It’s no secret that I like stuff. Toys in particular. I’ve been collecting comic book and video game paraphernalia for years now. But the designer toy scene – in particular, vinyl figures – is new territory for me. I’ve been dabbling in Kid Robot offerings for a few years now and have developed some favorite artists, but never tried playing around with the DIY items till this weekend.  I figured I would show them off here! Let me know what you think!

Kratos/God of War
As far as beginner customs go, this one seemed obvious. With the large white dome standard to Munny figures, I deduced that resident video-game badass Kratos would be a good place to start. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, though. I went through two iterations of this guy after I initially screwed up his body paint, tried to wipe it off and ended up with a pink-headed Munny on accident. The second time around I worked smarter, using thick red marker and painter’s tape to create solid and smooth lines.

I used black, brown and gold felt with a leather pattern for the loincloth, and spray painted/modified charms for a necklace for his belt. The chains are from a necklace kit, which I also spray painted to match, and the goatee is some fur I picked up with the rest of the supplies. Funny enough, I was going to make the Chaos Blades from scratch, but found out that the blades from Kratos’ action figure fit perfectly into my Munny’s hands.

I intentionally left Kratos' face blank because I like the abstractness of the piece.

The whole thing took 3-4 hours to complete, not including the time I wasted before scrapping the first attempt. The total cost was somewhere around $30.

Original/Egg-Head Munny
I also wanted to try my hand at a totally original custom creation, to see where my imagination took me when not limited by a character concept. I love when custom designers heavily modify Munny anatomy, so I decided to lop off the top of its head and create a bird nest/birdbath out of the two pieces.

I started by spraying the money with (ridiculously overpriced!) textured spray paint to make it look like stone. It took forever to dry, resulting the project lasting most of my weekend. From there, I glued a layer of fake moss to a base and the lip of each half of the head, and decorated the stand with flowers and twigs. I purchased the fake eggs and bird from JoAnn Fabrics, where I also found a gel substance that can be used to mimic water in silk floral arrangements. After heating the gel up it becomes liquid, which allowed me to pour the substance into the birdbath to finish off the figure.

This guy cost me around $40 to finish.

I am already hooked to making my own custom figures, and am going to try my best to knock out a Big Daddy (with little sister Dunny) over Thanksgiving break. You’ll get updates as I create more!
Suggestions are always welcome!