One of the highlights of this year’s Comic-Con for me was the panel on action-figure modding. These dedicated artisans combine a prodigious knowledge of materials science, artistic talent, and a deep love of comics to make their own incredible custom action-figures. Wired’s Marty Graham was there too, and she got a great story out of it, accompanied by a gallery of luscious studio photos of the figs. I also shot a ton of pix at the panel.
A dedicated subculture of craftspeople have been frankensteining, kitbashing, boiling-and-popping, sculpting and painting one-of-a-kind figures for years. Their efforts are bringing to life characters that don’t enjoy enough of a following to justify mass production — think the 1950s Batman foe the Killer Moth — or which, like the Watchmen figures, are tied up by copyright and creative differences.
“We all started customizing because there was a character we were in love with and nobody made the dolls,” says Scott Rogers, a Los Angeles hobbyist who’s been building figures since 1992. “Or the one they made didn’t look right.”
See also: My ComicCon photos