Having finally reached the coveted Custom 300, here in the Realm, decided to celebrate this milestone by sharing a retro custom figure made back in the day. This custom was specially made for the Toyfare publication, when they had their Homemade Monster contest in the September 1999 issue (whoa, seems like just last week!).
There were a few other entries that were really cool and clearly better made but apparently the editors had a thing for characters from classic literature.
Needless to say, was completely blown away when this hideous Grendel custom went on to win Grand prize! Never thought it would've placed, much less win. At the time, it was for kicks - just wanted to try customizing the monster from that great story and see what would happen if the figure went public.
Used basic parts like toy animal tusks, decapitated GIJoe heads, half a tennis ball and some hair off the bangs. Lol, it was more about having fun than actually making anything good. The skills and materials used have certainly gotten better over the years. Back then, customizing wasn't nearly as global or accessible as it is today. There weren't any tutorials, beech'n figure sites to rip off from other customizers. Nowadays, there's a galaxy full of artists to reference and get inspiration from.
It was also cool to get in the mail this behemoth Spawn prototype statue as prize from the boys over @ Toyfare. Gotta admit, they gave out some perdy rad stuff back in the day!
But the greatest reward is having the opportunity (and resources) to continue customizing, with "fun" still being a large part of it. Hey, you got to have fun to keep on at it - no matter what your craft is.
So high-5s goes out to all those customizers who continue to pursue this hobby and are churning out some wicked works of art!
Thank you for checking this out, and continuing the journey. C ya.


11:11am, Sun. Mar. 13th/2011