all in one small unlabeled box. This included several recent vintage figures procured at a gaming store across the river, a few StanSolo acquisitions, and my Ephant Mon from TN17.

So now I can finally do a group shot of my various TN17 action figures. (Baby Wampa, coins, thermal detonators, and the slugs not shown.)

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And here's Mosep and Khaa in my increasingly crowded Cantina.

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Alex

Those are some great shots!!!

 

[CaptainYoda]

I have a Gorn in the backroom of my cantina!

I was thinking Blue Snags was more like, "This Gorn is making me nervous. Why wont he just sit down already??"

 

[New_Bornalex]

I don't believe I've shared this guy yet, apologies if so.



Last year I began upgrading my Fisher-Price Adventure People collection, and also collected several FPAP figures that I hadn't ever owned.

One outgrowth of this was discovering the existence of custom FPAPs. I was outbid on an auction for this X-ray Fett mashup, and just before I was going to raise my max, I had a hunch I'd seen it previously.

I prowled around Etsy and found the same seller's store. Best of all, he had an Etsy sale price going on at the time, so I got the exact same item (bespoke) for less than the final eBay cost.

Alex

 

[Tulgah]

All of my cantinas have FOAP in them. They’re some of my very favorite pieces.

 

[Lobotscomb]

All of my cantinas have FOAP in them. They’re some of my very favorite pieces.
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The Lizard woman from Flash Gordon is one of my favorite figures ever. Although I never owned her.

 

[New_Bornalex]

Finally dug out my Bacta tank set to properly photograph the TN17 Luke.



Alex

 

[jedi_ds]

Looks like the new Retro ANH wave Han Stormtrooper has a bent arm! We will need someone to cast us lots of these to swap with Retro Stormtrooper and various others!

 

[TheGoodDr]

Looks like I'll only be getting the Dr and Luke Yavin. Anyone here able to help a brother out?

 

[New_Bornalex]

The Lizard woman from Flash Gordon is one of my favorite figures ever. Although I never owned her.

I just saw mine the other day, in a box that contains some of my Battlestar Galactica figures.



From the Flash Gordon line, I only ever owned these three figures, all purchased second-hand.

The Lizard Woman solved a problem for me in the mid-90s when I was shooting my all-toys recreation of the first Star Wars film. I began it sometime after I got my first videocamera following college graduation in 1992 and completed it sometime after my first wife and I bought our house in 1995.

I knew of the missing Jabba scene from Docking Bay 94, having seen the script in the Art of Star Wars coffee table book since the 70s, and the deleted Declan Mulholland version of the scene in one of the documentaries. I'd already heard the Radio Dramas by then too, where the scene is reworked into the character of Heater.

I wanted to include Jabba in toy form in the ANH storyline, but to my mind he wouldn't have left his Palace. So I threw in an 'extrapolated' scene, as a correspondent dubbed it back then, where the action cuts away to the Palace and we see Jabba learning from Garindan that Han Solo has killed Greedo at the Cantina, which angers him enough to knock his translator droid over with his thrashing tail, before settling down and sending Boba Fett after Solo.

Yep, I beat George Lucas to the punch by nearly two years on adding slug Jabba AND Boba into the ANH storyline.

I wanted there to be a dancing girl chained to the dais, though, and had no Oola figure at the time, not even a homemade one like my Garindan.

And as we all know there were precious few female characters in the Star Wars line by Kenner.

So instead I used my Lizard Woman figure from Flash Gordon.

Establishing shot:


Reverse angle (see how her tail slides into an existing hole on the Kenner dais):


Lizard Woman leaps off the dais as Jabba starts to thrash his tail:


LW rises shakily back into view as Jabba's initial ire abates:


Jabba's POV slowly zooms in on Fett, past LW in the foreground:


Alex

 

[New_Bornalex]

All of my cantinas have FOAP in them. They’re some of my very favorite pieces.
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That gray astronaut behind the Duros in your second pic was my most recent FPAP acquisition.



I already had the yellow one, but my saved eBay searches tipped me to this duo for a price much lower than the gray normally commanded by himself, so I snapped it up.

The gray "Alpha Pilot" figure shares at least three body parts with another figure that I'd previously nabbed in a lot for a great price: the right-arm Brainoid. Mathematically, I got him for ten bucks. Almost immediately he was hanging out in my Cantina for some pics. But ultimately I decided due to the arm that he must be the commander of the Clawtron robot army I'd amassed.




Admittedly, I went a little crazy buying FPAPs last year.

This was my original childhood collection at the beginning of August last year. They're on the lid of a medium sized cardboard box which my Dad once wrapped in wood-patterned Con-Tact paper. They've been in that box since at least the 1990s.



You may can notice some melty damage to the torso of the Safari mom in yellow, while the female Paramedic on the right lost half her foot at some point in time. So my initial intention was to replace/upgrade my damaged figures and replace any missing parts to the vehicles/sets.

Also, I'd wound up with a green-suited male scuba diver for the dolphin boat set, even though originally I'd had the pair of them in matching yellow. I vaguely remember that when I was a kid spending some time with my grandparents in Mississippi, one of the neighborhood kids had brought over the raft set with the duo in green (and in that one the girl was blonde) and he'd left them overnight before I returned them the next day. Being colorblind, it's entirely possible that back then I thought they were ALL in yellow and gave back the wrong male and just never noticed.

So in that instance, I needed to get the correct yellow-suit diver for my boat, but that would leave me with an extra green-suit, so I may as well add the blonde companion piece to my wants list.

And that was all my brain needed, apparently, to really widen the door and say, "Here's a couple of others I might like to own that I never had as a kid."

So, goal one: upgrade the damaged. That's the preservationist part of my brain. Goal two: get some I never had. That's the collector.

A third part of my brain chimed in... the customizer. I also began acquiring duplicates of certain figures to make customs.

Long story short (too late), by August 18, I'd bought several lots on eBay and my collection now looked like this:



Already they won't fit on the top of the box Dad re-papered.

I didn't NEED that many firemen but the lot was dirt cheap (like one dollar per figure) and included the green oxygen tank which I'd lost from the rescue truck. It was the first set that I re-completed.



The next set I completed was the Sea Explorer boat. I still had the dolphin, the skis, the scuba tanks. And I'd already gotten the yellow-suited male scuba diver, but I was missing the ski rope, plus both the boat and the yellow Sea Sled were covered in some spare sets of GIJoe vehicle stickers which had badly adhered into the plastic while these were stored in my parents' attic for a few decades. A fun customizing decision as a kid in the 80s, but a regrettable one to the preservation part of my adult brain.

I managed to find a cheap auction from a seller 20 minutes from here, which included the boat and sled and the tow rope. PLUS it came with another yellow diver who had a pristine paint job on the head BUT was missing one arm. And the head was one I needed for a custom.



Specifically, the head is needed to recreate the infamous kitbash of Han Solo that Kenner did using FPAP figures.



I felt the best recipe for Han was the diver's head on the Outdoorsman's body, with the clothes repainted.



This would allow the rest of the armless diver body to become C-3PO, using figures already on hand rather than buying the Kayaker just to customize, as seen in this digital mockup. After all, Fisher-Price was genius at using the same parts molds in new colors and combinations to create new characters, so once you begin to recognize those parts you see different approaches to the recipes.



And that brings us to today.



The ones in baggies are the ones slated for Star Wars customs. They include a safari family son figure who will become an articulated Lumpy figure. I did make a Lumpy previously using a solid casting of the safari boy, but I hope to revisit it with an actual figure.

Next to him are the gathered parts for Luke, below that is Obi-Wan, then Leia, Han, and C-3PO in descending order.

And funnily enough, like my post above about Lizard Woman, there were Fisher-Price figures sprinkled in my toy-video back in the mid-90s.

Last year, I stitched together multiple frames from a shot that pans left on this setup in closeup.



And here's a pic I took of them in better quality.



The Clawtron's head was turned backwards so it would look less like the motorcycle helmet it is.

The Imperial tech is the yield parts from a custom I'd made using a sideburned FPAP head on the body of an Imperial Commander.

It's been online for decades.



Now funnily enough, I was just thinking that this post has very little to do with professionally made Kenner style customs or repros.

And then I clicked over to Facebook to find a certain pic, and saw these.





They're $33 each. But I've never bought from Nema. Anyone familiar with them, want to speak as to the quality or value?

Alex

 

[VaderJay]

Great pics! Now I know whose been beating me on all those FPAP lots!

I've wanted to do the custom mockup C3PO and wasn't quite sure which parts they had used. Your observations helped!

 

[New_Bornalex]

Great pics! Now I know whose been beating me on all those FPAP lots!

I've wanted to do the custom mockup C3PO and wasn't quite sure which parts they had used. Your observations helped!

Be advised, it's possible that the reference pics I'm using are of a custom interpretation and not the actual kitbash.

I think this one is legit, where we can see the parallel arms and the tapering legs.



But this pic comes from a book that I don't personally own, and I think I've seen someone say in a FB comment that these are customs.



If they're customs, my hat is off to whoever bought the 4" Kenner Bigfoot from the Dual Racing set just to customize him. Those things are pricey!



Below are my revised recipes after I bought some figure lots and began taking inventory of what pieces I already had on hand.

At far right it will always be the best pic I have of the kitbash figures, but Threepio was not among them.

As you can see in this early group shot, at first Threepio was just a paper cutout.



Luke from Outdoorsman figure for the head and limbs, and a discolored Fireman for the narrower lapels.



Chewie from Kenner Bigfoot, not FPAP, as previously discussed.



Ben Kenobi is the Mountain Climber head on a Fireman body.



Leia will utilize the limbs from my safari mom whose torso got melty, and the head and torso of my broken-foot female paramedic, as detailed in my previous post.



Threepio recipe, but again, based on a possible custom interpretation, so if new info comes to light, this may be in error.



Han was very economical. He's the head from the one-armed diver who becomes Threepio, and the body of the Mountain Climber who becomes Ben.



As for Vader...


See how he's taller than Han? I suspect they cut off his feet right above the shoes and glued on the boots of a second figure.



As for the helmet...



Am I nuts or did they sculpt him over a fireman too?

That lot with the 10 beater firemen that cost me $1 each might have been the best unintentional SW kitbash purchase I made.

Alex

 

[VaderJay]

That definitely is a fireman sculpted over for Vader.

What makes customizing these fun is the fact that they were used for the test shots.

 

[VaderJay]

You could use Mountain climber legs on the fireman for Vader as well. It would be an easy way to give him boots.

 

[New_Bornalex]

I splurged a little recently and got myself the SS R5-D4. Note the red bar.



Up til now I've only had the SS Droids-style R5-D4.



The pose was innocuous when I lined them up for the pic but I'm getting a "Play with us, Danny" vibe off it now.

The other R5 units celebrate the arrival of their overdue leader.



And here's a pic of nearly all my SS astromechs together.



***

I also picked up a StanSolo Marion Ravenwood while I was there.



I have the vintage Kenner Marion, as well as the Hasbro Retro, so I didn't feel the need to rush and get this one.

SS intended to do even more vintage-style Indy figure repros, but sadly when Hasbro did the Retro line at a cheaper price point, those plans got cancelled.

***

I also got ten Stormtrooper E-11s because I think the SS repros feel more vintage than the PCF offerings that come with their Stormtrooper figure.

I may have under-ordered, though. Two of my PCF Sandtroopers carry E-11s, which I'd forgotten.

Alex

 

[TheGoodDr]

The Droids ver R5-D4 is such a great idea, perfectly executed by SS.

 

[TheNext17]

I splurged a little recently and got myself the SS R5-D4. Note the red bar.

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Up til now I've only had the SS Droids-style R5-D4.

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The pose was innocuous when I lined them up for the pic but I'm getting a "Play with us, Danny" vibe off it now.

The other R5 units celebrate the arrival of their overdue leader.

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And here's a pic of nearly all my SS astromechs together.

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***

I also picked up a StanSolo Marion Ravenwood while I was there.

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I have the vintage Kenner Marion, as well as the Hasbro Retro, so I didn't feel the need to rush and get this one.

SS intended to do even more vintage-style Indy figure repros, but sadly when Hasbro did the Retro line at a cheaper price point, those plans got cancelled.

***

I also got ten Stormtrooper E-11s because I think the SS repros feel more vintage than the PCF offerings that come with their Stormtrooper figure.

I may have under-ordered, though. Two of my PCF Sandtroopers carry E-11s, which I'd forgotten.

Alex

Nice haul!!

 

[TheNext17]

I'm giving away a free, as of yet, unreleased, Rebel Ground Crew in my new video, to enter:

- watch the video till the end
- Like/comment/Subscribe

 

[M13]

I don't believe I've shared this guy yet, apologies if so.

View attachment 521862

Made me think of...

 

[New_Bornalex]

Nice! I knew I'd heard the name Plastic Vomit before, so I had to go check my purchase history on Etsy and see if that was the same source.

Nope. My X-Ray Fett was from a seller called ToyBuz.

Alex

 

[Woody]

Managed to order the carded Tonnikas & R4-E1 from the SS UK site today so other than Yarna I'm now up to date

 

[BenShysa75]

New_Bornalex -

You need this Astro Zombie from the Super 7 Reaction line.

There are a few different Astro Zombie paint variants, but this particular one reminds me of the Firestar pilot from the Fisher Price Adventure People line.

 

[Tulgah]

They DEFINITELY were “quoting” that Firestar figure when they designed that Astro Zombie, absolutely definitely for sure.

 

[New_Bornalex]

New_Bornalex -

You need this Astro Zombie from the Super 7 Reaction line.

There are a few different Astro Zombie paint variants, but this particular one reminds me of the Firestar pilot from the Fisher Price Adventure People line.

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They DEFINITELY were “quoting” that Firestar figure when they designed that Astro Zombie, absolutely definitely for sure.

Oh wow. I didn't know about that one before now.

Pretty pricey on eBay, but after looking at the auction pics, I see that the helmet is removable, too.

I've spent a bit too much on toys lately, but I've added it as a Saved Search and even put a loose one in my Watchlist. Maybe if I'm patient enough the seller will send me a lower offer.

Alex

 

[Booster Terrik]

PCF has the individual Astromechs up

Procustomfigures Online Store

 

[TheGoodDr]

PCF has the individual Astromechs up

Procustomfigures Online Store

On my way over now to pick up the two I wanted

 

[New_Bornalex]

Man, why did those have to hit one day after the new Retro 6-pack Target exclusive?

Alex

 

[TheGoodDr]

Ordered R5-G19, R4-I9 and one each of the black and white pauldron Sandtroopers. I have the orange one already and really wish Hasbro had chosen any colour other than orange for their Retro figure!

 

[stealthboy]

PCF has the individual Astromechs up

Procustomfigures Online Store

Ordered R3-A2 and R5-M2. Thanks for the note!

 

[LeiaandFett]

On my way over now to pick up the two I wanted

PCF has the individual Astromechs up

Procustomfigures Online Store

Thanks for the heads up. Ordered R5-M2, R5-G19, and R4-I9. Really curious to see how these stack up to the Stan Solo astromechs.

 

[SGT_A]

I stay generally to actual vintage and retro, but damn it doesn’t that Leia look just perfect among the vile!

 

[M13]

Really curious to see how these stack up to the Stan Solo astromechs.

Here are some comparison pics, along with some other pics of a few mixed in, as well as some arrivals joining some old favorites.

 

[Tulgah]

That’s a remarkable collection, alright. Dang, that’s a lot of awesome custom goodness!