Shang (Mulan)

Mister, I'll make a man out of you!

 

In my Shan Yu and Hades posts, I mentioned the DBZ pops I'd been given to use in customs. Trying to think of who might work for the remaining pieces, I thought of Captain Li Shang, the love interest in Mulan. The clenched fists of Goku just made me think of the training montage, and subsequently put I'll Make a Man Out of You in my head.

I used the head from Grey Worm as it had the right sort of hair to be my basis for Shang. I repainted the skin tone and added in his little man bun. For the body, I used the Goku I had laying around. I added in the various layers for his clothes, including the cape. I was happy with how it was looking at the bake phase, but he randomly cracked in his cape, skirt and sleeves. I repaired this with more clay and rebaked a few days later, but it still didn't really cooperate. I've made a few customs now, and this was the first I've had cracking issues with, so I was a bit let down by it.

After how beautifully Gaston turned out earlier today, I have to admit that I'm disappointed with how Shang has turned out. Can I tell that it's Shang? Yes. Is it my best custom job ever? Not even close. But he's done now, and I'm glad of it! Hopefully my next one will be a little more cooperative.

The Run Down:

Base Pop/s: head- Grey Worm (Game of Thrones 32), body- Super Saiyan Goku (Dragonball Z 14)

Biggest Challenges: I'm not sure why, but the clay kept cracking for me with this one. I struggled not to rage quit.

How I'd Improve It: Redo it from scratch, and hopefully not have the clay cracking issues. I also don't like some of the aspects of the paint job, as they're details that are hard to read. I'd also have liked to have added his training stick in his hands, but their positions didn't make sense for a rigid pole's necessary angle.

Gaston (Beauty and the Beast)

It's over Beast! Belle is MINE!

 

Disney's Beauty and the Beast is my favourite Disney movie. It's a big claim, I know, but I received it on VHS for my 5th birthday, so it has massive sentimental meaning to me. Next year I'm even directing my school's musical of it. I think it goes without saying that Gaston is the heart and soul of the story. Belle's kinda cool, the Beast is fine, but the real star of the show is undeniably Gaston.

Gaston is a real man.What isn't to love? He's handsome, arrogant, misogynistic and positively primeval. He's just the sort of guy I hate in real life, but for some reason in this movie he's just completely endearing. And to be fair, he only wanted to save Belle from (what he justifiably perceived as) a hostage situation with a monster.

For Gaston, I used Prison Yard Rick Grimes for both the head and body. Naturally, I had to erase his facial hair, add the pompadour and ponytail and paint it all. For the body, his clothes were a decent starting point. I trimmed down some of the shirt details, like his pockets and buttons, as well as extending his tunic a bit. I also added to the boots, making them taller and adding the little fold over bit. Rick's wrist had a watch on it, so I decided to use this to make the edge of his gloves, rather than trying to trim it off and give him bare skin. Rick had a machete in his hand, which I decided to trim down a bit to turn into the dagger Gaston uses to stab the Beast in the back in the climax of the movie.

I'm really happy with how this turned out. His ponytail protrudes a bit, which means he can't fit in front of other Pop boxes to go with my other villains on their shelf, but this is recognisably Gaston. What do you think? Does he have a chance with the Belle Pops?

The Run Down:

Base Pop/s: whole thing- Prison Yard Rick Grimes (The Walking Dead #67)

Biggest Challenges: Emulating his amazing handsomeness

How I'd Improve It: I considered adding in a little cleft chin, but I didn't want to risk wrecking it.

Shan Yu (Mulan)

Nice work gentlemen, you've found the Hun army

 

The upcoming Mulan Pop vinyls were announced a while ago now, and at the time of writing this post are still only seen via the concept art. Unsurprisingly, the range (only 2 Pops) did not include the movie's villain, the Hun leader Shan Yu. To keep with my trend of creating forgotten villains, I decided to customise my own Shan Yu to keep poor little Mulan/Ping on her/his toes.

Shan Yu has an intimidating physique, with very broad shoulders. To combat this, I was originally just going to use the clay to bulk up the Tobias Funke body, since I was using his head. However I happened to receive some secondhand DBZ Pops from one of my students, since he knew I customise. The big shoulder pad thingies on the Vegeta Pop, as well as his cranky stance, just spoke to me as being a better basis for Shan Yu's lower half. Serendipity, really.

Tobias Funke may seem like an unlikely candidate for Shan Yu, but my reasoning was pretty simple- I find sticking polymer clay to the vinyl difficult if it's just small pieces that can't be smoothed into the surface surrounding it. I know I could use glue for this, but I figured that if there was a Pop head I could work from, I may as well use it. Tobias has a moustache and hair around the sides and back of his head, not too dissimilar to Shan Yu. Sure I had to slice out the middle of the 'stache, as well as adding extra hair to both, but it was a starting point that I was comfortable working with. I've also saved his glasses in case of future custom jobs needing them, naturally.

The Run Down:

Base Pop/s: head- Tobias Funke (Arrested Development 116), body- Vegeta (Dragonball Z 10)

Biggest Challenges: The little brown dot between his eyes from the glasses.

How I'd Improve It: Finding a better way to camouflage the dot. From a distance, looking at him from across the room, he looks awesome. Up close isn't good enough for me though.

Hades (Hercules)

Memo to me: maim you after my meeting.

 

What's not to love about the God of the Underworld, Hades, in Disney's Hercules? He's scheming, he's well-designed and he's voiced by James Woods. Since we don't have Hercules Pops (yet), I figured Hades was another must-have for my collection.

One of my students recently gave me a double of old DBZ Pops for my birthday, since he knew I was a customiser. I'd originally tried to make a Hades head out of Fear from Inside Out, as he had that nice long shape to work with, but I really wasn't happy with how the flame hair turned out. When I saw Vegeta, I knew I had my solution and scrapped my previous progress. Cutting off his scanner revealed, to my surprise, no vinyl underneath. As such, I had to patch over this hole with clay.

The body on the finished product is completely different from its original form. The reason I chose this body was its pose, with the snowflake in hand that I could build a fireball around. As such, a lot of work went into his lower half, to create the toga and smoke tentacle things around his base. I'm pretty proud of how this outfit looks, with the folds and everything, the little skull broach...I just feel like this came out well and is quite recognisably Hades.

The Run Down:

Base Pop/s: head- Vegeta (Dragonball Z 10), body- Jack Skellington with Snowflake (Disney 114)

Biggest Challenges: The flames. I redid the head completely after failing too much with them.

How I'd Improve It:  Be able to take a better photo! The flash really doesn't do his toga any justice.

Vanessa (The Little Mermaid)

Get away from me you slimy little...

 

I make no secret of loving Disney villains, particularly Ursula. Sassy, manipulative and powerful, she wasn't going to make any deal to which she couldn't adjust the outcome. Ariel was about to win over Eric, so she does the only logical thing- use her voice to pose as his mysterious saviour, Vanessa.

I bought an extra blue dress Ariel as the basis of my Vanessa, as much of their outfits are the same in terms of basic design. Once I removed the head, I used polymer clay to reshape the hair, given that Vanessa has a middle part, unlike Ariel's trademark swoop of fringe. I erased and redrew her eyebrows, removing Ariel's innocent expression. I pulled out both arms, trimmed down the vinyl to remove the sleeve of her dress, repositioned and repainted. I repainted her dress and added on the seashell necklace before putting the head back on. Pretty simple really.

I'm not totally happy with this one, to be honest, but it's a decent attempt at Vanessa.

The Run Down:

Base Pop/s: Blue dress Ariel (Disney 146)

Biggest Challenges: Getting the arms to not look like footballer player arms

How I'd Improve It: I'd have stolen the arms off another pop altogether, to avoid the difficulties I had with them.

Esmeralda (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

God bless the outcasts

 

Although not a Princess, my husband and I always thought that Esmeralda is one of the sexiest characters from Disney. She is kind to others, is sassy to authority and has pole dancing skills. Esmeralda's so alluring that Judge Claude Frollo would commit genocide on an entire people just to find her. Don't worry, I've already got a custom of him planned, so he can continue to harass her on my shelf.

I had a spare live action Cinderella laying around, and figured that with a bit of work I could transform her into our favourite gypsy dancer. I had to trim down her braid, foot and parts of her dress; reposition both arms; add in the headband, jewellery, new clothes and a tambourine; and paint, of course.

I considered repainting her skin to be more olive, however decided that risking messing it up (remember, I hate doing eyelashes!) wasn't worth the reward of being slightly more accurate.

The Run Down:

Base Pop/s: Cinderella (Disney 138)

Biggest Challenges: Turning the puffy ballgown into a gypsy outfit

How I'd Improve It: I'd have found another way to deal with the front foot. I cut off the protruding foot, and tried to make that area look like a dress fold, but it's not as good as I'd have hoped for.

Mother Gothel (Tangled)

Mother knows best!

 

 

Rapunzel's Pop was released earlier this month, with only Pascal and Maximus to accompany her. Now Disney Pops have a history of ignoring the leading man (sorry Flynn, they just couldn't get your nose right, I'm sure), but I was sad to see that Tangled's villain was overlooked. Mother Gothel is one of the more subtle Disney villains, as she uses manipulation of others instead of force. I can respect that. I thought it only fitting that she join Rapunzel on my shelf.

Last time I'd made a custom though, it'd been from a blank DIY. Mother Gothel's hair was clearly going to be the biggest challenge, and to get that looking right from a DIY was far too intimidating. This in mind, I started browsing existing figures for one who had a better starting point to work from. This actually worked out very well, as I realised that Merida from Brave could be transformed to Mother Gothel with very little difficulty.

Snip off the bow, reposition the arm, turn her belt into the sash, change the sleeves and neckline, and voila! Add a coat of paint, and a hero becomes a villain.

The Run Down:

Base Pop/s: Merida (Disney 57)

Biggest Challenges: None, really. Very easy custom. Painting the black into all the detail of the curls was time consuming though.

How I'd Improve It: I'm pretty happy with this. I guess I could have added a mirror or the magic flower to her hand to give her a recognisable symbol though. 

Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland)

Off with her head!

 

In 2013 my Halloween costume was the Queen of Hearts from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In April this year, my husband and I got married with an Alice theme. Suffice it to say, I'm quite fond of the story. Carroll's Alice novels are in my top 10 of literature, and I enjoy the movies greatly. Except for the Burton 2010 live action adaptation. That, I'm afraid, was a travesty. So when I saw that there were 'more' Alice in Wonderland Pops announced, I was excited at first, especially when I saw the Queen of Hearts on the list. That is, until I realised they would be Pops from the Burton version.

My heart sank. The disappointment I felt in being teased with the possibility of the Disney QoH prompted me to consider a custom. My time in the Pop community had meant I'd seen my fair share of custom jobs, but they seemed so expensive. I figured it was worth dropping $15 on a DIY female and giving it a shot myself. I mean, what was the worst that could happen?

This is one bad-ass woman. That's right, you'd better bow down and worship me!

When I made this, I didn't know much about Pop customising tricks. I did this custom with the head on the whole time, I didn't know to reposition the limbs and I didn't know how to give support to added pieces. I'm writing this with only a couple of weeks experience, and already I can see how much I've grown as a customiser. 

For my first attempt though, I think she turned out fairly well. I'm a pretty harsh critic on myself, so I am not blind to the flaws, but I have to be realistic. She was my starting point, and I'm proud of how I managed.

The Run Down:

Base Pop/s: DIY white female

Biggest Challenges: Painting on the eyelashes and eyebrows drove me nuts! I didn't have a superfine brush, and they just didn't want to look even.

How I'd Improve It: I'm not satisfied with the crown, as it's more a tiara (anything more just wasn't working for me on the day). Making a round, pointed crown, using wire as a base for stability, would be the approach I'd take if I had a do-over. I'd also reposition one of the arms, drill a small hole and give her the heart scepter.