A dedicated subculture of craftspeople have been frankensteining, kitbashing, boiling-and-popping, sculpting and painting one-of-a-kind figures for years. Their efforts are bringing to life characters that don't enjoy enough of a following to justify mass production -- think the 1950s Batman foe the Killer Moth -- or which, like the Watchmen figures, are tied up by copyright and creative differences.

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But the mass marketers of action figures, including Mattel, don't really mind the customizers much, says Jim Murphy, a marketing manager for the action-play division at Mattel.

"Some one making a one-off isn't hurting us -- it's a matter of quantity," Murphy says. "Someone doing art as a hobby, well, we have bigger things on our minds."

Customizers actually mean a lot to his business, Murphy adds.

"It's really interesting to me to see what the fans want and sometimes that prompts us to do figures," he says. "It's nice to see the passion of the fans -- they love the characters and the stories."