Furlag 1

Umkay. So, who and or what the bloody butt is this? This is an action figure I customized of an obscure Star Wars character from an old comicbook series ( circa the 90s ) called " Shadows of the Empire ". He was this bounty hunter who was featured primarily on one page of issue 2 or 3... maybe 4 who I believe tried to steal the frozen Han Solo from Boba Fett but wound up getting himself jettisoned into space.

In late 1997 the customizing bug sunk it's stinger into my butt and I decided to have a go at doing my own Star Wars figures. The action figure magazine Toyfare had a Star Wars themed customizing contest that month so I decided that if I could get him done by the deadline, I'd enter him. Heh heh. The winner was a thing of some contraversy though. A lot of folks got pissed because the winning customizer did friggin' Star Wars HOTDOGS which went against Toyfare's own contest rules because, last I can recall, there weren't any Hotdog species in any of the mediums that Star Wars has been filmed or written in. I guess Toyfare had so many entries ( and complaints ) that the devoted to next issue to the runners-up, which is where mine came in.

I wasn't sure how to go about making a figure of my own at first. I had taken some sculpting classes of sorts at CCAD and had done a little on my own before, but I'd never done an action figure. I wanted him to be articulated so I could put him with my collection. Then I recalled that at CCAD, we had this epoxy clay that hardened without needing to be baked like Super Sculpey. ( You'll notice in the article that they said I used Super Sculpey. I didn't. They'z stoopit ). I asked my instructor where I could get this epoxy clay & he gave me the taxodermy catalog that he ordered it from. So, I called & ordered some and waited with bated breath for the UPS guy to show up. It got here rather quickly.

I chose to sculpt over a Weequay action figure so I went out about the town in search of one. Then, once I got one ( Weequay was fairly easy to find at the time ), I did the unthinkable, I widdled his head down with an X-acto and then sanded the crap out of the rest of him. The only parts of Weequay that I didn't sand off are the beige colored parts of his pants & sleeves cuz I wasn't to confident in sculpting the folds in his clothing and since Weequay allready hand it done for me... Then I began gobbing on the epoxy clay and slowly tried to get him to look like something that was similar to the few reference pics I had.

He didn't turn out too bad really. The most fun involved in the process of making figures for me is the painting cuz that's when the whole thing really comes to form. I was careful to make sure that h arms, head and legs could still move. I even kept the peg holes under his feet so I could use the action figure stands they make for Star Wars figures. I gave him Dengar's extra gun for those of you who may be wondering.

Then, my Dad knew a guy who did photography & I had him take these pictures of Furlag. He did such a fantastic job with them. Then I sent off about 3 Furlag photos to Toyfare, did a little praying and then, after the disappointment of the Hotdog thing, I got a call from my pal George who informed us that my figure made it into the newest issue of Toyfare after all. Then I drank a bottle of cheap whiskey.


I'd make a few changes if I had the chance. For instance, I'd connect his shoulder pads to his uhh... torso area instead of the top of his arms. And, since the reference of him was rather scarce, I was never quite sure what his legs looked like. After the fact, I kinda noted that he may have " wolfman " legs... like Proffy Lupine of Harry Potter 3 fame. Ah well.

I've done a few more figures since Furlag but, come the summer of 1998, my folks got the internet and... I kinda lost a lot of my free time due to having the magic fun box and it's Fraggle Rock and eBay wonders! I plan to get some pics of the other figures I did though. I think they're all from the same storyline as Furlag. One of them, a guy called Spiker, is a real doozie! He has a speeder bike and a removable helmet! *puffs... bursts *