It took years of practice . . . glad it's not all been in vain!

I wish the person responsible for the "rolling eyes" rule would post more. He did post a pair of rolling eyes recently, only appearance I know of in ages. It was funny because of "the history," but most of all I miss his perspectives, and those of a lot of other OG lurkers who are too cool to post any more.

I doubt if I was responsible for the "don't try to trade new for old" rule but as a n00b I did almost make that mistake. I think I asked for some M1go Bullmark redux minis in exchange for, get this, Blobpus Chinese New Year toys. At the time, it was an "insulting" error. These days, it'd be an unfair exchange the other way around, hah. Funny how quickly the value of things change. Anyway I took the post down as soon as I sensed I'd blundered. Live and learn. Thank you OGs for not ripping me a new one.

In all seriousness it'd be cool if the original FAQs could be made "stickies" at the top of the FAQ forum. They've gotten lost in all the posts since then.

OK, so here's my thing... I did post the Zag in the Customs forum looking for feedback, so when I posted it there, I was wanting and expecting feedback. I had interest in the figure when I posted it by a member here who is constantly on the lookout for custom Zags, and liked the figure when I showed him more pics. Out of nowhere, that member stopped responding to my messages right before he was supposed to pay for the figure (he still posts regularly, and has even updated his want list for custom zags). The figure was not painted to be sold when I did it, but when I had some interest and that deal fell thru, I figured I could try again... what would the harm in that be? My feeling is, a sale thread is for discussing business, so if you don't want something that's for sale, don't buy it. If people had more feedback to offer on the item being sold, there was already a thread for that, and I would have been happy to take that feedback in the appropriate place. It's not just in my thread, but there seems to be alot of 'goon squad' activity in the For Sale section lately that makes it really hard to tell what's actually going on in our marketplace.

That said, the Zag is still here, and has gotten some nice feedback... if another Zagoran custom collector wants it, I'd be happy to sell it to them. Heck, if there's something about it they want modified, like the dark rub that was suggested, I'd be more than happy to accommodate them. I'm here and painting figures because I love to paint, and while I produce figures for myself, I also really like the idea of my toy habit becoming a little more self-sustaining through custom work for other people. I want to paint toys so I can buy more toys, thereby continuing the process of my enjoying toys... isn't that the end goal here?

Urgh.

What now? Enjoying the toys is not allowed, or the thought of selling them?

Urgh, Indeed.

Though I would highly recommend watching Urgh at least once. The Gary Neuman performance of down in the park makes it worthwhile alone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uahZLfoZ954

No enjoying toys is expressly forbidden. The idea of slopping some paint on some toys purely to fund future purchases. If you're going to ruin some toys at least put some thought into it other than, how can I whore this figure in order to buy something. See also taking requests. Who's supposed to be the 'artist' here.

#6

I have not painted a single figure with the intention of finding a buyer for it. Every custom I have sold so far was painted as an idea I came up with first and assumed I'd be keeping that received attention and offers after I posted it. I have custom fodder figures so I can paint them with ideas I come up with, and then see what happens to them. Win some, lose some, I have no problem keeping a figure I painted... it's what I've done with every most custom painted toys and models I've made so far.

Custom fodder. Those poor unloved toys.

It happens... Toygraph released more than enough Space Troopers for everyone to have extra it seems

Customs suck. Period.

So many artists seem to live for this dream of painting up toys to further finance their toy buying habits.
This is a notoriously expensive hobby especially if you have no control or can't stick to a budget.
Hence all the rotating collections and churning of toys. And the pimping of customs.

But why would I buy a custom when there is so much good stuff (the 10% being marketed that isn't crap) to keep up with?
Not to mention the huge world of vintage.

I just don't get it.

Some of the most constructive criticism is when no one comments at all. Or only a few odd "keep up the good work"
I have noticed that, unless it is abysmal, most people would rather not comment than say something rude.
So if no one is commenting, odds are that it's not because they haven't looked, but rather they are being nice.

Writing walls of text and defending a losing position will never help your cause (and I say that knowing i like to write walls of text)

This seems like such a tragic attitude in a hobby that directly fosters and encourages creativity and doing your own thing.

I don't see how its tragic. Its spot on IMO of course.

A lot (not all) customisers seem to think that by slopping on some paint they can improve the makers original vision. Arrogance.

One of the objections is that customs represent re-doing someone else's thing, especially if it wasn't a "blank." That attitude usually stems from the recognition that non-mass produced kaiju vinyl is a possibly-endangered national folk art, and thus it's audacious or even disrespectful to remake the toys in one's own image, so to speak.

There are others who find this attitude ridiculous and wouldn't hesitate to re-paint a toy. That attitude usually comes with the "I bought it, it's mine to do with as I please" philosophy. Customs par excellence make a good case for customs.

That's just a gross generalization of what I see as the two dominant attitudes. In the long run it's a "to each their own" thing. There are definitely people who share your view and will be happy to provide critique, or maybe even purchases.

There are quite a few who dislike customs entirely. Liquidsky's question of why anyone would want customs when it's impossible to keep up with actual releases is a fair one. I could only answer for myself: Every now and then, you see one that appeals to you, hopefully because it's exceptionally well done, or because you already know the artist's style and request a commission, hoping for a gem. Sometimes people are just being supportive of fellow collectors. In my view the ideal ethical balance is struck when unpainted blanks become customs, although collectors of unpainted blanks, especially rare ones might rightfully disagree.

Urgh, again.

That would be me... not to rag on your customs as I havent seen em Prometheum, but I am of the "Thats whats resin is for" school of dont paint the unpainteds. I also am a firm believer in do whatever you want with your shit I dont care. Have fun Promo, just check with me before buying your next round of unpainteds I might need a few

I haven't even been collecting long but even I can see that run numbers for most of the first wave were tiny, even when we thought they were huge. If that makes sense. Classic example is the RxH devilman fig. Sat on S7 website for aeons and you couldn't give them away. People were buying them purely to slop on and as such its a pretty hard figure to come across.

Just paint the blank series and leave everything else alone

Yup! . . . I always look but only rarely comment for this very reason . . . I'm a nice guy, what can I say!

Throwing paint on/at/in limited production toys can be (there are a few exceptions) as creative as finger painting in second grade . . . just cos' mommy sticks it on the fridge doesn't mean yer can put the order in for the Ferrari just yet!

I love this debate . . . let's do it again next month . . . and the month after that . . . . and the month after that . . . .

second grade?! I thought you were from Leeds?

I have to 'dumb it down' into a linguistic structure our American brethren can understand! . . . gawd bless 'em!

I think we will need to have a little talk my next jaunt across the pond.

I'll speak slow and loud . . . Always works a treat when speaking to Johnny Foreigner!

(Sarcasm, honest!)

i can't understand half the shit andy says... i just nod and smile

I've got enough experience with the brits after working over there that I can mostly decipher whats being said to the point to know if we need to knock some heads together.