CUSTOMANIA 2012

I have asked Axe and Jay to join me in judging the competition. 3 judges is all we need. Any comments are welcome though!


Joejitsu vs Sin Cara

Joejitsu's Zodiak: I'm glad to see Zodiak being made as we've seen only a handful of his customs over the years. The paint is very choppy and lines are very shakey. I like that you made your own arm bands, while not the best, it's the little details like this that help bring a figure together.

Sin Cara's Shark: Very nicely done on Shark. I think over the years I've maybe seen 1-3 Shark customs, most notable was GSC's. Parts choice is great for mattel and the paint job is clean and crisp.

Winner: Sin Cara


Maskedsuperstar vs Stunner619

Maskedsuperstar's Tom Pritchard: Overall great job on this one, the attention to detail is superb. While the face isn't the greatest, the rest of the figure comes together nicely. The head is kind of sitting weird on the head, and I would have liked to have seen a little more of the light brown blended into the hair piece. I love that you put so much effort into the sculpting and detail. Reminds me of some guy I know, but I can't think of his name, lol.

Stunner619's Dean Malenko: This figure really looks factory made. Great parts choices. It may be the lighting in the pic, but in the 2nd pic it looks like the skin tone on the legs does not match. Otherwise great job overall, while it's an overall simple figure, sometimes less is more.

Winner: Stunner619


IC Showcase Skunk's Kamala: I love the parts choices here. You sanded down the lower legs as needed and made it all work. Paint looks smooth and clean and the figure looks great. Thank you sir!

IC Showcase CM Punk's Mean Mark Callous: It's crazy that I've only seen a hand full of Mean Mark Callous customs over the years, and this has to be one of the best ones. The hair looks great, I like that you added the goatee/beard and the parts choices are well done. Thank you sir!

HWT Showcase Axehennig's Johnny Ace: Glad to see multiple figures that I have not seen done many times, this is yet another one. Everything on this looks factory, and I will say, as it is now, it would have smoked what I was making anyways, haha. Can't wait to see it with the extra accessories, great job Axe, thank you sir!

HWT Showcase Alakdan's P. N. News: This is a figure I've only seen done once, maybe twice and you nailed it. The parts choice down to the head sculpt are great. I love the paint detail and while I see a couple small areas that look shakey, the rest looks pretty clean and crisp. I'm sorry you didn't have an opponent, but thank you for turning in!

i thought there was more judges? either way if theres more votes or not i'd love to have another match with you as i like what you did with your entry and major major props for thinking outside the box and picking someone i would have never thought of or really anybody would have probably. it is a shame others didnt participate but theres always factors we dont know about and in the end real life takes priority so i won't judge but as someone whos been around for many years and competed in many tourny's, i wish we could bring this place back from the depths and make it what it once was. the talent is there so its us that have to make the effort and i for one will not give up on this place wfigs will always be my customizing home base ....end rant

Few comments:

Knowing paint was my weakness, I bit off more than I could chew. More complicated than i thought it was going to be. I like my head paint and hair swap, but thats it.

My opponent did a great job! Great paint! Love that custom! SHARK!

Love malenko! Crisp, clean and simple. but I don't believe he was in wcw in 95 and earlier.

My favorite is the dynamic dude! Great paint, overall well done fig! Motivating to see such great work.

I think we should keep holding these and look for better participation. The more we have the more it will bring people out

Great work by everyone
I'm very sorry for not submitting my work but unfortunately between sport, work and school and didn't have much spare time.
anyways if we were to do another round the best thing to do would be release stips now and then have the competition in like December or something so We have plenty of time

Joejitsu's Ed “Zodiac” Leslie:

Great idea making such an obscure character from this time period. The good ol' Dungeon of Doom! The Pillman head works very well for Leslie's “crazy eyes.” Did you use a DM Macho body? A quick trick I use for painting white. Krylon flat white! Spray it as the base coat, then add your regular paint (I use Model Masters) atop the first layer. It comes out smooth! Also, try a thin (1/20) brush for the lines, and for tricky lines like the zebra ones you made, try modeling tape. Try ¼ inch and tape it up, paint the lines, then pull the tape off when the black is completely dry. Overall, great figure!

Sin Cara's John “Shark” Tenta:

I really like this figure. Again, similar to Joejitsu's figure, I like that you went out of the box! Your painting skills are phenomenal. It appears to me you use Delta creamcoat (or a similar cream-based acrylic). I started off customizing with that paint years ago, and since found Model Masters to be the best out there. It's much more watery than the cream-based paint, but gives less of a dry appearance when it's dried. You did an amazing job freehand painting the shark on his singlet top. I feel that the body is too small, but working with what you have, I'm sure. I can't put my finger on the head you used (my guess is an RA Show), but it works well! If you would've added the chest hair and Tenta's tattoo, this figure would've been near-perfect.

Winner: Sin Cara's “Shark.” While the Zodiac was a great figure, the Shark's paint job took the lead. Great work to both of you.

Masked Superstar's Tom “Heavenly Body” Pritchard:

Another outside the box custom. The Rocky head works well for Pritchard, and is fairly indistinguishable. I think the hair works well also. The jacket painting looks great, as do the tights. Nice use of a DA arm to make the jacket look thicker in the sleeves, and the sculpting on the jacket lapels look great. Nice job!

Stunner619's Dean “Man of 1,000 Holds” Malenko:

I was impressed by this when I saw it on the custom's board months ago. If I'm judging correctly, this is a Helsinki (Gate) shrunken head. This is well done. The head painting is superb! The skin tone on the head looks to match the rest of the body nicely. The stubble looks “on-mark” also. I'll tell you, so many people can't get stubble right. Think about it, when you're drybrushing a dark color onto skin color, thicker patches appear. Who has thick patches of hair, then thin patches on their face? Great job blending paints to make the stubble work. I also like the metallic design on the tights. The design appears to be symmetrical enough to work. My only gripes are, you need to fill the air bubble hole on the lip, and make the eyebrows more arch-like, less than rectangular. Great work!

Winner: MSF's Pritchard. While Malenko's cleaner overall, and feel Jakks customs are much simpler to do (due to the abundance of parts), I feel as though Pritchard required much more effort than a shrunken head Malenko (while well done).

Skunk's Kamala:

I think the body is waaaaaay too small for Kamala. I understand you're using what you have, however, it just looks off (size-wise). The painting looks great, I mean great on the body and chest design. Also, I like the use of dullcoat.

CM Punk's “Mean” Mark Callous:

Great part choices and switching. Also, the painting on the calves and head work well. Did you paint the stripe on the tights, or is that tape? Lastly, I think the plastic pads look more authentic, but it doesn't take away from this great fixup. Nice job!

Alakdan's PN News:

Great choice. I was originally going to make this figure for the competition. Nice, obscure choice! The Akeem body works 100% for News. The paint lines are thick on the torso, and it looks like another coat could be used in certain spots, but the figure's body looks great. The head sizing looks great also. PN had a huge noggin, and you modded the head well. I'm not feeling the face mods, especially the nose. Also, his eyes look a bit cartoony. I think this was the most difficult to do custom, and you really did a nice job overall. I'd love to oppose you sometime. We need to come up with a challenging stipulation and go at it. You're a great customizer.

For what it's worth, here's my 2 cents on the CustoMania 2012 entries:

Joejitsu's Zodiac - Excellent choice of character. Even though he wasn't around that long, Zodiac was one of my favorites - he totally fit in with the Dungeon of Doom oddballs.Yes, maybe the paint job should have been a little more refined and the black lines should be bit more crisp, but overall I enjoyed it. Adding "real" armband things was a nice touch.

Sin Cara's Shark - Another excellent character choice. The painting looks very smooth. Unfortunatley, the pics are a bit blurry, but you can still see that you paid a lot of attention to the details on the face AND the tights.

My Dr.Tom Pritchard - I figured the head/hair would kill it for me. I had originally opted to use a William Regal head as it's a much better likeness, but I didn't have one at my disposal. At the very last minute, the hair "transplant" broke, and I had to redo the hair. That's why it came out looking all clumpy looking, and I didn't get a chance to drybrush some highlights into the hair (hopefully masking some of the damage). And to correct a previous comment from Axehennig, the jacket didn't use DA arms, but an RA Arn Anderson jacket torso, with a bit of additive sculpting to the collar and sleeves to make them fuller and "poofier" looking. Other than the head, I was fairly pleased with how it came out.

Stunner619's Dean Malenko - As a huge fan of Malenko's, I'm glad to see this version of him, as he has no chance of getting his own Mattel figure. You did an excellent job with the painting. Everyone here knows just how difficult skin tones are to deal with, but you pulled it off. Great job, and it was an honor to face you in the tournament.

Skunk's Kamala - Awesome job! The skirt is a maybe just a little too short, but it's not a big deal. I seriously can't find anything else to gripe about. The painting is top notch. Just an excellent custom overall.

CM Punk's Mean Mark Callous- When you posted this originally, I mentioned that it was a fantastic custom. I thought about entering a Mean Mark myself. Im glad I didn't, as this would've blown mine away! It literally looks like something straight out of the package. Much like the Kamala entry, I can't think of one negative thing. Great job!

Axehennig's Johnny Ace - Dude, what can I say about your work that hasn't already been said. You are a customizing god as far as I'm concerned, and it's work like yours that makes me want to keep going (yes, that contradicts an earlier statement when I said your customs make me want to dump out all of my paints, but you know what I mean - Lol!). Your work is to be truly admired.

Alakdan's PN News - Great use of an Akeem body, and you did a tremendous job with the intricate designs on the tights. There's always a risk of ruining a figure when you try to mod the face at all, but you did an excellent job with that - and that includes the sculpted hat as well.

Although I'm a bit disappointed in the turnout, I feel that we should all be proud of the entries that were turned in. Hopefully, these competitions will continue. I had a blast!

For PN, that's a Cena hat that has been slightly modified. Just covered the gap in the back.

Axe split 2 heads for ace.

This the purpose of different divisions. You have to start somewhere. Including one for newbs. Aka cruiser.....

But for someone who didn't participate and trash the event is unfair. I'm sure you're a great customizer. Maybe you're entry could've added to the event.

[/u]
No he's not (at all actually), and no he wouldn't. Here are a few former Customania entries, and a few work samples.





If these were the last few customs I posted, I wouldn't me making a peep about other people's work. Furthermore, you reference your tenure, and how long you've been around these boards. Don't you think your talent should progress a bit more than what's seen above?