Workshop
Working with Action Figures
You're gonna need a lot of different clothes, maybe even make your own outfits to suit your story needs.
Much useful stuff can be found from 'Big Jim' merchandise since these action figures from the 70's are about the same size as my beloved 9" figures. However, they're no longer in production, so you have to look for them on platforms like eBay.
I like to use this little photo box if I want to highlight only the figures. This way you have total control over the lighting, there's even an LED lamp build into the top of this cube.
In addition I sometimes use a remote controlled rotating platform that fits perfectly into the cube and allows for 360° recordings.
I started with two figures, Kirk & Spock from Playmates' collector's edition with clothing from 'The City on the Edge of Forever'.
I have no idea how it could come to THIS...
Besides all the TOS characters there are now also figures from TNG, Voyager and DS9, waiting to participate in another project. There are quite a few pairings of K & S, due to the fact that Playmates does not sell the various uniforms separately, but only in combination with a figure.
Movable feet
When I started to create the first little stories with my two lovebirds I soon realized that there's a serious limitation to your actions: the feet are fixated, there's actually a boot attached to the leg which cannot be removed, thus making it virtually impossible to put on different clothes, even if you manage to remove the uniform pants.
The solution came to me when I remembered my Big Jim figures I used to play with as a child: they have movable, rotating feet!
I'm very fortunate that there's a clinic for dolls (yes, something like this really exists!) in my hometown, and although no one ever had confronted them with such a proposal they successfully operated Jim & Spock (not my original pair but a second one I bought especially for this), you can see the result on the picture to the right.
Depending on the kind of clothing you want them to wear a little post production with GIMP etc. may be necessary to hide the cut and the fact that the coloring is not exactly the same.
The price for this alteration was about 100,- Euros per figure which is twice the price of the figure itself, but it now offers possibilities for a whole new range of story telling.
Camping out!
This is just a single picture with one little scene in my 'Easy Comic No. 3: Choices' (you'll find it in the comics page), but it took month of preparation to finally end up like this.
Kirk & Spock's feet had to be altered to allow for a change of clothing, and the clothing itself took a while to collect from various sources on eBay. The entire campfire equipment is from Big Jim action figures, luckily someone sold a well preserved complete bundle! Since I couldn't find any fitting backpacks and sleeping bags, I finally decided to make my own and fortunately they turned out quite nice.
Finally, to make the whole scene look realistic, I had to come up with some kind of forest floor and found a suitable solution by using a mixture of rabbit food and bird sand...
And there's even Spock's painted Vulcan harp here!
Snow
This is one of approx. 200 pictures from my KisCon 2023 convention panel, showing us the triumvirate on a sleigh ride.
The sleigh itself with the beautiful huskies is once more from Big Jim merchandise, a very hard-to-come-by item if you want it in mint condition and - of course - complete!
I'm very glad I also got these three sets of arctic explorer clothing and equipment from Big Jim, they are perfect in blue and gold!
The overall impression of a cold environment was achieved by using blue lighting for the scene which worked quite well in my opnion. And - never throw away an old blanket... you never know when it'll come in handy!
© Isolde Sturm / Easy [MrsAtoz]. All rights reserved.
No usage of my content in any form without my express permission.
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