Building a Better Boba

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darklord1967
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:12 pm

Building a Better Boba

Post by darklord1967 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 6:02 pm

Greetings gang!

I'm new to the Galactic Senate, and I wanted to say hi!

I'm Roberto "Darklord" Williams, 43 year old STAR WARS toy / action figure customizer from Brooklyn, New York.

I thought I'd introduce myself with my latest project: A custom 3-3/4 " scale Boba Fett action figure that I've planned for about a year, and finally started working on last month. The figure is nearing completion, and I hope you like it.
Last edited by darklord1967 on Sun Nov 07, 2010 6:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

darklord1967
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:12 pm

Post by darklord1967 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 6:04 pm

I’ve always been fascinated with the mysterious STAR WARS character, The Bounty Hunter BOBA FETT. His awesome outfit, and his mysterious ways have made him a legend and a favorite in STAR WARS fandom.

But it never fails to amaze me how even the tiniest detail on one of his 3-3/4 inch scale STAR WARS Action Figures can make all the difference as to whether or not it truly resembles him.

I must say in all honesty that I’m of the opinion that NONE of the previous action figure releases of Boba Fett have completely captured the full essence of the ornery, mysterious, gunslinger-hunter that we first saw in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.

Not one.

What makes this particularly troubling to me is the fact that some truly excellent STAR WARS action figures have been made of some of the other Episode V bounty Hunters (Re: IG:88, Bossk, and the recent, outstanding, Vintage Collection Dengar release)… figures which have all boasted a level of detail and craftsmanship which were un-surpassed anywhere in the Hasbro STAR WARS 3-3/4â€

darklord1967
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:12 pm

Post by darklord1967 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 6:04 pm

In order for you to properly understand my critiques of production Boba Fett figures (and the stylistic direction I chose when creating my own custom figure) I think it might be helpful for me to establish how it is that I personally “seeâ€

darklord1967
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:12 pm

Post by darklord1967 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 6:06 pm

Vintage Kenner Boba Fett (1979) :[/b]

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This figure featured a very nice sculpt for its day. However, it lacked the weathering, articulation, and fine costume details that we take for granted today. It is nice to see the return of this sculpt as a special offer figure of the current 2010 Vintage collection line.



POTF 2 Boba Fett (1995 -various releases):[/b]

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The Power of the Force 2 line launched a new line of STAR WARS action figures after a re-newed interest in the saga during the mid- 1990’s. This Boba Fett figure was one of the characters that everyone hailed as a “grand improvementâ€

darklord1967
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:12 pm

Post by darklord1967 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 6:08 pm

In Hasbro’s defense, I quickly realized that Fett’s uniform is so complex and so elaborate, that a 3-3/4 inch action figure along the magnitude of what I was looking for was only ever going to be possible as a “dress upâ€

darklord1967
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:12 pm

Post by darklord1967 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 6:09 pm

LEGS DON’T FAIL ME NOW

Although, the Imperial Scanning Crewman Base figure had a stance that I thought was great for Boba Fett, the details of his legs were, of course, completely wrong. The pants pockets needed to be replaced with the correct ones from Boba Fett’s jumpsuit (taken from 2010 Vintage Collection Fett).

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Every once in a while, the customizing Gods smile upon me and offer me a gift. This was one such occasion. To my surprise and delight, 2010 Boba's pants pockets were PERFECTLY compatible with the color of the Scanning Crewman’s jumpsuit since Hasbro molded the uniforms of both figures in the exact same color!!! WOOT!!!!

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Then, the lower legs had to be replaced altogether since Fett does not wear tall black boots. That was when I recieved another customizing "GIFT" from the gods. I did not like the lower legs from the Legacy / 2010 Vintage Collection Fett for use on my figure because I found them to be far too frail and thin to be appropriate for Fett’s baggy pants (there's that annoying shrinking scale thing again!).


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But the lower legs of POTJ 300th figure Boba Fett came to my rescue here. And although they were not a 100% color match for the ISC uniform, they were certainly awfully, awfully close! Close enough that no re-painting would be required since the two leg sections would be separated by the yellow knee pads! Once again… WOOT!!


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If you place your thumb between the upper and lower legs sections in this photo (like Boba's knee pad), you can see how greatly REDUCED the color difference becomes in the two shades of grey pants.




I was forced to re-position the shin pockets that contained Fett’s cutting tools a bit lower to accommodate the yellow knee pads (cut off of POTJ 300th Boba Fett and Dremmeled out to be wearable). But the final look is just dandy!

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Each leg is bottomed off with the ankle cuffs from Legacy / 2010 Vintage Collection Boba. And the boot feet (with correct color, center stripe, and steel toe spikes) were donated by SAGA 2 Fett. Ball articulation of the ankles / feet is fully preserved.

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The original ISC figure’s (below average) height was brought up to a full 3-3/4â€

darklord1967
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:12 pm

Post by darklord1967 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 6:10 pm

OUTFITTING A BOUNTY HUNTER

Putting together the articles of Boba Fett’s costume was going to be VERY time-consuming, VERY delicate, and VERY intricate work… a supreme challenge, but ultimately VERY important to me. I really wanted the outfit on my figure to have that “assembledâ€

darklord1967
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:12 pm

Post by darklord1967 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 6:11 pm

VOTC Boba Fett provided the armored torso plates of the bounty hunter’s flack vest, and the armored cod piece came from POTJ 300th Figure Fett. Once again, each section was carefully cut out of the molded action figure and Dremelled down into separate plates of an appropriate thinness for a figure of this scale. The crotch armor actually needed to be completed with sheet styrene since the figure only provided the raised center section of the cod-piece.


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After looking at every single Boba Fett figure ever released, I came to the conclusion that vintage Kenner Fett had the best, cleanest detailed, and most solid collar armor. After cutting the armor off of a spare Kenner Fett body, I Dremelled it down to an appropriate thinness and cleaned the edges up into a really nice wearable plate.

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The back armor plate (rocket pack mount) was carefully cut off the Legacy collection Fett figure, and trimmed to an appropriate size to fit an Imperial Scanning Crewman’s back.

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Once I created all of these appliances, I did a quick test-fit on the Imperial Scanning Trooper Body (With the helmet) to check on the overall proportions, stance, and aesthetic attitude of the figure.

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darklord1967
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:12 pm

Post by darklord1967 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 6:13 pm

Creating the pattern for Boba Fett’s flack vest was a matter of trial and error. But, I produced a paper template quickly enough, and used it to cut out a basic cloth vest. I added small upper sleeve extensions (for the armored shoulder bells to be attached to) and I made a neck hole in the vest with a paper hole-punch.

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darklord1967
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:12 pm

Post by darklord1967 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 6:15 pm

Prior to the soft-goods flack vest being permanently glued to the Imperial Scanning Crewman body, I performed a test fit of the armored torso plates onto the vest to check the overall color layout and texture contrasts on the figure.


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darklord1967
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:12 pm

Post by darklord1967 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 6:16 pm

I next decided to give Boba Fett's backpack some attention.

For this figure I always knew that I wanted to use the excellent backpack from the POTJ 300th figure Boba Fett.

Molded in solid ABS plastic, this backpack had superior detail in the casting to the softer PVC rubbery backpacks used by many Boba Fett figures. It also boasted adjustable rocket nozzels and a removable top concussion missile rocket (none of which are offered by Hasbro's latest Vintage Collection Fett)

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There were, however, three (3) issues with this backpack that needed to be addressed:

1) The mounting system for the backpack is completely inconsistent with the custom figure I am creating. This system features a bulky mounting box molded to the inside of the backpack (which would create an unnatural space away from the figure's back when worn).

This backpack would have to be converted to the simpler peg mounting system utilized on today's figures.

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2) The sculpted ribs around the neck base of the removable concussion missile rocket were NOT included with this backpack. They would have to be transferred over from another backpack that had them available.

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I cut off the rubbery (non-removable) concussion missile rocket, and drilled a new hole into the ribbed neck to accommodate the removable POTJ 300th figure Boba Fett concussion rocket.

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3) The adjustable rocket nozzels at the bottom of the backpack would have to be drilled open.

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darklord1967
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:12 pm

Post by darklord1967 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 6:18 pm

TO CLONE, OR NOT TO CLONE. THAT IS THE QUESTION

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. I am a huge fan of the STAR WARS movie Saga… all 6 films. But I am strictly an Original Trilogy Collector.

Although I gave considerable thought to having a clone / Jango-esque head sculpt on my custom Fett figure, with a helmet engineered to be removable, I decided against proceeding in this direction.

There are two reasons for this:

1) I wanted to look upon my Boba Fett figure as faceless and anonymous… just as the character was in the OT.

2) Although I was confident that I could successfully increase the size of the helmet to be wearable by a clone head sculpt, I realized there was NOTHING I was going to be able to do about the resulting chewing gum helmet syndrome. This is the condition that exists with the current Vintage Collection Boba Fett figure helmet, where it is too soft to hold its shape since it is fashioned out of soft, rubbery PVC plastic.

The same thing would happen with any available helmet sculpt if I Dremelled it into a wearable helmet. The walls of the helmet would become too thin, and it would warp terribly when worn by the figure.

Unacceptable.

I also considered making a mold and hard resin casting of a Boba helmet knowing that a hollowed-out resin helmet would will hold its shape fine because it would be solid and NOT be rubbery.

This idea was rejected because during the inevitable shrinkage of the molding and casting process, I would lose 1% - 2% of my original helmet’s overall size.

Again, unacceptable.

darklord1967
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:12 pm

Post by darklord1967 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 6:19 pm

PROFILING A HELMET

I selected (what I considered to be) the best Boba Fett helmet sculpt of all the available production figures released by Hasbro: SAGA 2 Boba Fett Battle of Carkoon: (2006)

To my eyes, this was the sharpest, straightest, cleanest (and certainly largest) sculpt we had gotten out of Hasbro from all the Fett figures they’d ever produced.

Was it PERFECT?

No. Not by a long shot. But I did consider it reasonably workable into a helmet that I would accept for my custom figure.

However… More surgery required.

I liked the face of the helmet very much (although it was NOT 100% accurate to the film prop.

It was the profile that I had major problems with.

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Putting it simply, the crown of the helmet was far too narrow to adequately and realistically accommodate an average human male head. And with the base of the helmet being as wide as it is, the overly narrow crown is only augmented visually.

In THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Fett is mostly seen frontally. But we do get a few brief glimpses at the shape of the profile of his helmet. These are probably best seen during his conversation with Darth Vader (immediately after Han Solo’s torture). You’ll note the size of the helmet’s crown in relation to the base. Not nearly as narrow as Hasbro has presented.

I fixed the helmet’s profile by slicing it in half horizontally along the top of the head (ear to ear). I sliced clear down to the helmet base, but I DID NOT cut all the way through.

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I pried the two helmet halves apart (while they were still attached at the helmet base.
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Using an additional Battle of Carkoon helmet, I sliced a tiny wedge spacer, and glued it into my opened helmet (increasing the width of the crown dramatically).

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After carefully filling in all of the gaps around the helmet with spare helmet shavings, I trimmed and sanded the newly created seam until it was smooth.

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I was reasonably pleased with the helmet’s new profile when compared to the original.


Next, I knew that in order for the helmet to look like wearable head gear, I was going to have to create a bit of a recess in the helmet’s underside to visually establish the helmet’s (supposed) wall thickness. I Dremmelled a full recess of about 1/8 of an inch up into the helmet’s base. I then Dremmelled a ball joint socket that I could pop into the figure’s neck post.

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This entire operation forced the loss of raised ridge details around the rear of the helmet’s crown and at the sides. These ridges will now have to be restored to the helmet. Also, an all-new flip-down target sight will have to be made for the helmet due to the current sight being too thick and about 1/32 of an inch too tall.
The final planned modification to this helmet will be the addition of a gloss coat to the black T-visor to give it a tinted glassy look.

darklord1967
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:12 pm

Post by darklord1967 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 6:20 pm

When I placed the helmet on the figure, I tested the various head positions to ensure the anatomical accuracy and symmetry of the neck pivot point.

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darklord1967
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:12 pm

Post by darklord1967 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 6:21 pm

Okay, so following up on a PM’ed request, here is a comparison of custom Boba’s new helmet profile versus the original stock Hasbro helmet.

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As you can see, the helmet’s upper crown is now an appropriate size when compared to the helmet base, but the operation resulted in the loss of the raised ridge details at the rear of the bucket. They will now need to be replaced.

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