Halloween is my
favorite horror motion picture of all-time. No other genre film comes close to
it. There’s never been a time when I’ve seen a new horror that I haven’t seen
before and think, “damn, that gives Halloween
a run for its money”. And there probably never will be. So, as a high-end
action figure collector, it is very important to me that I own a realistic and
accurate figure of “The Shape” from the 1978 classic. However, I knew that I
was going to have to make one myself if I wanted one because the only
officially licensed 12 inch figure was done by Sideshow Collectibles many years
ago, and they failed miserably at it.
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| Photo taken from Sideshowtoy.com |
I understand why the Sideshow figure sucked though, because
(as I now know firsthand) making a Michael Myers is tricky as hell. And if you
want to do it right, you have a lot of small details you have to pay attention
to. First of all, you have to find a head. Luckily for me, I was on the right
action figure forum at the right time, and got in on a limited run commission
by Cainepro. The sculpt is damn near perfect,
but it needed a pro paintjob. So, I sent it off to Spain to a craftsman in the hobby
where he highlighted essential features like the upper lip and around the eyes.
Also, the hair had to be changed. It was too long and looked like dreadlocks. I
wish I had a before picture to show the hair before I altered it. I simply cut
the hair to a more appropriate length, and using reference pics from the film,
made it nappy where it needed to be. As a last touch, I sprayed some hairspray
on my fingertips and pinched the pieces that I needed to stick out in order for
the hair to maintain its shape over time.
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| You can clearly see the difference between Sideshow's Myers (left) and mine (right). |
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| Though not at the same angle, you can see how the screen accurate mask (found on Google search, left) and my custom head (right) are very close in resemblance. |
Next up was finding a kitchen knife. At the time when I was
looking for an accurate knife it was incredibly hard to find them. I remember
people trying to buy the Sideshow version just for the knife. Again, I lucked
out and had the same person who made the head make me a real steel bladed knife
with real wooden handle and a weathered blade. It’s a very high quality item
that I’m lucky to have accentuated my overall complete figure. I also had to
find a knife holding hand, which was easy enough to find. I dirtied both of his
hands using watered down black paint.
Next up is tackling the coveralls. This was probably the
hardest part. I got a coverall, undershirt and boots set from Saturday Night
Toys on eBay. It’s the complete kit you need to make a Myers figure, but the
coveralls are tan so you have to dye them with fabric dye. What really sucked
is the stitching doesn’t dye. So, you have to paint over them in order to avoid
them from standing out. After weathering them and several failed attempts of
trying to get the coveralls the accurate color of spruce green, I gave up and
went with blue. Everyone thinks Myers’ coverall is blue, but it’s not. After
some time had passed, I decided to give it another go. Using teal and dark
green fabric dyes, me and my fiancé finally found the perfect mixture and
nailed the spruce green color. To confirm this, I took several pictures outside
and the coverall looked blue in some pictures (as you’ll see towards the bottom
of this post), so I knew things were really coming together and that I was onto
something special.
And lastly, you got the stand for display. I actually like
the old school Sideshow stands, so I wanted to stick in that tradition but also
splice that with Hot Toy’s superior stands. So what I did was take the part of
the stand that basically holds the figures balls in a grip from a Hot Toys
stand and put it on a circular Sideshow base to allow a bigger decal with more
detail. Fourth Circle
Designs created a beautiful decal for me that is the logo for the original
film. It has a mirrored reflection in the blade of the knife, which seems to be
something that most people are drawn to when they see it in person.
That’s basically it! I now have a 95% screen accurate
Michael Myers figure that blows away any factory made one to date. I eventually
plan on getting a new left hand that’s in more of a reaching pose for a certain
effect when I pose him. Also, I said he’s 95% accurate instead of 100% because
my boots are not correct. In the movie, Michael had Vietnam boots that had dark green
on the sides. However, the part you see of them in the film is just the foot
part that’s scuffed up and solid black. This is exactly how my boots look. So
if you lift his pant legs up you’ll see a minor flaw in detail in the boots.
But most people never know anyway.
I’d like to thank my friend Samantha for doing the lettering
on some of the pictures that came out fantastic. I’d also like to thank these
following sites for making things like this possible, and for making this hobby
so awesome.
Geekette Phototgraphy Facebook page
Simply amazing!
ReplyDeleteThanks T! :D
DeleteAll your work paid off--it's so awesome! I love it :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! I'm a very proud owner ha ha.
Delete