Well, Joecustoms is getting on in years – and the new new sculpts have made a difference. But is "progress" (defined for yourself) being made?

I have one big project building that I want to do, and have been wanting for years, but I never had the guts. Once I do that, I consider myself as having hit the wall of innovation – I don't think anything world shifting new can be done, at least by myself.

Anyone else?

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If you're talking about customizing, I don't think I've peaked at all. In fact I find myself improving and finding new ways to do things all the time. The articulation and design advancements of the 25th figures combined with all the great 1/18 fodder coming out is really expanding my horizons when it comes to customs.

As far as collecting, I am reaching a point where I'm wondering what's next. The 25th line is the main focus of my collection but I've been dabbling in other series as well. I'm afraid the new Sideshow Joes will open the floodgates for my hidden love of 1/6 scale figures. And I really need to complete my Rock 'n' Roll collection. So there are some things I have yet to accomplish and hope that I can keep collecting for a long time to come. Provided innovations keep coming like they have in both the 1/18 and 1/6 scales I'll find something to add to my Joe collection.

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I've still got so many things I want to do that I'll never get it done. So I don't see an end to it for me until i just grow tired of it. I'll always have ideas and those ideas will always keep growing. I think you're only limited to how bored you become rather than running out of ideas. If not bored, then just tired of the hobby maybe?

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You kidding me? I'm just getting started. With new enthusiasm, I can finally attempt to make just about any character or icon I wish. Same for the dios. Even though diorama supplies have all but disappeared, that won't stop me from trying new techniques and alternatives.

Even if every genre or popular story has been done, that's still no reason to stop. Just do it for the pure enjoyment of it.

Also, I've got an entirely different scale (1:24) to attempt to customize and make diostories for, and that scale has far less available fodder than any other scale. But believe it or not, I've been able to stretch the offerings from the various miniature lines.

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Heck no. Just keep on evolving and adapting. I'm still having a blast with the classic RAH sculpt stuff, though I've noticed recently that I've made a shift away from doing as many straight militaristic customs and taking on more, shall we say, off the wall projects. I've also experienced some great personal satisfaction on my meshing parts with completely different figure constructions into the classic o-ring design, making the possibilities damn near endless.

So as Cap said... I'm jut getting started.

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I'm just getting started. And I mean it. I started customizing just over a year ago. I havent even tried stuff many of you consider "basic".
In terms of ideas, I have several that I consider new.
And for the community as whole, I see so many groundbreaking ideas and new techniques almost every time I check the critique forum. And that is almost every day. I'm not worried.

Honestly, it's not possible to run out of ideas.

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There are things I haven't even tried yet. I'm still learning how to do the stuff I think I'm ok at even better. There are techniques I haven't mastered. There is a back log of projects I haven't gotten around to. Some are so old they aren't even relevant anymore. I still want to do them. There are custom ideas I haven't done. They won't all be good, but they haven't been done yet. More importnatly, they haven't been done by me yet.

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As a customizer (I've been at this since 2000) I think I've still got a ways to go before I peak. This year especially (since I stopped taking most commissions) I felt I had the most growth. I was able to put time into projects I wanted to do, and I've been happier than ever with the work I'm doing.
Another point regarding peaking- I'm not sure when that would happen: as long as you're willing to learn. With new members and new techniques, does the learning and growing have to end?? (Well maybe when the eyes give out, and the hands aren't steady.)

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Sometimes it feels like it's all been done before, but that's simply a good point to take a break for a while.

But eventually... I'll run watch a documentary, hear an interesting story, see someone's custom I want to make a version of, see a convention or exclusive figure I can't afford...

There's always a good reason to come back to what you enjoy doing. I've forced myself to work with NS and 25A figures too instead of the vastly superior ARAH figures (Someone's got my back, right?) But, kidding aside, working in a new way makes me think differently and grow new techniques/skills- which I inevitably bring back to ARAH figures.

If anything, Hasbro's mind numbing lack of new characters keeps my mind thinking up new ones. If anything, this seems to be a very common "problem" that customers cope with by making great new characters. I would argue that Hasbro is guilty of chasing its own tail, whereas the customizers are exploding with new ideas. Even the customizer's takes on existing characters are more interesting that than Hasbro figures.

For me, its more the hope that over the holidays, I can get back to building dioramas. There are several complex dios that I've put off that its time to get to.

As far as collecting goes, financially I'm more at a pick a choose stage. Which in a lot of ways keeps me excited about the ones that I run across that I really want, rather than buying ones that I'd generally pick up just to say I had the whole collection. It also allows me to branch out a bit to other lines without feeling like I have to be a completionist.

As far as customizing, I just started on my first ever custom vehicle as well as my first fully thought out dio. I think my painting skills have gotten better over time. I'm still not where I want to be with my sculpting and casting abilities. Still a lot of room to improve, and through trial and error I'll someday find my happy medium.

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Depends. If you're talking about customs from a figure perspective, I'm getting close to "the end". I currently have two categories I'm working in: Con inspired and regular. Con inspired has about 30 figs in the hopper, most of which will be LBCs and are dependent on getting multiple con sets (ways away at this point).Included here are Con set inspired ideas, like a Zartan in dress uniform (think Skull Squad Bludd with Zartan head and Arms) Regular only has 12 in the hopper. As above, am waiting on parts, for which I'm trying to earn extra money to get said items.

As far as vehicles, haven't even ventured into that category yet. But I have many ideas: SW conversions to IG vehicles, BBI vehicles to Con set augmentation,and a potential project reinventing the BF2000 vehicles. Thus far, my only customized vehicle is a 3 3/4 converted Dragonhawk. For this, need money.

Playsets? Gosh, are you kidding? Eventually, I'm hoping to create a base for my Dreadnoks using POTC sets with an Ewok Village and Destro will take possesion of repainted Voltron Castle of Lions. I also have cursory plans for a Crimson Temple using the SW Geonosis Arena and Mustafar sets. Time will tell on these.

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Sometimes I figure I'm done with the custom stuff because I really don't like how much extra work it takes these days since I can't just take a screw out to change the parts around until something clicks.

But then we get something like Cutter and I know darn it I can do something better than that so it's looking for the parts to make it just right.

Display room is getting to be a bit of a problem. Once again I'm rather lazy and don't want to break out the wood working skills. But there always seem to be just a few more got to have figures, the replacement for the figure that came with Duke arms, or a ton of other reasons for just one more figure.

And of course all that's before I even know how I'll feel about the live action movie figures and the web cartoon figures.

I would have to say no.. there is so much that still can be done...

I mean, A newbie like myself is inspired on seeing what yu customizing veterans can and do accomplish,.. and then,.. adding my own style and flair to it...

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Has it all been done? I'd have to say yes.

Whether you believe in the Advanced Civilization of Atlantis, or the Biblical Account of Advanced Civilizations before the flood, or the Aztec Indian's belief that the earth is wiped out every 12000 years and starts over and is about to begin its seventh cycle through, or the belief in the Big Bang theory where the universe expands and then eventually contracts back into a single point, and then explodes and expands again to perform the same thing over and over forever in Trillion Year cycles. Yeah, everything's probably been done before and perhaps many times. Even the stuff you think is new may have been done already a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

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