It's all about toys and it's about enjoying toys as a grown-up. Now, while that might sound lude to the wicked minded, I'm talking about action figures! - Action figures, and their vehicles, and all the little add ons that go with them. Whether its vintage toys from your childhood or the latest trends in accurately scaled, fully figures, that's what it's all about. Now for me specifically, the newer GI Joe figures and other compatible military action figures in 1/18th scale are what get me out of bed in the morning.
I collect and customise 1/18 scale action figures, which then sit on shelves in my man-cave gathering dust. They do however, sometimes get to see the light of day, when they get taken out and posed for photographs. (Oh my god! There's no innuendo. I'm being serious. This is a serious hobby, you know?) Yeah, I know it's a bit sad, but it's the closest I can get to being a kid again - with boxes of Action Force (British GI Joe) figures and vehicles strewn all over the garden in an epic battle scenario... Happy days! For me, the hobby as a grown-up, is now about creating something of my own. Customising a figure or vehicle, and injecting it with something unique and original - 'kitbashing'.
While my current focus for kitbashing is 1/18 scale action figures, I've also spent a number of years working with 1/6 scale action figures in much the same way. I've found this quite useful bringing some of the skills and things I've learnt from working with those bigger figures and adapting them for the smaller 1/18 scale.
Now, I may well have mislead you back there with the word 'skills'. I'm very much an amateur. And I've made many, MANY mistakes over the years when it comes to kitbashing. In fact, I'm in awe of some of the skilled kitbashers out there when I see some of the work they produce, where no expense is spared and no detail is left unattended to. So if that's the kind of thing that you're looking for, you're in the wrong place. This is not an expert's guide to customising toys and action figures. On the contrary, this is an amateur's guide to kitbashing - a 'how not to guide.' A chronicle of my successes and my failures. A friendly companion that will guide you through the dos, the don'ts and the definitely dont's.
