Fast forward 22 years later, I find myself working fervently on a 1:6 scale custom of the same courageous (but doomed) trooper. Having lost faith in Hasbro and seeing little hope other companies will be churning out good quality 1:6 scale Star Wars figures. And the outcome is pretty satisfying.
Custom Rebel Fleet Trooper
The helmet were actually the item that gave the trooper his identity. I used a 21C US M1 helmet as a base. The back flap were created with very thin plastic sheet. I trial and error the shape with paper first. When the shape is firm up, I traced it onto the plastic sheet and cut out the shape. It was then glued to the part of the helmet. The side box module was molded on with epoxy putty. Front black shield was part of a mineral bottle. Painted it up and you got a somewhat shape of a Rebel Fleet Trooper helmet.Black vest jacket and grey shirt were modeled against Hasbro's 1:6 scale Han Solo though the black vest jacket was tailored slightly bigger. Both garments were tailored by my mother! The pants were generic and was also tailored and sew by my mother. Thanks mom!!
Belt were made from real leather strips. Holster scratched build with remaining think plastic films from the helmet back flap. The nude were a BBi G3 with stiff joints. Boots were Hasbro's generic jack boots.
So this guy stands proudly among my other SW 1:6 figures for many years until....
Sideshow Rebel Fleet Trooper
Sideshow announces the Rebel Fleet Trooper sometime late last year and I was overjoyed! In the same time, a little sad that my custom piece is finally coming to pass. Sideshow Toys with all their resources and artisans, the final product does not dissapoint. I don't think I need to talk about the good as everyone can see in these pictures (or tons other in the internet) that everything are done in good accuracies.I just want to gripe a little on a couple of things that, isn't too serious.
1. The helmet strap was those cheapo elastic bands. We all know in time to come, the band will lost its elasticity and will then hang down and looks ugly. Both ends were just glued to the helmet ie, no way to do adjustment. It would be better if SST uses nylon straps and add some details to the securing loop from the helmet. I will be doing some upgrading here later.
2. The sculpt is ugly... I wonder why some of their sculpts are really good but some are just so SST. Take Obi-Wan general which was released earlier than this one had a very good sculpt. I heard they collaborated with HT on that one and the sculpts were done by HT's sculptor. But then, what determines what goes to HT and what is SST inhouse? Anyway, can always change a nude.
The rest are good to go
The Old & The Current
As you can see, my custom helmet was missing some accuracies there. Anyway, it served its due purpose already. Kinda makes me wonder if it is worth doing customs anymore these days. Everything cool got made into 1:6 scale from the myriad of 1:6 making companies. Back in the days when I was working hard on this custom, there are only DML and BBi who made better quality 1:6. They were like competing neck to neck. Then Marmit came into the picture but who knows, they are just a less-then-10 hit wonder. These days, we have Hot Toys, Soldier Story, Toysoldier, Ignite, Saturday Toys, blah blah blah.... Of course, Medicom was already present when DML & BBi were slashing among themselfs but we - in Singapore - were not really introduce to it yet.Now I just hope someone did a really good Tusken Raider and a Death Star Trooper. Then I can safely keep away my customising tools and just sit back and wait for things to be made by the manufacturer :)
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