I've been invited to show some of my customs at a gallery next Friday, and wanted to run a few ideas past the community here.

Here's an idea of how I plan to show the figures:


Just a stand, a simple pose, and a 4x6 identification poster in a cheap frame behind them. I'll probably be showing 12-15, and they have a case from a recent toy show they'll be displayed in.

I also wanted to do a small write up to explain customizing to those who might have no idea what they're looking at:

A Bit About Custom Action Figures

Also known as mods, kitbashes, and conversions in various geek circles, toy customizing is a mix of hobby techniques and the art of creation. From simple part swapping and repaints to sculpting added details and casting original pieces, almost any act of modifying an existing toy can be considered customizing.

Many customizers specialize in a specific toy line, or mix and match parts between similarly sized figures from various toy lines. Popular genres include sports and superhero figures, as well as specific properties like Transformers, GI Joe, and Star Wars. The goal of a customizer can range from adding characters from their favorite comic that never got their own figure to creating completely new characters and concepts from existing parts.

The figures displayed here are in 4” scale, their parts primarily taken from modern GI Joe and Star Wars figures. For me, customizing is a chance to realize characters in figure form that have never gotten an official toy, or to incorporate characters from various sources into a similar scale and style.

These are characters I grew up with that have been vying for attention in brain for years or even decades. Some are faithful recreations of the source material, others are realized as creative interpretations.

I hope you'll recognize a few of these fake plastic faces, and enjoy seeing such an eclectic mix of characters share the same shelf space.

I plan on displaying it as a simple 8x10 next to the figures.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

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Just an idea...but depending on the complexity of the custom...it might be nice to show the starting point.

If the audience isn't into toys they may not recognize the ammount of work that's gone into figures. It might be worth showing the Raw unaltered figures that became the custom...

What I'm picturing is what they'll do on Rebel Scum showing how a certain figure is the arms and legs of one figure + the head and torso of a 2nd figure.


Everything else looks like a pretty clean and simple presentation.

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that's great news!

I like your idea. will you be able to print out posters in the same size?

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i think that's a fantastic display idea & write up.

please take photos of everything and post them on the site!!

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First off I want to congratulate you on being asked to display your customs at a gallery. It is great to see the art community accepting customizing as a legitimate artform. As for your display ideas, they look good. I agree with Nova about showing how each was made. If you have W.I.P. photos, you could display them with the corresponding figure. Can't wait to see pics from your gallery display. Where is the gallery at?

This is huge! Kudos and congrats Dan on such an honor.

Also, your displays look like something you'd see at the trade shows. Fantastic.

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Ditto on the kudos, and I echo what Nova stated about giving them the before and after idea. Maybe post wip pics if you have them.

Great nod to the community and to a great board member!

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Guys, thanks for all the words of support and suggestions. I'm really excited about this.

I think the before and after or WIP shots are a great idea. I'm going to try to pull together an "Anatomy of a Custom" 8x10 for one of the figures. I think Mr. Glass has some WIP shots, so I'll probably use him and get some pictures of the base body and the Mace Windu head I used.

Show is going to be at The Gaslight Gallery (tattoo shop and art gallery) in Houston. Will post some more complete info when I get it.

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Well, after a delay the show is on for tomorrow. Everyone had some great ideas, so I made these two 8x10s to go with my figures:




Really nervous about the opening tomorrow night, but while I was setting up today the people at the gallery were really supportive and enthusiastic about my work. They're also a tattoo parlor, and they had a customer waiting while I was setting up, and he was looking over the figures and started asking how I went about finding parts...

We'll see how it goes!

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awesome cards, man! very well done & articulated!

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It looks like you've done a tremendous job with this, Dan, and I'm hoping that this goes over big. Congratulations on being asked, and good thoughts are being sent your way for successful opening and showing.

Please let us know how it goes.

The Anatomy of a Custom Figure card really spells it out, IMO.

Since I know so few (actually 0) people IRL who do this or collect at all but openly talk about it this is probably the biggest shocker to people.

I think a lot of people don't understand how artsy fartsy customizing can be. Usually they either think of just LBCs or straight repaints.

This was all really great. I don't have the photoshop skills (or the time sadly) but if I did, I would make one those anatomy of diagrams for every figure I made. That's sweet.

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Thanks guys... the show went great, had a lot of friends show up to support me and it was great to see how people unfamiliar with the hobby reacted.

My wife said she was watching people as they went past the exhibit, they'd kind of glance over it and then recognize a character, go check them out close up, go read with the two 8x10's and then go look at everything more closely.

They're up at Gaslight Gallery on Westheimer in Houston for about the next two weeks or so, stop by and check them out if you're in the neighborhood!

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Congrats, man. Any chance we could get pics of the event?

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