Hi Guys!
Thanks so much for the kind comments and the words of support!
Your friendship and compassion has made this painful situation FAR more bearable and tolerable.
As I'm sure you can all imagine, ALL SORTS of horrible things run through your mind when you are suddenly confronted with the partial destruction of your beloved STAR WARS toy collection (well... the BOXES anyway). When you discover 30 years of history and personal memories all soggy like that, it seems that leaping off the nearest bridge is a VERY viable option.
But as I've said before, being a part of this wonderful STAR WARS customizing community has been such an inspiration to me, that the "creative juices" began flowing almost immediately after witnessing the disaster.
I actually asked myself, "What would a true CUSTOMIZER do in my situation? Would he give up? Would he simply shrug his shoulders, sell off what he could of the collection and never look back?"
HECK NO!!!!
I quickly realized that it is in the SPIRIT of a true customizer to sometimes create unique pieces of fine art (yes, I said ART!!) out of less than NOTHING! All of us here on these boards have seen some of the FINEST custom action figures and dioramas created out of discared toy parts, ordinary household items, plain ol' trash", and yes, even out of... bad situations.
Other collectors and customizers have gone through far WORSE than my little flood. They've lost much more, and have still come out okay.
Daigo-bah's run-in with huricane Katrina comes to mind.
After I was done feeling sorry for myself, I saw that I had NO RIGHT to call myself a "customzer" unless I could use my creativity to turn this situation around. After all, the toys themselves were not damaged.
Unless I could correct this (relatively) minor incident with my God-given customizing abilities, had NO BUSINESS in counting myself among the proud ranks of customzers like Chewie, Daigo-bah, Findswoman, Master_Phurby, Owen Driscol, Sith fire-30, MK17, Alex Newborn, Dan Curto, Glassman 6, Master Gunzz, EU CustomMan, Herb, Beedo, Rick UK, Bantha 5, scoobacca, DarthJace, and Darth _Deastron (just to name a few. I love ALL you guys, even the ones I neglected to mention.).
Less than 24 hours later, I was hard at work on the computer creating my first box design.
3 Months later, I had completed this modest body of work. And there are MORE in progress.
Each of these box designs have fully rendered lids and side panels complete with vintage style Kenner "proof-of purchase seals" !
So far, I have only printed the boxes for the small "accessory"- type toys (Vehicle Maintenance Energizer, Tripod Laser Cannon, Radar Laser cannon) .
The boxes were professionally laser-printed on flat cardstock (white on the surface, "kraft brown" on the back), cut and then folded into finshed boxes. The finished boxes look very professional.
I have NOT created cardboard inserts for any of these boxes, so everything is being packed with packing popcorn inside its new customized box.
Also, I have decided that ALL VEHICLES (regardless of size or weight) will be packaged in the heavier, stronger "corrugated cardboard" style boxes... everything from HUGE AT-ATs to Luke's small Landspeeder.
Therefore, the graphics for these boxes will be printed as flat artwork on contact paper, and then carefully applied to a blank white custom-sized corrugated cardboard box.
This is different from the vintage Kenner days when smaller vehicles (as well as playsets) were packaged in the thinner "chipboard"-type cardboard boxes.
That Jabba's Palace box is probably my favorite. I recoginze your custom Luke, did you make that Jabba as well? It looks much better than the Ultra version.
Keep up the great work! It's good to see you posting your work here!
Thanks Ryan!
You're a pal !
Quite a few STAR WARS friends have reacted strongly to my custom box design for my custom Jabba the Hutt Playset. I guess partially becuase it is just so colorful and it "leaps" out at the viewer.
This design is one of my favorites from the batch too. The Jabba The Hutt figure is indeed a CUSTOM FIGURE. It was sculpted by another customizer (The EXTREMELY TALENTED Andrew Rosario... heck of a nice guy too!!), and then molded and cast as a static white resin kit.
Believe me when I tell you, the level of fine detail of these castings is absolutely SUPERB! It is a FAR more accurate Jabba sculpt than Hasbro or Kenner has EVER come up with. I have always found the Episode I / Ultra Jabba sculpt offered by Hasbro to be a bit "off". He seemed to be sculpted with... well... female breasts! The Jabba puppet seen in ROTJ always had layered rolls of fat on his upper chest... just like THIS custom sculpt.
I have custom painted and converted this static resin kit into a poseable figure for my custom playset
Anyhow, Thanks again for everything guys. You've made this old boy feel like a real "customizer" again!:D
