Action figures have long been a perfect compliment to comic books, since every kid (or kid at heart) has that natural desire to act out adventures with their favorite heroes off the drawn page. Every so often, a unique style of figure comes along that breaks the mold, so to speak. Each Saturday, Donny B will be showcasing various offerings from Art Asylum’s take on the ‘block figure’, with a weekly spotlight on Minimates.
Have you ever wanted a toy of a character that hasn’t been made? It happens all the time. Maybe a certain character is just too obscure for a company to justify the production cost. Maybe it’s tied up in red tape and will never see the light of day. Or maybe it’s something you created in your own mind.
It’s inevitable that any and every toy line will always be missing characters that some fan somewhere is dying to own.
So what is a collector to do?
The more creative ones turn to customizing. It’s an age-old tradition, where a fan takes a toy and tweaks it in some way.
Being an avid Minimate collector, I’ve obtained a modest number of custom ‘mates and occasionally even tried my hand at producing my own creations. It’s not an easy endeavor, and any amateur who can pump out a professional looking toy has earned my respect 1,000 fold.
This week’s image is my most recent custom, which is an amalgam of Lady Deathstrike (Yuriko Oyama) and Samus Aran (of the Metroid game series). I made it as part of a contest to design an ‘alternate universe’ version of any pre-existing Minimate. You can check the backstory here.
Behind the Image:
This is a straight up photograph – the wall is a mini diorama made specifically for use with Minimates (purchased from Luke’s Toy Store, though it is currently discontinued) and the fancy sky was thrown in via photoshop. I was tempted to digitally clean up some of the less-than-professional looking details on the Minimate itself, but I ended up opting to leave it as-is.
On Ebay: Lady Deathstrike
On AtomicAvenue: Wolverine