Darklord1967
Freaked Out
PRINCESS LEIA ORGANA
Custom Action Figure and Photo by Roberto Williams
PROBLEM:
It has honestly been a long, long road toward the making of this Custom Action Figure. Kenner's vintage Princess Leia Organa (1978), dressed in her royal robe, was an adequate enough figure for the level of detail that was available at that time. She had a very cute "doll-like" head sculpt and a simple, neutral pose. The next time Leia was offered as an action figure wearing this outfit, there was quite an uproar in the collecting community. Released in 1995 as part of Kenner / Hasbro's Power of the Force II line, "Princess Leia Organa" was sculpted with such an unflattering facial scowl that some collectors began referring to her as "monkey face Leia". The costume she was presented in bore only a passing resemblance to the robes she wore in the film, and she was sculpted in such an awkward pose that she could barely stand on her own. A full three years later, after several other heavily criticized Leia figures and face sculpts, Hasbro presented us with "Princess Leia Organa -All New Likeness". This action figure featured a costume that was sculpted much more accurately to match Leia's wardrobe from the film, however the face sculpt was only a marginal improvement over the previous offerings. Later that same year, Hasbro produced a series of "Princess Leia Collection" two-packs. These figures were beautifully decorated with soft-good appliances, and movie outfits that had never before been produced as action figures. Unfortunately, the face-sculpts and paint-deco for Leia's likeness took a HUGE step backward, appearing as arguably the WORST renditions of Leia yet. Most of the subsequent Princess Leia action figures utilized a variation of the "all new likeness" face sculpt with varying hairstyles and paint deco for the appropriate film outfit. Like many other collectors, I was losing all hope that Hasbro would ever produce an acceptable likeness of the Princess. When considering the creation of this custom figure, I was even fully prepared to go with a completely different female face sculpt, just so that I could have a "pretty" Leia. I looked into various Padme Amidala face sculpts and strongly considered one of them for use as a head sculpt source. But in the end, that didn't work either. Fortunately, Hasbro helped me out in a BIG way by producing the excellent super-poseable Princess Leia Organa in 2004 as part of their Vintage Original Trilogy Collection. Although the overall figure was a vast improvement over previous offerings, the face sculpt was STILL not quite right. I found that somehow a ball-jointed neck was just NOT flattering for what should have been the delicate features of a princess.
GOAL:
I've known for more than 9 years (the amount of time that I've been customizing Action Figures) that I was going to have to create my OWN custom Princess Leia Organa (from A New Hope) if I was ever going to be satisfied. The goal here was to create a 4-inch scaled, richly-detailed, neutrally-posed, attractively sculpted rendition of the beautiful, feisty, dedicated leader of the Rebel Alliance as seen in A New Hope. She had to be correctly scaled in relation to the rest of the figures in my collection (including other customs).
"I'm a member of the Imperial Senate on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan!"
RECIPE:
1) Vintage Original Trilogy Collecion Princess Leia Organa: (body)
2) POTJ 25th Anniversarry "Swing To Freedom" Leia: (head sculpt with hair re-paint)
3) POTF II "Princess Leia Collection" Leia: (royal belt)
Custom Action Figure and Photo by Roberto Williams
PROBLEM:
It has honestly been a long, long road toward the making of this Custom Action Figure. Kenner's vintage Princess Leia Organa (1978), dressed in her royal robe, was an adequate enough figure for the level of detail that was available at that time. She had a very cute "doll-like" head sculpt and a simple, neutral pose. The next time Leia was offered as an action figure wearing this outfit, there was quite an uproar in the collecting community. Released in 1995 as part of Kenner / Hasbro's Power of the Force II line, "Princess Leia Organa" was sculpted with such an unflattering facial scowl that some collectors began referring to her as "monkey face Leia". The costume she was presented in bore only a passing resemblance to the robes she wore in the film, and she was sculpted in such an awkward pose that she could barely stand on her own. A full three years later, after several other heavily criticized Leia figures and face sculpts, Hasbro presented us with "Princess Leia Organa -All New Likeness". This action figure featured a costume that was sculpted much more accurately to match Leia's wardrobe from the film, however the face sculpt was only a marginal improvement over the previous offerings. Later that same year, Hasbro produced a series of "Princess Leia Collection" two-packs. These figures were beautifully decorated with soft-good appliances, and movie outfits that had never before been produced as action figures. Unfortunately, the face-sculpts and paint-deco for Leia's likeness took a HUGE step backward, appearing as arguably the WORST renditions of Leia yet. Most of the subsequent Princess Leia action figures utilized a variation of the "all new likeness" face sculpt with varying hairstyles and paint deco for the appropriate film outfit. Like many other collectors, I was losing all hope that Hasbro would ever produce an acceptable likeness of the Princess. When considering the creation of this custom figure, I was even fully prepared to go with a completely different female face sculpt, just so that I could have a "pretty" Leia. I looked into various Padme Amidala face sculpts and strongly considered one of them for use as a head sculpt source. But in the end, that didn't work either. Fortunately, Hasbro helped me out in a BIG way by producing the excellent super-poseable Princess Leia Organa in 2004 as part of their Vintage Original Trilogy Collection. Although the overall figure was a vast improvement over previous offerings, the face sculpt was STILL not quite right. I found that somehow a ball-jointed neck was just NOT flattering for what should have been the delicate features of a princess.
GOAL:
I've known for more than 9 years (the amount of time that I've been customizing Action Figures) that I was going to have to create my OWN custom Princess Leia Organa (from A New Hope) if I was ever going to be satisfied. The goal here was to create a 4-inch scaled, richly-detailed, neutrally-posed, attractively sculpted rendition of the beautiful, feisty, dedicated leader of the Rebel Alliance as seen in A New Hope. She had to be correctly scaled in relation to the rest of the figures in my collection (including other customs).
"I'm a member of the Imperial Senate on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan!"
RECIPE:
1) Vintage Original Trilogy Collecion Princess Leia Organa: (body)
2) POTJ 25th Anniversarry "Swing To Freedom" Leia: (head sculpt with hair re-paint)
3) POTF II "Princess Leia Collection" Leia: (royal belt)