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Custom Dick Grayson / Robin the Boy Wonder has a strong new body!

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  • darklord1967
    Persistent Member
    • Mar 27, 2008
    • 1550

    Custom Dick Grayson / Robin the Boy Wonder has a strong new body!

    I never thought the MEGO / Figures Toy Company approach to an athletic young boy hero (standing on left) was ever particularly convincing.

    I therefore developed something... a little different (standing on right) for my 9Art custom Dick Grayson / Robin The Boy Wonder.





    My upcoming custom Robin The Boy Wonder stands in perfect proportional height to the other character body types I have created for this line of custom figures. And he exists in accurate scale height when compared to a real life little boy of about 12 years of age.

    The nude figure stands EXACTLY 6.375" in height. In 1:9 scale, that translates to a real-life boy standing 4' feet, 9.375 inches in height.

    Stacked up against MEGO / FTC, the numbers are very revealing:

    MEGO / FTC heroic adult males (who all stand the same height) are actually NOT 8 inches tall as advertised. When nude, the characters actually only measure 7.75 inches in height. In 1:9 scale, that translates to a real life man standing 5' 10" in height. While this might be acceptable for an averagely built character like Peter Parker / Spiderman, it does fall a bit short for heroic Olympian male archtypes like Superman, Batman, and Captain America.

    The FTC "Teen Hero" body pictured above next to my custom measures 6.75" in height. In 1:9 scale, that translates to a real-life teen standing just short of 5'1" in height.

    The 9Art "Athletic Boy Hero" body which i have developed is an all ball-jointed body (no bungee construction). It features 28 points of articulation for exceptionally dynamic posing. As a solidly constructed figure with tight, sturdy limbs, ABH features body parts that are solid (not hollow). This gives the figure unpresidented density, weight and posing / standing integrity.

    Last edited by darklord1967; May 17, '17, 7:10 AM.
    I... am an action figure customizer
  • boss
    Talkative Member
    • Jun 18, 2003
    • 7204

    #2
    I love it.
    Fresh, not from concentrate.

    Comment

    • PNGwynne
      Master of Fowl Play
      • Jun 5, 2008
      • 19445

      #3
      Fantastic, looking forward to seeing him costumed.

      Have you considered adding a sculpted torso for characters like Kamandi? (Although, I think Kamandi is age 14/14, so a "teen" body would work.)
      WANTED: Dick Grayson SI trousers; gray AJ Mustang horse; vintage RC Batman (Bruce Wayne) head; minty Wolfman tights; mint Black Knight sword; minty Launcelot boots; Lion Rock (pale) Dracula & Mummy heads; Lion Rock Franky squared boots; Wayne Foundation blue furniture; Flash Gordon/Ming (10") unbroken holsters; CHiPs gloved arms; POTA T2 tan body; CTVT/vintage Friar Tuck robes, BBP TZ Burgess Meredith glasses.

      Comment

      • JediJaida
        Talkative Member
        • Jun 14, 2008
        • 5671

        #4
        You put a lot of thought into this. It's very nice and a lot more realistic than the Mego body.

        Even the smaller teen body is too built to be believable for a supposed teenager.

        I can't wait to see what else you do with this.
        JediJaida

        Comment

        • Neutron X
          Persistent Member
          • Dec 22, 2007
          • 1803

          #5
          Too Cool! Love what you have done here! Can't wait to see it all painted up and dressed.

          Comment

          • comicmike
            Persistent Member
            • Sep 22, 2009
            • 1824

            #6
            another moment in time where i can not stop staring at your wonderful work

            Comment

            • darklord1967
              Persistent Member
              • Mar 27, 2008
              • 1550

              #7
              Here is a size comparison of the 9Art "Athletic Boy Hero" Dick Grayson / Robin The Boy Wonder with the 9Art "Heroic Adult Male" Bruce Wayne / The Batman:

              Last edited by darklord1967; May 3, '16, 1:08 PM.
              I... am an action figure customizer

              Comment

              • Earth 2 Chris
                Verbose Member
                • Mar 7, 2004
                • 32498

                #8
                Wow, really nice!!!

                Chris
                sigpic

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                • darklord1967
                  Persistent Member
                  • Mar 27, 2008
                  • 1550

                  #9
                  Vest Tunic:

                  After some trial and error experimentation, I was able to create a pattern for Robin’s leathery vest tunic (in Adobe Photoshop) that had a nice, tailored fit on the “Athletic Boy” body I developed.





                  Fabricating the vest was a bit involved, and even painstaking, and yet it was also a lot more fun than I anticipated it would be.

                  I printed out the vest pattern, and then very lightly coated the back of the page with spray adhesive. With the light tack consistency of maybe painter’s tape, I adhered the paper pattern to the back of the red fabric I selected. With my trusty, sharp cuticle scissors, I cut out a perfectly clean vest, which I then sewed into a wearable garment.














                  Last edited by darklord1967; Apr 5, '17, 3:06 AM.
                  I... am an action figure customizer

                  Comment

                  • darklord1967
                    Persistent Member
                    • Mar 27, 2008
                    • 1550

                    #10
                    Pixie Shoes


                    My custom “athletic boy” body (used to create Dick Grayson / Robin The Boy Wonder) features feet and ankles that were kit-bashed from a MEGO adult female body. This created a unique set of problems when fashioning Robin’s classic pixie boots that would fit appropriately on these small feet.

                    I really wanted the pixie boots to be made of cloth, and I wanted them to be in a shade and texture of green that was IDENTICAL to the t-shirt, trunks and gauntlets of the costume. I also wanted the booties to feature a lifted and pointed toe which is classically traditional on these types of shoes.

                    It did not take me long to settle on the original shoes that MEGO created for the Ellen action figure of their WALTONS line as my starting point for Robin's pixie shoes.

                    The Ellen shoes featured the upturned pointed forward tip I was looking for. Unfortunately, they also had a large top flap (which I removed), and a very tall and bulky heel (which I would need to contend with since I wanted Robin to wear FLAT pixie shoes). I cut out the tall arch support inside the shoes, and made the big heel into a hollow cavity that the back portion of the foot could fit inside of (effectively turning the shoes into flat loafers). The cut out arch support resulted in a triangle-shaped hole gap in the middle of the shoes that I filled with Milliput sculpting compound.




                    With the Ellen shoes now converted into flat loafers, I next turned my attention to very carefully laminating green fabric to them in order to turn them into Robin the Boy Wonder’s classic kicks! The finished pixie shoes even feature green fabric insoles permanently installed for a completed look.










                    I test fit the brand new custom pixie booties along with the green t-shirt, base trunks, leathery red tunic vest, and face mask all on the figure.

                    So far so good. The Boy Wonder was pretty pleased with his new garments.



                    As is plainly evident, lot of work remains to be done to complete this custom figure, but I think it's all going in the proper direction.






                    FINAL VEST DETAILS

                    With the basic form of the vest fabricated and fit upon the figure, the next issue I had to contend with was the vest's final fine details: The creation of the lace holes upon the garment and the installation of the miniscule, micro eyelets through which the yellow tunic laces would be threaded.

                    This detail of the tunic was a real challenge to pull off because all the holes had to be PERFECTLY lined up in relation to each other, and they had to be functional enough to have the vest’s fastening laces fit through them. With even a single hole or eyelet NOT PRECISELY lined up, the vest garment would appear amateurish and cheap.

                    To ensure the lace holes perfect positioning, I mapped them out at the vest pattern creation stage, and represented them with little white dots.




                    After the vest was cut and stitched, I laid the still tacky paper pattern back onto the vest and used a 1/16” paper hole punch to punch the lace holes into the garment, using the hole positions on the pattern as a guide.











                    The layout of these lace holes had to be very carefully coordinated with a large holdout space (at the top of the vest) for the large collar of Robin's cape... another hold out space (at the bottom of the vest ) for the prominent positioning of the utility belt buckle, and even a consideration for the monogram "R" insignia on the left lapel (special thanks to Paul "laser-mego" Wasson for printing out these nifty vinyl stickers from the pattern I sent)!







                    Once the garment was successfully perforated with the 12 holes necessary for 6 laces, I set about creating eyelet coverings for each of the holes. Now this is where maintaining a good stock of model building parts for kit bashing comes in. Among my stash, there was a tree of parts that contained micro circle loops that I determined would be PERFECT to create the eyelets for the vest’s laces. The truly unnerving thing about these “loops” was the fact that there were EXACTLY 12 of them on the parts tree I had… the EXACT number of loops I needed for Robin’s vest… and not a single one more! And since I had no idea what model kit this parts tree came from, I was not able to re-purchase that model kit to obtain more of these loops to have as extras.

                    This operation was going to have to be done with ZERO margin for error!





                    After about six hours of very, slow, steady, and meticulous work, I managed to color all 12 laces in black with a permanent marker...





                    ...and then installed them in the PRECICE positions over the holes I had punched on the vest garment. As incredible as it may seem, I did not lose a single eyelet loop… AND I actually managed to attach them with superglue, so they are permanent! Not bad for a bunch of parts that are about the size of a pen point!








                    Last edited by darklord1967; Apr 5, '17, 3:39 AM.
                    I... am an action figure customizer

                    Comment

                    • darklord1967
                      Persistent Member
                      • Mar 27, 2008
                      • 1550

                      #11
                      Over the years, as an action figure designer / customizer, I have amassed a variety of shapes and objects made of different materials that I thought would come in handy for future projects.

                      When putting together Robin The Boy Wonder's comic book based utility belt, I decided that I wanted the buckle to be made of real polished brass, as a reflection of the intended richness of the final figure.

                      Looking in my materials bin, I found a series of brass studs, loops, eyelets, and rods that would prove to be very handy for me to create the Boy Wonder's buckle...



























                      Last edited by darklord1967; Jul 28, '17, 1:51 PM.
                      I... am an action figure customizer

                      Comment

                      • EMCE Hammer
                        Moderation Engineer
                        • Aug 14, 2003
                        • 25679

                        #12
                        You have a great eye for details!

                        Comment

                        • JediJaida
                          Talkative Member
                          • Jun 14, 2008
                          • 5671

                          #13
                          Dude, I'd love to see an improved female body, both adult and teen, you'd come up with. With ball joints and no rubber bands, with heads that are in scale, they'd be a better alternative to what FTC has available.
                          JediJaida

                          Comment

                          • greensavage2000
                            Veteran Member
                            • Aug 9, 2013
                            • 415

                            #14
                            Wow, I don't think I could be more impressed. They're beautiful. The craftsmanship is second to none. This is easily professional quality. I look forward to seeing more. Thanks

                            Comment

                            • Starroid Raiders Dagon
                              Persistent Member
                              • Apr 28, 2013
                              • 2162

                              #15
                              Originally posted by greensavage2000
                              Wow, I don't think I could be more impressed. They're beautiful. The craftsmanship is second to none. This is easily professional quality. I look forward to seeing more. Thanks
                              I could not have said it better than greensavage2000. Those shoes are unbelievable.

                              Comment

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