Custom Vintage-Style Luke Skywalker by
O.G. Trilogy, on Flickr
When the orginal Star Wars movie came out in 1977, Kenner wasn't prepared to meet the demand for Star Wars action figures so instead they sold the Early Bird Kit which was basically a voucher for 4 figures that hadn't made it to stores yet. The Early Bird Kit was the first place where fans could get Star Wars figures.
The modern figure to the right was released a few years back and came from a special set that was made to pay homage to the old Early Bird Kit. This Luke figure has the same telescoping Lightsaber feature that the Vintage figure came with over 30 years ago. Unfortunately, this figure needed some work. Originally his shirt was about the same color as his pants, his hair was painted with a very dark brown paint and there was some paint slop around his face and right hand. When I set about repainting him I loosely based him off the Vintage Luke figure.
Custom Vintage-Style Luke Skywalker (2) by
O.G. Trilogy, on Flickr
When I repainted Luke's hair, I chickened out and went with a more realistic light, redish brown instead of the bright yellow like his predecessor. I repainted his shirt with a really light cream colored acrylic paint and touched up spots around his belt and hands. I was careful not to paint the working parts of his ball jointed shoulders so that I could maintain his limited articulation. Also, I tried not to get any paint in the slot on the back of his lightsaber arm to keep the lightsaber easy to slide back and forth. My favorite part is his belt buckle. I don't know if it really comes across in the photos, but the Vintage Luke has 5 raised bumps on his belt buckle which I recreated on my custom by dotting the buckle with paint. I guess you could say I got lazy since I didn't repaint the legs to look more like the Vintage version, but I thought they were fine the way they were. When I finished with the paints, I gave him a couple of coats of Testor's Brand Dullcoat to help even out and protect the paint. Anyway, I had a lot of fun doing this fairly simple custom and I think he looks really great!
Custom Cantina Figure Stands by
O.G. Trilogy, on Flickr
These figure stands were made out of plain old paper clay. I painted them with acrylic paints, did a black paint wash on top of them and brushed on a coat of elmer's glue to make them look a little damp. I bought the pegs through a website that sells unique action figure display bases
www.ultarama.com/ The Ultarama base is riddled with small holes that fit these tiny figure foot pegs and help secure the figures to the base. You can also buy the pegs separately in small zip-up baggies. There are 2 sizes of pegs. The white ones I used here fit modern Star Wars and many other 3.75 inch figures and there are larger black pegs that fit Vintage Star Wars and other larger scale figures.
Custom Cantina Figure Stands 2 by
O.G. Trilogy, on Flickr
Star Wars Death Star Cannon by
O.G. Trilogy, on Flickr
Here's the G.I. Joe Cannon I was looking for before I did my other two custom Death Star Cannons. I found it at a store called Vintage Stock. It's like the Island of Lost Toys there and I bought this cannon for about $5.00. It was originally drab green and all I did was repaint it with a metallic gray acrylic paint. It's not that much like the ones in the Star Wars movies, but it's a great looking toy cannon and I love the chair!
Custom Repaint Chewbacca by
O.G. Trilogy, on Flickr
This figure came out in the current Saga Legends line and he had a lot of grey fur and light grey flecks in his original paint deco. I thought the greys were kind of overdone and so I brushed on a few layers of medium brown acrylic paint to make the greys and highlights seem more subdued. I repainted his bandoleer a lighter redish brown and then used silver acrylic to touch up all of his ammo pouches. This slicked-back hair version of Chewie reminds me more of how he appeared in A New Hope.
The Vintage Collection C-3PO by
O.G. Trilogy, on Flickr