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By Buzzy Fret, on July 12th, 2010 Passing on some tips, tricks or minutiae for action figure customizing.
Howdy from the dark, dank Buzzy Cave!
When I first saw the news about the Masters of the Universe Classics line from Mattel the first thing I thought was, “Cool! Barbarian figures to make custom barbarians with!” Then a couple things put me off the idea – the biggest reason being the tiny hands. I can’t stand the way they look. I understand that Mattel and the Four Horsemen are incorporating a lot of the aesthetic from the original He-Man/MOTU line in MOTUC and the small hands are part of that package, but the little hands on the end of those huge arms really bugged me. But recently I’ve seen some very cool customs made with MOTUC bases and I’ve been inspired to try using them for a couple projects, which leads us here: how to fix those hideous, tiny hands!
  
There’s more… click to continue reading Customizing Tips From The Buzzy Cave: Masters of the Universe Classics Hand Mod
By Ron, on April 25th, 2010 
My wife happens to be a collector too – and while I tend to go for mass-produced action figures from the big toy companies, she is a lot more discriminating. For example, take her collection of Monkey Assassins, from Wunderland War. These urban vinyl figures are produced in very limited runs, usually below 100 or 200 figures total.
The picture I took reminded me very much of those old family photo from days gone by. You seldom see them these days, and certainly not of a secretive clan of monkey assassins. However, it felt that a group shot of a secretive clan of monkey assassins might have not been so out of place 50+ years ago. So I thought to myself, could I transform the picture to make it look like something out of the 50′s. Here’s how I did it.
There’s more… click to continue reading How to Age a Photo Using Photoshop
By Talyn, on April 6th, 2010 Ok, so we here at AFP seem a little obsessed lately with Ashley Wood’s World War Robot from threeA Toys. Can you blame us? And in this obsession, some of us find that simply displaying or playing with our toys is not enough. We need them to come to life. That is where Photoshop comes in…
There’s more… click to continue reading World War Robot and World War 2 – Photo Manipulation
By Buzzy Fret, on April 3rd, 2010 Passing on some tips, tricks or minutiae that will help make action figure customizing easier for someone out there.
Howdy all! Buzzy Fret coming at ya with another tutorial from the dark, dank Buzzy Cave.
Paint rub! The bane of customizers that wish to maintain the poseable part of the their poseable action figures! There are a lot of tips and tricks out there to try to keep the oh-so fragile acrylic paint clinging to the plastic of your customs but, in my experience, nothing works like breaking the figure down and attacking those rub points with a Dremel and sandpaper. I know, I know, it’s time consuming, it’s hard, it’s not as much fun as painting and sculpting. Well maybe I’m mental, but I just can’t see why anyone would spend so much time and effort trying to make a beautiful looking custom out of a poseable action figure just to see the paint scrape off when you move a limb on it.
There’s more… click to continue reading Customizing Tips From The Buzzy Cave: Eliminating Paint Rub From DC Universe Classics Customs – Part 1 Shoulder Discs
By Buzzy Fret, on March 24th, 2010 
So here we are, stuck in what seems like an abnormally long (especially considering how close together DCUC 10, 11 and 12 shipped) lull between DCUC Waves. Oh how the minutes tick so lowly by… In an attempt to kill some time, I thought I’d take a whack at photographing the 2 DC Universe Classics Glow in the Dark ghosties, the Spectre and Deadman, to try to show off their unique properties. I didn’t really catch the GitD effect, but I did (with a little help from PhotoShop) end up with some very dramatically lit pics.
There’s more… click to continue reading DC Universe Classics Glow In The Dark Action + Dynamic Lighting = Drama!
By Ron, on March 11th, 2010 
I was chatting with some of the guys about taking pictures of action figures – a hobby near and dear to my heart, in case you hadn’t noticed. We got onto the subject of backgrounds. I’ve used plain dark backgrounds for dramatic lighting and plain light backgrounds to highlight the figures. And there’s guys like Sandman, who build elaborate sets for his photo shoots – see Sandman’s recent pictorial reviews for some mind-blowing shots.
There’s another type of background – the photo backdrop. A simple photo backdrop can provide the effect of a three-dimensional environment without having to build one. That’s the subject of this how-to article.
There’s more… click to continue reading How To Create Your Own Photo Backdrop
By Buzzy Fret, on January 30th, 2010 Welcome to Customizing Tips from the Buzzy Cave! Hopefully I’ll pass on some tips, tricks or minutiae that will help make action figure customizing easier for someone out there.
I’m always getting asked… well a lot of people have asked… um… okay, a couple guys have commented in the past that my paint apps are pretty smooth and they asked; “How does a ham-fisted idiot like you do that?”
Very simply, I use a wet palette.
But Buzzy, what the hell is a wet palette and why would I need one?
According to Wikipedia- a wet palette is especially useful with acrylics that dry quickly on a dry palette. A wet palette is a sealable container with a layer of absorbent material (such as tissue paper) that can be soaked with water and a semi-permeable membrane over that. The paint sits on the membrane and is kept wet by osmosis. Wet palettes can be bought, but are easily made.
There’s more… click to continue reading Customizing Tips from the Buzzy Cave: Making Your Own Wet Palette
By Ron, on October 19th, 2009  (Spider-Man) I'm too tall! (Magneto) I'm too short! When I got Marvel Universe Secret Wars Series 2, Magneto was one of my wanted characters, so I was disappointed that Hasbro opted to use the Daredevil / Bullseye body from way back in the first series of Marvel Universe figures. That body is plagued by a really short torso, and any superhero-sized character will be too short when using it.
Luckily, Magneto has one feature that is going to make this really easy to fix – his big wide belt. Here’s how to do it.
There’s more… click to continue reading How to Fix Marvel Universe Secret Wars Magneto
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