Customania December 21, 2013

Sicko16 your El Generico looks awesome, smooth paint job, nice mask sculpt, tight design looks superb.

Starman your Scott Hall looks nice, the thing that really sticks out to me on this figure is the lack of design and you can still see the AA logo on the tights. The head and vest look nice on this figure. My suggestion to you is add a little design and it will make it stand out more.

My vote goes to sicko16.

Match one, I'm going to have to go with Sicko16, even though I kind of consider decals cheating, there is far much more effort going into this custom. The other is really just a head swap and a painted vest.

Match two, I'm not a fan of the style of figure, but I'm going with Foxeth. The painting is smooth and clean. I wish I had better photos to judge the Brian Kendrick. Its too far away and the gif takes away the quality. So I'm going with Foxeth on this one.

Match three, jeez you guys take bad photos... I'm going with Ronin's Jushin Lyger, though Therig's paint just looks smooth. The effort put into sculpting Jushin's mask kind of wins it for me. Good job though TheRig. This was a tougher call for me.

Match four, ugh. Okay, Masked Superstar fan gets my vote for the smooth paint job. However, I hate the head. What ever is going on with that mouth kind of killed it for me. NateB, try using matte sealer next time, and taker closer photos.

Match five, Raven. This is the best figure of the entire thread. Looks great man, smooth paint job. Good photos. Everything looks clean.

Well, I'm not sure if we as contestants are allowed to vote, so I'll hold off on commenting on other's work for now, but here's a Work In Progress shot showing some of the work that went into my entry. Yes, I agree that the head and teeth are horrific looking -Lol! I'm not sure why I used a Wanderlai Silva head as base besides the fact that I had an extra one and it wasn't good for anything else.

MSF

I am waiting for a couple more entries to post. At this point I am waiting for the following people to turn items in:

CMPUNKISGOOD and Valentineomega

and XFWdotcom for whatever reason I get no responses I have a backup ready for Mikey1974. CMPUNKISGOOD stated he will have something in today which I said was okay. so for now voting can start. Good luck all.

I want to preface my reviews with 2 things: I'm nitpicky as hell and you may have made the most incredible custom ever, but if your pictures aren't any good, your custom won't look good either. If this is something you're going to continue doing, almost everyone here should take some time and focus strictly on taking better pictures.


Sicko16 Vs. Starman

Sicko16: El Generico

There's some good sculpting that went into the mask. Masks can be tricky and this came out pretty good. I like the white strips hanging off the back. That's a fun touch. For the most part, the paint app is clean. I'm assuming you did the shoelaces and I KNOW those were a pain! The decal work is good, too. There aren't any ripples or flaps that I can see. My only real criticism here is the eyes. They're a tad beady. If they were a little bigger, they'd be fine.

Starman: Scott Hall

This isn't intended to sound mean, but I don't know that I'd call this is a custom. It's a simple "fix-up". It looks like some simple part swaps(just the boots, really) with a Jakks Hall head and vest. There's no paint app that I can see. The "AA" is still on the Arn Anderson trunks(you could have at least drawn over that with a sharpie). And I don't know how accurate this is, either. I don't think I've ever seen Hall in attire this plain. He's always had his blood-drip-motif going on SOMEWHERE.

WINNER: Sicko16

Sicko16 wins strictly on the basis that his is actually a custom. And I don't mean to take away from the quality work he put in. There's some good effort in there. But this a case of Custom vs. "Fix up", to me.


Foxeth Vs. Ace

Foxeth: X-Pac

Right off the bat, I'm digging that it's not a Matty or Jakks custom. There's some nice, clean paint apps, here. The "X" looks sharp. The legs are great. This might sound odd, but the teeth look great(that's an easy area to screw up). I like the details on the bandana. You really want a custom to look sharp and clean and that's what we're getting here. Nice work!

Ace: The Brian Kendrick

I know this has nothing at all to do with the custom, itself, but the switching angle video is crazy distracting. Every time I go to look back at a specific detail, the image has changed. Add to that that the figure is kind of out of focus and we're not off to the best start. What I can see isn't bad. The paint apps on the trunks and boots, for the most part, are clean. I really can't tell what's happening with the head, though. The image(s) are so out of focus that I can't really get any detail. Obviously, it's a Kendrick head. But that's all I can really make out. Are the eyes looking in the same direction? I don't know. Are they blue or green? I don't know. And the hair suffers from the blur, too. There's no texture to it, that I can see. I'm assuming that's due to the blur happening. In the future, I'd really suggest against doing this rotating video bit and make sure the figure is in focus.

WINNER: Foxeth

Foxeth turned in a custom with really clean work. Everything is really, really sharp.


"The Gothic Superstar" Ronin Vs. The Rig

"The Gothic Superstar" Ronin: Jushin Thunder Liger
Right off, I can appreciate what a pain-in-the-@ss this paint app must've been. And for the most part, it's moving in the right direction. The app is smooth, not clumpy. The white is clean. But it kind of falls apart when you start looking at the lines. These have to be spot-on or the whole thing won't look right. And that's what's happening here. There are varying thicknesses. Some lines aren't straight. And there's a general asymmetry happening. Liger's look is based on symmetry. What's happening on one side must be mirrored on the other. And that's a tricky thing to pull off. The sculpting on the mask and forearms are good. But as a whole, I think there's some really good effort going on here.

The Rig: Goldust

Initially, I thought you just added a different head to the existing Matty Goldust figure and swapped out the boots. I had to dig out my Goldust to see! And that's testament to the clean paint app you've done here. It's very good. I thought it was the original figure! And like I said above, symmetry is tough! And again, you did a good job here. I have absolutely no clue what head you used(it could be Goldust for all I can tell!) But I think the head works well. The black around the eyes could be tightened up a little to get more symmetrical, but that's probably just a nitpick. I wish you had included a side shot so I could see what happens with the transition from his painted face and hair to non-painted, natural hair. The only criticism I have is the paint color on the face. In your second set of pictures, it looks more orange-y than gold where the first set looks more accurate. I'll just have to assume it was something with the lighting in the room.

WINNER: The Rig

This battle came down to who had the cleaner, more symmetrical app and The Rig's was better.


Masked Superstar Fan Vs. NateB

Masked Superstar Fan: Jumbo Flapjack

Right off, I LOVE that this isn't an existing, real-life wrestler. It's awesome that you went outside the box. The paint apps are smooth. The sculpted beard and mohawk look good. But I'm confused by parts of the figure that are different from the reference picture. The star tattoo on the custom has 1 extra point, the boots are red instead of black, the knee pads are black instead of blue, the missing tape on the hands... was the wrong reference pic used here? It might just be me being nitpicky. Either way, this is a fun custom.

NateB: Hart Foundation

This is a tough one to call. The figures are so small that I can't really make out detail. I appreciate that both Hitman and the Anvil both share the same shade of pink. But that's really all I can tell. I wish we had a closer shot of Anvil, in particular. All I can really tell is that the figure has a beard, removable sunglasses and chest hair. Aside from take closer pics, I'd also suggest using some kind dull cote to wrap the customs up. Anvil is crazy shiny.

WINNER: Masked Superstar Fan

With all my nitpicks about Jumbo Flapchack, he's still the better custom. I love that it's an outside-the-box custom. The sculpting and paint apps all are pretty good. And it doesn't help that I can't really tell what's happening with the Hart Foundation.


Raven Vs. Crazywrestler

Raven: Taz

The paint app on this is solid. Everything is clean and tight. The orange is a nice, crisp orange. The paint app on the boots looks great. That tats are nice and clean(I know those were a PAIN!) and the "TAZ" on the back looks great. My only outright complaint is the lack of a meaty thigh. Taz had some BIG thighs and what we're getting here is not big. And Taz(z) has a darker complexion than this. Maybe it's the pic, but Taz looks like a regular white guy here and he's not. And something seems off about the boots. He wore short boots, but not Goldberg/SCSA short. You can take these as nitpicks, but for me, they distract from what could have been a great custom.

Crazywrestler: Jushin Thunder Liger

You can take everything I said about Ronin's Liger and apply it here. Except this one is a little rougher. I'm going to assume the blue lines were done with a marker(was the red done with marker, too?). The blue lines vary in thickness and have choppy edges. The white panels on the front and back of the legs are really rough. They're asymmetrical and the lack of consistency in the blue outline really shows this. Again, with something like this, SYMMETRY IS KEY. If you slip up a little bit, the whole thing is off. I do like the sculpting on the mask. I like how the hair seems to fall around the mask like hair would. I think the emblem on the chest is decent. But I'd really suggest going back with this one and focusing on getting the mirrored effect down.

WINNER: Raven

Despite my nitpicks, Raven put out a much, much cleaner custom.


Kanecare Vs. IZJ92

Kanecare: Austin Aries

From what I can tell, the paint app on the back of the tights looks ok. The tat looks good. The figure has Aries' signature beard. But the figure's legs aren't included in any picture and every picture is very dark. It would have been nice to see a front-on shot of the face.

IZJ92: Summer Rae

This looks fantastic. The paint apps on the tassels(tassles?) look nice and clean. Despite the simplicity of just using 2 colors for the outfit, this could have been an area where it would be easy to accidentally slop some paint from the tassels on to the boots or shirt, but you didn't. Everything is nice and clean. The hair looks good. I can't tell if you painted the skin and if you did, that's a good thing. This whole figure looks like a prototype from Matty. Very nice work.

WINNER: IZJ92

IZJ92 turned in an incredibly clean, prototype-level custom here. The pictures were clear and well lit and everything looks excellent.

So how does this work? Is there a poll setup or a panel of judges?  or do we just wait and take criticism from douchebags?

name calling? seriously?

Well that escalated quickly, I guess someone can't take criticism

Yeah sorry guys, shouldn't have said it like that. I appreciate the feedback since I'm new at this. Just always like to know why something is good or bad.  And without spending money on a good camera, it's hard to take detailed pictures.