My customized articulated toys

[GrownNerd]

I have a large collection of articulated action figures, and I customize many to fill in holes of the collection or to "correct" figures that I think the toy companie didn't make well. Back in 2009 my superhero action figure collecting and customizing intersected with my smaller dinosaur figure collecting. Marvel comics has a couple of characters named Shanna and Kazar, who are modern people living in a hidden prehistoric land. They have a pet sabre tooth tiger named Zabu. The toy company which made the figures for Shanna and Kazar did a terrible job with Zabu, so I had to customize him for my collection. And then I had to customize a foe worthy of Zabu so I made a large, scythe toe dinosaur.

Being based on comic books these creatures are of course wildly inaccurate. The other thing about these customs is that they had to have a high amount of articulation and playability, so correct anatomy further goes out the window in order for the joints to have room to go through their range.

First some WIP shots with the various elements used to customize Zabu the sabre tooth tiger. The labels are parts from other action figures that I used:

Joints cobbled together for the shoulder and hips to give rotational and lateral movement:



A tail joint made from the shoulder joint of another figure, which gives movement in all directions:


A joint from a Bionicle toy put into the head and neck to allow head movement:


The full figure at rough assembly. Here all the joints cobbled from other toys are in place. The next step is to remove bits of plastic that doesn't look like a saber tooth tiger:


Same figure dremeled to rough shape:


Further progress with more shape and fur textures burned into plastic with a soldering iron or sculpted in using Aves Apoxie Sculpt:



Zabu finished in various poses:








And here he's posed with his buddies Kazar and Shanna, which are factory figures.

[GrownNerd]

Wips of what I call an Ultra-raptor (totally made up name and dino so as to get away with all my inaccuracies):

Construction of the scythe toe:


Frankensteined parts making up the base structure. Then they get dremeled to shape and sculpted over with more detail.




















And the Ultra-raptor finished, showing his articulation and posing possibilities.

[GrownNerd]

And of course I have to pose Zabu and the Ultra-raptor fighting each other.





Since Zabu is a hero in the comics, he has to win of course



And then Shanna and Kazar tame the raptor and they become buddies and play instead of fight


A photo that will drive paleontologists nuts

[Jetoar]

Good Job  !. Your figures have articulated arms and legs such as Revoltech figures  . Well done again.

[Paleona]

That's really cool!  And very crafty of you... it must feel good to know you have a true one-of-a-kind figure.   
So, do you have a frankenstein box full of random limbs and joints, just waiting to be used?  And do you have any plans of making more articulated dinosaurs?  They're great for posed shots.

[postsaurischian]

   Fantastic job and great pictures too! I'm really enjoying this.
Are you doing comic stories with these? If yes, it would be wonderful if you'd share them here .

[Simon]

Fantastic!  You are QUITE the customizer!!  One suggestion - the sabretooth needs some sharp claws!!

[GrownNerd]

Thanks guys.

Paleona,
Yes I indeed have various boxes with limbs, heads, and bits of other body parts. I used to customize quite a bit so each time I cut up a figure but only use a few parts, I end up with more leftover fodder which just accumulate waiting for the right project. Back when I was doing these two, I intended to adapt what I learned in doing them to a larger size and make a Triceratops and a T-rex, also in 1/12 scale so they'd be compatible with this set. But these took a lot out of me and afterwards I didn't want to tackle the same sort of project that was bigger and would have required mostly scratch built joints since ready made ones that size either don't exist or are hard to come by.

Postsaurishian,
No, I'm not doing comic stories with them. I only did these series of photos to show my chums the various poses they could hit.

Simon,
Claws on the sabretooth was something I wrestled with in the beginning. I couldn't make actual retractible claws so it had to be either a permanently unsheathed look or one where the claws are always greatly extended. In the end I thought it looked more natural without large extended claws. I looked at my cats and videos and photos of lions and tigers in action, and for the most part even when their claws are unsheathed they don't really show from most angles and the cat just looks like it's spreading its paws out large. 

[Zopteryx]

Very impressive and creative!

[Horridus]

These are awesome - whod've thought that there was a Spider Man elbow in there...?

Any chance of a feathered nonavian dino in future...? No one's made an articulated one, would be amazing.

[Sharptooth]

WOW, they are awesome indeed... Incredible, didn't know it was possible to customize action figures to such degree   

[dinotoyforum]

Inspired! Wonderful stuff! 

[Takama]

Amazing work. and I am inpressed on how you were able to use varius joints from alot of other toys (Especieally the Bionicle piece, May Mata Nui bless your work )

[postsaurischian]

I'd love to see more of those, especially Marvel silver age characters (I suspect that you have made some of those)!
We have an Other toys and collectibles section in case you don't dare to show them here .

[Gryphoceratops]

This is so cool!  Very resourceful stuff!