In the never ending quest to obtain mint figures and pieces for our collections sometimes we are apt to pass over some of the variations that may pass through our hands. I am not referring to factory variations, foreign variations, or even factory flaws. I am referring to a different variation, one that most of us would probably consider a flaw; the child made variation. This is the variation that says once upon a time this figure was enjoyed and played with by a kid, it was more than just a collectible.

Recently I made some purchases that had these characteristics. In both cases I felt that I was out money that I really didn't want to be. (One was my fault and the other the sellers.) However when I thought about it I realized that these pieces were their own unique pieces of star wars figure history. The first is a Hoth Leia that some kid probably decided needed earings as there are attempts to make them on each of the ear lobes. I would also be willing to bet that this figures was played with by a girl. What are the chances that a young boy would think to put earings on a female figure...I know I wouldn't have.



The second is a Hoth Ice Planet playset. One of the Rebel Soldiers has red marker on his face. I can imagine some kid seeing the soldiers on there and thinking that one of the them should be injured.



I am sure I am not the only one with pieces like this in their collection, whether you came across them or they were from your childhood, so lets seem em. Also I know many of you played with these figures so lets hear your stories on how you might have made your figures unique and more playable to your desires.

I can think of one boy who would of been putting earings on his Leia's

You got me thinking now. Did she wear any earings in the films? I never really took any notice before.

Josh wrote:

I can think of one boy who would of been putting earings on his Leia's

You got me thinking now. Did she wear any earings in the films? I never really took any notice before.

Well it appears that that speculation was wrong. I googled pictures of Hoth Leia and from what I could tell it doesn't appear that she had on earrings. I am not sure about at other times.

I never added earrings to Leia but repainting figures and weathering vehicles was something I did to most of my toys. Even as a kid I was nuts about movie accuracy. If I felt the toy didn't properly represent the object or person in question I would add details to it until it met my approval--even if it meant taking a little creative license (LOL). I remember sometimes there were vehicles or playsets I didn't want because I thought they were up to standard.

I also remember one time I left my X-Wing fighter over at a friend's house and when I went over to get it the next day he proudly showed me how he had done me a favor and cleaned it up so that it looked new--I was furious! It was right after that I decided to paint it. I was a weird kid.

This thread got me thinking (obviously) so I dug out my old figures and took a few pics of some. These are my original figures from when I was a kid that I painted circa 1981-82. Some I didn't do much too like 4-LOM (or Zuckuss as he was I guess) or just painting the tubing and joints on IG-88 black while others got more of a reworking (some of the painting that I did was partially worn off playing with them):

dcarty wrote:

I never added earrings to Leia but repainting figures and weathering vehicles was something I did to most of my toys. Even as a kid I was nuts about movie accuracy. If I felt the toy didn't properly represent the object or person in question I would add details to it until it met my approval--even if it meant taking a little creative license (LOL). I remember sometimes there were vehicles or playsets I didn't want because I thought they were up to standard.

I also remember one time I left my X-Wing fighter over at a friend's house and when I went over to get it the next day he proudly showed me how he had done me a favor and cleaned it up so that it looked new--I was furious! It was right after that I decided to paint it. I was a weird kid.

This thread got me thinking (obviously) so I dug out my old figures and took a few pics of some. These are my original figures from when I was a kid that I painted circa 1981-82. Some I didn't do much too like 4-LOM (or Zuckuss as he was I guess) or just painting the tubing and joints on IG-88 black while others got more of a reworking (some of the painting that I did was partially worn off playing with them):

Lol...it looks like Zuckuss (formerly 4-LOM) and Boba got the works, these are cool. And I am sure you weren't the only one that cared about movie accuracy. I didnt paint my figs for accuracy but my brother and I used to play with our figures in our grandparents large living room. In this room there was a large fake tree with fake pine straw type stuff. We would take our storm troopers and clones and paint them brown and green so that they were camo and we would hide them in the tree to act as snipers as our armies battled it out.

Yeah, I thought you did a pretty good job with them.

Leia had earrings when she was in her slave outfit at Jabba's.

Just for kicks here's what I did to the Falcon (the engine vents stickers have all fallen off):

Wow, that Falcon look amazing! How much time did you put into that?

Thanks, Mate! Gosh I don't know it was close to 30 years ago lol. I would imagine I took an hour or so to paint the color panels then another hour or so to do the weathering (pouring the sludge from the bottom of my paint thinner jar onto a rag and rubbing it all over the ship). I probably spent another hour or so touching things up and adding to where I missed. Then I cut out around the inside of the mandibles--I remember that was pretty hard and that I wished I hadn't started it but once I started there was no turning back. I was going to go back and glue on some smaller strips along where I cut it but never did.

I'll see if I can find my X-Wing too.

dcarty wrote:

Thanks, Mate! Gosh I don't know it was close to 30 years ago lol. I would imagine I took an hour or so to paint the color panels then another hour or so to do the weathering (pouring the sludge from the bottom of my paint thinner jar onto a rag and rubbing it all over the ship). I probably spent another hour or so touching things up and adding to where I missed. Then I cut out around the inside of the mandibles--I remember that was pretty hard and that I wished I hadn't started it but once I started there was no turning back. I was going to go back and glue on some smaller strips along where I cut it but never did.

I'll see if I can find my X-Wing too.

I agree that falcon really is awesome looking...would love see the x-wing if you find it.

Lets see my story started out at xmas in the 1978, me and my younger were asking for star wars toys on xmas day my mom and step dad were watching us open them we were eached told we had a vehicle ans a figure so we were excited my brother opened his and he got a x-wing fighter and han solo,

I however got the landspeeder and C3PO great one unarmed ship and a worry wort droid so I decided to fix that I made some modifications to them I was so impressed I put them away well after using them for a bit of course, being into buildings models I found away to use various items to arm 3P0 like landing gear struts and tin voil and yarn.

I will get out the speeder and show that of to.

here is a photo of 3P0 he is armed with twin blasters and a flame thrower.

arohk wrote:

Lets see my story started out at xmas in the 1978, me and my younger were asking for star wars toys on xmas day my mom and step dad were watching us open them we were eached told we had a vehicle ans a figure so we were excited my brother opened his and he got a x-wing fighter and han solo,

I however got the landspeeder and C3PO great one unarmed ship and a worry wort droid so I decided to fix that I made some modifications to them I was so impressed I put them away well after using them for a bit of course, being into buildings models I found away to use various items to arm 3P0 like landing gear struts and tin voil and yarn.

I will get out the speeder and show that of to.

here is a photo of 3P0 he is armed with twin blasters and a flame thrower.

That is one badass looking C3PO I would say he nearly gives Fett a run for his money.

I was pretty proud of him I wish I kept the BSG adama he was on the recieving end of the 3P0 flame thrower it looked cool.

LOLOL! That's awesome, were not averse to adding battle damage to vehicles and figures (especially if they broke) but I don't think we ever went so far as to blowtorch anything I like the double barreled blaster especially it almost looks like the guns from The Black Hole.

This is a GREAT thread.

@ dcarty: killer Millennium Falcon!

@ ArohK: That bad ass protocol droid is C-3PX, and you even made him a long time before he got an official record in the expanded universe.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/C-3PX

LOL I never knew they did that I don't follow the expanded univers I will have to send george a letter I want my royalties

Don't forget to go by car when you have settled this with George.

You guys were way cooler kids than I--I didn't even like my figs to get dirty! When my youngest sister got a hold of them, they got a bit rougher, but painting a figure? That didn't occur to me until much, much later.

Can't wait to see that X-Wing!

I finally found the X-Wing. Not much to crow about just a weathering coat (a bit washed out in the pic). I didn't rework any of the stickers or anything. The canopy has clouded up probably because of whatever solvent I used at the time. Inside I found an X-Wing pilot I had re-done as Biggs:



Also found my old Snowspeeder (out of its environment):

those are cool I love the speeder

If only Luke had this when he faced Wampa...

I love these vintage customs. To me, it's just more of a personal connection to the toy when I see something
that a child "embellished", or improved. One of my favorite items is an original 12" Vader that someone applied
(correctly) a really nice metallic silver Testor's silver model paint to the upper armor. It's just really amazing to
think someone took the time back then to find a good still shot of Vader and thought "hey .. that is what his armor
really looks like", then thought enough of the toy to "improve" it

Bill

Your kind of short for a Stormtrooper



I have been dying to post this lil' fella - Thank You to Cantina Patron for showing me how

Hopefully I can contribute more to the TIG now

Love it! The Empire has been infiltrated by an Ewok.