Comment dites-vous “Action Figure”?
Once upon a time, when a child wanted
a doll, someone made a doll (or they didn’t and the child did without). In
those days, such a doll would be called a “doll” and would be well-used. Maybe,
just maybe, some adult would make a particularly beautiful doll and then they’d
get a reputation as a “dollmaker.” Today, we manufacture mass quantities of
these dolls in plastic and call them “action figures,” since everyone was
afraid that the parents of boys would not buy their male offspring a “doll.”
And your local “dollmaker” has
transmogrified into a “customizer.” Indeedy do! A customizer is a creative
person who makes action figures in the privacy of their own secret laboratory.
And then they display their creations on the internet often accompanied by the
“recipe” used to cook up their monstrous creations. “Classic Catwoman: This
version of Selina is made from a Tekken figure. Her head was quite tricky,
using a very sharp x-acto I sliced the original figures head in the center of
her forehead. I then took a[n] abandoned Catwoman head and did the same. It was
then a simple task of lining the two pieces up. The hair came from the same
head and putty was used to fill in gaps to make it appear as one piece.” (Brad
McCurry at www.joeacevedo.com)
Visions of unclean plastic surgery by
mad scientists working in Sculpey dancing in my head, I visited the official
site of CustomCon 13 (www.joeacevedo.com).
People have done some horrible things to G.I. Joe is all I can say.
Matt Caulay, who apparently uses the
nom de plastique of Iron-Cow, has made numerous unique figures covering James
Bond to Caddyshack. (www.ironcowprod.com) He
seems to be living the dream as he has worked professionally with Art Asylum on
their mass-produced Battlestar Galactica figures.
The entire subculture receives its
monthly due in Toyfare magazine, a
far more entertaining publication than the topic merits.
— Craig Brownlie
This article appears in Feb 22-28, 2006.
