This topic comes up semi-regularly, but I was giving it some thought yesterday, and while discussing it with Jm7o over a bowl of dates, he passed this quote to me:



Which is pretty accurate, but not really to the point of this thread.

In my opinion, Jm7o has a "If I have the parts, I build it" type mentality. I cannot figure out the theme of his work other than that. However, he's pushed out some really great work, and is a pretty versatile customizer as a result. When I customize something, it's because I want to make something out of Joe parts (if possible) that I know I'll never see otherwise. Since I also tend to favor original characters, I'm beginning to wonder if I shouldn't just pare down my collection to customs and push off a lot more figures into the fodder pile. Some characters really grab my attention, but I think I prefer to make up my own stories.

So, why do you do what you do?

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I have an infinite curiosity about how things work, and like to take them apart and put them together better than they were before.

I am an engineering fanboy that loves to see how the mechanics of a new customizing technique works.

I am cheap and like replicating a $200 figure with $10 worth of custom parts, and using customizing to close a financial gap between perceived and real value. I like applying skill in the place of money to have something I might not have otherwise.

I customize, sometimes, to fix a small flaw or change a color I don't like.

I am a frustrated writer that uses a customized figure as a tiny little muse to write a filecard or tell a story.

I have a rebellious streak and play with every part of my toys, not just in the configuration that I am told they must be in.

I am a customizer.

- R

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1) because I cannot draw or write well, but I like to get creative nonetheless. I'm at least halfway decent when it comes to customizing.

2) because sometimes Hasbro or the Club or whoever hasn't released a character I like.

3) because sometimes the figure Hasbro or the Club will release just isn't to my liking, and I feel I can do a version I'll enjoy more.

4) because sometimes I just can't afford the price asked of a certain figure, or it's just more than I'm willing to pay, so I make due.

5) because sometimes inspiration just strikes me looking at a particular piece of fodder.

Yeah, that more or less covers it...

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I do it because I like the creative process. I really don't like doing models, although I do them for my father who is handicapped because he is a WWII fanatic and really gets a kick out of the models I make him. Customizing is a lot different than models. I find following directions boring and really enjoy cutting things up and trying to figure out how to make what I design in my head. I also get a lot of satisfaction from starting and finishing projects. With a 3 year old and another kid on the way, it's difficult to get large projects done like major home improvements, but customizing helps me stay sane and feel accomplished.

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On the personal level for creating customs, I have the want to create. I do more than just customizing figures. I paint and draw. All kinds of stuff. Now getting into 3D designs with a 3D printer, it's another outlet. It's just a pure desire to make things and I can't really explain it. I just want to create.

On the level of D&J Toys and even my t-shirt shop, I want to share what I do. It helps to fund my hobby and also make money to live. I also get an enjoyment out of hearing people that like what I do. Plus I can't keep it all anyway.

So over all, everything is just wrapped into the desire to express myself through art in any way. I really don't have an answer for why, I just do it.

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I've been customizing longer than a lot of you have been alive and only in the last couple of years considered it art.

I started by accident. I had a Spock head ( the body had been run over by my dad ) and I was coloring it in with an ink pen for no particular reason. When I was done I left it in the basement for a couple weeks before I found it again. The ink hadn't dried, so I wiped off the wet ink and found that it had stained the face purple. I loved it. I stuck the head on a Riddler body dressed him in a Super joes outfit and viola my first custom and I've been hooked ever since.

It calms me down after a busy day and I don't have to think about the real world while I'm doing it.

There is something inherently pleasurable that happens when you conceive an idea for a new character design and you can take parts and almost literally flesh out that idea.

Plus the tactile sense of working with your hands and fingers, using tools to mold something from random parts into a cohesive new thing.

I find this experience relaxes me. It fires my creative juices. It allows me to create something, so something myself, and feel a sense of accomplishment from that effort.

I have thoroughly enjoyed using the heromachine website to flesh out characters I have not had the chance to create physically, due to lack of parts or lack of customizing skills on my part.

I'm surprised others haven't jumped into creating virtual customs this way.

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I occassionally repainted figures back in the late 70s and 80s. Then I started looking at figures like Han Solo carbonite and thinking what I could do with them. There were characters on British television and comics that I thought would never be made, so I made them. Ever since then it has been important to me to make customs that are for me. IFigures that are different. I have made my O13 Joes. I like making customs that not only most people would not consider, but have never even heard of.

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I've always been an artist, so the creative spark and need has been nourished for fifty of my near fifty-five years.

Aside from the artistic need though, is a deep love of the toy. Not just any toy, but the realistically rendered toy. Even if the object is fantastical in nature, if it is rendered to a near believable look, this fascinated me to no end. Whether it was the small 1 inch knights, cowboys, and Indians that were given out of a Cracker Jacks box by the company called Giant, or any of the marvelously detailed multi-genre figures from Marx, these creations have always sparked a wealth of imaginative play in me.

I have always created the things that never existed. Even in kindergarten, I made out of the wooden shapes bin a fairly cute rendition of the Lost in Space robot. That I have the talking keychain one on the very desk I type this at, ever reminds me that sometimes it takes a looooong time for the industry to create that which we are inspired by or generally love. I'm one of those that will continue a story in my imagination long after the media that inspired me is done. I enjoy fantasy, so I want to not only enjoy it in a book, movie or video game. I want a tactile representation that I can build an entire realm for. It was the very reason that many, many, years ago I entertained the want of a self custom, to create my own adventures, in any situation that I can think of.

A few friends here had asked me some time ago, if I would still be customizing figures and creatures and terrain were there no Internet and sites to share it at. For some of them, their focus to create was to showcase, and of course, earn a sort of recognition and acceptance of their hobby. My answer was clearly "yes", for in truth, I have been creating things that have inspired me long before there were computers, personal or industrial. It is just now, I can share them with an entire world, than the smaller communities of friends, family, and fellow hobby enthusiasts one would meet at a hobby store. If there were no viable way to showcase, I guarantee I would still be at the art table carving, heating, shaving, gluing, painting, and posing figures. It is just my 'thing', a great love of the toy, even if it means that I have to create that toy.

Nowadays, it is a very fascinating time to be a customizer. Even with the various issues we have with what is put out by the larger toy companies, it is still mind blowing to see how other creative peoples are churning out a toy, escpecially one in our desired scale, for no other reason than they want to. To see what is offered by Funko, BossFight Studios, even Guru Planet before them, is awe inspiring. To peruse the wealth of heads, body parts, acoutrement, and general "bitz" by our compadres at Angelforge, Hunterworks, Vortius Custom Accessories, etc, there are so many genre and themes that can finally be indulged in.

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i think i was born an artist, but if you had told me even just 5 years ago that i would have a pile of gi joes i would have laughed in your face.

life happens, and after being dignosed with AS i had to stop most of my more phisical hobbies . i am very glad to have stumbled onto this hobby, because i think i can continue to participate for a long time. having 10 yrs under my belt as a "trained bench monkey" really helps with customs!

nothing, and i mean nothing !, makes me happier these days then when someone takes the time to comment on my customs. i enjoy seeing all the art on here, and believe me i've sold paintings in galleries , what some of you guys do with plastic and paint is truly art!

thanks for asking by the way, i have enjoyed a look into the personas of the customisers.

ps everyone in my daily life thinks the hobby insane! i dig that too

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What he said about the calming effect & not having to think about the world for awhile.

Also I did draw a lot ( told I was pretty good), got away from it & this helps me get back to my artistic side.

I used to draw alot, make up my own characters, draw comic books, that kind of stuff. As I got older, I found less friends that were into that, and even less that were into toys.
I still like to doodle, but gave up the art along time ago. I gradually morphed into customizing at the turn of the century after finding the bivouac.

It's great for letting creativity out, and great for a pastime. I dinked around with it for years, and kept buying more and more stuff. Soon, I had a humongous collection. But looking at it then, and now, I still don't have the friends that are into it. I kind of shifted gears and really started going after customizing a couple of years ago. I don't really buy much anymore at all, except to customize with some more. It's fun to make new things, tweak new thing, fix things you don't like. Talk shop with like minded folks online. It's alot more satisfying than just talking about what you have in your collection, or what you are buying for your collection. In the end, it ends up being very much a "keeping up with the neighbors".

In a way, customizing is the way grown up's "play" with their toys. I get alot of satisfaction out of making something that looks neat.

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Hello, my name is Jonah and I'm a customizer.

I started back in the early 2000's. Joe was moving towards the JvsC style action figure and wasn't impressed with them. I wanted to keep the o-ring, so I started making my own. I thought I was all alone until I discovered this very site.

I took a break in 2004 to focus on a career in comics. That endeavor lasted a few years, but slowly faded away. I returned focus to my Joe collection and began customizing again.

Customs is a way to grow and enhance my ARAH collection with new characters and updates to existing. If I want to see Firefly in jungle camo, I can. If I want characters like knockdown, Crazylegs or Doc to live on, they can.

It allows me to play with figures id otherwise never have like a Night Force, or Forca Fera.

I don't create to display, I create to play. I enjoy taking my toys outside, setting them up and photographing to tell a story.

The actual act of creating the custom is very therapeutic for me. It relaxes me, and allows me to tune out everything around me!

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